{"id":154858,"date":"2026-07-16T21:26:28","date_gmt":"2026-07-16T21:26:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/154858\/"},"modified":"2026-07-16T21:26:28","modified_gmt":"2026-07-16T21:26:28","slug":"trump-is-expected-to-make-election-conspiracies-a-focus-of-his-national-address-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/154858\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump is expected to make election conspiracies a focus of his national address"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON \u2013 President Donald Trump is set to address the nation Thursday night on topics he said will include elections and voting machines<\/a>, suggesting he is likely to revisit some of the unproven claims he has previously made about Republican losses, particularly his own in 2020.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s fixation on his loss to Democrat Joe Biden<\/a> six years ago and the long-debunked theories he\u2019s circulated<\/a> about it are things he still brings up regularly when discussing other subjects. But elevating the deeply political and conspiratorial topics to a presidential primetime address underscores the lengths to which Trump has used his second term to both blow past norms and fixate on old grievances.<\/p>\n

Trump has offered only vague details about the address, scheduled for 9 p.m. ET. When asked by a reporter Tuesday if it would concern \u201celection machines and integrity,\u201d Trump said it would \u201cconcern that subject\u201d and \u201cwe\u2019ll have a couple of other things to say also.\u201d<\/p>\n

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said earlier Thursday: \u201cPresident Trump will deliver a major address to the nation on protecting the integrity of our elections. And we encourage every American to tune in.\u201d<\/p>\n

She didn’t offer many details, but said that what the president planned to say \u201cwill shock you if you have an honest eye listening to the president tonight\u201d and will make the case that the U.S. will \u201cneed to make some adjustments moving forward,\u201d including a strict voter ID bill he has been pushing.<\/p>\n

Primetime presidential addresses are typically reserved for major milestones or nationally significant events.<\/p>\n

Trump last did it in April to speak on the Iran war, a month after it started<\/a>. He said then that the U.S. would accomplish its objectives<\/a> \u201cvery shortly\u201d and that \u201cthe hard part is done, so it should be easy.\u201d The war, however, has dragged on and strikes between the U.S. and Iran have intensified this week.<\/p>\n

Trump also delivered a politically charged primetime speech<\/a> in December in which he sought to blame the challenging economic climate on Democrats.<\/p>\n

At least some TV networks said Thursday they would not carry the speech live but would air it on their streaming services. Both ABC and NBC had decided not to air the remarks live, but to carry them in full on their streaming services, and break into network coverage as needed. <\/p>\n

During the press briefing Thursday, Leavitt seemed to be still trying to persuade networks to carry the remarks live, saying, \u201cI think that the mainstream media should air the president\u2019s speech and allow the American people to draw their own conclusions from it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Leavitt said Trump may use his remarks to also address the economy and Iran, saying, “We have had conversations about him addressing a range of topics, and that could very well be possible tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n

She didn’t answer a question about whether Trump would accept the results of the 2026 election.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, Vice President JD Vance told reporters on Capitol Hill that \u201cof course we\u2019re gonna support the results of the midterm elections.\u201d<\/p>\n

Democrats warned that Trump was trying to revive false claims of past stolen elections in order to delegitimize the upcoming 2026 midterm elections, in which Trump\u2019s Republican Party is facing headwinds.<\/p>\n

\u201cTomorrow night, Trump is going to use a primetime address to stoke misleading claims about our elections in order to justify interfering in our midterms. It\u2019s on all of us to follow the facts and not accept his constant stream of misdirections and lies,\u201d Virginia Democratic Sen. Mark Warner said in a statement on X.<\/p>\n

\u201cTrump is again trying to drum up baseless election conspiracies ahead of the November elections,\u201d New Jersey Democratic Sen. Andy Kim said in a post on X. \u201cAmericans are tired of endless war, skyrocketing gas prices, and a president that isn\u2019t looking out for them. Voters will make their voices heard, whether Trump wants them to or not.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Capitol Hill on Wednesday, Vance bristled when asked if he\u2019d encourage Trump in his Thursday remarks to stay focused on November\u2019s midterm elections rather than relitigate past elections. \u201c’The unfounded claims,’\u201d Vance said, repeating the reporter’s language. “You\u2019re basically assuming an answer in the very question that you ask.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe president is going to talk about a number of things tomorrow night. I\u2019m obviously not going to get ahead of his remarks,\u201d Vance said. \u201cBut we can talk about a number of the American people\u2019s problems. We can solve a number of the American people\u2019s problems.\u201d<\/p>\n

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., told reporters he doesn\u2019t know what Trump is going to say. \u201cBut,” he said, “the only thing I can tell you is that we are focused on the 2026 election, at least I am, and I think most of my colleagues are.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Associated Press writers Mary Clare Jalonick and Will Weissert in Washington and Jocelyn Noveck in New York contributed to this report.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON \u2013 President Donald Trump is set to address the nation Thursday night on topics he said will…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":154057,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[142],"tags":[13726,12,1065,1189,168,3461,475,1192,8355,51,1194],"class_list":["post-154858","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-john-thune","tag-andy-kim","tag-donald-trump","tag-elections","tag-entertainment","tag-jd-vance","tag-joe-biden","tag-john-thune","tag-karoline-leavitt","tag-mark-warner","tag-politics","tag-washington-news"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@people\/116931774539872952","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154858","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=154858"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154858\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/154057"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=154858"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=154858"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=154858"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}