Trump seems depressed and is doing little work apart from pursuing his election fraud claims, report says

• President Trump is in bad spirits and avoids his official duties to instead focus on pursuing his claims that the election was stolen from his due to mass electoral fraud, The New York Times reported Saturday.
• As the president fixates on his election fraud claims, for which he has provided no compelling evidence, the US's number of daily deaths from the coronavirus is reaching new highs.
• The US economy is in a fragile state, with congressional leaders so far have failed to hammer out a new stimulus deal.

President Donald Trump seems occasionally "depressed" and is avoiding official duties as he fixates on his claims that the election was stolen from him, for which he has not produced any compelling evidence, reported The New York Times Saturday.

Citing advisors to the president, the Times reported that as the president continues to claim the election was stolen from him a month after his defeat, he is "moody" and "sometimes depressed".

According to the report, the president is "ignoring the health and economic crises afflicting the nation" and is clearing his public schedule of meetings not related to his bid to overturn the election result.

As the focusses on spreading false voter fraud claims in scores of Twitter messages, the coronavirus pandemic is tearing through the US.

Last Wednesday the highest daily number of death from the disease was recorded, with 2,804 Americans losing their lives to the illness, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. The number is nearly as high as the number of Americans killed on 9/11.

The US economy is in a fragile state, as Congress attempts to hammer out a COVID-19 stimulus package, and with extra support for many made jobless by the pandemic set to expire.

At his first rally in Georgia since his election loss a month ago, Trump on Saturday focussed on his election fraud claims, which have been rejected by GOP election officials in the state. He also urged Republicans to turn out and vote in January's crucial Senate runoff, despite having repeatedly questioned the integrity of the state's voting systems.

At the rally, Trump falsely took credit for coronavirus vaccines for the illness that are expected to be rolled out in the US early next year.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the report.