Trump says Putin believes 2020 election was rigged – explains why

The president’s Alaska summit included an election integrity talk as Russian President Vladimir Putin gave a reason to support his position that the 2020 outcome was “rigged.”

(Video Credit: Fox News)

In recent days, declassified documents from the final months of President Barack Obama’s administration have found many clamoring for a reckoning over Russiagate. Friday, after meeting with Putin to talk peace with Ukraine, President Donald Trump piled on another reason to see the establishment adjudicated as the Russian leader faulted mail-in voting for the 2020 election outcome that he argued ultimately led to war.

Joining Fox News host Sean Hannity for a post-summit sit-down, the commander-in-chief followed up remarks about former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton considering nominating him for a Nobel Peace Prize by recounting, “Vladimir Putin said something — one of the most interesting things. He said, ‘Your election was rigged because you have mail-in voting.’”

Trump continued, “He said, ‘Mail-in voting, every election.’ He said, ‘No country has mail-in voting. It’s impossible to have mail-in voting and have honest elections.’ And he said that to me … because we talked about 2020. He said, ‘You won that election by so much.’”

The president further detailed how Putin was said to have told him, “If you would’ve won, we wouldn’t have had a war.”

Earlier in the interview, Hannity brought up how the Russian president had made that point during the joint news conference. As the host pressed for Putin’s justification on the matter, Trump expressed, “I know the reason — it’s gross incompetence. We have a border that’s totally closed now … We have many things that are going well now.”

HANNITY: The President of Russia said that this war would not have taken place if you were President…@POTUS: “I know the reason — it’s gross incompetence. We have a border that’s totally closed now… we have many things that are going well now.” pic.twitter.com/5ZOnWDQG4G

— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) August 16, 2025

While the chief executive went on to suggest that the American democratic republic can not be maintained if election integrity isn’t restored, going as far as to point to socialist New York state Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani’s lead in the New York City mayoral race, he also criticized the GOP for seemingly not wanting it “strongly enough.”

“They gotta want it strong,” he told Hannity of Republicans seeking election reform before lamenting the myriad opportunities bad actors had to interact with a mail-in ballot.

As the president spoke to matters pertaining to the 2020 election, details regarding the 2016 election and subsequent influences on Trump’s first administration continued to be made public, as recently declassified emails alleged that then-Director of National Intelligence James Clapper had overridden objections from then-National Security Agency Director Mike Rogers to advance the narrative that Putin had interfered.

In the emails, Clapper made the case that work in the intelligence community, and in particular on the project regarding advancing claims about Russian interference, was a “team sport.”

“It is essential that we (CIA/NSA/FBI/ODNI) be on the same page and are supportive of the report — in the highest tradition of ‘that’s OUR story, and we’re sticking to it,” wrote Clapper. “We will facilitate as much mutual transparency as possible as we complete the report, but more time is not negotiable. We may have to compromise on our ‘normal’ modalities, since we must do this on such a compressed schedule.”

Staff Writer

Native of Brooklyn, NY, Kevin Haggerty is a graduate of Hunter College where he studied Cultural Anthropology and Geography. An avid reader and truth seeker, he currently resides in Texas with his wife and their dog and, when he isn’t researching current events and their impacts, you’ll find him spending time with friends and family or working on his next novel.

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