Thursday night’s self-ballyhooed presidential address was the same old Donald Trump. Six years on, he still refuses to accept the clear and unambiguous fact that he lost the 2020 election. Thursday’s speech was the same desperate claims — this time from the East Room in the White House. No wonder almost every respectable network refused to carry it, with CBS — now owned by his enablers the Ellisons — a notable exception.
Pay close attention: Trump didn’t claim that there was any actual interference in voting or election results. At no point did Trump say or point to any evidence that a single vote was changed or altered. Indeed, even White House conspiracy theorist John Solomon admitted as much to reporters afterwards. That’s because it did not happen. Audits, recounts, certifications, federal investigations, and more than 80 judges, including those appointed by Trump himself, have all uniformly rejected his attacks on the 2020 election.
What we got instead on Thursday was a rehash of four myths, all of which fall apart on close examination.
Myth: Purported Vulnerabilities in Electronic Voting and Ballot-Counting Systems
Trump spoke broadly about vulnerabilities in voting machines, but he did not say there is evidence that voting machines or votes were breached. And that’s because they weren’t. He wants to scare you with the hypothetical, but truth is that our election officials put safeguards in place to minimize any vulnerabilities. Their dedicated work and vigilance ensure our elections work as intended, protected from technological exploitation.
Myth: China’s Acquisition of American Voter Data
This is a scare tactic. Trump made wild claims about the compromise of election data, but let’s be clear: He did not say that votes were exploited or compromised. The voter registration data he is in a twist about actually consists of basic and publicly available data such as names and addresses — far less personal information than what the average American shares when ordering clothes on Temu.
Myth: Michigan Voter-Registration Investigation
Again, there was zero evidence of voting fraud here. Trump didn’t point to any and can’t. Though there were isolated cases of irregularities in registration, local election officials flagged them in real time. Our elections systems worked as intended to unearth them. This is a backhanded endorsement, not a critique.
Myth: Noncitizens on State Voter Rolls
Trump has made these wild claims of folks improperly registering over and over again using baseless allegations and wrong lists, such as the error-ridden and oft-abused Department of Homeland Security SAVE databases. The truth is that Americans follow voter registration laws and cast ballots in good faith, as we documented in our Democracy Defenders Action report with LULAC on The Big Lie.
Then there was the avalanche of documents Trump said would prove him right. They did just the opposite. For example, they show Russia, not China, was working to interfere in the 2020 election — to help Trump! If all of this is the best he and the election deniers have, they are in trouble.
Thursday was a flop — a predictable one. One of us (Norm) was asked by cable TV to do a curtain raiser for the speech. The forecast was for a comically loony mish-mash along the lines of other famous conspiracy theories, and boy did Trump deliver:
Trump lost in 2020. This will remain true no matter how many pieces of bogus evidence he invents or floats. The truth is Trump and his fellow election deniers are not just trying to prove bizarre counterfactuals about prior elections. They’re trying to fool us into doubting the next one.
But we will not let that happen. And with your help, Contrarians, we will call them out on their actions. In America, leaders do not choose their voters; voters choose their leaders. The American people will not let Trump and his cronies take our vote or our voice.
Thanks to you, we stand ready for whatever Trump and his administration may throw at us next. Your paid subscriptions help make our Democracy Defenders Fund and Action election protection work possible and also help power the rest of our over 300 legal cases and matters. If you’re not a paid subscriber, please consider becoming one.
And of course, your paid support also makes possible our phenomenal daily democracy coverage. Take a look at the best of the Contrarian this week, assembled by our wonderful colleagues:
Dept. of Injustice
Trump’s Cronyism Signals a Chilling — and Familiar — Story
Brian Tyler Cohen analyzed how Trump’s corruption is following an all-too-familiar global playbook — Putin’s — and what we need to do to step out of Russia’s post-Soviet footsteps. “If the next Democratic administration doesn’t take note and prosecute the criminals of today to the fullest extent of the law, then that criminality is doomed to repeat itself.”
Global Black Economic Forum President Alphonso David joined April Ryan to talk about Lindsey Graham’s Senate replacement, Trump’s renewed attacks on Georgia’s senators, and what a Todd Blanche DOJ would mean for minority and underserved communities.
Trump DOJ’s NYT Subpoenas Are the Latest Encroachment on Press Freedom
Josh Levs wrote on the latest moves of an administration actively hostile to a free press and how coverage has fallen short by ignoring the history of reporter subpoenas. “It’s crucial information because it shows the media’s successful track record in fighting back.”
Trump’s Lawyers Should Be Sanctioned
Erwin Chemerinsky argued — apropos of a federal judge shutting down Trump’s outrageous IRS lawsuit this week — that all lawyers complicit in Trump’s abuses of power should expect repercussions for egregious misconduct. “Abuses of the legal system, even at the direction of the president, are unacceptable.”
Voting & Candidates
Who Will Replace Graham Platner in Maine?
Tim Dickinson wrote on the slow-then-fast fall of former progressive darling Graham Platner and the newly restarted race to challenge Susan Collins in one of the most important contests of 2026. “Two things are increasingly clear. Democrats dodged a major bullet in Platner. And as Maine goes — so goes the Senate in 2026.”
Diamond Brown and Amelia Letson wrote on how voter suppression tactics target young voter participation in the wake of Louisiana v. Callais and a slew of other Republican efforts to limit who is going to the polls. “These tactics do not operate in isolation.”
The Next Generation Rises
This week, The Contrarian spoke with several of the candidates working to turn the House blue this November: former federal scientist Kristin Hook in Texas’ 21st District; Matt Maasdam in Michigan’s 7th District, hoping to be the first Democratic Navy SEAL in Congress; and San Diego City Council and former Peace Corps member Marni von Wilpert in California’s 48th District.
The Global View
Lindsey Graham and the Limits of the Warhawk Imagination
Brian O’Neill wrote on Graham as one of Washington’s last unapologetic hawks and how “his death offers an opportunity to examine a worldview that dominated both political parties after the Cold War and survived … long after its underlying assumptions had ceased to match reality.”
Renewed Strikes on Iran, June Jobs Report, and AI’s Impact on the Workforce
On the podcast this week, economists Jared Bernstein and Aya Ibrahim looked at how the economy is processing new violence in Iran and more.
‘Aramco Is a Supervillain’: How the Saudis Weaponized Soccer
Sammy Roth wrote on Saudi Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s master plan to culture-wash Saudi Arabia — and how the irony of the World Cup’s sponsorship by oil-state companies is hard to ignore as the climate crisis affects players in real time. “For all their talk of diversification, the Saudis plan to pump oil for a long time.”
Fighting back
In this week’s Undaunted column, Jen Rubin celebrated the Epstein survivors and others tenaciously confronting acting Attorney General Todd Blanche during his confirmation hearings. “Survivor Dani Bensky’s gut-wrenching testimony put the blame directly on Blanche for releasing victims’ names and images.”
Create ‘Good Trouble’ and Fight Street-Camera Surveillance
In this week’s Calls to Action, we highlighted ongoing Freedom Summer events (including a large rally in Atlanta Saturday afternoon), ways to demand accountability from ICE in the wake of the killing of Joan Sebastian Guerrero, a new way to oppose street-camera surveillance, and more.
The Contrarian Covers the Democracy Movement
This week, we saw protests over ICE deaths in Houston and Maine, protests against AI data centers, and more events in North Carolina, Delaware, Wisconsin, Colorado, and elsewhere. Get help organizing from Indivisible, find protests in your area at mobilize.us, and send us your protest photos at submit@contrariannews.org.
Culture, Cartoons & Fun Stuff
This week, our cartoonists took on string pulling (Puppet Show, Nick Anderson; Operating at Arm’s Length, Michael de Adder), paper shredding (Redacted, RJ Matson), and yarn spinning (Tom the Dancing Bug, “Stigmatized!”; Digging Up Evidence, Michael de Adder).
Why the Paramount-Warner Bros. Merger Should Scare Film and TV Lovers
Meredith Blake wrote on what’s at stake as 12 states sue to block the $110 billion merger that would bring two of Hollywood’s biggest studios under the control of Trump allies. It’s “something that should trouble anyone who cares about movies, TV, and American popular culture.”
This Chickpea Pasta Just Solved Airline Enshittification
Lol, not really, writes Emily Beyda. But she’s hoping it will make her 10-hour flight home more bearable (and it might work for your next trip, too!).
Last but never least: meet Duke!
I'm sorry you felt you had to watch this guy blather. My sanity is kept intact by avoiding all sight and sound of him.
Right. But I'm still not happy with how Dems rolled over in 2024 and conducted ZERO challenges or investigations. Not even 2-3 close states? No investigations into claims of Elon's involvement, whether BS or not, but NOTHING out of the Dems! Seemed like the same-old knife-to-a-gun-fight. The Dems need to get some fire in their belly or they can take a walk, we'll look for people who have it.