Donald Trump has for the first time has admitted Joe Biden won the US presidential election, but still insists it was “rigged”.
In a tweet posted on Sunday afternoon, the president wrote: “He won because the Election was Rigged.”
While still a long way from officially conceding the race, it is a marked shift in tone from the president’s previous tweets over the last week which repeatedly insisted he had in fact won.
Trump lost both the popular vote and the Electoral College vote and none of his claims of widespread fraud during the election have been proven true.
Shortly after posting the tweet, Trump appeared to regret his choice of language, tweeting: “I concede NOTHING!”
Since the election was called for Biden last weekend, Trump has made false claim after false claim about the result leading Twitter to mark an unprecedented number of his tweets as disinformation.
The president has attacked a number of aspects of how the election was conducted but as yet neither he or his team have provided any evidence to back up the claims.
On Saturday Trump urged Washington DC police not to “hold back” in cracking down on “antifa scum” in a shockingly violent tweet after protests in the US capital.
Trump was reacting to street confrontations that erupted Saturday night between leftover members of a march earlier in the day protesting his loss in the presidential election, and counter-protesters.
At least 20 people were arrested throughout the day, including four on gun charges, The Washington Post reported.
Two police officers were injured, and a man in his 20s was in critical condition after he was stabbed in the back.
The Proud Boys hate group clashed at various times with counter-protesters, witnesses reported.