Trump claims, with no evidence, that ‘millions of people’ voted illegally

WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald Trump said on Sunday (Nov 27) that he had fallen short in the popular vote in the general election only because millions of people had voted illegally, levelling his claim — despite the absence of any such evidence — as part of a daylong storm of Twitter posts voicing anger about a three-state recount push.

“In addition to winning the Electoral College in a landslide, I won the popular vote if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally,” Mr Trump wrote Sunday afternoon.

The series of posts came one day after Mrs Hillary Clinton’s campaign said it would participate in a recount effort being undertaken in Wisconsin, and potentially in similar pushes in Michigan and Pennsylvania, by Ms Jill Stein, who was the Green Party candidate.

The Twitter outburst came as Mr Trump is labouring to fill crucial positions in his Cabinet, with his advisers enmeshed in a rift over whom he should select as secretary of state. On Sunday morning, Kellyanne Conway, a top adviser, extended a public campaign to undermine one contender, Mr Mitt Romney. She accused Mr Romney of having gone “out of his way to hurt” Trump during the Republican primary contests.

Officially, Mr Trump’s transition team has dismissed the recount effort as “ridiculous” and a “scam”.

Mr Trump appeared fixated Sunday on the recount and his electoral performance. In a series of mid-afternoon Twitter posts, Mr Trump boasted that he could have easily won the “so-called popular vote” if he had campaigned only in “3 or 4” states, presumably populous ones.

The afternoon messages followed a string of early-morning Twitter posts in which the president-elect railed against the recount efforts. In an initial post at 7.19am (US Time), Mr Trump wrote: “Hillary Clinton conceded the election when she called me just prior to the victory speech and after the results were in. Nothing will change.”

He noted that in her concession speech, Mrs Clinton had urged people to respect the vote results.

“’We have to accept the results and look to the future, Donald Trump is going to be our President,’” Mr Trump wrote on Twitter, quoting Mrs Clinton. “’We owe him an open mind and the chance to lead.’ So much time and money will be spent — same result! Sad.” THE NEW YORK TIMES