Donald Trump retweeted a man calling him "a fascist", before deleting the post just minutes later.

Mr Trump, who is well known for his regular outbursts on the social media network, shared a tweet by Twitter user Mike Holden referring to a Fox News Story about the President's consideration of a pardon for former Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio - who was convicted of ignoring a US court order to stop traffic patrols that targeted suspected immigrants.

Mr Holden wrote: "He's a fascist, so not unusual", seemingly referring to Mr Trump.

The President, who often shares posts from media outlets he approves of and from his supporters, seemed to realise his mistake, deleting his retweet around 15 minutes after sharing.

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I'm announcing my retirement from Twitter. I'll never top this RT. pic.twitter.com/HuGHkiPoyR — Mike Holden (@MikeHolden42) August 15, 2017

But despite his best efforts to retract, it didn't escape the notice of his 35 million followers.

Mr Holden - who had just 831 followers at the start of the day but swiftly saw that number climb to more than 3,000 - joked: "I'm announcing my retirement from Twitter. I'll never top this RT."

He later updated his biog on Twitter to describe himself as "Officially Endorsed by the President of the United States."

His is not the only questionable retweet from the President this week.

Mr Trump also retweeted - and later deleted - a cartoon "Trump train" running over a "CNN man" with the hashtag "#fakenews", just days after a national uproar over race-fuelled clashes in Charlottesville, Virginia.

One woman was killed and 19 people injured when a car drove into a group of counter-protesters at a far-right rally.

After initially condemning the violence on both sides, Mr Trump finally condemned white supremacist groups by name - declaring "racism is evil" - two days after Heather Heyer's death.