As soon as the door closed and the reporters allowed to observe for a few minutes had been ushered out, Trump began to talk about the election, participants said, triggered by the presence of former New Hampshire Sen. Kelly Ayotte, who lost her reelection bid in November and is now working for Trump as a Capitol Hill liaison, or "Sherpa," on the Supreme Court nomination of Judge Neil Gorsuch.

The president claimed that he and Ayotte both would have been victorious in the Granite State if not for the "thousands" of people who were "brought in on buses" from neighboring Massachusetts to "illegally" vote in New Hampshire.

According to one participant who described the meeting, "an uncomfortable silence" momentarily overtook the room.

Hillary Clinton narrowly won New Hampshire's four electoral votes over Trump by nearly 3,000 votes. Ayotte's margin of defeat was even slimmer: 743 votes.