Trump doubles down on claims the election was fraudulent

US president Donald Trump has accused Democrats and the media of trying to "steal" the presidential election as he doubled down on false claims that this month's election was fraudulent.

In a flurry of tweets – most of which were labelled as misinformation by Twitter – Mr Trump said: “The Radical Left Democrats, working with their partner, the Fake News Media, are trying to STEAL this Election. We won’t let them!”

In a follow-up tweet he claimed Democrats would “pack the courts – we won’t let that happen!”

It follows Mr Trump’s claim in a late-night tweet on Sunday that he “won the election”.

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US election: Trump administration continues to claim win

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Mr Trump's continuing defiance, more than a week after his Democratic opponent Joe Biden was declared the winner of the election, came as his national security adviser, Robert O'Brien, appeared to suggest that Mr Biden had won.

Speaking at the Soufan Centre’s Global Security Forum on Monday, Mr O’Brien said there would be a “peaceful transition” of power in the US.

"If there is a new administration they deserve some time to come in and implement their policies," he said. "We may have policy disagreements, but look, if the Biden-Harris ticket is determined to be the winner – and obviously things look that way now – we'll have a very professional transition from the National Security Council. "

He was speaking amid reports that the Trump administration could announce the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan and Iraq by mid-January despite fears that the move could be premature.

Mr Trump fired defence secretary Mark Esper last week and has made several personnel changes at the Pentagon.

Lawsuits 

The Trump campaign has launched several lawsuits in an attempt to overturn the outcome of this month's presidential election, but on Monday four suits in Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, filed by Republican supporters, were dropped.

The Trump campaign also refiled a Pennsylvania lawsuit, which no longer argues that poll-watchers were illegally prevented from observing the vote count.

On Monday the Trump campaign lodged an appeal to a case in Michigan they lost last week.

Yet while the president shows no sign of conceding to Mr Biden, several Republicans who were involved in the Florida recount during the 2000 presidential election contest between Al Gore and George W Bush election, disputed the president's claims that he had somehow "won" the election.

Benjamin Ginsberg,  the national counsel for Mr Bush's 2000 campaign, said that Mr Trump's team were "sorely lacking in specificity".

Similarly, Ted Olson, the lead attorney for Mr Bush in the US Supreme Court case said the election was now "over".

Demonstrations

Mr Trump, who appears to have been galvanised by Saturday's demonstrations in Washington DC which saw thousands of supporters descend on the capital, spent Monday at the White House, and has had very few meetings on his public schedule.

He welcomed the strong performance by the stock market on Monday on the news that a new vaccine by Moderna had a 94.5 per cent success rate.

Nonetheless, America’s coronavirus numbers are continuing to rise, reaching a new daily high of over 180,000 reported cases on Friday.

Several states have reimposed restrictions in a bid to combat the spread of the virus, including Michigan and Washington state.

Illinois’s governor has also warned that residents may have to shelter in place if current trends continued.