Trump calls media 'hypocrites' for saying he's too nice to Putin

United States President Donald Trump on Friday hit out at the mainstream news media for the way they acted towards his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin during their bilateral summit at Helsinki earlier this week.

In a tweet, Trump said that he was "severely criticised for being too nice to Putin" before he termed the "fake news media" as "hypocrites."

The US President wrote on the micro-blogging site, "I got severely criticized by the Fake News Media for being too nice to President Putin. In the Old Days they would call it Diplomacy. If I was loud & vicious, I would have been criticized for being too tough. Remember when they said I was too tough with Chairman Kim? Hypocrites!"

Trump touched off a major political controversy following his comments on the alleged meddling of the 2016 US presidential election by Russia at his joint press conference with Putin in Helsinki.

Earlier on Monday, Trump had endorsed Putin's stance on Russia's non-involvement in the 2016 US presidential election, insisting that he ran a clean campaign.

Addressing a joint press conference with his Russian counterpart at the Presidential Palace in Helsinki after their summit, Trump had said that there was "zero collusion" and that he ran a "clean campaign."

The US President had also mentioned that Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 campaign was "a disaster for our country," while also saying that it had negatively impacted US-Russia relations. However, on Tuesday, Trump claimed that he misspoke on the issue.

Taking a complete U-turn on election meddling, Trump on Wednesday blamed Putin for Moscow's alleged attempts in interfering in the 2016 election.

In a CBS interview with anchor Jeff Glor earlier this week, the US President had said that he held Putin "personally responsible" for the election interference.