Trump reacts with fury after Morning Joe hosts criticise him for trying to involve Putin in scheme to smear Bidens

The former president called the ‘low-rated’ Morning Joe host Mika Brzezinski ‘psycho’

Donald Trump once again launched an attack on an all-too-familiar target for the former president: Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski, the husband and wife duo who co-host MSNBC’s popular Morning Joe programme alongside Willy Geist.

In his recent attacks on the early morning show, Mr Trump took to airing his grievances on Twitter. But since the Republican politician remains banned from the social media platform, he was forced to rely on tapping into the workaround of posting his statement through his spokesperson’s account, a strategy that has proved successful in the past for getting his vitriolic messages out into the ether.

Spokesperson Liz Harrington shared the former president’s statement on her personal Twitter account Wednesday.

The tweet begins with a caption that acts as a teaser for the statement’s full contents, beginning with: “hear that VERY low-rated ‘Morning Joe’ and his psycho wife, Mika, think that I should not be asking Russia what the $3.5 million that Hunter and Joe got from the Mayor of Moscow’s wife was for. In time, Russia may be willing to give that…”.

Mr Trump’s recent revolt against the morning talk show hosts – attacks which have become so commonplace, the panel has quipped on their show that the former president “can’t quit” them – came in response to comments made during the MSNBC programme’s Wednesday broadcast.

During this segment, the three panelists called out Mr Trump for asking Vladimir Putin to release “dirt” about Hunter Biden’s alleged business dealings in Ukraine and Russia.

Mr Trump’s request, which the hosts described as a “staggering” one to make in the midst of Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, was made during an interview with journalist John Solomon on the Just the News television show.

Though not supported by any evidence, Mr Trump continues to push that the younger Mr Biden received a $3.5m (£2.66m) payment from the widow of late Moscow mayor Yuri Luzhkov. The payment, he continues to falsely claim, would’ve acted as promise of goodwill between the foreign leaders and his father, the then-Democratic presidential candidate.

Mr Trump continued to peddle this false and unverified conspiracy theory about the younger Biden’s business dealings in Eastern Europe throughout the statement posted on Ms Harrington’s Twitter, noting that “in time, Russia may be willing to give that information,” in reference to the dirt he’d requested on the Just the News television programme earlier in the week.

Mr Trump’s raging at the MSNBC television hosts is just the latest episode in a long string of tit-for-tats between the two sides.

On Twitter, back in 2017, when the former president still had access to his blue-check verified account, he went on the attack against Ms Brzezinski, calling her “low I.Q. Crazy Mika”, and added the additional claim that she had been “bleeding badly from a face-lift” during a social gathering at his Mar-a-Lago resort.

In response, Ms Brzezinski shared a photo of a cereal box of Cheerios with the caption: “Made for Little Hands”, a jibe that was intended to reference the size of Mr Trump’s hands.