Trump has long been said by allies and former employees to have taped some of his own phone calls, as well as meetings in his Trump Tower offices. Sacked: Former FBI director James Comey. Credit:AP During the campaign, Trump's aides working on the fifth floor of Trump Tower told reporters they feared their offices were bugged by the candidate's security team, and they were careful about what they said. White House spokespeople did not immediately respond to questions about whether Trump had in fact taped his conversations with Comey. CNN on Friday reported that Comey was "not concerned" about the presence of any recordings.

Trump appeared agitated over news reports on Friday that focused on contradictory accounts of his decision to fire Comey at the same time the FBI is investigating ties between Trump's associates and Russia. Donald Trump walks with protection officer Keith Schiller to the Oval Office. Credit:AP The New York Times reported that, at a dinner shortly after his inauguration, Trump asked Comey to pledge loyalty to him, which the FBI director refused to do. The story cited two people who heard Comey describe the dinner but the White House rebutted the account. The president also appeared annoyed at attention on the shifting versions of how he came to fire Comey. In his first extended comments on the firing on Thursday, Trump contradicted statements made by his White House spokeswoman as well as comments made to reporters by Vice-President Mike Pence and even the letter the president himself signed and sent to Comey informing him of his dismissal.

The original White House version of the firing was that the president acted on the recommendation of the attorney general and deputy attorney general because of Comey's handling of last year's investigation into Hillary Clinton's email. But in an interview with NBC News on Thursday, Trump said he had already decided to fire Comey and would have done so regardless of any recommendation. And he indicated that he was thinking about the Russia investigation when he made the decision. Trump said on Friday morning that no one should expect his White House to give completely accurate information. The threat may have been just a rhetorical point, but Trump by his own description likes to be unpredictable and does not feel obligated to follow long-standing White House conventions.

Every president in modern times has been frustrated with the news media at points, but they all preserved the tradition of the daily briefing, if for no other reason than to get their message out. Trump, with Twitter as his own trumpet. Loading There is already precedent for shutting down news briefings during Trump's presidency. The State Department for decades held daily briefings with only rare and brief interruptions in a process that was important not only to inform reporters of administration policy, but foreign governments and even the department's own far-flung diplomats. Such briefings have largely ended during the Trump administration. The Washington Post