Donald Trump delivers a a speech from the White House, July 16, 2026 (CNN)
I joined DW News English for a 12-minute deep dive into Donald Trump’s lie-filled speech to set up his manipulation of the 2026 US elections.
Using US intelligence documents, I explain how Trump lied that the “Deep State” protected the Democrats and Joe Biden by hiding China’s interference in the 2020 Presidential elections. China considered but rejected influence operations, as they feared destabilizing relations with the US.
The country that did interfere was Russia — and it did in support of Trump by pushing disinformation about Biden, including through proxies linked to Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani and former campaign manager Paul Manafort.
Why did Trump lie so blatantly? To set up a pretext for restrictions on voting in November elections and, if the Trumpists and Republicans, for operations to overturn the outcome including the possible seizure of voting machines.