Donald Trump has launched into a Twitter tirade about an unflattering expose of his first two weeks in the White House.
The New York Times article contains embarrassing reports of the President’s aides conversing in the dark because they cannot find the light switch, the President watching cable TV in his bathrobe and marking up negative news stories with a black sharpie.
Mr Trump has hit back at the report and suggested the publication has written “total fiction” about him and fabricated their sources.
“The failing NY Times writes total fiction concerning me. They have gotten it wrong for two years, and now are making up stories & sources!” the billionaire property mogul wrote on Twitter on Monday.
The report was based on anonymous accounts from government officials, congressional aides and other insiders.
“The failing NY Times was forced to apologise to its subscribers for the poor reporting it did on my election win. Now they are worse!” the 70-year-old later added.
Mr Trump has an ongoing vendetta against America’s second largest newspaper and has frequently vented his frustrations against its coverage of him and claimed its subscription rates are falling. However, the paper has actually seen readership figures climb and recently announced it has gained the most digital subscribers since 2011.
The President’s press secretary Sean Spicer has also slammed the report and demanded an apology from the New York Times.
“That report was so riddled with inaccuracies and lies that they owe the president an apology,” Spicer told reporters on the Air Force One on Monday. “There were just literally blatant factual errors and it’s unacceptable to see that kind of reporting or so-called reporting.”
Spicer also took issue with the report’s claim Mr Trump wears a bathrobe, saying the President does not even own one.
“I don’t think the president owns a bathrobe; he definitely doesn’t wear one,” he said. “From top to bottom they made up stories that just don’t exist. And I think that’s unfortunate.”
Quickly after Spicer made the comments, images of Mr Trump wearing a bathrobe flooded social media.
The Times report paints a picture of a small, chaotic and fractious team of advisors being forced to rethink their tactics after facing significant backlash. It also claimed Mr Trump is frustrated by his team’s inability to control the backlash against his executive orders and is feeling “increasingly pinched by the pressures of the job”. He was also reported to have been adamant the early stages of his presidency were going well until the barrage of bad headlines.
