During last Thursday’s address to the nation Trump pounded home the point for the need of "free and fair" elections. He announced the declassification of critical intelligence that reveals, as he said, "shocking vulnerabilities" related to "hacking, exploitation and foreign interference” in the 2020 presidential election.
Specifically, he said the Chinese government engaged in an influence campaign aimed at shaping U.S. public perceptions.
Trump said intelligence documents show Chinese actors acquired personal information on roughly 220 million American voters, arguing that this created an opportunity to influence the election.
He said prior officials failed to disclose the intelligence and announced that he had ordered the documents declassified so the public could review them.
The president said this vital information had been covered up and hidden for many years by the deep state and called on Congress to pass the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act which would include stricter election-security measures, including required proof of citizenship for voter registration and additional safeguards against fraud.
Trump said the Justice Department should continue investigating election-related matters and pursue prosecutions where appropriate if wrongdoing is found.
Gordon Chang is an author and Asian policy analyst. He says Trump brought up a number of critical issues.
“He was right on all accounts. China has been interfering in our election infrastructure, and that election infrastructure has been compromised. The important point here is not so much what President Trump said, but how he said it. I think that he looked angry, and that really is an indication of how relations with Beijing have soured in the last few weeks."
Chang is concerned that the Chinese will try more election shenanigans moving forward.
“They could very well come back this year and in 2028. So, until we push them out, they're there, and we're going to have to do a lot to get them out of our society, because it's not just messing around in the infrastructure. They've been trying to influence the American public in ways which are in some ways criminal, and we've just got to do something about it. I hope that the president starts imposing higher tariffs on China."
