Hillary Clinton claims Donald Trump will start war if elected US president

Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton speaks during a campaign rally on November 4, 2016 in Cleveland, Ohio. (Photo by AFP)

US Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton has warned about the consequences of her Republican rival Donald Trump winning the race for the White House.

Speaking during a campaign rally on Friday in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Clinton said Trump is likely to start a war if elected, possibly because he felt insulted by another nation.

“Imagine how easily it could be that Donald Trump will feel insulted and start a real war, not just a Twitter war at 3 o’clock in the morning,” she said.

Clinton also sought to cast doubt about her Republican rival’s business dealings abroad, saying Trump “owes hundreds of millions of dollars to foreign banks and other foreign entities he doesn’t tell us about.”

“Ask yourself: When he’s sitting across the table negotiating with people from those countries, is he going to put his own financial interests ahead of America’s interests?” Clinton asked voters.

Clinton cited the government's latest jobs report as evidence that Democratic President Barack Obama has improved the economy.

"I believe our economy is poised to really take off and thrive," she said. "When the middle class thrives, America thrives."

Both candidates made stops in Ohio and Pennsylvania on Friday, with Clinton adding a stop in Michigan and Trump adding one in New Hampshire.

Donald Trump arrives for a rally at the Giant Center in Hershey, Pennsylvania, on November 4, 2016. (Photo by AFP)

The economy is one of the main concerns for voters in ailing Rust Belt states like Ohio, Pennsylvania and Michigan.

Trump disputed Clinton's positive outlook about the economy during a campaign stop in New Hampshire. "Nobody believes the numbers anyway. The numbers they put out are phony."

He said the latest employment report by the US Labor Department was "an absolute disaster" and was distorted by the high number of people who have stopped looking for work and are no longer counted in the labor market.

The race for the White House has tightened significantly in the past week. While Clinton remains the favorite to win next week's election, Trump now has a plausible route to victory.

According to a RealClearPolitics average of recent polls, Clinton is 2.3 percentage points ahead of Trump.

Nevertheless, an overwhelming majority of American voters are disgusted by the state of US politics, and most view the presidential nominees as dishonest, according a new poll.

More than 80 percent of voters say the presidential campaign has left them repulsed rather than excited, according to the final pre-election New York Times/CBS News Poll.

The majority of voters also doubt that either of the two main presidential nominees can unite the country after a historically bitter presidential campaign, the poll found.