‘They had nothing’: Elections experts say Trump’s speech signals panic over a flimsy case

Despite the promise of explosive revelations, President Donald Trump’s prime-time speech to the nation Thursday offered nothing new to support his lies about stolen elections and voter fraud.

In his 25-minute speech, Trump accused China of obtaining voter files, claimed there were massive numbers of noncitizens on voter rolls, and called for the passage of the anti-voting SAVE America Act.

But none of the information newly declassified by the White House yesterday shows or even suggests that votes or registration records have been changed or manipulated in any election, according to multiple voting and elections experts.

David Becker of the Center for Election Innovation & Research called the speech a “huge dud” in a media briefing to reporters Friday.

“They’ve had 18 months in total control of the federal government and they have found nothing that would support President Trump’s lies about the 2020 election,” Becker added. “And so they are just trying to grab as much garbage and throw it up against the wall, and it’s not sticking.”

Becker, among the country’s leading experts on election administration, described this desperation as a means to assert control for an executive branch that is badly losing in the courts. Trump’s Department of Justice is now 0-15 in losses in its attempts to seize state voter rolls.

Becker said it’s important to consider the president’s recent anti-voting actions in tandem with one another. He cited Trump’s  first anti-voting executive order in March 2025, as well as the recent purge of commissioners at the independent agency that helps states run elections,

“I think we should look at all of those as a whole. And those are not things done out of a position of strength,” Becker said. “This is what panic and desperation looks like.” 

Becker also suggested this could be a turning point for those in the administration who may be becoming disillusioned with Trump’s election security obsessions.

Election Law Blog’s Rick Hasen wrote that Trump’s speech was “underwhelming” and reiterated the consensus that there was no evidence presented to back up Trump’s broad claims.

While Trump claimed that the Department of Homeland Security found 278,000 non-citizens registered to vote in federal elections, he made no claims of actual noncitizen voting, Hasen noted.

“Tonight’s claims are nothing more than another flimsy attempt to rewrite the past, cause chaos and sow unwarranted doubt in this year’s elections,” said Pamela Smith, who heads the nonpartisan Verified Voting. “Six years and more than 60 failed lawsuits later, there’s no new way for the president to say the 2020 election was stolen, because it wasn’t.”