Trump falsely claims he has won election and demands Supreme Court stops more ballots being counted

A winner may not be known until later this week as president signals court fight is coming

Donald Trump prematurely declared victory in his fight for a second term against former Vice President Joe Biden, saying he is poised to ask the Supreme Court to halt all vote-counting even as ballots remain untallied.  

“Millions of people voted for us tonight. A very sad group of people is trying to disenfranchise that group of people,” the president said from the East Room of the White House. “And we won’t stand for it.”

“Frankly, we did win this election,” Mr Trump said to cheering supporters.

“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,” Mr Trump added. “We don’t want them finding any ballots at four in the morning and adding them to the list.”

He spoke after Mr Biden told his own supporters he is “on track” to become the 46th president – although he did not declare victory or signal a high court fight.

“We feel good about where we are, we really do,” Mr Biden said in Wilmington, Delaware. “I’m here to tell you tonight we believe we're on track to win this election.”

Mr Biden led at 2.44am eastern time with 225 Electoral College votes, compared to 213 for the president, according to data from the Associated Press. 

But several crucial battlegrounds remained in limbo, including Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin and Arizona. Add to that list traditionally Republican Georgia and swing state Arizona, which Mr Trump won in 2016.

The president used terms like “they can’t catch us” and “impossible” to describe his leads in states like North Carolina and Georgia.

"We’ve clearly won North Carolina," he said. “Results tonight have been phenomenal.”

Legal and political analysts, however, say he might not have the legal ground to stop all vote-counting.

He had been expected to pursue a freeze only on counting mass mail-in ballots. His team still might, but judges could use his words to gauge his intent, especially since he questioned why vote-tallying was halted in places he is leading.