(The Center Square) – President Donald Trump is escalating his rhetoric against former President Barack Obama as more questions arise regarding the latter’s alleged role in fabricating evidence that suggested Russia helped Trump win the 2016 presidential election.

During a Tuesday tariff-related meeting with Filipino President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., Trump called Obama “the ringleader” in an alleged plot to delegitimize the results of the 2016 election, which Trump won against Hillary Clinton.

“Look, he’s guilty, it’s not a question,” Trump told reporters. “This was treason, this was every word you could think of. They tried to steal the [2016] election, they tried to obfuscate the election, they did things that nobody has ever even imagined, even in other countries.”

According to documents declassified over the weekend by Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, Obama along with his senior advisors reportedly pressured the intelligence community to contrive evidence that Russia interfered on behalf of Trump in the 2016 election.

The intelligence community had already concluded months before the election that “there is no indication of a Russian threat to directly manipulate the actual vote count through cyber means,” according to messages in the declassified documents.

In fact, the FBI requested that language in a pre-election assessment about Russia’s intent be changed, given that the language used “would indicate that we have definitive information that Russia does intend to disrupt our elections and we are uncomfortable making that assessment.”

Trump views the Obama administration’s push for a long-term investigation — as well as the Clinton-funded and now debunked Steele dossier accusing Trump of Russian collusion — as “irrefutable proof that Obama was seditious, that Obama was trying to lead a coup.” He also considers it proof that “the 2020 race was rigged,” calling it “the biggest scandal in the history of our country.”

Gabbard has submitted a criminal referral to the Department of Justice and purportedly has “thousands” of additional documents coming, Trump said.

A spokesperson for Obama responded to Trump’s comments in a statement Tuesday afternoon, calling the allegations “bizarre” and “a weak attempt at distraction.”

“Out of respect for the office of the presidency, our office does not normally dignify the constant nonsense and misinformation flowing out of this White House with a response. But these claims are outrageous enough to merit one,” spokesperson Patrick Rodenbush said.

“Nothing in the document issued last week undercuts the widely accepted conclusion that Russia worked to influence the 2016 presidential election but did not successfully manipulate any votes. These findings were affirmed in a 2020 report by the bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee, led by then-Chairman Marco Rubio,” Rodenbush added.