Trump Accuses China Of Meddling In 2020 Election

WASHINGTON— President Donald Trump claimed Thursday night that newly declassified intelligence documents show China meddled in the 2020 presidential election, purposefully seeking to prevent his re-election.

From the White House East Room, Trump announced the release of documents that he said detail a years-long Chinese effort to interfere in the 2020 election, as well as an alleged cover-up by intelligence agencies.

“Newly declassified documents show that over a period of years starting during the 2020 election cycle, the People’s Republic of China carried out what is believed to be the largest compromise of election data in history — resulting in China’s illicit acquisition of 220 million U.S. voter files,” the president said.

“That information includes names, addresses, phone numbers, political party preferences, and other sensitive data that would be needed to register to vote, and engage in other nefarious activities,” he continued. “This data loss presents an unprecedented election security nightmare. The intelligence even shows that China assigned a data exploitation unit specifically to this new project.”

Trump said U.S. intelligence agencies worked to “actively suppress and downplay information about the extent of China’s sinister election meddling—covering it up from both the President and the American People.”

President Donald Trump addresses the nation from the East Room of the White House on July 16, 2026 in Washington, DC.  (Photo by Saul Loeb/Pool – Getty Images)

“U.S. spy agencies began learning about the compromise of voter registration files in 2020, when they discovered that tens of millions of voters’ data in 18 states had been bought, stolen, or hacked by China,” Trump said. “Yet those responsible for sounding the alarm instead kept the information hidden. They did not disclose it to me as president, and to the best of our knowledge, they did not inform Congress.”

Trump bashed members of the intelligence community for allegedly keeping the information hidden, pointing out that he was repeatedly told, “This is the most secure election in the history of our country.”

“The cover-up of this colossal security breach is even more disturbing in light of additional information showing that China engaged in other election-related activities to undermine my first administration and our 2020 campaign,” he added. “They did not want Donald Trump to win, and for good reason.”

According to Trump, the new documents show that the CIA explicitly stated that in mid-2018, the Chinese Communist Party had adopted a policy to leverage any domestic and foreign elements opposed to Trump in an effort to reduce his support, force his resignation, or prevent his re-election.

“Also in mid-2018,” Trump said, quoting the newly released documents, “China was working to influence the results of the U.S. mid-term elections, and later, the results of the 2020 Presidential Elections. Separately, in mid-2019, the Chinese Government’s strategy against the United States was focused on undermining domestic confidence in the U.S. president.”

Strategies included using Chinese contracts with major U.S. companies to influence American business leaders to turn against him, Trump said. He further claimed the Chinese government sought to identify American journalists who were already covering him negatively and pay them “large sums of money” to write even more negative stories. It is unclear if such payments occurred.

He quoted the intelligence documents as stating: “The Chinese government wanted the U.S. president to lose the next election.”

Acting US Attorney General Todd Blanche (R) and US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick attend an address to the nation by the US president in the East Room of the White House in Washington, DC on July 16, 2026. (Photo by SAUL LOEB / POOL / AFP via Getty Images)

“And the reason they wanted me to lose is because they knew I was wise to them, charged them billions of dollars’ worth of tariffs, and built the strongest military anywhere in the world,” the president added. “These are exact quotes from CIA reporting—the name of the person doing the quote is under review.”

“But it gets even worse,” he added. “Raw intelligence obtained by the FBI in 2020, yet buried by rogue bureaucrats, stated that China’s activities even included an attempt to manufacture illegal ballots for Joe Biden. Documents show that during this period, dozens of significant CIA and NSA reports about China’s election targeting were kept out of the Presidential Daily Briefing.”

Trump described an email between intelligence analysts in which they allegedly admitted they had “deliberately massaged” the Presidential Daily Briefing email to withhold information about Chinese activities related to the election. He also cited another official inside the FBI who allegedly wrote that she was running a “shadow government” to keep intelligence about China’s election meddling from the public.

“Other officials who witnessed such efforts perceived the motivations to be blatantly political,” the president said. “Recently, we found significant numbers of burn bags, information given by President Barack Hussein Obama to be burned. These bags were supposed to be incinerated, but it never happened. We believe this was not done purposely, but rather through incompetence.”

Calling the findings “stunning,” Trump called on the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the Justice Department, the FBI, and the CIA to investigate how and why this “crucial information was hidden” and to prosecute those involved in the alleged cover-up.