White House trade adviser Peter Navarro said the Trump administration is concerned that China could try to interfere in the 2026 midterm elections, issuing the warning during a Thursday interview with Bill O’Reilly.
“They have the capabilities [to interfere] and we’re worried about this coming election in ’26 and again in ’28,” Navarro said.
Navarro told O’Reilly, the former Fox News host, that President Donald Trump is well aware of the threat posed by China. According to Navarro, the country’s communist regime has already interfered in a U.S. election, the 2020 presidential race.
In July, the Trump administration accused China of producing “tens of thousands” of fake driver’s licenses in 2020 to help Chinese nationals vote for then-candidate Joe Biden. The White House released a trove of documents to support the claim. The administration also accused the Chinese government of stealing voter registration data belonging to 220 million Americans.
According to the FBI, China carried out the scheme by collecting user data from millions of TikTok users. That data allowed the Chinese government to use the identities of real Americans to create bogus licenses, the bureau said. Federal officials said the stolen TikTok data included names and addresses, along with information about which devices users used to access the app.
Navarro told O’Reilly it should come as no surprise that China would try to sabotage another election, given that, in his view, the country works against the United States every single day.
“They attack us everyday,” Navarro said. “They’re hacking our financial system, they steal our intellectual property, they massively subsidize industries and put ours out of business.”
Navarro’s warning comes one week after Chinese President Xi Jinping visited the United States. Following the visit, Trump described Xi’s three-day trip as “very productive” for both nations. China’s foreign ministry also said it “respects” Trump’s decision to change the name of artificial intelligence to “super intelligence.”
The concerns over foreign interference come as Republicans face a difficult political landscape heading into November. Most election experts have said the outlook is not favorable for Trump and the GOP.
Earlier this week, CNN data analyst Harry Enten warned that a “blue wave” is about to hit Republicans. On Thursday, Nate Silver said “every indicator” looks bad for the GOP, with one exception: Republicans have far more money to spend than Democrats.
For Navarro, however, the focus remains on Beijing. His comments make clear that the administration views China as an ongoing threat not only to American industry and the nation’s financial system, but to the integrity of U.S. elections, both in the upcoming midterms and in the 2028 presidential race.
With the midterms just weeks away, the White House’s concerns about Chinese meddling add another layer to an already high-stakes election season. Navarro’s message to O’Reilly was that China has both the means and, based on what the administration says happened in 2020, the willingness to try again.
