Barack Obama calls on Donald Trump to ‘stop whining’ about rigged election, slams praise for Putin

President Barack Obama issued a scathing responses to Donald Trump’s continued claims that the US election will be rigged.

Mr Obama appeared before the press corps alongside visiting Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, where he took the opportunity to field questions about the Republican nominee.

“I invite Mr Trump to stop whining and try to make his case to get votes,” Mr Obama said. He added that Mr Trump’s claims are “not based on facts”.

“He’s already whining before the game’s even over,” he said, explaining the likelihood of Mr Trump contesting the results of the election is “one way of weakening America and making it less great”.

On Putin, Mr Obama called Mr Trump’s “continued flattery” of the Russian president “unprecedented” in US politics.

The praise, Mr Obama added, is “out of step with not just what Democrats think, but out of step with what – up until the last few months – almost every Republican thought, including some of the ones who are now endorsing Mr Trump”.

Mr Trump has expressed praise for Mr Putin, suggesting that he is a stronger leader than the current US president for months throughout his campaign. Nonetheless, Republican supporters did not defect until the emergence of a 2005 video that captured Mr Trump bragging about sexual assault during an Access Hollywood taping.

As more and more accusers surfaced in various media reports, Mr Trump began to deflect scrutiny and criticism for the sexual assault allegations – coupled with his previous braggadocio about such acts – with shouts of collusion between the political press and the Clinton campaign.

“The election is being rigged by corrupt media pushing false allegations and outright lies in an effort to elect Hillary Clinton president,” Mr Trump said at a campaign stop Maine on Saturday. "We are going to stop it. We are not going to back down.”

He continued his tirade on Twitter Monday morning.

“Of course there is large scale voter fraud happening on and before election day,” he tweeted. “Why do Republican leaders deny what is going on? So naïve!”

However, despite Mr Trump’s insistence, voter fraud is rather rare in US elections. According to a study conducted by a Loyola University law professor, there have been only 31 verifiable instances of voter fraud among a billion votes cast between 2000 and 2014.

Yet, the damage has already been done. A Politico/Morning Consult survey found that some 41 per cent of registered voters believe the election could be “stolen” from Mr Trump – 73 per cent of Republicans believe this to be the case, as well.

And the prospect of a rigged election is already posing potential threats to voters of colour as Trump supporters vow to make their presence known on Election Day.

“Trump said to watch your precincts. I’m going to go, for sure,” 61-year-old Ohio carpenter Steve Webb told the Boston Globe. “I’ll look for…well, it’s called racial profiling. Mexicans. Syrians. People who can’t speak American.”

“I’m going to go right up behind them. I’ll do everything legally. I want to see if they are accountable,” he added. “I’m not going to do anything illegal. I’m going to make them a little bit nervous.”