Friday, July 17, 2026

Trump spews unhinged election conspiracy theories in speech TV networks refused to air

 

Trump spews unhinged election conspiracy theories in speech TV networks refused to air

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/7/16/800070971/whitehouse/trump-spews-unhinged-election-conspiracy-theories-in-speech-tv-networks-refused-to-air/ 

Trump spews unhinged election conspiracy theories in speech TV networks refused to air

by Emily Singer
Staff
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President Donald Trump speaks in the East Room of the White House, Thursday, July 16, 2026, in Washington. (Saul Loeb/Pool via AP)
Donald Trump speaks in the East Room of the White House on July 16.AP

Donald Trump on Thursday gave a bizarre speech in which he battled a disgusting phlegmy throat to spread unhinged, impossible-to-follow conspiracy theories to claim that American elections are not secure—or something.

The hoarse egomaniac, who simply cannot accept that he lost to Joe Biden, rehashed already known intelligence and pointed Americans to review documents—many of which had already been public—to try to twist them to fit his deluded narrative that the 2020 election was not above board. 

Among his insane claims was that “deep state” members of his own administration “deliberately massaged the presidential daily briefing to withhold information regarding Chinese activities” in the 2020 election. Those activities, he said, involved China working against Trump and wanting to undermine him. 

He then said he had declassified documents to prove this. Yet the documents he declassified said that the Chinese government only took “low level exploratory steps to undermine” Trump, and that China didn’t follow through with a large-scale plan.  

“Trump’s shocking ‘bombshells’ about China are totally bogus,” Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA), vice chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, wrote in a post on X. “The fact is our intelligence agencies unanimously agreed that China did not even try to change a single vote in the 2020 election. A single concurring opinion suggested China may have tried to sway voters’ opinions… but that’s been public knowledge since 2021.”

In the speech, Trump also made up some bizarre accusations about “burn bags” that former President Barack Obama forgot to burn. Honestly, we can’t even explain it because it made zero sense.

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Trump: "Recently we found significant numbers of burn bags in formation. And this is a group of — bags that were used to destroy — information" pic.twitter.com/OhjlShZOsb— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) July 17, 2026

“Good thing about this speech is that it’s pretty easy to follow as long as you speak fucking lunatic,” Democratic strategist Jon Favreau wrote in a post on X—a perfect summation of Trump’s nonsensical speech.

After spewing his drivel, Trump then fed red meat to his base of sheep, saying that he is, “asking the office of the director of national intelligence, the Department of Justice, the FBI, and the CIA to investigate how and why such crucial information was hidden, to fire those involved in the cover-up, and to file criminal charges, if appropriate, against these people.”

And he urged Congress to pass the SAVE America Act—an idiotic piece of legislation that would require proof of citizenship to vote. 

Related | GOP fears Trump’s primetime rambling will make midterms even worse

“How easy is that to do?” Trump said of passing the legislation that does not have the votes to pass the Senate because even Republicans know it’s bad policy. “The only reason you wouldn’t do it is because you wanted to cheat.”

Shockingly, most major TV networks including NBC, ABC, and CNN refused to air the speech in full. And that left Trump enraged, threatening a “revocation of their licenses” for not spreading his lies. 

“They know how corrupt our system is, and they don’t want to reveal it,” Trump said of why the networks wouldn’t air his address. “They and others in the media are part of a plot, they want to continue this fraud for whatever reason, they want to keep it going, they want to protect the radical left.”

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Trump calls to shut down and remove ABC and NBC from the air because they aren't broadcasting his lie-filled speech pic.twitter.com/nmPOUzO3xA— Headquarters (@HQNewsNow) July 17, 2026

Indeed, Trump’s address was so insane that even Fox News sycophants didn’t cheer the speech, with host Sean Hannity saying only that,  “I’m sure anybody that cares about truth will want to do a deep dive into all of this.” Guess even Hannity is jittery after Fox News was forced to pay a $787 million settlement for spreading Trump’s voting machine lies after the 2020 contest.

And Tony Dokoupil, the anchor of CBS’ evening news that has been coopted by right-wing Trump supporters, used his airtime after the speech to question why Trump would deliver this address at all.

“So much is going on in the country, with prices, with war in Iran, with wildfire smoke—people can hardly breathe across multiple states at this hour—and the president is drawing the nation’s attention once again to this subject. Why?” Dokoupil said.

The “why” is because Trump cannot accept that he lost, and is laying the groundwork to question the validity of the 2026 midterms—which Republicans are likely to lose in a landslide.

It’s why Warner said Americans have to take this very unserious speech seriously.

“We gotta decide whether we can keep our republic. And if we simply blow this off as another Donald Trump rant, we do that at our own peril,” Warner said on MS NOW after Trump’s primetime temper tantrum.

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  1. Comment by Truth Will Out.

    The most disappointing part of the speech is that loser trump didn’t pull down his pants and start waving his schlong around. Nothing short of that will convince his culties that the man is a loser and has lost his last brick. Even that probably wouldn’t convince them all. They’d say, “Boy, he really owned them there.”

  2. Comment by Shotmaker.

    Fat ass trump is a fool! Get over it, you idiot! You lost by 7,000,000 votes. That is like losing the entire state of Georgia by not getting a single vote. You are a loser.

  3. Comment by jazzbone.

    He is desperate, and will do anything to save himself. Anything, including destroying the entire planet in a nuclear fit. Think it can't happen?

  4. Comment by Angel Of Fear.

    I'm with Favreau on this one, holy shit. Just reading it here makes you go wtf. Let's go through this bullshit piece by piece.

    "Among his insane claims was that “deep state” members of his own administration “deliberately massaged the presidential daily briefing to withhold information regarding Chinese activities” in the 2020 election. Those activities, he said, involved China working against Trump and wanting to undermine him. "

    And yet rump is all smiles and buddy buddy with xi on his recent trip to China. Dude, either he's your friend or enemy, pick one. I'm guessing rump doesn't truly believe this because ywe all know he would've skipped the trip if he actually thought China had something to do with it. And he accuses people *he* hired to work under him. Which tracks with how paranoid he is but I digress. His people were in charge of the DOJ, CIA, etc during his first term. If you don't trust people *you* hired, who do you trust? Dont answer that, we know rump would say himself.

    "After spewing his drivel, Trump then fed red meat to his base of sheep, saying that he is, “asking the office of the director of national intelligence, the Department of Justice, the FBI, and the CIA to investigate how and why such crucial information was hidden, to fire those involved in the cover-up, and to file criminal charges, if appropriate, against these people.”

    Again, who's people were in charge in 2017-2020? Thats right, rumps. Hes saying his own first term people were against him. Which again, makes zero fucking sense since he hired them/nominated them/etc.

    “How easy is that to do?” Trump said of passing the legislation that does not have the votes to pass the Senate because even Republicans know it’s bad policy. “The only reason you wouldn’t do it is because you wanted to cheat.”

    So hes saying rethuglicans are cheating against him here? Ok I guess.

    “They know how corrupt our system is, and they don’t want to reveal it,” Trump said of why the networks wouldn’t air his address. “They and others in the media are part of a plot, they want to continue this fraud for whatever reason, they want to keep it going, they want to protect the radical left.”

    Let's go along with the bullshit for a second here. The media stands to gain what exactly to keep up the so called plot? And why do democrats need protection by the media? The same media thats been metaphorically stabbing any democrat in the back that gains prominence and wants to work towards changing things? Hillary, Biden, Harris, AOC to name a few. Meanwhile barely mentioning rump/rethuglican atrocities and when they are mentioned, they're prefaced with timid headlines and milquetoast articles. Yeah, the media is "protecting" democrats.

    Like anyone who is sane predicted, more lies and insane bullshit.

  5. Comment by MDGluon16.

    Every accusation is an admission…..tRump and MAGA’s along with the supine sycophantic GrOPer party want to steal the midterm election and he is telegraphing this plan.

    Every honest politician and election worker should be getting ready to resist tRumps evolving plan to steal the elections.

  6. Comment by craig2030.

    Ha, I didn't watch it. I was watching Seinfeld on Netflix.

  7. Comment by dkosdan.

    Dominion vs Trump it should be then, with impeachment and conviction. “Mark my words.”—Mitch.

  8. Comment by KamikazeGerbil.

    Remember, every Trump accusation IS a confession !

    He's telling us he is going to rig the election !

  9. Comment by stickman009.

    Blanche, who was previously Trump’s personal lawyer and now serves as acting attorney general, has placed the interests of his former client above those of the country.

    It is yet another reason that senators of both parties should reject the president’s demand that Blanche be confirmed to lead the Department of Justice.

    • Reply by Dan K.

      My only problem with this comment is the use of the word "former."

  10. Comment by cmon.

    Burn bags?

    Ok, we know "every accusation is a confession" according to historical records about the felon. What about all those stolen docs? I wonder how many more docs were destroyed (in 'burn bags') between 2017-2021 and 2025-now. IIRC, there was quite a number of stories about the mishandling of docs during his first term.

    IMHO, this particular statement was really a confession.

    • Reply by Dan K.

      Like all the times he complained about how hard it was to flush toilets.

    • Reply by u4riah.

      He skips that difficult workout of flushing now and just uses diapers.

    • Reply by hissing kitty.

      Eeeewww.

      True, though.

  11. Comment by PalmTree.

    I’m seeing lots of Democratic representatives responding to Dump’s lunatic ramblings —this is GOOD. Stay on message and keep it up!!

  12. Comment by dadadata.

    Ooooooh. Big care. Taking FCC licenses away? The licenses are granted individually to over-the-air broadcast operations ONLY. Fox? Cable (with broadcast "affiliates"). CNN? Cable News Network. nd so on. Let's see - he could punish radio stations.

  13. Comment by SoTired103.

    Why is not being removed? It's so apparent.

  14. Comment by juliabliss.

    When you've lost Hannity ...

  15. Comment by Betty Lou.

    As predicted, a load of rambling incoherent conspiracy nonsense. What a bumbling embarrassment he is and to think he is the supposed leader of the free world. No wonder we're laughed at and felt sorry for when we have a man who acts like a petulant child when he doesn't get his way and refuses to accept that he is a loser! He lost the 2020 election whether he likes it or not and to top it all he's a convicted felon! A convicted felon holding the highest office in the land that is beyond disgusting and it should never have been allowed to happen because he should never have been allowed to run in the first place.

  16. Comment by pietroMG.

    Trump always enters a battle of wits unarmed and remains impervious to learning anything from it.* Sadly his intended audience has the same malady…

    “That which can be asserted without evidence can be dismissed without evidence…”

    Christopher Hitchens

    *variations variously attributed to Wilde, Twain, Groucho and others…

    • Reply by MDGluon16.

      And there is never any evidence…..unfortunately the MAGA-sphere believes very firmly that “absence of evidence is not evidence of absence”.

  17. Comment by Snow Bound.

    Serious mental illness on display. Trump's fragile psyche suffered serious harm when he lost the 2020 election. He has created a dillusional cause (the radical lunatic left) for that loss and he will spend the rest of his life lashing out at this dillusion.

  18. Comment by johnnykc.

    Trump's speech is just another indication that his dementia is getting worse. Paranoia is one of the symptoms, and Trump's speech largely showcased that.

  19. Comment by davedave.

    kind of social psychology experiment in real time.

    how far will a committed group follow someone who appears unarguably barking mad?

  20. Comment by Supremecourtjester.

    Let's release the Jack Smith report to see who stole the 2016 election.

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