WASHINGTON: The media is an “enemy of the American people”, US President Donald Trump has said, stepping up his attack on newspapers and channels that have been critical of his presidency.

“The FAKE NEWS media (failing @nytimes, @NBCNews, @ABC, @CBS, @CNN) is not my enemy, it is the enemy of the American People!” Trump tweeted.

His scathing attack on the media came a day after he asserted that his administration is “running like a fine-tuned machine” and there is “no chaos” inside the White House as being reported by the “dishonest” media. The 70-year-old Trump had said he resented picking up newspapers and turning on the television to hear reports that his White House was in chaos. Trump, who has prolifically used the medium of Twitter and Facebook to convey his views and react to news stories, had said that a lot of people are happy about his administration and its performance since his inauguration on January 20. However, his political opponents and the media is not that happy, he said at his fourth news conference in a week during which he displayed a sense of anger and grievance rarely vented by a President in public. Trump’s latest tweet criticising the media went viral as within a few hours it was retweeted more than 28,000 times, forwarded 53,000 times and liked by 85,000 people. In reference to the news conference, Trump in another tweet said, “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 to 42 per cent, find the White House more truthful than the media.—PTI