The White House is considering making public classified intelligence related to China’s potential ability to interfere in US elections, according to people familiar with internal discussions. The material was gathered and assessed during President Donald Trump’s first term and could be referenced in a speech he is expected to deliver on Thursday evening.
According to sources, Trump is likely to discuss what his administration believes are weaknesses in the country’s election system that could leave it vulnerable to foreign interference. The speech is also expected to highlight a year long review of intelligence and government records related to election security. However, the final version of the speech has not yet been completed and officials say its contents could still change.
People familiar with the classified material said it focuses on whether China had the intention or capability to interfere in the 2020 US presidential election. They stressed that the intelligence does not conclude that Beijing manipulated votes or changed the outcome of the election. The information remains classified and has been the subject of debate within the administration over whether it should be released.
Trump has repeatedly maintained that the 2020 election was unfair and has continued to question its outcome despite numerous court rulings and official investigations confirming that Joe Biden won the election. The latest review of election related intelligence is part of a broader effort by the Trump administration to examine the security of the country’s voting system and increase federal involvement in election oversight. Under the US Constitution, however, the administration of elections is primarily the responsibility of individual states.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt dismissed reports about the expected contents of Trump’s speech, saying that anonymous sources were only speculating and that no one knew exactly what the president would say. The Office of the Director of National Intelligence did not comment on the matter while the Central Intelligence Agency also declined to respond.
The intelligence under discussion played an important role during debates inside the first Trump administration about possible foreign interference in the 2020 election. At the time, administration officials publicly warned that Chinese hackers were attempting to target election related infrastructure before voting took place.
Despite those concerns, former intelligence officials have consistently stated that there is no evidence showing China or any other foreign country successfully altered votes in the 2020 election. A US intelligence community assessment released in 2021 concluded that no foreign actor had changed voter registration records, ballots, vote counting systems or the final election results.
One senior intelligence official, Christopher Porter, disagreed with parts of that assessment. Porter argued that China possessed the capability to interfere in US elections and may have been attempting to do so. His objections were included in a public version of the intelligence report, and he later prepared a separate classified document expanding on his views.
Sources familiar with the report said it contained detailed intelligence about China’s thinking on US elections. Others argued that the document relied on a limited amount of raw intelligence and did not necessarily represent China’s official position. Porter has previously accused the intelligence community of failing to properly acknowledge his concerns during Trump’s first administration.
Officials involved in the current discussions are reportedly worried that releasing the classified information without full context could create the impression that China successfully influenced the 2020 election, even though existing intelligence findings do not support that conclusion. They also fear that declassifying the material could expose sensitive intelligence gathering methods.
The White House has also been reviewing older claims that China may have accessed US voter data during the 2020 election. However, officials familiar with that issue said voter data is generally public information that is widely available to political campaigns and consultants. Intelligence assessments conducted by both the Trump and Biden administrations reportedly concluded that while China may have obtained publicly available voter information online, there was no evidence that it gained access to official voting systems.
