US President Donald Trump has launched another broadside at the American media at the start of what's supposed to be his holiday.
The President, who insists he's working from the golf resort he owns in New Jersey, claimed on Twitter that his personal political base is getting stronger….despite what he called "24/7 Fake News" perpetrated by the country's major broadcast networks and newspapers.
But for the first time, a senior member of the President's team is acknowledging that his popularity with Republican voters is slipping…..and the White House is now taking at least one concrete step in a bid to reverse the tide.
Our US Correspondent Simon Marks reports.
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This was Donald Trump last week in West Virginia….in his element….surrounded by the love of some of the voters who sent him to the White House in the first place.
Rarely has a sitting US President felt the need to continue holding campaign rallies throughout the early months of his administration….but this President seems to gather strength from every return he makes to Trump Country.
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Behind the scenes at the White House, though, there is a growing acceptance that the opinion polls tell a different story.
Even the Republican-leaning Rasmussen survey has Donald Trump's approval rating down below 40 per cent….other surveys put him way lower.
And for the first time, one of the President's top advisers….Presidential counsellor Kellyanne Conway…conceded that the President is losing ground with Republican voters.
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Those words, spoken on ABC, represent the first chink in the Presidential armor….never before has a senior White House figure acknowledged that even with his core supporters Donald Trump has some work to do.
He denies it - taking to Twitter to claim that his base "is getting stronger"…..despite what he called 24/7 "Fake News" coverage by CNN, ABC, NBC, CBS, the New York Times and the Washington Post.
But now there is at least one outlet where the President can send his supporters for what he insists is "the real news".
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Kayleigh McEnany was until last week a contributor to CNN….thought apparently not, in Donald Trump's judgement, a purveyor of "fake news".
Because she's got a new gig: anchoring Trump TV….a so-far weekly digest of all the good news in which the President is basking.
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Of course, there wasn't a mention of the Russia investigations….of the Grand Jury now weighing up evidence against the President's relatives….of fury within the President's inner circle over the disastrous roll-out of his proposed ban on transgendered people serving in the military….of former Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci's disgrace and the revolving door that spun him out of the White House.
None of that makes it into the Trump TV bulletin….which ends thus:
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Just as questions were being asked about whether any taxpayer money was being spent to produce such untrammeled propaganda, the Republican National Committee rode to the rescue naming Ms. McEnany as the party's Communications Director.
Quite how she'll cover the growing number of recalcitrant Republican lawmakers blocking the President's legislative agenda….and warning him under no circumstances to fire Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller….we do not yet know.
But it is presumed there will be another edition of the "real news" along later this week.
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