‘We’ve already won it’: Donald Trump claims victory but will take election result to Supreme Court

Mr Trump has claimed that his voters are being “disenfranchised”.

Speaking at the White House he said: “Millions and millions of people voted for us tonight.

“A very sad group of people is trying to disenfranchise that group of people and we won’t stand for it. We will not stand for it.”

In a White House statement, he said: “We were getting ready for a big celebration tonight, we were winning everything and all of a sudden it was just called off.

“We were just all set to get outside and just celebrate something that was so beautiful, so good, such a vote, such a success.

“The citizens of this country have come out in record numbers, this is a record, there’s never been anything like it, to support our incredible movement.”

He said “it’s also clear that we have won Georgia”, adding: “We’re up by 2.5% or 117,000 votes with only 7% left – they’re never going to catch us, they can’t catch us.”

He said he has “clearly won” North Carolina and claimed there is “a lot of life” left in the Arizona race but conceded it is possible he may not win the typically Republican-backing state.

The president said: “This is a fraud on the American public, this is an embarrassment to our country.

“We were getting ready to win this election – frankly we did win this election.

“So our goal now is to ensure the integrity for the good of this nation. This is a very big moment.

“This is a major fraud on our nation.

“We want the law to be used in a proper manner. So we will be going to the US Supreme Court, we want all voting to stop.

“We don’t want them to find any ballots at 4am and add them to the list.”

Mr Trump has hailed a “big win” and accused his opponents of “trying to steal the election”, while Joe Biden has stressed the tight race is not over and that his campaign for the presidency is still “on track” for victory.

In a nail-biting contest that is still too close to call, the Republican incumbent made big gains with results better than polling had anticipated and wins in the fiercely-contested bellwether states of Florida and Ohio.

But most swing states are yet to be announced and his Democratic challenger still had a route to win the White House, with early votes putting him ahead in Arizona, where a victory would be a major coup in the former Republican stronghold.

Despite the uphill battle, Mr Biden took to a stage in Delaware to say “we’re feeling good about where we are”, while hoping for gains in swing states yet to be called, including Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania.

“I’m here to tell you tonight, we believe we’re on track to win this election,” he told supporters.

“We knew because of the unprecedented early vote, the mail-in vote, that it’s going to take a while, we’re going to have to be patient.

“It ain’t over until every vote is counted, every ballot is counted.”

But moments later Mr Trump tweeted to repeat his unsubstantiated claim that his opponents are trying to “steal” the election after a divisive race that has been overshadowed by the coronavirus pandemic.

“A big WIN!” Mr Trump wrote, promising a further statement.

“We are up BIG, but they are trying to STEAL the Election. We will never let them do it. Votes cannot be cast after the Polls are closed!”

Twitter quickly placed a warning on the tweet to say his claim is “disputed”, with the social media giant telling users he was making a “potentially misleading claim” about the election.