United States President Donald Trump on Sunday admitted that President-elect Joe Biden has won the elections. He, however, continued to claim without proof that the elections were rigged.

“He won because the Election was Rigged,” Trump wrote on Twitter. “NO VOTE WATCHERS OR OBSERVERS allowed, vote tabulated by a Radical Left privately owned company, Dominion, with a bad reputation and bum equipment that couldn’t even qualify for Texas (which I won by a lot!), the Fake and Silent Media, and more!”

In subsequent tweets, Trump refused to concede defeat. “He only won in the eyes of the FAKE NEWS MEDIA,” the outgoing president claimed in another tweet. “I concede NOTHING! We have a long way to go. This was a RIGGED ELECTION!” In another tweet, he wrote: “WE WILL WIN”.

Trump also called the mail-in ballots a “sick joke,” claiming that “mechanical glitches” on election night were an attempt by “THEM” to steal votes. “They succeeded plenty, however, without getting caught,” he said. The American president was referring to the Democrats as “them”.

The tweets, like many others by Trump alleging election fraud, was flagged by Twitter, saying the claim was disputed.

On Friday, Trump had for the first time come close to accepting his defeat in the elections as he declared that his administration will not order a new lockdown to control the coronavirus. “I will not – this administration will not be doing a lockdown,” Trump said during a speech at the White House about vaccine development efforts. “Hopefully whatever happens in the future – who knows which administration it will be? I guess time will tell.”

The tweets came as Trump’s campaign continues to challenge the election results in courts even as his administration goes through the formal transition processes. Since the election day on November 3, Trump has falsely claimed that there was a conspiracy by the Democrats to stop him from achieving another term. When the vote count in the key states of Georgia and Pennsylvania finally tipped in Biden’s favour, Trump’s campaign declared the “election is far from over”, and announced the activation of “legal challenge teams” in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan and Pennsylvania. Trump’s lawsuits were dismissed in Michigan and Georgia.

After Biden’s victory in the crucial state of Pennsylvania, Trump again insisted that the race was not over and claimed he had “WON THIS ELECTION, BY A LOT”. On November 8, Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani claimed he had “a lot of evidence” of fraud, but did not provide any proof, according to AFP. The president, meanwhile, has continued to make false claims on Twitter that the election was being “stolen” from him. All of Trump’s tweets were flagged as being disputed and potentially misleading.

Democrat nominee Biden had emerged as the winner of the elections on November 7. He cemented his win after the crucial state of Pennsylvania was called for him, putting Biden on track to win the elections with a total of 273 electoral votes.