President Donald Trump is scheduled to speak on Thursday about newly declassified intelligence describing foreign nations' intentions tied to the 2020 U.S. presidential election, an MS Now reporter said on X, citing two unidentified White House officials.
The planned address arrives against the backdrop of the former president's repeated assertions that he lost the 2020 vote to Democrat Joe Biden because of widespread fraud. Those claims have been examined and rejected by numerous courts, subjected to ballot audits, and reviewed by the Justice Department during his first term, each of which found no evidence of widespread fraud that could have changed the election outcome.
For more than a year, the current administration has pursued steps to increase federal oversight of election administration - a push described by legal experts as an effort that would shift authority away from states and potentially conflict with constitutional provisions assigning states primary responsibility for conducting elections.
Separated from the recent announcement, a 2021 U.S. intelligence assessment examined foreign activity related to the 2020 election and found no indications that any foreign actor attempted or succeeded in altering any technical component of the vote. The assessment specified that no foreign interference affected voter registrations, ballots, tabulations, or final results.
That same assessment concluded that Russian President Vladimir Putin authorized parts of his government to carry out influence operations aimed at boosting the vote for Trump and weakening public confidence in the U.S. electoral process. The intelligence judgment also indicated that China had considered operations intended to change the election outcome but ultimately decided not to pursue them, while Iran executed a "multi-pronged" covert influence campaign seeking to diminish support for Trump's candidacy.
The 2021 report was prepared by the National Intelligence Council with contributions from the CIA, the Department of Homeland Security, the FBI, the State Department's intelligence bureau, and the National Security Agency.
Context note: The MS Now report cited two White House officials who were not identified by name. The declassified intelligence referenced in the planned remarks has been described publicly through prior, interagency assessments but the upcoming speech is set to present newly declassified material as noted by the media report.