Trump issues ominous warning as looming recession threatens to cost him 2020 election: 'I always find a way to win'

Outburst comes at end of week in which US president mused about staying in office for 14 years

Donald Trump has issued an ominous warning to his opponents amid mounting speculation a looming recession could cost him the 2020 presidential election, saying "I always find a way to win".

Reviving his repeated attacks on media outlets which write stories that reflect negatively on his administration, the president sought to dismiss growing fears over the US economy and suggested - without providing any evidence - that journalists were colluding with his political opponents to mislead the public.

"The Economy is strong and good, whereas the rest of the world is not doing so well," he said in an early morning tweet.

"Despite this the Fake News Media, together with their Partner, the Democrat Party, are working overtime to convince people that we are in, or will soon be going into, a Recession.

"They are willing to lose their wealth, or a big part of it, just for the possibility of winning the Election. But it won’t work because I always find a way to win, especially for the people! The greatest political movement in the history of our Country will have another big win in 2020!"

It comes after a week in which the president's rhetoric lurched further towards quasi-authoritarianism, which included him talking about serving "14 more years" in the White House.

In a series of outrageous and increasingly erratic outbursts, the 73-year-old attacked any Jews who vote Democrat instead of Republican as "disloyal" to Israel and threatened to rip up part of the constitution in order to rescind birthright citizenship.

In the 2016 presidential election, the Trump campaign demonstrated its willingness to break norms in order to win when it knowingly benefited from illegal interference by Russia.

Although Robert Mueller's probe into Moscow's election meddling found insufficient evidence the campaign "conspired with the Russian government", it concluded members of Mr Trump's circle welcomed the benefits of the Kremlin's "sweeping and systematic" interference.

At the approach of the vote, Mr Trump regularly threatened to not accept the results of the election should he have lost to his Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton, whom he suggested would be jailed if he took office.

Mr Trump has tied his re-election to the success of the economy like few other presidents, and while it continues to outperform most other developed nations, economists say there are reasons to worry.

Growth is slowing, stock markets have swung wildly in recent weeks on recession fears, and the housing and manufacturing sectors are stalling.

A new survey on Monday showed a big majority of economists expecting a downturn to hit by 2021 at the latest, according to a report from the National Association of Business Economics.

Despite Mr Trump's claims to the contrary, his approval ratings continue to stagnate, with a new AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research finding more than six in 10 Americans disapprove of his job performance.