WASHINGTON (July 17, 2026) — Today, Danielle Steitz, Director of National Security Policy at the Progressive Policy Institute (PPI), released the following statement in response to President Donald Trump’s speech yesterday evening on election security:
“Six years ago, Donald Trump lost the 2020 presidential election to Joe Biden. This simple fact has become taboo to utter in the Republican Party because Donald Trump cannot and will not accept it. Trump’s address last night, where he alleged that China had interfered with the 2020 presidential election, would be laughable if the implications for American democracy were not so serious.
“The president’s claims of Chinese interference are not substantiated by any of the documents whose declassification he has directed. The intelligence community’s assessment has been clear from the start — there are no indications that any foreign actor attempted to alter any technical aspect of the voting process in the 2020 U.S. elections, including voter registration, casting ballots, vote tabulation, or reporting results. The cherry-picked declassification of intelligence reports from singular, unvetted human sources with no corroboration or verification is yet another example of Trump weaponizing the vital work of American intelligence for personal gain.
“To be clear, foreign influence operations around U.S. elections remain a bipartisan concern, and there is much to be done to strengthen resilience against these efforts to exacerbate divisions in American society. If President Trump wished to confront these issues, he could reverse the drastic cuts his administration has made to the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. He could restore the FBI’s Foreign Influence Task Force, the intelligence community’s Foreign Malign Influence Center, and the State Department’s Counter Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference Office — all three organizations that were slashed or shuttered by members of his cabinet. Instead, Trump chooses grievance politics and rambling White House speeches that only weaken American trust in free and fair elections.
“The president and his administration would do well to listen to the recommendation approved by their colleague Marco Rubio in 2020: given the ‘significant national security and electoral consequences’ of allegations around the safety of elections, ‘sitting officials and candidates should use the absolute greatest amount of restraint and caution if they are considering publicly calling the validity of an upcoming election into question.’ Trump’s continued crusade of unsubstantiated allegations that call democratic elections into question only serves the interests of foreign adversaries who wish to see America weakened and divided.”
Founded in 1989, PPI is a catalyst for policy innovation and political reform based in Washington, D.C. Its mission is to create radically pragmatic ideas for moving America beyond ideological and partisan deadlock. Find an expert and learn more about PPI by visiting progressivepolicy.org. Follow us at @PPI.
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Media Contact: Ian O’Keefe – iokeefe@ppionline.
