US media worst enemy: Trump after Kim summit

Washington DC: "Fake News" is America's "biggest enemy," President Donald Trump has declared as he singled out some US media outlets for trying to "downplay" the "deal" he struck with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un at their historic summit.

Trump met with Kim on Tuesday in Singapore, where the two leaders signed a vaguely worded agreement that has been criticised by many back home. On his return to Washington, Trump had also decleared that North Korea no longer poses a nuclear threat to America.

Critics also feel that Trump, the first sitting US President to meet a North Korean head of state, lavished praise on Kim, legitimising the young authoritarian leader.

Trump, 72, renewed his attack on the media, hours after he addressed a lengthy press conference in Singapore, trying to sell the "deal" he has struck with Kim, 34.

He singled out NBC and CNN in his angry tweet.

"So funny to watch the Fake News, especially NBC and CNN," Trump wrote.

"They are fighting hard to downplay the deal with North Korea. 500 days ago they would have 'begged' for this deal -- looked like war would break out. Our Country's biggest enemy is the Fake News so easily promulgated by fools!" he tweeted.

Trump's angry tweet apparently came following a wave of attacks launched on Jim Acosta, CNN's chief White House correspondent.

Trump officials had attacked Acosta for asking Kim and Trump questions during a signing ceremony at the Singapore nuclear summit.

Brad Parscale, the Trump 2020 campaign manager, said Acosta's press credentials should be "immediately" suspended, calling the journalist an "absolute disgrace" on Twitter.

Acosta had responded on Twitter to the suggestion that he have his press credentials revoked, tweeting, "Dictatorships take away press credentials. Not democracies."

Trump frequently portrays the news media as one of his enemies, but rarely has he been this blunt about it, CNN commented.

No modern American president has publicly spoken this way about the press, the network said while noting that former President Richard Nixon sometimes talked this way, but only in private.

"Trump relishes the fight. Time and time again, he seizes us-versus-them opportunities, casting the media as an opponent that must be defeated," it said. Trump had instituted the so-called "Fake News Awards" in January and the "winners" included the New York Times and CNN.