Donald Trump is winning the presidential election in most states, says Donald Trump

Mr Trump made the claim despite the majority of national polls showing that Ms Clinton holds a commanding lead

Brian Blanco/Getty

Donald Trump is winning the race to the White House, so says Mr Trump, in spite of the majority of national polls that suggest otherwise.

Fact-checkers have their work cut out for them this election season, as Mr Trump has consistently lied on the trail – from his assertion that Mexico is sending rapists and criminals into the US to his continued insistence that he never supported the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

But the Trump campaign has suffered in polling beginning with the Republican candidate’s lackluster performance in the first debate against his opponent, Hillary Clinton. His favourability has only fallen since the release of the 2005 video that captured Mr Trump bragging about groping and kissing women without their consent, as well as the subsequent sexual assault allegations from about a dozen different women.

Obstacles notwithstanding, the New York businessman holds a commanding lead over Ms Clinton, Mr Trump said.

“I actually think we’re winning,” he told CNN on Wednesday. “I don’t even think it’s a question of we’re going to try and win. You start looking at the polls, what’s happening, and more importantly start looking at all the people going to vote and sending in their ballots.

“We’re way ahead on virtually every state and every area, and I think we’re going to have a great victory.”

His statement echoed a claim he made at a Florida rally on Monday.

“We’re up in Ohio, we’re up in Iowa. We’re doing great in North Carolina,” he said, citing the Investor’s Business Daily poll. “I think we’re doing great in Florida. I think we’re really – I think we’re going to win Florida big.”

Ms Clinton is leading by wide margins in most major national polls – with some placing the former Secretary of State up by double digits. However, Mr Trump believes that those numbers are the result of a conspiracy between pollsters and the Clinton campaign chair John Podesta – as evidenced, he said, by the recent Wikileaks dump of his emails.

"Wikileaks also shows how John Podesta rigged the polls by oversampling Democrats, a voter suppression technique,” he said at that Florida rally. "And that’s happening to me all the time. When the polls are even, when they leave them alone and do them properly, I’m leading.

"But you see these polls, where they’re polling Democrats – 'how’s Trump doing' 'oh, he’s down' – they’re polling Democrats!"

Polls in Iowa and Ohio show the two candidates in a dead heat, according to RealClear Politics, with Mr Trump either leading or tied with Ms Clinton – well within the margin of error. Ms Clinton holds a commanding lead in most Florida polls, while North Carolina shows Mr Trump trailing by a smaller margin.

Meanwhile, a Washington Post report found that the Trump campaign spent $1.8m on polling between June and September – during which time they spent $3.2m on "Make America Great Again" hats.