Trump accuses China of election tampering and sows doubt about the US voting system ahead of the midterms
In an address to the nation 110 days before the midterm elections, President Trump again claimed without evidence that the 2020 election was stolen from him, and accused China of the largest hacking attack on voting data in history. He announced that he would release intelligence files on the matter. US intelligence agencies had previously found no indication of foreign manipulation of the vote count.
Trump used the 25-minute prime-time address to revive his long-standing allegations and cast doubt on the security of the November election, as Bloomberg and Le Monde report. Politico and the Daily Maverick stress that the information Trump described does not support his claim of a stolen election or manipulated votes, and that an intelligence assessment explicitly found no foreign manipulation of the count. German outlets frame the speech differently: the FAZ calls it an old lament, while the SZ and Die Zeit see it as preparing the ground for the midterms. The Guardian reads the appearance as a deliberate attempt to use the presidency and the intelligence services to undermine trust in elections, and reports that US broadcasters such as NBC and CNN chose not to carry it live, while Fox News aired it. Bloomberg warns that the accusation against Beijing threatens to shatter the trade truce with the world's second-largest economy. Trump tied the speech to the announcement that the fruits of the war against Iran would soon be visible.
Süddeutsche ZeitungDie WeltPoliticoThe GuardianDaily Maverick