US President Donald Trump plans to deliver a prime-time speech on Thursday focused on election security, bringing renewed attention to his long-running complaints about voting systems and election administration as Republicans face challenging midterm elections in November.
The White House was deciding whether the president's remarks would include the disclosure of sensitive intelligence related to China's intention or ability to interfere in the 2020 US election, Reuters reported on Wednesday, citing four sources. Some Trump officials worried the information could be misleading, sources said.
Trump has spent years raising doubts about electoral outcomes, falsely asserting that his 2020 loss to Democrat Joe Biden was rigged. He has also advanced other false claims, including that mail-in balloting is rife with fraud, voting machines are vulnerable, and non-citizen voting is widespread.
Numerous courts and vote recounts found no evidence of large-scale fraud in the 2020 election.
China intelligence under review
The China intelligence, collected during Trump's first term from 2017 to 2021, did not show that Beijing had manipulated or changed votes, sources told Reuters.
A White House task force led by conservative journalist John Solomon recently asked the intelligence community for documents outlining the information and has spent the past several weeks reviewing them ahead of Trump's speech, one source familiar with the group's work said.
The final draft of the speech was not ready as of midday on Thursday and remained subject to changes from the president, a person familiar with the plans said. Several senior White House officials were anxious about what the president would ultimately say in his speech and how that could affect Republicans' chances in November's midterms, the source said.
"The president will be making a very important announcement with respect to the integrity of our elections," White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said on Thursday, adding that "everything he is saying will be backed by facts and by evidence."
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence did not respond to requests for comment on the Reuters report on Wednesday, and the CIA declined to comment.
Democratic members of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence sent a letter to the acting director of national intelligence, Bill Pulte, along with the leaders of the FBI, the Central Intelligence Agency and the National Security Agency, warning them not to allow Trump to "weaponize intelligence to support false claims about election security."
It was not clear whether television networks would give the White House air time for Trump's speech, a practice typically reserved for major addresses on issues of national import. Spokespeople for the three major broadcasters — NBC, CBS and ABC — as well as cable networks CNN and Fox News did not respond to questions about whether they would carry Trump's remarks live.
Since returning to office in January 2025, Trump has sought to expand federal power over the administration of elections, which legally resides with state governments under the US Constitution.
In recent months, he has also pressured Senate Republicans to advance a bill, the SAVE America Act, that would require photo ID to vote and proof of US citizenship to register while also mandating that states share voter registration information with the federal government. Democrats and voting-rights advocates say that voter fraud is exceedingly rare and argue the legislation would suppress legitimate votes.
Some Republican leaders have urged Trump to focus on issues that matter most to Americans, including high living costs, rather than focus on the 2020 vote.
"I don't know what he's going to say," Senate Majority Leader John Thune said when asked on Wednesday whether he would advise Trump to avoid talking about the 2020 election. "The only thing I can tell you is, we are focused on the 2026 election, at least I am, and I think most of my colleagues are."
Republicans are navigating political headwinds as the midterm elections approach, with Trump's approval rating underwater and voters deeply frustrated by the Iran war and attendant high energy prices.
Democrats need to flip only three Republican seats to take a majority in the US House of Representatives. They face an uphill battle to win a Senate majority, however, with critical races unfolding in Republican-leaning states.
Democrats are preparing for the White House to attempt to manipulate November's election, Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer told reporters on Wednesday.
"They know they can't win the election fair and square," he said. "So we don't put it past them to try whatever they can."
ABC, NBC will not air Trump's election security speech on broadcast networks
Two of the three major US television networks have decided not to broadcast a planned prime-time address on Thursday by President Donald Trump on their primary platforms, risking the ire of an administration that has placed unprecedented pressure on American media.
The speech is expected to focus on election security, four months before the critical midterm elections.
Networks have broad First Amendment rights to decide what they choose to broadcast, experts noted. But historically, broadcasters have carried most such speeches on the grounds that they provide information of public importance.
Late Thursday afternoon, a spokesperson for ABC News said the network will run Trump’s speech on its ABC News Live streaming platform and ABC News Radio – not its broadcast channel.
NBC News plans to carry the president's remarks on its free streaming service, NBC News NOW, but will not air the speech on its main broadcast channel, according to a person familiar with the matter. The company declined to comment.
The ABC and NBC streaming channels generally draw a fraction of the viewers that their traditional broadcast signals reach.
The White House is considering using the speech to disclose sensitive intelligence related to whether China had the intention or ability to interfere in the 2020 US election which Trump claims was stolen from him, Reuters reported on Wednesday. Some Trump officials worry that intelligence, which was collected and analyzed during his first term, could be misleading.
During a Thursday press briefing, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said that “it is also very possible” Trump will mention the current situation with Iran and the economy at the top of the speech, and could possibly address a range of topics.
She said that is “all the more reason” for the networks to carry the speech live, and for Americans to tune in.
Trump has spent years sowing doubts about electoral outcomes, falsely claiming his 2020 loss to Democrat Joe Biden was rigged. He has also claimed without evidence that mail-in voting is rife with fraud, voting machines are vulnerable to manipulation and non-citizen voting is widespread.
Some Democrats, including US Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, have urged networks not to air the speech, arguing Trump is likely to repeat debunked claims.
A spokesperson for the third major US network, CBS, did not respond to Reuters' questions about whether it planned to carry the address live. CNN and Fox News FOXA.O also did not respond to a request for comment.
At CBS, the takeover of Paramount PSKY.O by David Ellison, whose billionaire father Larry is a Trump ally, has roiled the newsroom and prompted the departure of senior staff from the news magazine "60 Minutes." Some employees have alleged political interference in editorial decisions, which the network has denied.
Ellison is now awaiting FCC approval for Paramount's acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, which could give him control of CNN, a network Trump has long criticized for what he says is unfair coverage. The US Justice Department's Antitrust Division gave its blessing to the deal last month.
The speech comes at a sensitive moment for US media.
Walt Disney-owned ABC DIS.Nis facing two pending inquiries from the Federal Communications Commission, including one examining whether its daytime talk show "The View" violated equal-time rules by interviewing a Democratic Senate candidate in Texas.
The FCC could move as early as next month to begin the process of withdrawing the licenses for Disney's eight company-owned ABC stations.
Trump has repeatedly attacked NBC and its parent company, Comcast CMCSA.O, which he has dubbed "Concast." Last month he stormed out of an interview with NBC political reporter Kristen Welker after calling the network "a one-sided crooked network."
Comcast last month announced plans to split into two publicly traded companies through a spinoff of NBCUniversal and Sky. Analysts have said the move could make NBCUniversal an attractive takeover target.
FCC Chair Brendan Carr is also investigating Comcast and its NBC unit over its diversity practices, which Carr said was the basis for the decision to speed up the reviews of Disney's ABC stations.
The conservative-leaning cable news network Fox News, owned by Rupert Murdoch, generally carries all of Trump's speeches but may also be wary of this one.
In 2023, the network had to pay out $787 million to settle a defamation suit over its airing of false claims about the 2020 election.
On Wednesday, Carr said in an interview with NewsNation that he thought the broadcast networks should air Trump's remarks.
"This is something that the American people have every right to be able to get over the airwaves," Carr said.
Carr did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday.