Donald Trump has let loose with violent comments following the Democratic National Convention (DNC), promising to "take the gloves off" and fantasising about hitting a speaker "so hard his head would spin".
The former Celebrity Apprentice host and Republican presidential nominee addressed followers in Davonport, Iowa on Thursday night (local time) and Colorado Springs on Friday night (local time).
Mr Trump referred to Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton's much-applauded speech as "average" and accused Bernie Sanders of "selling his soul to the devil" for endorsing her.
"The things that were said about me," Trump told the crowd in Davonport.
"You know I wanted to - I wanted to hit a couple of those speakers so hard.
"I was going to hit one guy in particular, a very little guy. I was going to hit this guy so hard his head would spin - he wouldn't know what the hell happened".
It's believed Mr Trump is referring to former New York City Mayor and DNC speaker Michael Bloomberg with the "very little guy" comment, which is strikingly similar to one of his recent tweets.
"After watching that performance last night, such lies, I don't have to be so nice anymore," Mr Trump announced in Colorado Springs.
"I'm taking the gloves off. Trump is gonna be no more Mr Nice Guy."
The billionaire businessman dismissed as "haters" and "liars" the long list of DNC speakers, which included the families of killed soldiers, senators, activists, congressmen, entertainers and President Barack Obama.
"Boy am I getting hit. Boom, boom, boom. I am getting hit and they don't mean it and there's a lot of lies being told - but I guess they have to do their thing," Mr Trump said.
"The haters, the haters were saying - they couldn't say too much bad - they liked the delivery.
"They couldn't say too much bad - but what they did say, and it was very strongly stated, [was that] they thought my speech was very dark.
"They all used that same term: very dark. And I said, 'Actually it wasn't dark, it was very optimistic', because I explained the problem, and then I explained how we're going to fix it - or at least stated that we're going to fix it. I think it was a very optimistic speech."
Mr Trump also reiterated his campaign promises of building a wall on the US-Mexico border, restricting refugees and bringing manufacturing jobs back to the country.
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