Donald Trump has promoted a strange claim that the House of Representatives gave him less due process during the impeachment inquiry than the 9/11 attackers received.

The US president embellished the quote from Fox News’ Mark Levin to also assert “this is a corrupt process” and added a false reaction from Republican senator Doug Collins, claiming he replied: “Very much so!”

Mr Collins did nod to indicate his agreement, however his raised eyebrows suggested some shock at Mr Levin’s comparing the president to those responsible for the most infamous terror attack in American history.

Mr Trump is currently on trial in the senate, accused of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. He is the third US president to be impeached.

“I don’t believe this is ever happened before in American history,” Mr Levin claimed. “The president is denied due process. I’m not talking about the Bill of Rights, I’m talking about the due process past presidents have had… basic Magna Carta-type due process that people are supposed to get.

All the president's lawyers: The team fighting Trump's impeachment Show all 6 1 /6 All the president's lawyers: The team fighting Trump's impeachment All the president's lawyers: The team fighting Trump's impeachment Alan Dershowitz Dershowitz is a controversial American lawyer best known for the high-profile clients he has successfully defended. Those clients have included OJ Simpson, Jeffrey Epstein and Harvey Weinstein. One longtime Harvard Law associated told the New Yorker Dershowitz "revels in taking positions that ultimately are not just controversial but pretty close to indefensible." Getty All the president's lawyers: The team fighting Trump's impeachment Ken Starr Starr became a household name in the 1990s as the independent counsel who led the investigation that led to Bill Clinton's impeachment. That investigation began as a look into a real estate scandal known as Whitewater, and eventually led to impeachment after Mr Clinton lied under oath about having an affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky. AP All the president's lawyers: The team fighting Trump's impeachment Jay Sekulow Sekulow is the president's longtime personal attorney, and, now, personal lawyer in the White House. He has been accused by former Rudy Giuliani associate Lev Parnas of being "in the loop" during the Ukraine scandal. Getty All the president's lawyers: The team fighting Trump's impeachment Pam Bondi Bondi is the former attorney general in Florida, and a longtime backer of the president's. She made a name for herself in Florida for taking hyper partisan stances on issues, and her penchant for publicity. She is likely to be a prominent public-facing figure during the trial. AFP/Getty All the president's lawyers: The team fighting Trump's impeachment Pat Cipollone Cipollone is the White House counsel, and leading the president's defence team. Getty All the president's lawyers: The team fighting Trump's impeachment Rudy Giuliani While not officially named as one of the president's impeachment lawyers, it is hard to ignore Giuliani's outsized role in this process. The former mayor of New York has been making headlines for months as he defends his client, and for his apparent role in the effort to compel Ukraine to launch the investigation into Joe Biden. We'll see how he figures in the actual trial, which he has said he would like to be a part of. Reuters

“The president gets less due process than the terrorists on 9/11 get. They get habeas corpus rights and all these other… the president gets no rights, no consideration. The Republicans, no rights. You just told me you couldn’t call a single witness.”

All of the 19 terrorists aboard planes died during the 9/11 attacks. Several others involved in planning the terror strike are serving life sentences or potentially facing the death penalty, with some suspects having been subjected to torture at Guantanamo Bay and CIA black sites. Several were detained for years without being formally charged.

While Mr Trump and Republicans have not been able to call witnesses during the impeachment inquiry, they were able to cross-examine the witnesses that were called.

The White House has also been able to block any of the documents and witnesses requested by Democrats, with Mr Trump notably saying he would use executive privilege to block former national security adviser John Bolton’s testimony.

It is not the first strange claim Mr Trump has made about 9/11.

The president has previously boasted that his building was the tallest in downtown Manhattan after the World Trade Centre was destroyed. He also claimed to have been a first responder despite also purporting to have seen thousands of Muslims celebrating the attack in New Jersey.

On Sunday, loyal Trump defender Lindsey Graham claimed Mr Trump’s biggest concern about the impeachment trial was that it posed a threat to the sanctity of the presidency.

“He thinks it’s a threat to the presidency,” Mr Graham told Fox News. “The one thing he talks to me constantly about is ‘what does the next president do after this, if it is successful?’ He does not want to legitimise attack[s] on the presidency.”

Meanwhile, Mr Trump was addressing the American Farm Bureau in Austin on Sunday, where he continued to rage against impeachment proceedings.