Trump accuses media of misinterpreting his tweet on "fake news media"

Trump asked his over 55.5 million supporters to read his tweets in this regard in the last two days.

President Donald Trump escalated his rhetoric against the media on Monday accusing them of misinterpreting his tweet on "fake news media" and reporting it "purposely inaccurately".

Trump, in a late-night tweet, singled out the media outlet CNN in particular.

"CNN and others in the Fake News Business keep purposely and inaccurately reporting that I said the 'Media is the Enemy of the People'. Wrong! I said that the 'Fake News (Media) is the Enemy of the People', a very big difference," he tweeted.

"When you give out false information - not good!" he said.

Trump asked his over 55.5 million supporters to read his tweets in this regard in the last two days.

"Check out tweets from last two days. I refer to Fake News Media when mentioning Enemy of the People - but dishonest reporters use only the word 'Media.'," he said.

"The people of our Great Country are angry and disillusioned at receiving so much Fake News. They get it, and fully understand!" Trump tweeted.

Earlier in the day, during her daily press briefing, White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders asserted that president was not against the media, but against those individual journalist and outlets who indulge in "inaccurate" and "dishonest" reporting.

"The President's not referencing all media, he's talking about the growing amount of fake news that exists in the country and the President's calling that out," she told CNN's White House Correspondent who had a short verbal dual with her.

When asked if, for the record, she can state which outlets she and the President regard as the enemy of the people, Sanders said "I am not going to walk through a list, but I think those individuals probably know who they are."

"Would that include my outlet, which received a bomb last week?" CNN correspondent asked.

The White House Press Secretary said: "I don't think it's necessarily specific to a broad generalisation of a full outlet. At times, I think there's individuals that the President would be referencing."

Not giving up, when CNN reporter asked "If the President is going to say the fake news media are the enemy of the people, and if you are going to stand there and continue to say there are some journalists, some news outlets in this country that meet that characterisation, shouldn't you have the guts Sarah to state which outlets, which journalists are the enemy of the people?"

Sanders responded: "I think it's irresponsible of a news organization like yours to blame responsibility of a pipe bomb that was not sent by the President -- not just blame the President, but blame members of his administration for those heinous acts. I think that is outrageous, and I think it's irresponsible."

She said it was irresponsible to blame the president for the package bombs or the Synagogue shootout.

"The very first action that the president did was condemn these heinous acts. The very first thing that the media did was condemn the president, go after him, try to place blame. Not just on the president, but everybody that works in this administration. The major news networks' first public statement was to blame the president, and myself included," she said.

Sanders said that it was outrageous, that anybody other than the individual who carried out the crime would hold that responsibility.

The media, she said has a huge responsibility to play in the divisive nature of this country.

"When 90 per cent of the coverage of everything this president does is negative, despite the fact that the country is doing extremely well, despite the fact that the president is delivering on exactly what he said he was going to do if elected," she rued.

"I think it is sad and divisive, the way that every single thing that comes out of the media -- 90 per cent of what comes out of the media's mouth -- is negative about this president. Despite the fact that the economy is booming, despite the fight, he said he would fix the trade deals, and he's done exactly that," Sanders said.

(With inputs from agencies.)