Donald Trump is stoking the fear and anger of his supporters by putting forward theories of a rigged election as his campaign tries to recover from the damaging blow of nine women accusing him of sexual harassment and assault.

On Saturday morning, Trump reiterated claims that the system is stacked against him in an unprecedented move that threatens to undermine the US' history of peaceful democratic transitions.

Trump has also urged his supporters to monitor the polls in their own neighborhoods 'because of you know what I'm talking about'.

On two occasions in the last week, Trump cited the dangers of illegal immigrants trying to vote or 'other communities' 'stealing' the election.

As Trump's campaign struggles to bounce back 23 days before election day, the business tycoon acknowledged the turning tide but fought back by casting blame on the media and Clinton's campaign for 'poison[ing] the minds of the American voter'.

Robby Mook, Clinton's campaign manager, issued a response that read: 'Participation in the system - and particularly voting - should be encouraged, not dismissed or undermined because a candidate is afraid he's going to lose.'

Donald Trump is stoking the fear and anger of his supporters by putting forth theories of a rigged election as his campaign tries to recover for sexual assault allegations

As Trump's campaign struggles to bounce back 23 days before election day, the business said the media was pedding 'made up charges' with the Clinton campaign

Trump lashed out at Clinton, saying she 'should be in jail' before writing: 'This election is being rigged by the media pushing false and unsubstantiated charges and outright lies in order to elect Crooked Hillary.'

He also tried to shut down his sexual assault accusers, tweeting: '100% fabricated and made-up charges, pushed strongly by the media and the Clinton Campaign, may poison the minds of the American Voter. FIX!'

While he has repeatedly called the election 'rigged', a study by Justin Levitt, a professor at Loyola Law School, found just 31 incidents of voter impersonation between 2000 and August 2014, among more than a billion ballots cast in elections at both the local and national levels.

But at a roundtable with the National Border Patrol Council last week, Donald Trump said: 'They're letting people pour into the country so they can go and vote.'

On Monday, he addressed a largely white crowd outside Pittsburgh, citing the dangers of 'other communities' who might 'steal' the election.

'So important that you watch other communities, because we don't want this election stolen from us,' he said. 'We do not want this election stolen.'

Trump's supporters are heeding his calls, with some saying they would be on the lookout for illegal immigrants trying to cast their ballots on November 8, the Boston Globe reported.

Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman Marsha Catron quashed Trump's claims, saying that US borders aren't open to illegal migration before explaining that naturalization is a protracted process, Politico reported.

Regardless, Dan Bowman, a 50-year-old contractor, told the Boston Globe that if Hillary Clinton won, 'I hope we can start a coup....There's going to be a lot of bloodshed. But that's what it's going to take...I would do whatever I can for my country.'

Clinton's campaign issued a response to Trump's claims, with Mook writing: 'Campaigns should be hard-fought and elections hard-won, but what is fundamental about the American electoral system is that it is free, fair and open to the people.

'Participation in the system—and particularly voting—should be encouraged, not dismissed or undermined because a candidate is afraid he's going to lose.

'This election will have record turnout, because voters see through Donald Trump's shameful attempts to undermine an election weeks before it happens.'

The business tycoon has been on a tear this week, batting down sexual harassment and assault allegations as quickly as they come up.

The underlying story, Trump believes, is a plot by Hillary Clinton's campaign and her media allies to steal the election from him through a calculated series of tall tales.

He criticized everyone from Obama to Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim in the wake of the sexual assault allegations, painting himself as a victim while he tried to drown out the nine women who have come forward to share their stories.

During a mid-afternoon campaign rally in North Carolina, the Republican presidential nominee cast Slim, who owns 17 per cent of the New York Times Company, as the unseen hand pulling the strings of 'corporate lobbyists' masquerading as reporters.

Trump mentioned Slim's nationality twice, as if to underscore Mexico's adversarial posture toward his pledge to wall off America from its neighbor to the south.

Spokesman Arturo Elias Ayub later said Slim doesn't know Trump at all 'and is not the least bit interested in his personal life.'

Trump also mocked his female sex-abuse accusers, calling them liars and 'sick' women seeking fame or money while suggesting that some of them are unattractive and desperate for sexual partners.

He specifically singled out former businesswoman Jessica Leeds, who appeared on CNN Thursday night to tell her experience sitting next to Trump on a flight.

She said she was 'assaulted' by Trump on a flight when he lifted the arm-rest between then and allegedly began touching her.

But Trump issued a nasty retort, saying, 'When you looked at that horrible woman last night, you said: "I don't think so!", grimacing to indicate that he thought she was unattractive.

He added: 'Believe me, she would not be my first choice. I can tell you. You don't know – she would not be my first choice.'

Jessica Leeds (above) said that Trump 'grabbed her breasts and tried to put his hand up her skirt' on a flight more than three decades ago

Quote: 'He was like an octopus,' Leed (above on Wednesday) told the Times. 'His hands were everywhere'

He also criticized Obama for weighing in on the controversy, saying his accusers could just as easily target him.

Trump claimed his innocence, complaining: 'Right now I am being viciously attacked with lies and smears. It's a phony deal.

'I have no idea who these women are. Have no idea! I have no idea! And I think you all know I have no idea because you understand me for a lot of years, okay?'

In the first indication that his strategy was working, a group of his supporters on the lawn beyond the seating area of the White Oak Amphitheater screamed: 'We don't care! We don't care! We don't care!'

'You have to dispute when somebody says something false', Trump responded. 'Fortunately, we have the microphone. We can dispute it. Some people can't.'

But not everyone is convinced- a Reuters/Ipsos national opinion poll released on Friday showed Clinton pulling ahead of Trump by seven percentage points.

Support for Clinton has been mostly rising in the seven-day tracking poll since the last week of August, when the candidates were drawing about the same level of support.

Summer Zervos (pictured), a former contestant on The Apprentice says Trump kissed her open-mouthed and touched her breasts in a private room in 2007

Zervos (pictured foreground) had contacted Trump about a job with one of his businesses. She read a statement alongside her attorney during a news conference on Friday

Summer Zervos, a former contestant from Trump's The Apprentice, said she contacted Trump to inquire about a job with one of his businesses after the show.

Zervos said Trump met to discuss a potential job with her, but he kissed her on the lips and asked for her phone number at the end of the meeting.

Weeks later, Trump invited her to meet him at the Beverly Hills Hotel, where she said she was expecting to have dinner with the New York billionaire.

Instead, he kissed her open-mouthed and touched her breasts in a private room, she said during a news conference.

'He tried to kiss me again... and I said, "Dude, you're tripping right now," attempting to make it clear I was not interested,' she said.

Kristin Anderson, 46, alleges that Trump groped her by reaching up her skirt and touching her through her underwear in a Manhattan nightclub in the early '90s

Anderson appeared on CNN on Friday night to provide more detail about her allegations against Donald Trump

Kristin Anderson also told The Washington Post that she was sitting on a couch with friends at a New York nightclub in the early 1990s when a hand reached up her skirt and touched her through her underwear.

She said she pushed the hand away, turned around and recognized Trump as the man who had groped her.

'He was so distinctive looking - with the hair and the eyebrows. I mean, nobody else has those eyebrows,' she told the Washington Post.

She said she did not saying anything at the time because she did not think anyone would believe her.

'Who am I going to tell. The club manager, "Donald Trump put his hand up my skirt",' she said.

'They will be like "yeah", and they will go to him and go did you do this? And he will say no. And where do we go from there?

'It is kind of like where we are now. He's saying no. And a ton of women saying yes.'

Rachel Crooks (above) was a 22-year-old working as a receptionist at a real estate company when she says Trump kissed her on the mouth without permission while in an elevator in 2005

Cathy Heller, now 63 and living in New York, said the billionaire forcibly kissed her on the mouth in 1997.

She told The Guardian Trump forced himself on her after they were introduced by her mother-in-law at his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida, where she and her husband's family were members.

Rachel Crooks was a 22-year-old working as a receptionist at Bayrock Group, a real estate company based in Trump Tower in Manhattan, when she says Trump kissed her on the mouth without permission while in an elevator in 2005.

'It was so inappropriate,' said Crooks. 'I was so upset that he thought I was so insignificant that he could do that.'

Crooks told the newspaper the incident took place after she shook hands with Trump in an elevator and he allegedly refused to let go.

She says he then began kissing her on the cheeks, before then kissing her lips.

Mindy McGillivray (pictured) said Trump grabbed her backside after she helped a photographer who was shooting a concert at Trump's Palm Beach manor

Mindy McGillivary, 36, said Trump grabbed her backside while she was helping a photographer who was shooting a concert at Trump's Palm Beach manor in 2003.

'All of a sudden I felt a grab, a little nudge. I think it's Ken's camera bag, that was my first instinct,' she told the newspaper. 'I turn around and there's Donald. He sort of looked away quickly.'

McGillivray said she became furious when she saw Trump claim during the second presidential debate that he had never groped a woman inappropriately, and immediately began to consider sharing her story.

'It's a respect issue for all women. If something like this happens to you, you should speak up,' she said, according to the Palm Beach Post.

People writer Natasha Stoynoff (above) claims Trump shoved his tongue down her throat when she interviewed Trump and his wife Melania in Mar-a-Lago

Natasha Stoynoff, a writer with People magazine, traveled to Mar-a-Lago to interview Trump and his wife Melania in December 2005.

Trump said he wanted to show her a room in the mansion.

She said: 'We walked into that room alone, and Trump shut the door behind us. I turned around, and within seconds, he was pushing me against the wall, and forcing his tongue down my throat.

'I was grateful when Trump's longtime butler burst into the room a minute later, as I tried to unpin myself.'

When they were alone again, he told her that they were going to have an affair.

Cassandra Searles (above) won Miss Washington in 2013 and wrote: 'He probably doesn't want me telling the story about that time he continually grabbed my a** and invited me to his hotel room'

Cassandra Searles, who won Miss Washington in 2013, shared a picture of the other models who took part in the Trump-owned pageant in 2013 on Facebook and included a caption saying the Republican nominee treated them 'like cattle'.

'He probably doesn't want me telling the story about that time he continually grabbed my a** and invited me to his hotel room,' said Searles.

Temple Taggart (above) got emotional as she revealed that Trump kissed her against her will

Taggart said that Trump kissed her on the lips on their first-ever meeting (Taggart above with Trump and then wife Marla Maples)

Temple Taggart, also competed in the Miss USA pageant and was a contestant the first time that she claims Trump kissed her against her will.

Taggart told the New York Times earlier this year that Trump kissed her on the lips during the pageant, but shared more about her story in the wake of his comments during Sunday night's debate.

She claims that her father saw Trump during a rehearsal for the pageant and decided to get his attention so that his daughter could met the billionaire businessman.

'It was at that time that he turned to me and embraced me and gave me a kiss on the lips,' said Taggart.

'I remember feeling kind of embarrassed, like wanting to turn and wipe my mouth, like, "What just happened?"' said Taggart.

This happened again when she went to New York City to meet Trump soon after, she told NBC News.

'I remember immediately thinking, what does he think this is?' said Taggart, who added that the kiss was the kind one would give their boyfriend.