Donald Trump accused the media of ignoring ‘serious’ electoral fraud and claimed millions of illegal ballots cost him the popular vote on Sunday night – as he returned to Trump Tower amid growing acrimony over Hillary Clinton’s lawyer's backing of a recount in Wisconsin.

The President-elect tweeted that there had been 'serious voter fraud' in Virginia, California and New Hampshire hours after claiming he would have won the popular vote had 'millions' of people not voted 'illegally'.

'Serious voter fraud in Virginia, New Hampshire and California - so why isn't the media reporting on this? Serious bias - big problem!' he said.

Earlier, he suggested he would have won the popular vote as well as the electoral college despite being beaten by his opponent in the former by 2.2million ballots. There is no evidence of widespread voter fraud.

'In addition to winning the Electoral College by a landslide, I won the popular vote if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally,' he said.

It was the latest in a string of outbursts since Clinton's camp joined Green Party candidate Jill Stein in her efforts for a recount in three major electoral college states; Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Michigan.

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Donald Trump (above on Sunday leaving Palm Beach, Florida) claimed millions of people 'illegally voted' for Hillary Clinton and tweeted that he could have won the popular vote. He proudly sported the number 45 on his hat on Sunday, a nod to his forthcoming inauguration as America's 45th president

On Sunday evening, the president-elect doubled down on his claims of fraud and accused the media of ignoring 'serious' cases of it in Virginia, New Hampshire and California

He earlier dashed off a trio of tweets that suggested Hillary Clinton won the popular vote due to widespread voter fraud

Trump was spotted arriving back at Trump Tower on Manhattan's Fifth Avenue in a motorcade on Sunday night

The president-elect used his final hours in Mar-a-Lago, Florida, on Sunday afternoon to send out a flurry of tweets before jetting back to New York with his wife Melania and son Barron after a brief Thanksgiving break.

He was spotted returning to his Fifth Avenue sanctuary in a motorcade some hours later.

This afternoon, after making his initial illegal voting claim, Trump followed up with two more tweets, which suggested it would have been easier for him to win the popular vote anyways, because he would have just campaigned in a handful of highly-populated states.

'It would have been much easier for me to win the so-called popular vote than the Electoral College in that I would only campaign in 3 or 4--,' he began. 'states instead of the 15 states that I visited. I would have won even more easily and convincingly (but smaller states are forgotten)!' he concluded in the second tweet.

Trump's new theory about 'winning' the popular vote quickly got slammed on Twitter for its falsehoods about fraud.

'We will have a Conspiracy Theorist in charge of our government, our military and our nuclear arsenal. What could possibly go wrong?' wrote former White House senior advisor to President Obama Dan Pfeiffer.

Josh Marshall of the left-leaning Talking Points Memo wrote, 'As deep as we've gone in this Orwellian political s***hole, very disturbing that an incoming President says this.'

The 70-year-old left Mar-a-Lago hours earlier wearing a US 45 hat

He boarded his personal plane with wife Melania and 10-year-old son Barron after a four-day break in Florida where he spent Thanksgiving

Barron Trump sported a red polo-shirt and carried a matching rucksack for the journey back to New York on Sunday

The future first family arrived at Palm Beach Airport on Sunday in a 13-car motorcade which also included 19 motorcycles

And on the right, the National Review's David French said, 'Trump's worst policies can be checked, but this stuff? A steady drumbeat of this nonsense will further damage our political culture,' the best-selling author wrote, sharing the president-elect's tweet.

'This is an unbelievable lie,' French said.

The flurry of tweets came as he made his way back to New York from his Mar-a-Lago resort where he enjoyed a 'brief break from action' over the Thanksgiving holiday.

The president-elect was followed on to his Boeing 757-200 by his wife Melania and Barron on Sunday, both of whom sported Republican red for their private flight back to New York. Trump will now resume assembling his administration from Trump Tower in Manhattan.

Between dinners at the resort over the weekend, Trump spent much of the break tweeting about recount efforts in three Midwestern states as calls for a do-over gathered steam.

Green Party candidate Jill Stein raised funds for a recount, starting in Wisconsin, and Clinton's team said they would also participate.

Starting at 7:19 a.m. Sunday morning, Trump dashed off seven tweets about the recount efforts.

'Hillary Clinton conceded the election when she called me just prior to the victory speech and after the results were in. Nothing will change,' he wrote first.

He then quoted Clinton several times, including something she said about not accepting the results of the election – after Trump himself had sowed the seeds that it was going to be 'rigged' – during the third and final presidential debate.

At around 7am EST Sunday, Trump Tweeted that 'nothing will change'. He then began a six-tweet-long screed in which he quoted Clinton's own remarks before and after the election

Trump implied that Clinton was a hypocrite - though the complaints against him were about writing off the results before they were called, not calling for a recount after they came in

'That is horrifying. That is not the way our democracy works. Been around for 240 years. We've had free and fair elections. We've accepted the outcomes when we may not have liked them, and that is what must be expected of anyone standing on a [debate stage] during a general election. I, for one, am appalled that somebody that is the nominee of one of our two major parties would take that kind of position,' Trump said quoting Clinton and forgetting the words 'debate stage.'

TRUMP'S STATEMENT The people have spoken and the election is over, and as Hillary Clinton herself said on election night, in addition to her conceding by congratulating me, "We must accept this result and then look to the future." This recount is just a way for Jill Stein, who received less than one percent of the vote overall and wasn't even on the ballot in many states, to fill her coffers with money, most of which she will never even spend on this ridiculous recount. All three states were won by large numbers of voters, especially Pennsylvania, which was won by more than 70,000 votes. This is a scam by the Green Party for an election that has already been conceded, and the results of this election should be respected instead of being challenged and abused, which is exactly what Jill Stein is doing. Advertisement

Clinton had made those statements to moderator Chris Wallace at the Las Vegas debate after Trump said 'I'll keep you in suspense' about whether he would concede the election to Clinton if she were to win.

She didn't.

Trump also quoted Clinton saying, 'We have to accept the results and look to the future, Donald Trump is going to be our President. We owe him an open mind and the chance to lead.'

Ending that flurry of tweets with his own commentary he wrote, 'So much time and money will be spent - same result! Sad.'

He had previously labeled the recount effort as a way for Stein to 'fill her coffers with money.'

'The people have spoken and the election is over, and as Hillary Clinton herself said on election night, in addition to her conceding by congratulating me, "We must accept this result and then look to the future",' Trump said in the statement obtained by Bloomberg.

'This recount is just a way for Jill Stein, who received less than one percent of the vote overall and wasn't even on the ballot in many states, to fill her coffers with money, most of which she will never even spend on this ridiculous recount.

'All three states were won by large numbers of voters, especially Pennsylvania, which was won by more than 70,000 votes.

'This is a scam by the Green Party for an election that has already been conceded, and the results of this election should be respected instead of being challenged and abused, which is exactly what Jill Stein is doing.'

Without even being asked about it, Trump's campaign manager Kellyanne Conway went after the recount efforts while appearing on 'Meet the Press' with Chuck Todd today.

Conway was talking about how the president-elect had spoken with President Barack Obama yesterday on a 45 minute call.

'But there is a respect there and there is a respect there for the process and the peaceful transition of power, which is why this recount by Jill Stein and now the Hillary people is just so confounding and disappointing,' Conway said, making the pivot.

'Their president, Barack Obama is going to be in office for eight more weeks,' she continued, pointing to the two left-of-center political parties.