President Donald Trump is scheduled to deliver a national address Thursday at 9 p.m. ET, with remarks he said will focus in part on elections and voting machines — a signal that he may again amplify long-discredited conspiracy theories about his 2020 loss to Democrat Joe Biden. The primetime speech also comes as Trump intensifies pressure on Republicans to advance stricter federal voting rules before November’s midterm elections.
Trump’s previous primetime presidential address, in April, centered on the conflict with Iran, when he said the United States would achieve its war objectives “very shortly.” Since then, repeated exchanges of fire between the U.S. and Iran across the Middle East and in the Strait of Hormuz have effectively destroyed the temporary agreement meant to halt hostilities. Early Thursday, U.S. strikes expanded against a broader range of targets, including a vessel Washington accused of violating its blockade of Iranian ports. Iran responded by attacking U.S. allies in the region.
Here’s the latest:
Six years later, Trump takes his fixation on the 2020 election back to a White House primetime address
In the aftermath of Trump’s 2020 defeat to Joe Biden, officials he had chosen to lead the Justice Department, cybersecurity agencies and intelligence community reached the same conclusion: The election was legitimate, secure and not marred by widespread fraud or foreign interference.
Now in his second term, Trump has sought to use the power of the presidency to challenge that settled record — an effort he is expected to renew Thursday night when he speaks to the country.
He has already installed loyalists who have repeated his false claims that the 2020 election was stolen, while making clear that he expects others in his administration to align with his position.
The degree to which loyalty to Trump’s election falsehoods has become a political test inside his administration has been evident in confirmation proceedings, where many nominees have refused to say plainly who won the 2020 race and instead have offered only the narrow acknowledgment that Biden became president.
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Trump is taking longer to approve disaster aid and denying Democratic states more frequently
When major disasters strike, Americans are routinely waiting weeks — or even months — to receive presidential approval for aid. And if they live in a state that didn’t support President Trump, chances are greater that aid will be denied.
Since taking office last year, Trump has approved about 65 requests for major disaster declarations and denied more than two dozen others from states, tribes or territories seeking federal financial assistance following hurricanes, tornadoes, storms, floods and fires.
Trump has taken longer on average to approve disaster requests than any other president, according to an Associated Press analysis of data dating back to 1989, when a federal law setting new parameters for disaster determinations was implemented. And no other president has such a disparity in denials between states that supported him politically and those that did not.
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Trump is expected to make election conspiracies a focus of his national address
President Donald Trump is set to address the nation Thursday night on topics he said will include elections and voting machines, suggesting he’s likely to revisit some of the unproven claims he’s previously made about Republican losses, particularly his own in 2020.
Trump’s fixation on his loss to Democrat Joe Biden six years ago and the long-debunked theories he’s circulated about it are something he still brings up regularly when discussing other subjects. But elevating the deeply political and conspiratorial topics to a presidential primetime address underscores the lengths to which Trump has used his second term to both blow past norms and fixate on old grievances.
Trump has offered only vague details about the address, scheduled for 9 p.m. When asked by a reporter Tuesday if it would concern “election machines and integrity,” Trump said it would “concern that subject” and “we’ll have a couple of other things to say also.”
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