Fontes calls Trump’s primetime election claims a ‘fantasyland,’ remains confident in infrastructure

After President Donald Trump announced he was declassifying files that detailed election interference and influence in a primetime address Thursday, Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes called for examples of the president’s claims being true.

“The problem we have here is one individual’s undying grievance and his incapacity to get past 2020,” Fontes told KTAR News 92.3 FM’s Arizona’s Evening News Thursday. “It’s dragging the entire nation through this fantasyland of allegations that just have no basis in fact. All I need is facts.

“This question of voters who aren’t eligible to vote, show me the names. We’ll take them off the rolls, we’ll investigate, make sure they’re not out (voting). Just show me the names.”

 

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Trump in a primetime address pushed election insecurity as the reason Congress needed to pass the SAVE America Act, a strict bill that would require voters to show proof of citizenship to obtain a voter ID.

He claimed China had gained access to personal information about hundreds of millions of registered voters, saying it was “believed to be the largest compromise of election data in history.”

Fontes noted that Trump slashed the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) program that protected against interference before trying to “ride in sort of on a white horse and pretend like you care.”

“It was this president who eviscerated CISA and its funding,” Fontes said. “By the way, CISA provided free to all of our counties a physical security agent and a cybersecurity agent that not only did assessments of their systems, but also recommended and helped find them resources to take care of these systems.”

The president also attacked the validity of mail-in ballots, the usage of which would be greatly hindered by the SAVE America Act passing.

“Hopefully, there will be no corrupt mail-in ballots, which if you watched California and so many other places, mail-in ballots are inherently corrupt,” Trump said. “So you would have no mail-in ballots except for illness, disability, military deployment or travel, if you’re going away on business or vacation.”

Fontes pointed out part of what makes the proposal so strict is how it impacts married women whose last names no longer match the one on their birth certificate, as well as tribal members who wouldn’t be able to use their tribal IDs.

“When it comes to ballot by mail, 85% of our voters vote by mail and because of programs we created like Ballot Trax … you actually get live updates of where your ballot is in the process,” Fontes said. “That’s transparency. It’s peace of mind, it’s accountability and it’s security.

“We’ve got these systems built in to make folks confident in their elections and all we get out of Washington, D.C., is this grievance and … unfounded accusations about systems that we trust and work well and have worked well in Arizona.”

A Republican-controlled Arizona Legislature first passed modern mail-in voting in 1991, and it was signed into law by a Republican governor.

As Trump plants seeds of doubt in election integrity ahead of the midterms, what makes Fontes so confident in its trustworthiness?

“I believe in the people who actually run our elections — the retired teachers, the veterans, the folks that are checking voters’ IDs at the polling places on Election Day. … I believe in them. They’re the ones making it happen,” he said. “Our fellow Americans — Democrats, Republicans, Independents — all coming together to do this thing that we’ve done through civil wars, through pandemics, we’ve done it through national disasters across the country.

“The American grip and determination to make our elections happen is epic and it’s a story that should be told. That’s why I think our elections are going to be fine; because I know these folks. I believe in them just like I believe in the United States of America.”

Arizona’s primary Election Day is Tuesday, July 21.

Reaction to Trump’s election claims from other Arizona leaders

Arizona U.S. Sen. Mark Kelly called Trump’s address an effort to distract from other issues the administration is dealing with.

Trump promised to lower costs, and prices keep going up. He promised no new wars, and now Americans are stuck in a war he started.

Trump keeps going back to 2020 because he wants a distraction from how he’s failing.

— Senator Mark Kelly (@SenMarkKelly) July 17, 2026

If Trump wins, it’s a fair election. If he loses, there was fraud. Does he realize the election he’s talking about happened under his watch as President? The only reason Trump is bringing this up now is to distract from the fact he’s failed to make Americans' lives better.

— Captain Mark Kelly (@CaptMarkKelly) July 17, 2026

Arizona U.S. Rep. Greg Stanton called it a tired act from Trump.

Trump is pushing the same Big Lie he's sold for years.

Old declassified info or a primetime address doesn’t make his claims any more credible. Courts, audits, and recounts have all rejected them again and again.

This is a deliberate strategy to undermine faith in our elections…

— Rep. Greg Stanton (@RepGregStanton) July 17, 2026

His fellow U.S. Rep. Yassamin Ansari shared a video calling it the president’s “dumbest speech yet,” also calling it “dangerous.”

Dumbest speech of all time. pic.twitter.com/QbWfIHLwMe

— Congresswoman Yassamin Ansari (@RepYassAnsari) July 17, 2026

She also brought up the 25th Amendment, which deals with presidential incapacity.

How can anyone deny the urgency of the 25th Amendment at this point https://t.co/hZtuyzNBA9

— Congresswoman Yassamin Ansari (@RepYassAnsari) July 17, 2026

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