Donald Trump’s rants at “evil” media companies and use of tweets to deliberately knock negatives stories off the headlines have been revealed in a new book.

The US president is quoted describing how by launching a personal attack on a journalist he had stopped cable news covering North Korea and his struggling health care bill.

Mr Trump’s anger at the “f****** New York Times” and desire to “sue the s*** out of” newspapers who print inaccurate stories is reported in the book.

It also reveals his fascination with the media, asking friends if his tweets are being covered by cable news and fearing aides could get “Pinocchio” awards from fact-checkers.

The claims are made in Media Madness: Donald Trump, the Press, and the War over the Truth, a book by Fox News host Howard Kurtz, which is published today.

In the book, an early copy of which The Daily Telegraph has seen, Mr Kurtz largely paints a sympathetic picture of Mr Trump as he criticises the media’s hostile reaction to his presidency.

However the book, part-based on interviews with White House “insiders”, provides a string of insights into Mr Trump’s approach to shaping media coverage.