President Donald Trump delivered a primetime public address Thursday night, primarily discussing elections, immigration and the economy.
“Before we begin, I’m proud to report that our country is safer, stronger and far wealthier than it has ever been before,” the president said, opening the address. “We are doing great.”
Trump took a moment to address the state of prescription drugs in the country and how his business endeavor, TrumpRx, a prescription drug site, will continue to help bring the cost of healthcare in the country go “way down.”
In addition to this, he urged parents to start Trump accounts, investment accounts, for their children. This and TrumpRx are part of an affordability agenda being pushed by the Trump administration, likely to curb worries about the current cost of living as we approach midterm elections.
Election Integrity and Declassified Documents
Trump announced that declassified documents would be released, proving the nation’s need to correct vulnerabilities in current election practices.
These now-released documents are said to support Trump’s prior claims that the 2020 election—won by Joe Biden—was “rigged” against him. Specifically, Trump said that China intended to get involved with the US election in 2020 to prevent him from winning.
“The Chinese government wanted the US president to lose the next election,” he said during the speech. “And the reason they wanted me to lose is because they knew I was wise to them.”
However, the findings Trump primarily cited were used to prove the opposite. Claims from the same analysis were used to conclude that China did not make an effort to influence the US election.
Trump also said that the Department of Homeland Security has uncovered 278,000 non-citizens in state voter registration records, but the real number of non-citizens registered to vote must be “much higher than that.”
He called for the FBI to launch an investigation into Michigan voter registration due to significant detected fraud. Relevant data is now available on the White House website, but Michigan officials continue to deny these claims.
Just before ending the speech, Trump urged congressional delegates to pass the SAVE America Act. The act has received strong opposition in the Senate and does not currently have a path for passage.
“How easy is that to do, unless you want to cheat,” he said about the proposed act. “The only reason you wouldn’t do it is you want to cheat.”
These declassified documents are still being analyzed, but are sure to have some insight about hacking and election security in the near future.
The DHS Secretary will hold a briefing on Friday about election security and the various investigations and sets of data discussed in Thursday’s address.
Ari Collins is a staff writer. Contact her at [email protected].
