The president has repeatedly attacked the US media, accusing it of producing fake news and failing to focus on the purported achievements of his administration. His attacks have had the effect of causing some of his supporters to heckle CNN reporters at his recent allies and critics say they are designed to distract attention from issues such as the ongoing probe into his campaign alleged collusion with Russia and the controversial splitting up of families at the Mexican border.

On Sunday morning, the president added a new twist, saying in one of several tweets that the media “can also cause war”. He also said it purposely caused “division and distrust” in the country.

Mr Trump did not specify what he had in mind when he accused the media of starting wars. Parts of the US and UK media were widely critiqued in the aftermath of the 2003 invasion of Iraq - and some publicly apologised - for running stories that supported unfounded intelligence claims spun by the White House and Downing Street that Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction.

Mr Trump has often claimed he opposed the 2003 invasion and said what transpired was a disaster. But his comments prior to the invasion appeared mixed and somewhat shifting.

In 2002, asked by so-called shock jock Howard Stern whether he supported the invasion, he said: Trump responded: “Yeah, I suppose so.”

Lebron James says he would considering running against Donald Trump for president

In January 2003, a few months before the invasion, he was interviewed on Fox News and asked whether President George W Bush should be more focused on Iraq or the economy.

“Well, he has either got to do something or not do something, perhaps, because perhaps shouldn't be doing it yet and perhaps we should be waiting for the United Nations, you know,“ Mr Trump said.

“He's under a lot of pressure. I think he’s doing a very good job. But, of course, if you look at the polls, a lot of people are getting a little tired. I think the Iraqi situation is a problem. And I think the economy is a much bigger problem as far as the president is concerned.”

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The White House last week was at the centre of no small drama when press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders refused to say the administration did not believe the press was the enemy of the people. Earlier in the day, Mr Trump’s eldest daughter, Ivanka Trump, has said she did not think he media deserved such a description.

Mr Trump later said on that day Mr Trump weighed in on the issue in a manner that confused matters. In a tweet, he said Ivanka Trump had been correct when she said the media was not an enemy, but added: ”It is the FAKE NEWS, which is a large percentage of the media, that is the enemy of the people!

While Mr Trump has claimed he invented the phrase "fake news", it has been in circulation since the 18th or 19th Century and probably had its origin in Britain.

Yet his use of the phrase has certainly been picked up and used by other leaders in the world - many of them the heads of authoritarian regimes, something activists say is one of several damaging fall-outs of the president's "weaponisation" of the words.

Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela, Bashar al-Assad of Syria and the government of Myanmar's Rakhine state, have all used the phrase "fake news" to respond to accusations of human rights abuses, chemical weapons attacks and ethnic cleansing.

The exchange at the White House came as the UN said Mr Trump’s verbal attacks on the media ran the risk of triggering real violence against journalists.

Reuters said the UN rapporteur for freedom of expression, David Kaye, claimed in a joint statement with Edison Lanza of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, that Mr Trump’s tirades against the media violated the basic standards of press freedom.

“These attacks run counter to the country’s obligations to respect press freedom and international human rights law,” they said.

“We are especially concerned that these attacks increase the risk of journalists being targeted with violence.”

President Trump on Sunday ratcheted up his attacks on the news media as the “enemy of the people,” saying they “can also cause war.”

He accused journalists in an early morning tweet of “purposely” causing “division and distrust” in the country.

“The Fake News hates me saying that they are the Enemy of the People only because they know it’s TRUE,” he said. “I am providing a great service by explaining this to the American People.