Trump alleges vast conspiracy to commit and cover up election fraud

President Trump cast American elections as under siege Thursday night, describing a system riddled with vulnerabilities that hostile foreign actors and unauthorized immigrants are exploiting.Driving the news: Trump's dark, foreboding 25-minute address from the East Room of the White House served two main purposes:Build support for his SAVE America Act, which would require proof of citizenship for voter registration and is stalled in the Senate.And return to a topic that fixates him perhaps more than any other: The 2020 election, which he lost to Joe Biden.Four takeaways from Trump's primetime speech:The bogeymen: China and the Deep StateTrump, citing newly released "raw" intelligence, claimed that China carried out "the largest compromise of election data in history" during the 2020 election — obtaining 220 million U.S. voter files (there weren't quite that many registered voters in the U.S. then) and creating "ballots for Biden."One catch: Voter rolls listing names and addresses are readily available in nearly every state.

Some even post them online to promote transparency. Having such information isn't akin to affecting an election.Trump also accused the intelligence community — the "Deep State" — of withholding documents describing China's activities from him when he was in his first term as president.But many of those documents, which the White House posted online during the speech, are more circumspect in outlining China's role than Trump claimed. "Raw" intelligence isn't the same as vetted intelligence.

And in blaming the intel community of 2020, he excused his own administration — presumably including current CIA director John Ratcliffe, who was DNI director at the time — from catching what he now calls a huge threat.Trump's remarks contrasted with an Intelligence Community Assessment that found "no indications" of foreign interference that altered "any technical aspect of the voting process in the 2020 U.S. elections, including voter registration, casting ballots, vote tabulation, or reporting results." 2. Unauthorized immigrants on voting rolls Trump claimed that a total of some 278,000 unauthorized immigrants were on the voting rolls in several key battleground states, and said an ongoing Department of Homeland Security review of voter rolls would show the national total to be much higher.He didn't present evidence that any of those alleged voters…

President Trump alleged Thursday that U.S. intelligence agencies covered up information about alleged Chinese efforts to influence the 2020 U.S. election.Why it matters: The document release is likely to renew scrutiny of Trump's claims about foreign interference in the U.S.

election and the government's past intelligence assessments.The documents release allege that foreign adversaries — including Russia, China and Iran — were viewed as real threats to U.S. elections.Reality check: Multiple released documents say large-scale manipulation of U.S. voting systems would be difficult to accomplish without detection.The White House released four batches of documents — including ones about voting vulnerabilities, China, Michigan and "noncitizen voter rolls" — as part of a broader White House website rollout.The first batch of documents related to alleged election interference is embedded below.

Go deeper: Trump alleges vast conspiracy to commit and cover up election fraud President Trump alleged during a White House address Thursday that China interfered in the 2020 election and that U.S. intelligence agencies covered it up.Why it matters: Trump is reopening a politically charged debate over China's role in the 2020 election while directly challenging U.S.