Russia, China, North Korea and Iran can manipulate US elections, Trump makes big claims | World

US President Donald Trump on Friday asserted that the US election system has been “dangerously” exposed to Russia, China, Iran, North Korea and non-state actors, who possess the capability to compromise America’s election infrastructure. Trump made the allegations during his half-an-hour speech on “Election Integrity” in which he stated that he had declassified hundreds of intelligence files that supported his claims of Beijing’s interference in the 2020 presidential elections.

He further added that the third set of documents released by his government showed the US authorities had long been aware of the vulnerabilities in the country’s electoral system.

Hiding China’s interference was just the beginning: Trump

Trump further alleged that the newly declassified intelligence records supported his claim of Beijing’s interference in the 2020 presidential elections, and the previous administrations refused to acknowledge them.

“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.

The US President also cited a report by the US Intelligence Community and said, “We assess that US adversaries, including at least Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea, as well as some non-governmental groups, possess the capability to interfere with US electoral infrastructure.”

Trump highlights vulnerability in US electoral system

According to Trump, the intelligence assessment flagged centralised election-related databases, voter registration systems, electronic pollbooks, and official election websites as the weakest points in the country’s election infrastructure, warning that they could be targeted to disrupt voting.

Trump then went on to read from another section of the report, saying that adversaries gaining access to these centralised data systems could disrupt the electoral process altogether.

What were Trump’s allegations about Venezuela?

President Trump also claimed that newly declassified documents include a CIA report alleging the Venezuelan government of conspiring to digitally manipulate the results of the 2020 elections. “Today, we are releasing documents that reveal that the CIA learned of a specific plot by Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s regime. This plot involved digitally manipulating the results of the 2020 election,” he said.

Trump described the issue as a “cyber attack on the heart of American democracy,” saying that his administration had released all intelligence reports covering the period from January 2020 to June 2026.

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