Can Trump challenge the election verdict?

Minutes after US media declared Democrat Joe Biden victor in the tight race for the US presidency on Saturday, President Donald Trump rejected that conclusion, saying he will prove in court that he was the winner.

“The simple fact is this election is far from over,” Trump said in a statement.

“Legal votes decide who is president, not the news media.”

But experts say Trump has little chance of reversing Biden’s win, without having provided the evidence of widespread vote fraud needed to overturn results in several states.

“Trump’s litigation strategy is going nowhere. It is not going to make a difference to the election outcome,” said Richard Hasen, an election law expert at the University of California, Irvine.

Trump said his campaign will take to the courts on Monday to “ensure election laws are fully upheld and the rightful winner is seated.”

He pointed to expected recounts in states where Biden is only a few thousand votes ahead.

And he referred to Pennsylvania, where Republicans allege fraud and say thousands of late-arriving mail-in ballots were illegally counted.

“Networks don’t get to decide elections. Courts do. Courts set aside elections when they are illegal,” Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani declared Saturday in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania’s largest city. (AFP | Paul HANDLEY)