UPDATED: Trump falsely claims victory, after rival Biden voices confidence

Donald Trump in an address to voters from the White House told supporters to prepare for “a big win”.

Despite incomplete results from several battleground states that could determine the outcome of the U.S. presidential race, Trump early on Wednesday proclaimed victory over Democratic challenger Joe Biden.

“Frankly, we did win,” Trump told supporters at the White House.

But election results from some battleground states, including Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan and Georgia, were still not clear and projections from major networks and Edison Research showed Trump still short of the 270 electoral votes need to win re-election.

He’s already taken to Twitter to declare a “big WIN”.

“This is, without question, the latest news conference I’ve ever had,” Trump joked as he started speaking at about 2:20 am ET.

The president then accused Democrats of trying to “disenfranchise” his supporters.

“We will not stand for it,” Trump said.

Trump has previously raised scepticism over the integrity of the election by suggesting, without evidence, that postal ballots are more susceptible to fraud than in-person votes.

Trump reveled in his victories in Florida and Texas, as the nation awaits results from key Midwestern battleground states.

“It’s also clear that we have won Georgia,” Trump said at the White House. “They can’t catch us.”

“We were getting ready for a big celebration,” he says. “We were winning everything.”

Taking a triumphant tone, Trump celebrates his big win of the night in Florida.

“We didn’t win it, we won it by a lot,” he says.

He also claims a lead in Pennsylvania – just like rival Joe Biden did earlier on election night. It is still too early a determine a winner in the state.

Trump was eager to declare victory in battleground states that remain too close to call, such as Georgia and North Carolina.

Yet the president was simultaneously urging Arizona to count more ballots in the hopes that it would reverse Joe Biden’s current lead.

The tweet he issued on election night was labelled as “misleading” for making an unsubstantiated claim about ballot integrity.

Results are still coming in and both candidates are predicting a win.

Trump is doing better than expected, and Joe Biden has failed to win those battleground states that count votes quickly, which means more uncertainty as we wait for a few key states.

Trump won the battlegrounds of Florida, Ohio and Texas, dashing Biden’s hopes for a decisive early victory, but Biden said he was on track to winning the White House by taking three key Rust Belt states.

Biden, 77, was eyeing the so-called “blue wall” states of Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania that sent Trump, 74, to the White House in 2016 for possible breakthroughs once those states finish counting votes in hours or days to come.

“We feel good about where we are,” Biden said in his home state of Delaware, shouting over a din of supporters in cars honking their horns in approval. “We believe we’re on track to win this election.”

Trump has repeatedly and without evidence suggested that an increase in mail-in voting will lead to an increase in fraud, although election experts say that fraud is rare and mail-in ballots are a long-standing feature of American elections.

Several top Republicans and conservative commentators are expressing alarm at Trump’s unsubstantiated comments.

Speaking on ABC News, former New Jersey Governor and Trump adviser Chris Christie called the president’s speech the wrong move – both strategically, and as president.

“It’s a bad strategic decision,” he said. “It’s a bad political decision.”

Rick Santorum, former Republican Senator from Pennsylvania, said he was “very distressed” by Trump’s comments. “Using the word fraud… I think is wrong,” he said on CNN.

And Ben Shapiro, a conservative commentator and critic of Trump, tweeted calling the comments “deeply irresponsible”.