President Obama has insinuated that Hillary Clinton lost the election because her team ignored rural America.

In an hour-long exit interview with NPR, the president said that this year's election proved that Democrats need to focus on hard-hit rural areas.

This flawed strategy, he said, led some voters who backed him in both elections, to vote for Donald Trump - turning traditionally blue states, like Wisconsin and Michigan, red thanks to the overwhelming support of voters outside of the major cities.

'We know that there are a substantial number of voters out there who not only voted for me twice but currently support me who also voted for Donald Trump,' the president said.

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President Obama gave his theory on why the Democrats lost the 2016 presidential election in an exit interview with NPR

He went on to say that he thinks the U.S. has a 'scrambled political landscape right now' that creates 'structural problems' for Democrats whose base of younger and minority voters traditionally reside in urban areas.

'Democratic voters, are clustered in urban areas...and on the coasts, and so as a consequence you've got a situation where there are not only entire states but also big chunks of states where, if we're not showing up, if we're not in there making an argument, then we're going to lose. And we can lose badly, and that's what happened in this election,' he said.

You've got a situation where there are not only entire states but also big chunks of states where, if we're not showing up, if we're not in there making an argument, then we're going to lose. President Obama

He added: 'There are clearly failures on our part to give people in rural areas or in exurban areas a sense day-to-day that we're fighting for them or connected to them. Part of the reason it's important to show up...is because it then builds trust and it gives you a better sense of how should you talk about issues in a way that feel salient and feel meaningful to people.'

President Obama campaigned hard for Hillary Clinton in the lead up to November's Election Day.

Officials said that his campaign stops in North Carolina, Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania were dictated by Clinton's team and not the White House. The president reportedly pushed for making a stop in Iowa, where he won in 2012, but the idea was vetoed by the Clinton camp.

Mr Obama even blamed himself for not focusing on the future political importance of these areas during his early days in office.

'More work would have needed to be done to just build up that structure,' he said. 'One of the big suggestions that I have for Democrats as I leave, and something that I have some ideas about is, how do we do more of that ground-up building?'

But Obama said it wasn't just political miscalculation that caused Clinton to lose the election.

He also placed some blame on Russia for their strategic hacking of the Republican and Democratic parties that led to a never-ending stream of negative stories on Clinton that distracted from her merits.

'In that scrum, in that swirl, you know, Donald Trump and his celebrity and his ability to garner attention and obviously tap into a lot of the anxieties and fears that some voters have, I think, definitely made a difference,' he said.

Reflecting on the election, the president said, is essential for four years down the line, when the Democrats will fight to take back the White House.