U.S. President Donald Trump invites a supporter onstage with him during a "Make America Great Again" rally at Orlando Melbourne International Airport in Melbourne, Florida,. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

A supporter invited onstage by Donald Trump has revealed he has a 6ft cardboard cutout of the president that he salutes "every single day".

Trump appeared at a rally in Melbourne, Florida on Saturday evening where he accused the "dishonest media" of a fake news campaign and he even seemed to invent a Swedish terror attack.

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In one surreal moment he invited a supporter onstage. The president had seen Gene Huber on television earlier in the day, speaking to reporters as he queued up to get into the event.

After spotting Mr Huber in the crowd Trump invited him to appear on stage.

This caused a bit of trouble for secret service officers who tried to block Mr Huber but the president told them to let him through.

Mr Huber, wearing a President Donald Trump T-shirt, took the microphone and said: "Mr President, thank you, sir. We the people, our movement is the reason why our president of the United States is standing here in front of us today.

"When President Trump during the election promised all these things that he was going to do for us, I knew he was going to do this for us."

Later Mr Huber was interviewed by CNN where he said: "I've got a six foot cardboard box [sic] of President Trump in my house and I salute that every single day. And I pray, and I tell him 'Mr President I pray for your safety today, and I'm not lying."

Everyday he talks to a 6 foot cardboard President Trump. You couldn't make this stuff up #trumprally #theresistance #genehuber pic.twitter.com/PQU5F0YYQM — Jonathan Beeley (@foreignpolicy77) February 19, 2017

Trump's decision to invite a member of the public up on stage went down well with supporters - but doubts have been raised over whether it was a spontaneous move, or had in fact been planned in advance.

Mr Huber's social media accounts, which are awash with adoring posts about Trump, feature recent updates that were tagged as having been posted from Trump Winery, Trump Tower and the White House:

#TrumpPlant "GENE HUBER" Visited WH on Feb 11, among other visits to Trump properties. Received call from Trump on 2.14. pic.twitter.com/lzyTV0AaGE — People V. Trump (@Not45Th) February 19, 2017

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