[Anchor]

U.S. President Donald Trump, who is focusing on campaigning in battleground states for the midterm elections, has launched an aggressive offensive over a controversy surrounding a candidate with the same name in Alaska. He also dismissed all opinion polls predicting a Republican defeat as fake.

This is Jeon Byeong-nam reporting from Washington.

[Reporter]

U.S. President Donald Trump has once again targeted a Democratic candidate in a battleground state.

He took issue with the candidacy of Daniel Sullivan, who shares the same name as Republican Senator Dan Sullivan running for his third term in Alaska, condemning it as "voter fraud at the highest level."

[Donald Trump / U.S. President: Alaska Democrats put someone with the name Dan Sullivan on the ballot to confuse voters. It's totally wrong, completely illegal, and voter fraud at the highest level.]

Trump has claimed that Democrats induced the candidacy of someone with the same name to split Senator Sullivan's votes.

Democrats have denied this, but after the New York Times reported on suspicions of systematic involvement by Democratic officials, Trump has seized on it as a favorable election issue and ratcheted up his offensive.

The controversy is spreading as Alaska's state capital has launched an investigation into whether a electoral crime occurred.

Going a step further, Trump claimed that all opinion polls unfavorable to the Republican Party are fabricated.

[Donald/ U.S. President: You never know in politics. So you have to go out and vote.]

This is interpreted as a message to encourage Republican supporters, who might give up voting in the midterms out of disappointment with the polls.

Amid growing signs of a Republican defeat, reports have also emerged that a gloomy atmosphere is lingering inside the White House.

The New York Times, after interviewing 16 aides and associates of Trump, reported that "President Trump is surrounded by a small circle of loyal aides, cut off from the outside world, and is devouring news video clips and low-quality AI content."

(Camera: Oh Jung-shik | Video Editing: Lee Seung-yul | Design: Dayoung Byun)