Donald Trump has suggested a "termination" of the US Constitution, earning a sharp rebuke from the White House as the former president revisits debunked conspiracy theories about the 2020 election that he lost.
Having steered largely clear of his election defeat in a speech on November 15 when announcing he would be running again for president in 2024, Mr Trump took to his social media platform to declare himself "the rightful winner" two years ago.
He said it was time to "throw out" the 2020 presidential election results or to hold a "new election".
"A Massive Fraud of this type and magnitude allows for the termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution," Mr Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social.
"Our great 'Founders' did not want, and would not condone False & Fraudulent Elections!"
Later on Saturday, White House spokesman Andrew Bates slammed Mr Trump's statement, calling the US Constitution a "sacrosanct document".
"Attacking the constitution and all it stands for is anathema to the soul of our nation and should be universally condemned," Mr Bates said.
"You cannot only love America when you win."
In a subsequent post on Truth Social, Mr Trump doubled down on his comments and distanced himself further from leadership within his own Republican Party, baiting Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell to weigh in.
"I wonder what Mitch McConnell, the RINOS (Republicans in name only), and all of the weak Republicans who couldn't get the Presidential Election of 2020 approved and out of the way fast enough, are thinking now?" Mr Trump wrote.
Mr McConnell has infuriated the former president by indirectly criticising him after hosting a dinner on November 22 at his Mar-a-Lago resort with rapper Kanye West — who had made a series of anti-Semitic remarks — and Holocaust-denying White nationalist Nick Fuentes.
Mr Trump has since denied inviting Mr Fuentes or being aware of his background, saying that Mr Fuentes just followed Mr West — now known by the name of Ye — into the resort as an extra guest.
At the dinner, Mr West reportedly berated Mr Trump for not doing enough to help the January 6 rioters who wanted to stop then vice-president Mike Pence from certifying the 2020 election results that would confirm Joe Biden as the 46th US president.
Nine days later — last Thursday — Mr Trump came out vigorously in support of those convicted in the attacks on the US Capitol in a message to a right-wing political group.
In a video played at a fundraiser held by the Patriot Freedom Project, Mr Trump said the January 6 rioters were being dealt with "very unfairly" by the courts.
"People have been treated unconstitutionally in my opinion and very, very unfairly, and we're going to get to the bottom of it," he said in the video, shot in his office in front of a framed photo of him and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
In a September interview, Mr Trump said that he would consider issuing pardons and providing an official apology to January 6 defendants if re-elected president and was "financially supporting" those involved.
According to this year's January 6 hearings held by Congress, Trump supporters acted violently after believing "the big lie" that the 2020 election was "stolen", despite a lack of evidence and a multitude of failed legal challenges.
Mr Trump's posts came after Twitter's new owner, Elon Musk, announced that he would show how the social media platform had suppressed "free speech" in the run-up to the 2020 election by favouring the Democratic Party in blocking explosive content.
That included reports of damaging material found on the laptop of Hunter Biden, the once-wayward son of the current US president, as first reported by the Rupert Murdoch-owned New York Post.
Republicans hope that fresh revelations about Hunter Biden's possible former links to Ukraine and his other salacious activities could give them a political edge when they retake the House of Representatives in early 2023, possibly leading to congressional hearings.
But the Republican Party's underwhelming performance in last month's midterm elections — it narrowly won the House but was unable to retake control of the Senate because of the flop of so-called MAGA candidates — has weakened Mr Trump's once unchallenged position as conservative kingmaker.
Some of the losing candidates — including former TV anchor Kari Lake who was beaten by Democrat Katie Hobbs in the Arizona Governor race — have followed the Trump playbook by refusing to concede defeat while claiming widespread election fraud without evidence.
Mr Trump is also fighting multiple legal challenges on state and federal levels, including an investigation into why he took classified government documents to his Florida property after leaving the White House in January 2021.
He also saw the US Supreme Court last week reject his request to block a congressional committee from obtaining his federal income tax returns, which promise to inflict more political damage in the final days of the Democrat-held House.
Even so, an Emerson College poll released on November 22 gave Mr Trump a 30-percentage-point lead over his potential challenger Ron DeSantis — the Florida governor — in a hypothetical 2024 Republican primary.
But he trailed Mr Biden by 4 points in a possible presidential election rematch in 2024 when Mr Trump would be 78 years old and Mr Biden would be turning 82.
ABC/wires
