Trump just made some wild claims about America's election security

During a Thursday speech addressing his 2020 election loss, Donald Trump presented several claims about foreign interference and federal government actions he said affected the election results. Trump cited allegations involving Chinese acquisition of voter data, Deep State actors, Venezuelan interference, and concerns about voting machine security.

Here are some of his stranger claims:

1. China 'massaged' the election with manufactured ballots.

As predicted, Trump launched into his Thursday grievance speech over his 2020 election loss, complaining that Chinese government officials manipulated the race to hide his 2020 victory —despite no accusations of that panning out in 2021, despite the volume of Trump’s complaints.

“The year starting the 2020 election cycle the People of the Republic of China carried out what is believed to be the largest compromise of election data in history, resulting in in China's acquisition of 20 million US voter files,” Trump claimed, without evidence. “… Information includes names, addresses, phone numbers, political party preferences and other sensitive data that would be needed to register to vote and engage in other nefarious activities which is exactly what was happening.”

MAGA supporters broadcast identical claims in 2021 and in the years since to rationalize Trump’s loss, but no solid evidence has been found.

2. Trump blames his 2020 loss on the “Deep State”— which he headed

President Donald was quick to claim that agents acting against him under his own administration undermined his election by refusing to chase allegations of tampering, or outright tamped down legitimate accusations of election fraud — which only happened in states that he lost, not the one’s he won, apparently.

These same agents, he claimed, worked hand in hand to help China steal the election for Joe Biden, again without evidence.

“The second set of documents we are releasing reveal that members of the deep state of very, very famous … people. My agencies began learning about the compromised voter file in 2020 when they discover that tens of millions of voters’ data in 18 states have been bought, stolen, or hacked by China,” said Trump. “They were responsible for sounding the alarm but instead kept information secret and hidden. They did not disclose to me as president or to anyone else to the best of our knowledge. They did not inform Congress. In fact, all they kept saying was ‘this is the most secure election in the history of our country.’”

“They just didn't want [me to win]. They fought like hell not to have it,” Trump said.

3. Burn bags are back, baby

Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director Kash Patel claimed last year that he found "burn bags" filled with thousands of classified documents connected to the Trump-Russia probe, according to Fox News sources. Citing unnamed sources, the media outlet said the bags and all the information in them were discovered in "a secret room inside the bureau," and it added that the bags were used to destroy sensitive documents.

Trump seized on that claim, despite no case currently sitting in a courtroom investigating the accusation.

“Recently we found significant numbers of burn bags in formation that were used to destroy information given by President Barack Hussein Obama, to be burned these bags were supposed to be … incinerated, but it never happened,” Trump claimed. “Maybe we got lucky. We believe this was not done on purpose, but rather through gross incompetence of the people that were supposed to burn the bag. Today I'm asking the FBI and CIA to investigate why such crucial information was hidden and file criminal charges when appropriate against these people.”

4. Maduro done it!

Trump also pulled out claims that the Venezuelan Maduro regime had directly offset the 2020 election — again without any evidence.

“The CIA obtained reporting of a specific plot to do a big number in favor of the corrupt Maduro regime and that's exactly what happened,” Trump said, without providing proof that was exactly what happened. “To digitally alter vote totals in ways that could not be detected with an audit, no matter how deeply they looked this.”

Critics like Republican election lawyer Ben Ginsberg told CNN on Thursday however that U.S. voting machines are self-contained, and their information can’t be hacked remotely. They’re also very difficult for even on-site crooks to bust, considering their inclusion of paper ballots in the process.

5. No third world nation has an election system worse than ours — despite Trump winning last time

Trump enjoys attacking voting machines that declare him a loser, not the won’s he likes. And he spent the remainder of his speech complaining that they’re the worse machines in the world.

“This is worse than any Third World country,” Trump said in his speech. “There is no Third World country that has elections like we have.”

He added that news organizations like NBC and ABC and CNN — who refused to carry Trump’s speech due to the string of inaccuracies and lies it would contain — were complicit in keeping the truth of the vulnerable machines under wraps.

“They [would] not cover the speech because they knew what it was about,’ said Trump. “… They know how corrupt our system is and they don't want to reveal it. They and others in the media … want continuous fraud, for whatever reason they want to keep it going and want to protect the radical left they can have a great country.”

Trump added that he would work to revoke the news channels’ licenses, claiming “they use our multibillion-dollar valuable airways for absolutely no money. They paid nothing.”