Donald Trump claims 'fraud on the American public' and falsely states: 'We did win this election'

President Donald Trump has told the nation that he believes he has "won" the election, and that the American people have been the victims of "fraud".

Speaking from the East Wing of the White House, Trump opened the early morning press conference on November 4 by joking:  "This is without question the latest news conference I've ever had."

He then shifted to a more serious tone, telling the nation: "I want to thank the American people for their tremendous support.

"Millions and millions of people voted for us tonight. And a very sad group of people is trying to disenfranchise that group of people, and we won’t stand for it."

Trump, 74, continued: "We were getting ready for a big celebration [...] and all of a sudden it was all gone."

Per The Guardian, Trump then went on to eagerly declare victory in battleground states that remain too close to call and are yet to be determined, such as Georgia and North Carolina.

Referring to the Democrats, Trump said: "They knew they couldn't win, so they said: 'Let's go to court'."

The POTUS then stated that his party and the American people had been the victims of fraud, and that he intends to involve the US Supreme Court.

"This is a fraud on the American public," Trump said. "This is an embarrassment to our country. We were getting ready to win this election. Frankly, we did win this election."

Trump added: "This is a major fraud on our nation. We want the law to be used in a proper manner. So we'll be going to the US Supreme Court. We want all voting to stop. We don't want them to find any ballots at four o'clock in the morning.

CBS News reports that it is still unclear what exactly Trump means by these comments.

"It's a very sad moment. To me, this is a very sad moment.

"And we will win this. And to me, we already have."

Trump then thanked his supporters once again.

Prior to his address, Trump took to Twitter to declare to his 87.6 million followers that the election was being "stolen".

Trump tweeted: "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 would go on to put a warning on Trump's tweet, which read: "Some or all of the content shared in this Tweet is disputed and might be misleading about an election or other civic process."

Twitter's flag on the President's tweet linked out to a page to "learn about US 2020 election security efforts".