President Donald Trump announced his administration will work with state and local governments to address known election-system vulnerabilities and better protect voter data ahead of the November midterm elections.
During a primetime White House address Thursday, Trump said his administration is notifying states whose election data was compromised by the People’s Republic of China.
“We will be working closely to mitigate any harm, and we’re taking swift action to ensure that sensitive voter data is better protected, so we can never be bought, we can never be hacked, and we can never watch a stolen election again.”
The president revealed his DHS Secretary will hold a briefing outlining the department’s recent work confirming cyber vulnerabilities in electronic voting systems.
“They are bad,” Trump said of the vulnerabilities.
Trump said his administration is informing governors, senators, and members of Congress of potential issues in their states.
“If you look at voting today, it’s in such bad shape in so many states, and we are committing to fix it,” the president continued.
Trump pledged to work with states and local jurisdictions to help them fix and patch known technical vulnerabilities before the midterm elections.
“We have very important elections coming up. We want those elections to be honest,” Trump said.
The president also ordered DHS to notify every state about non-citizens on their voter rolls and direct them to remove all ineligible voters immediately.
The White House on Thursday released declassified intelligence records showing voter rolls in at least 18 states had been compromised by China and that more than 200 million voter records had been compromised.
The document publicly named Alaska, Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Kansas, Maryland, Michigan, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, and the District of Columbia.
A Department of Homeland Security review identified approximately 278,000 noncitizens registered to vote in federal elections after comparing state voter-registration lists with public records.
Trump argued the number could be higher because several Democrat-led states did not provide their voter files.
“Since Democrat states refused to share their voter files, the real number is actually much higher than that,” Trump said.
The president also claimed foreign governments possess substantial amounts of American voter data and that voting machines and ballot-tabulation systems remain vulnerable to hacking and manipulation.
“Hundreds of millions of U.S. voter files are in the hands of foreign governments,” Trump said.
He added: “Our machines and ballot counting systems are exposed to hacking, manipulation, and corruption.”
.@POTUS: In light of the brand new and irrefutable information I have revealed tonight, my administration is in the process of notifying states whose election data was compromised by the People’s Republic of China and others.
We will be working closely to mitigate any harm—and… pic.twitter.com/Xy5Xva0CP2
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) July 17, 2026
