President Donald Trump said his address to the Nation on July 16 was about building public confidence in American elections.
He said, “You have to trust your country because, if there can be no trust, there can be no greatness. … Every American deserves to know that, when they cast their vote, that vote will be counted accurately in a system, and that is to make that system secure.” He then continued, “Unfortunately, the system we have today falls catastrophically short of that standard. Tonight, I’m announcing the immediate declassification and release of critical intelligence, revealing shocking vulnerabilities in our election infrastructure.” Later in the speech he urges the adoption of the “Save America Act” as the way to secure the results of elections.
My first response to the assertion, “you have to trust your country,” is suspicion. Whenever I hear the words, “trust me,” I wonder what it is about the situation that might not be worthy of my trust. In this case, it may be the dilemma evident in Trump’s two statements: “trust” the greatness of the country and at the same time trust his word that our election infrastructure contains “shocking vulnerabilities.”
To shake free of the dilemma, trust must be suspended while exploring the veracity of each of the assertions. If trust in our country is valid then one cannot trust the claims of the existence of “shocking vulnerabilities” in the country. However, if there really are “shocking vulnerabilities” in our country’s voting system, then it is not possible to trust the country’s administration.
The President contradicts his affirmation of trust in the country by talking about the ways our country election system has betrayed its citizens, including the failure of voting machines. The American voting system is “left vulnerable to being rigged and stolen” by his political enemies. He claims his evidence is in declassified documents. However, John Solomon, who is leading Trump’s task force on declassifying documents on a range of issues, told reporters outside the White House that the intelligence community documents show no evidence that votes in election machines were changed in the past three elections.
Trump also accused China of the “illicit acquisition of 220 million US voter files” in an effort to undermine him. The reality is, in 2024, there were only about 173 million people registered to vote in the United States. That means China has accomplished the impossible, acquiring more voter files than there are registered voters! This inaccuracy hardly builds public trust in Trump’s word.
His solution to this China problem is to support the Save America Act, which passed the House in February. Upon examination, if there really is a China problem, this act will not solve it. It would require Americans to prove their citizenship, such as showing a passport or a birth certificate and matching photo identification when they register and it would be required to show photo identification to vote.
The Southern Poverty Law Center reports that New Hampshire is one of at least 17 states that have “enacted voter registration restrictions.” Also, the Save America Act would require states to share their voter rolls with the Department of Homeland Security. None of these actions would solve China’s alleged “acquisition of 220 million US voter files.” What we have with the Save America Act is a Trump scheme to discredit past election results and make casting a vote as difficult as possible, thereby gaining control over who is allowed to vote.
Thus, the answer to the which of the horns of the dilemma concerning what and whom to trust is clear. The choice falls on the side of a solid, open and fair election process. There is no evidence that the election system is flawed. It needs only the continued attention of skilled state election officials and national attention to any attempts to interfere with the election process by other governments.
The other horn of the dilemma is the side of misinformation and confused reasoning seeking to strike fear and distrust of the election process. The choice is obvious. The election system is not broken. There is no need to plead “trust me.” The U.S. election process serves us well.
John Buttrick writes from his Vermont Folk Rocker in his Concord home, Minds Crossing. He can be reached at johndbuttrick@gmail.com.