President Donald Trump's war with CNN went off the rails Tuesday morning after he retweeted an image of a Trump train running over a CNN reporter, then quickly deleted it after the meme sparked criticism as inappropriate, particularly coming just days after the Charlottesville violence.

Mr Trump was in the middle of a morning tweetstorm when he sent the image, posted by a supporter who added "Nothing can stop the #TrumpTrain!!," to his nearly 36 million followers.

The president quickly deleted his handiwork but not before the original tweet had been retweeted hundreds of times and was captured on screenshots.

Mr Trump's promotion of the image came three days after a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville that turned into a violent clash between the supremacists and counter-protesters that led to the deaths of three people. A driver slammed his car into a crowd of counter-protesters, killing 32-year-old Heather Heyer and injuring at least 19 others; a 20-year old man who has reportedly espoused neo-Nazi views has been charged with second-degree murder in the case. Two police officers were killed when their helicopter crashed.