An exhausted-sounding Donald Trump told his favourite news show on Tuesday morning that he’d “had a great run” as president, in a bizarre interview that at times sounded like a concession speech.
With a croaky voice, the president tried to sound positive as Americans head to the polls to vote, but at times spoke to Fox and Friends like he had already lost.
Talking about his rival Joe Biden and far-left elements of the Democratic Party, Trump said: “Joe’s going to have a hard time, he’s not going to be able to handle them.
“Joe Biden will never call the shots and if he does he’s not going to be there very long.”
Even when discussing the impending result, Trump was far from confident in his words, saying: “When there’s victory, if there’s victory, I think we’ll have victory, I think the polls are, you know suppression polls, and I think we’ll have victory.
“I think, you know, I look at it as being a very, um, you know, a very solid chance of winning. I don’t know what the chances are, I don’t know how they rate the chances, but I think we have a very solid chance of winning.”
Trump did brighten up when discussing the crowds he saw on Monday during his frenetic last day of campaigning, saying they gave him confidence that he would prevail.
“We have crowds that nobody’s ever had before,” said Trump, who has been criticised by Democrats for holding packed rallies in defiance of social-distancing recommendations during the pandemic.
He added: “I think that translates into a lot of votes.”
Americans are casting votes in the bitterly contested presidential race between Trump and Biden after a tumultuous four years under the businessman-turned-politician that have left the United States as deeply divided as at any time in recent history.
Voters lined up at polling places around the country, casting ballots amid a coronavirus pandemic that has turned everyday life upside down.
Biden, the Democratic former vice president who has spent a half century in public life, has held a strong and consistent lead in national opinion polls over the Republican president.
But Trump is close enough in several election battleground states that he could piece together the 270 state-by-state Electoral College votes needed to win the election.
Trump is hoping to repeat the type of upset he pulled off in 2016 when he defeated Democrat Hillary Clinton despite losing the national popular vote by about 3 million ballots. Trump is aiming to avoid becoming the first incumbent US president to lose a re-election bid since George HW Bush in 1992.
It is possible that it could be days before the result is known, especially if legal challenges focused on ballots sent by mail are accepted in the event of a tight race.