Donald Trump used a rare primetime address from the White House to accuse China of rigging the 2020 US election on Monday night, claiming from Washington that Beijing carried out ‘the largest compromise of election data in history’ and helped engineer his defeat.
The explosive speech marked a sharp escalation in Trump’s long-running attempts to cast doubt on his loss to Joe Biden, which he has repeatedly described as stolen despite US courts and federal agencies finding no evidence of widespread fraud. This time, Trump pinned the alleged wrongdoing squarely on China, three months before pivotal midterm elections that will effectively judge his turbulent first term and set the tone for his re‑election push.
Donald Trump Claims China Hacked Voter Files And Swung 2020 Race
In the 30‑minute address, which RadarOnline reported was delivered in front of senior members of his national security and political team, Donald Trump said he had declassified ‘hundreds’ of intelligence documents to back up his case that Beijing meddled in the 2020 contest in favour of Biden.
That assertion runs head‑first into earlier assessments from US intelligence agencies, which had previously concluded China did not interfere in the 2020 presidential election. Trump did not release any of the alleged documents during the televised appearance, and journalists were not allowed to ask questions, leaving the public with a one‑way blast of accusations and very few verifiable details.
Trump alleged that Chinese actors carried out ‘the illicit acquisition’ of 220 million voter files, claiming they bought, stole or hacked data from 18 unnamed states. He said those records included personal information on American voters and insisted this amounted to nothing less than foreign sabotage of US democracy.
According to Trump, officials who discovered the supposed breach failed to report it up the chain of command or to Congress. ‘Those responsible for sounding the alarm instead kept the information secret and hidden,’ he said. ‘They did not disclose to me as president or to anyone else, and to the best of our knowledge, they did not inform Congress.’
The suggestion was clear enough. In Trump’s telling, the scandal is not only foreign interference but a domestic betrayal, a ‘deep state’ operation that allegedly 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’.
It is fierce rhetoric, even by Trump’s own pretty wild standards.
Beijing Fires Back At Donald Trump’s ‘Malicious Smears’
China moved quickly to try to slam the brakes on the narrative. The country’s foreign ministry, speaking in Beijing, flatly rejected Trump’s version of events and accused him of fabricating the claims for political effect.
Spokesman Lin Jian said the allegations of Chinese meddling in the 2020 race were ‘entirely fabricated’, describing Trump’s speech as a string of ‘malicious smears’ that had ‘long been proven to be groundless’. The ministry did not reference specific US documents or investigations, but framed the comments as part of a familiar pattern in which Washington politicians blame Beijing for domestic problems.
Chinese officials have consistently denied any role in US elections, and there has been no public release of intelligence to support Trump’s extraordinary charge of a 220 million‑file compromise. IBTimes UK cannot independently verify his claims, so everything should be taken with a grain of salt.
The dispute lands at an awkward moment in US‑China relations. The two governments have spent the past year trying, somewhat haltingly, to stabilise ties after bruising battles over trade, technology and Taiwan. Trump himself has been trying to project a less volatile posture towards Beijing, at least in public.
Only weeks ago, relations appeared to be on a modest upswing. Xi Jinping hosted Trump for a state visit in May, during which the US president softened his language on Taiwan and repeatedly praised Xi as a ‘friend’. The visit was packaged as proof that the world’s two largest economies could set aside differences, or at least pause open confrontation.
Trump’s new line could blow a hole straight through that fragile goodwill. ‘The Chinese government wanted the US president to lose the next election, and the reason they wanted me to lose is because they knew I was wise to them,’ he said in his address, recasting Xi’s government not as a rival to be managed, but an enemy that targeted him personally.
Those comments sit uneasily with his more pragmatic moves on trade. Trump slapped triple‑digit tariffs on Chinese goods in 2025, a shock move that rattled markets before the White House eased off after Beijing restricted exports of rare‑earth minerals. That tit‑for‑tat raised alarms over possible disruption to US manufacturing and forced both sides into a tense truce that still holds, just about.
Trump Turns His Fire On NBC And ABC Over Speech Snub
The primetime slot was always going to be political theatre. Still, Trump seemed particularly irritated by the fact that not every big broadcaster wanted to air it.
He accused major US television networks of joining what he called a ‘plot’ on behalf of ‘the radical left’ by refusing to carry his address live. He singled out NBC and ABC, arguing that their decision not to broadcast him in full should cost them their right to use public airwaves.
‘Fraud like this should mean a revocation of their licenses. They use our public multi‑billion‑dollar‑in‑value airwaves for absolutely no money,’ Trump said, stretching the definition of fraud to include an editorial call not to give him primetime wall‑to‑wall coverage.
There was no immediate response from the networks, and regulators have given no indication that licence revocation is on the table. In the US system, broadcasters do not pay cash for licences, but they do have public‑interest obligations and face periodic renewal. That process is slow and heavily scrutinised, not something that gets yanked overnight because a president gets mad on television.
Still, for Trump’s base, the attack lines on NBC, ABC and a shadowy ‘deep state’ will sound familiar and energising. For diplomats and investors watching from the outside, the larger question is what this all means for the already fragile relationship with China, and whether Trump’s claims stay confined to campaign‑style rhetoric or begin to drive hard policy choices.
Right now, it is bluster versus denial, with a lot of very nervous people stuck in between.
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