President Trump will deliver a primetime address Thursday evening on election security, going straight to the American people with a new DHS finding that at least 278,000 noncitizens are registered to vote in federal elections — and the major broadcast networks are still deciding whether to carry it.
The stakes are straightforward: if noncitizens are on voter rolls in numbers never before publicly reported, the most fundamental right of American citizens — a transparent, verifiable vote — is under pressure. And the bipartisan machine in Washington has spent years insisting there's nothing to see.
The New York Post reported that the 278,000 figure comes from a forthcoming Department of Homeland Security report, a source familiar with the findings confirmed. That number reflects only the states reviewed so far; the actual total could be higher. It is the highest ever publicly reported in U.S. history. Federal law already makes it a crime — punishable by a year in jail — for noncitizens to vote. The law criminalizing it was signed by Bill Clinton in 1996. But the burden of verifying eligibility falls on the states, and the system clearly has gaps.
Trump is expected to use the address to push the SAVE America Act, which would require proof of citizenship and voter ID to register and cast a ballot in federal elections. The House has passed the bill. It is stalled in the Senate by a Democratic filibuster. Utah Sen. Mike Lee, the bill's champion, told the Deseret News that many Americans are "shocked to discover" proof of citizenship isn't already national policy. Lee added that the U.S. "should not have a less secure voting system than Bulgaria or Bangladesh." Trump recently said he will not sign any legislation — bipartisan or otherwise — until the Senate passes it.
The White House is keeping the speech's full contents under wraps. Press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters Thursday that the address will center on election security and that what the president reveals "will shock you." She pushed back on an NBC reporter who asked why Trump won't let 2020 go, saying the media "has refused to acknowledge that tens of millions of Americans across the country share the concerns of this president about the sanctity of our elections." Leavitt also said directly she hopes CBS carries the speech.
They may not — at least not on broadcast. Deadline reported that ABC and NBC will carry the address only on their streaming platforms, not their broadcast networks. CBS had not announced plans as of Thursday afternoon. The broadcast networks carried Trump's April address on the Iran war but did not carry his July 4 speech on the National Mall. Deadline framed the decision as a dilemma, noting the speech could include "unsubstantiated and unfounded claims" about 2020 and referencing the January 6 Capitol breach and the Dominion lawsuit settlement with Fox News. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries called the whole exercise a "conspiracy theory" and suggested Trump "needs to be checked out."
The Deseret News noted that no court has upheld claims the 2020 election was rigged and no audit has found widespread fraud. That is the establishment's refrain. But 278,000 noncitizens on voter rolls is not a conspiracy theory — it is a DHS finding. The question of how many actually voted remains unanswered. And the Senate's refusal to require proof of citizenship to register tells you where the bipartisan establishment stands on who gets access to the ballot.
The speech airs at 9 p.m. EDT on the White House website and YouTube channel. Whether the networks show up is their call. Whether the Senate acts on the SAVE America Act is the open question that will determine if anything changes.
