Trump supporters turn rowdy in protests of still-undecided election

Backers of President Donald Trump ramped up demonstrations on Thursday night against an election they believe was rigged or being stolen, in some cases bringing guns or clashing with counter-protesters as they rallied in battleground states.

In Arizona, one of five US battleground states where votes were still being counted in the too-close-to-call race between Trump and Democratic challenger Joe Biden, Trump supporters massed outside the Maricopa County Elections Department in Phoenix.

Some briefly chased a man who held up a sign depicting the president as a Nazi pig behind a stage where right-wing talk-radio host Alex Jones was speaking. Police intervened and broke up the altercation after the man and his small group of counterdemonstrators were surrounded by Trump activists, according to a Reuters witness. There were no injuries.

“They are trying to steal the election but America knows what happened and it’s fighting back,” Jones told the throng of some 300 people.

In Milwaukee, some 50 Trump supporters gathered in front of a city building where votes were being counted, blasting country music, waving flags and carrying signs reading “Recount” and “Rigged”.

Roughly a dozen counterprotesters arrived after an hour, shouting “Black lives matter” and “say their names,” referring to the victims of police brutality. Others threw eggs at the Trump supporters from a passing car.

Trump’s campaign has called for a recount in Wisconsin, where news organisations have pronounced Biden the winner by a razor-thin margin.

Protests have been scattered, small and largely peaceful since Americans went to the polls on Tuesday.

Facebook said it had taken down a rapidly growing group the social media side of proTrump activists, with violent rhetoric calling for “boots on the ground” to protect the integrity of the election.

Biden supporters have adopted the slogan “count every vote,” saying a complete and accurate tabulation in the remaining battleground states would show the former vice president had won the 270 electoral votes needed to win.

Both sides held rallies in Philadelphia on Thursday, where election staffers slowly counted thousands of mail-in ballots that could award Biden or Trump Pennsylvania’s crucial 20 Electoral College votes.

Trump activists waved flags and carried signs saying: “Vote stops on Election Day” and “Sorry, polls are closed” as Biden supporters danced to music behind a barricade across the street.