Don't believe media, all is well with White House: Trump

The White House is running VERY WELL," Trump tweeted. "I inherited a MESS and am in the process of fixing it," he said in another tweet.

Washington, Feb 18: Donald Trump on Saturday stepped up his attack on the press crititical of his presidency, calling them "enemy of the American people" and asked his supporters to not believe the stories put out by the "fake news" media. "Don't believe the main stream (fake news) media.

The White House is running VERY WELL," Trump tweeted. "I inherited a MESS and am in the process of fixing it," he said in another tweet. Trump has several times this week expressed his frustration over news reports in the American media. The latest attack on the media came after some reports suggested all was not well within his White House and there were sharp differences among his key team members. Trump has used the social media platform to directly reach out to his supports. But in the past few days, most of his tweets have revolved around the press. He has accused them of inaccurate reporting, called them dishonest and fake.

Trump yesterday alleged the media was the "enemy of the American people." "The FAKE NEWS media (failing @nytimes, @NBCNews, @ABC, @CBS, @CNN) is not my enemy, it is the enemy of the American People!" he tweeted. The 70-year-old has said he resented newspapers and hates to turn on television to hear reports that his White House was in chaos.

Trump has said a lot of people were happy about his performance since his inauguration on January 20. But at his fourth news conference this week, he displayed a sense of anger and grievance rarely vented by any of the 44 previous presidents in public and said his political opponents and the media was not happy.

In reference to the news conference, Trump tweeted, "Thank you for all of the nice statements on the Press Conference yesterday. Rush Limbaugh said one of greatest ever. Fake media not happy!" "'One of the most effective press conferences I've ever seen!' says Rush Limbaugh. Many agree. Yet FAKE MEDIA calls it differently! Dishonest," he said. Meanwhile, Fox News in an opinion poll said voters, albeit by a slim margin of 45-42 per cent, find the White House more truthful than the media.

PTI