President Trump joked that it would be "fun" to sue CNN, a favorite media target of his that he frequently derides as "fake news."

Trump made the remark during a fundraiser dinner Thursday night in Washington.

"Boy, did CNN get killed over the last few days," Trump said, according to an audio recording obtained by the Intercept news site. "These are really dishonest people. Should I sue them? I mean, they're phonies."

Trump went on, "I mean, these are horrible human beings. ... But as far as I'm concerned, I love it. If anybody's a lawyer in the house and thinks I have a good lawsuit — I feel like we do. Wouldn't that be fun?"

CNN and Trump have been in conflict since the 2016 campaign, but tensions rose late last week after the network retracted an apparently erroneous news article related to one of the president's associates and what the story alleged were his ties to a Russian bank.