President Donald Trump announced Monday that he will deliver a “Speech to the Nation” on Thursday evening, though details of exactly what he’ll discuss remain unclear.
Such addresses are relatively uncommon and are usually reserved for big, nation-defining moments, though Trump has held several since returning to the White House last year. Last December, Trump delivered a year-end address that recapped his second-term Administration’s achievements to that point. Then in April, the President gave another primetime speech, this time focused on developments in the U.S.’s war with Iran.
The White House did not immediately respond to TIME’s request for comment on what the latest speech, scheduled for 9 p.m. ET, would cover, but multiple reports have hinted at the issues the President may touch on.
Discussing the war with Iran
Trump’s announcement of a speech comes hours after he declared that he would reinstate a U.S. naval blockade on Iran, and that Washington will impose a 20% fee on cargo transiting the Strait of Hormuz. The blockade was first introduced in April and removed after Washington and Tehran reached an interim agreement in June.
Both nations have resumed trading fire, and the U.S. President said an April cease-fire has ended as the hostilities have eroded an interim agreement toward peace.
Trump has struggled to find an off-ramp for the war, which has been steadily unpopular among Americans. Last week, he formally notified lawmakers that the U.S. is resuming war with Iran.
Axios reported that an unnamed senior adviser expects Trump’s Thursday primetime speech to be a “potpourri” about topics he deems important but that the Iran war will be one of the discussion points. “It’s changing by the minute, but it’s something he wants to address,” the adviser told the outlet.
Focusing on elections
Elections are also reportedly going to be another point of discussion. Reuters reported, citing an unnamed Administration official, that Trump will speak about newly declassified intelligence on investigations into U.S. elections and what the White House claims are risks related to voting machines.
MS NOW first reported on the speech’s planned content, citing two anonymized White House officials.
Trump, who lost to Joe Biden in 2020, has repeatedly claimed without evidence that that year’s election and other elections in the country have been rigged. The President has continued to promote conspiracy theories even as his own Justice Department, lawsuits, and independent studies have failed to find evidence of significant anomalies.
As part of his campaign against alleged voter fraud, Trump has pushed Congress to pass the SAVE America Act, which would mainly require voters to provide proof of citizenship and photo identification to cast ballots in federal elections.
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