Trump holds solo news conference, defends bashing press

President Donald Trump stepped to the microphone alone today to take reporters' questions, just the second time he'd done so since taking office more than a year ago.

He talked about his desire for countries to remove all barriers to the free flow of goods. He looked ahead to the next big meeting on his schedule a summit in Singapore next week with North Korea's leader. Along the way, Trump bashed the US press and defended why he does it.

"I'd like to ask you why you do that?" said a White House reporter from the news agency Agence France-Presse.

Trump, who is obsessed with his media coverage and has labelled the press "the enemy of the people," defended the steady stream of attacks.

"Because the US press is very dishonest. Much of it, not all of it," Trump said. "Oh, I have some folks in your profession that are with the US, in the US, citizens, proud citizens; they're reporters. These are some of the most outstanding people I know.

"But there are many people in the press that are unbelievably dishonest. They don't cover stories the way they're supposed to be. They don't even report them in many cases if they're positive. So there's tremendous you know, I came up with the term 'fake news.' "It's a lot of 'fake news,' but at the same time I have great respect for many of the people in the press," he said.

During an earlier point in the news conference, Trump referred to a CNN producer's "fake friends at CNN."