Donald Trump has accused China of trying to rig the 2020 presidential election in an extraordinary primetime address from the White House, writes The Telegraph.

The US president claimed the operation had been concealed by members of the US intelligence services, whom he labelled the "deep state" and vowed to prosecute.

His claims appeared to contradict a declassified intelligence report from 2021, which concluded China did not interfere in the election because it wanted "stability" in its relationship with the US.

Democrats accused the president of a "brazen power grab" laying the groundwork to dispute the results of November’s mid-term elections in which Republicans are widely expected to lose control of the House of Representatives.

“During the 2020 election cycle, the People’s Republic of China carried out what is believed to be the largest compromise of election data in history," Mr Trump said on Thursday night, accusing Beijing of stealing 220 million US voter files. “That information includes names, addresses, phone numbers, political party preferences, and other sensitive data that would be needed to register to vote and engage in other nefarious activities. Which is exactly what was happening".

Mr Trump, sounding hoarse, claimed China had "fought like hell" to stop him winning since 2019, by paying journalists to run negative stories about him and "influence" business leaders to turn against him. Beijing also worked to "influence the results of the US mid-term elections" in mid-2018, he said. Notably, Mr Trump did not declare that he won the 2020 election, or that Chinese intervention had prevented his victory.