Trump casts early ballot as Republicans fight to retain Congress

WEST PALM BEACH: US President Donald Trump on Saturday voted early in his home state of Florida for the Nov 3 midterm elections, in which his Republican Party is battling to maintain control of Congress.

Trump and his wife, Melania, cast their ballots ahead of an appearance by the president at a campaign rally in the southern US state of Georgia.

Trump said he voted party line, or exclusively for members of his Republican Party.

Asked by reporters after voting about corruption as a major issue for voters, Trump insisted that it was happening in districts and cities controlled by Democrats.

"You ought to look at the real corruption – it's Democrat corruption," he said.

The Republican billionaire, who has consistently refused to accept his defeat in the 2020 presidential election, baselessly alleging widespread voter fraud, reiterated allegations along those lines Saturday.

"I ran and I won in 2016, and I won in 2020, too, but it didn't work out that way," he said at the Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections office in West Palm Beach. "It was a rigged election, but I won by millions of votes."

With 10 days to go until the midterms, which traditionally favour the party outside the White House, Trump faces dismal polls suggesting the Republicans will lose control of the House of Representatives and possibly the Senate.

Without a Republican majority in Congress, the 80-year-old president would have little room to push through his legislative agenda during his final two years in office.

He or his staff could also face numerous congressional investigations by Democrats, who have said they want to examine business dealings conducted by the president and those close to him through the family's holding company since his return to the White House.--AFP