Trump claims Russia, China, Iran, North Korea can ‘compromise’ US election infrastructure, cites declassified intelligence

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump on Thursday (local time) alleged that Russia, China, Iran, North Korea and non-state actors possess the capability to compromise America’s election infrastructure, citing newly declassified intelligence assessments as he renewed criticism of electronic voting machines and ballot-counting systems.

Delivering a national address on election integrity, Trump said the third set of documents released by his administration showed that US authorities had long been aware of vulnerabilities in the country’s election infrastructure.

“Yet concealing China’s meddling was only the beginning. The third set of documents we are releasing proves that for many years, Americans were blatantly lied to about the security of our election infrastructure, including electronic voting machines and ballot-counting systems. They are vulnerable, and they are easily compromised,” Trump said.

Quoting a US Intelligence Community assessment, Trump claimed, “We judge that US adversaries, including at a minimum Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea, as well as non-state groups, have the capability to compromise US election infrastructure.”

Trump:

The U.S. adversaries, including Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea, have the capability to compromise U.S. election infrastructure. pic.twitter.com/aEc7EqZvFQ

— Clash Report (@clashreport) July 17, 2026

He further cited the assessment as saying, “We assess that centralised election-related data repositories, such as voter registration databases, pollbooks, and official election websites, are most vulnerable to exploitation, and adversaries could use access to these systems to disrupt election processes.” Calling it “a cyber threat aimed at the very heart of our democracy”, Trump said the administration was releasing intelligence findings spanning from January 2020 to June 2026.

The US President also claimed the newly declassified documents included CIA reporting on an alleged Venezuelan plot to digitally manipulate election results. “Today, we are releasing documents that show the CIA obtained reporting of a specific plot by the Maduro regime in Venezuela to do exactly that – conspiring to digitally rig their own country’s elections in 2020,” Trump said.

According to Trump, the intelligence detailed methods developed “to digitally alter vote totals in ways that could not be detected even with an audit”. He said the intelligence “underscores why we must take urgent action to ensure that our own systems can never be hacked or compromised”.

The White House said the declassified intelligence community assessments and related reports were released to demonstrate that the US government had long been aware of vulnerabilities in electronic voting machines, ballot-counting systems and centralised election-related databases, including voter registration databases, pollbooks and official election websites.

The documents cover the period from January 2020 through June 2026. (ANI)