President Donald Trump’s enigmatic primetime address on Thursday — widely expected to center on claims of election fraud and alleged security weaknesses ahead of the midterm elections — has set off a fierce behind-the-scenes rift inside Republican circles, sources tell the Daily Mail.
Trump has been building anticipation for a 9 p.m. ET announcement, suggesting he is preparing to unveil significant new information tied to voter fraud allegations, including what he describes as previously unseen declassified documents.
“It’s really big news. It’s really, really big news, and our country has to shape up,” Trump told reporters from the Oval Office on Wednesday.
“What we’re going to talk about Thursday, it doesn’t get bigger because without free and fair elections, you don’t have a country.”
According to insiders who spoke to the Daily Mail, the planned remarks are creating serious “heartburn” among Republican campaign operatives, with some worried the renewed focus on election fraud could complicate the party’s messaging during a challenging midterm election season.
For years, Trump has repeatedly hinted that he possesses decisive evidence to support his claim that the 2020 presidential election, won by Joe Biden, was tainted by fraud.
In January, former Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard drew attention when she appeared in tactical gear in Fulton County, Georgia, while supervising agents involved in seizing election records. She also directed the collection of voting machines in Puerto Rico, citing what she called “extremely concerning cybersecurity” vulnerabilities.
Gabbard, however, did not publicly release the full findings from those actions before stepping down last month to spend time with her husband, who is fighting a rare form of bone cancer.
US President Donald Trump previewed a prime time speech with ‘really big news’ on alleged election fraud
United States Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard spotted in February after the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) executed a search warrant for the Fulton County Election Hub and Operation Center
Acting Director of National Intelligence Bill Pulte has spent four weeks digging into intelligence reports of election fraud allegations
Trump viewed Gabbard’s exit as a rare opportunity, installing one of his top loyalists – controversial loyalist Bill Pulte – to the position of acting director of national intelligence.
He was tasked with a mandate for full disclosure surrounding questions about the 2020 election.
For weeks, Pulte has scoured intelligence records for evidence of fraud and election tampering the President wants released, the Daily Mail can reveal.
Trump is backing Pulte who sources describe is in ‘YOLO mode,’ with nothing but fierce loyalty to the President and no political aspirations.
Both Pulte and Solomon did not respond to the Daily Mail’s request for comment.
The primetime address on Thursday is expected by allies to fuel new political fervor in the fight to secure elections.
Part of what’s forcing Trump’s hand is the failure of the Senate to pass the SAVE (Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act) act which lies in political limbo.
The President views voter ID and election security as an 80-20 issue that Republicans should feature in the midterms, knowing that it could hurt Democrats politically who oppose the idea.
But not everyone in the administration feels the same way.
A number of intelligence officials are distraught about the upcoming disclosures.
For years, officials – prominent figures during Trump’s first administration including then-Attorney General Bill Barr and others – denied there was any conclusive intelligence that indicated significant election fraud in the 2020 election.
But now CIA Director John Ratcliffe and FBI Director Kash Patel have no choice but to back the President’s play on the issue, sources say, despite concerns within the intelligence and law enforcement community of politicizing the agencies.
Ratcliffe, Patel and other members of the intelligence community are expected to attend Trump’s address.
The FBI and the CIA did not respond to the Daily Mail’s request for comment on Trump’s speech.
Journalist John Solomon has been recruited by the White House to investigate alleged election fraud
CIA Director John Ratcliffe and White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles
The President is expected to call for FBI Director Kash Patel to take election fraud allegations seriously
News that Trump had appointed investigative reporter John Solomon to join transparency and disclosure efforts at the White House in a temporary role thrilled supporters of the President.
Solomon earned widespread support from the President thanks to significant reporting efforts to challenge the narrative that Trump was secretly working with Russia to influence the 2016 election.
Pulte and Solomon have been sorting through millions of documents, sources familiar with their work told the Daily Mail, but only a select few will be declassified for release on Thursday, the first step of a larger transparency operation that has captured Trump’s attention.
They have had four weeks to dig through millions of election documents and are expected to deliver receipts and more transparency into claims of election fraud.
That has angered intelligence officials who are pushing back against their claims.
One administration official described Pulte and Solomon as part of ‘the real f***ing problem’ to MS NOW, prompting frustration from their allies.
Solomon broke his silence in an interview with Steve Bannon’s War Room podcast on Wednesday, after anonymous administration officials criticized his role in the process.
He ridiculed the ‘department of leaks’ in the White House, for attacking their efforts and insisted that real scrutiny was finally coming to the intelligence community.
News that Trump would raise concerns about the security vulnerabilities of voting machines only further escalated Democrat claims that the President is already trying to downplay significant losses in the midterms.
No evidence of voting machine insecurity or fraud in the 2020 election has been established.
Solomon repeated that Trump’s supporters would not be disappointed by the news that the President plans to share.
President Donald Trump watches as CIA Director John Ratcliffe speaks with reporters
Acting Director of National Intelligence is Bill Pulte (L) sits with Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director Kash Patel
‘If Truth is a problem, then I’m a problem. I guess if you worried about Truth, then you should be concerned,’ Solomon said.
But reports that the President will release evidence calling into question the results of the Georgia 2020 Senate race – where Democrat Ossoff narrowly beat Republican incumbent David Perdue – are alarming GOP consultants in the state and in Washington, DC.
They fear that ‘stolen election’ messaging will serve as ‘a distraction’ from the midterm elections, sources told the Daily Mail.
Revisiting election fraud claims is expected to motivate the President’s base to vote in the midterms.
But that has caused heartburn in the Senate, sources told the Daily Mail, as Republicans are outraged by reports that Trump would declare their Georgia Democratic colleagues as ‘illegitimate.’
Democrats gleefully hammered the President’s upcoming speech as more ‘baseless conspiracy theories’ about the 2020 elections, warning that Trump was working to steal the elections.
In response, the White House quietly pushed back on the news, disputing that Trump would make Georgia the focus.
A spokesperson for the NRSC also disputed the idea that Trump’s press conference would politically damage their efforts to keep Republican control of the Senate.
‘President Trump and Mike Collins are working tirelessly to deliver for Georgia families and hold Jon Ossoff accountable for enabling Biden’s open borders that made inflation soar and let murderers like Laken Riley’s killer roam free,’ an NRSC spokesperson told the Daily Mail.
Collins is currently trailing Ossoff by double digits according to recent polls in the state.
Tulsi Gabbard exited Trump’s Cabinet last month as her husband battles a rare cancer
President Trump and the political team at the White House view election security as a major political message for the midterm elections, sources tell the Daily Mail.
Other sources told the Daily Mail that the speech would focus more on foreign attempts to disrupt past and future elections, calling for more election security measures.
A focus of the speech will be significant vulnerabilities related to American voter data compromised by the Chinese Communist Party, an intelligence source says.
Trump could also refer to recent allegations of voter fraud in Democrat-led states like California, particularly after supporters of Spencer Pratt vented frustrations with mail-in ballots in the Los Angeles, California, mayoral election.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt dismissed speculation about the President’s speech in a statement to the Daily Mail.
‘As usual, anonymous sources are speculating about what President Trump will say during his speech on Thursday evening. The truth is, nobody knows yet what President Trump will ultimately say, which is why everyone should tune in,’ she said.
