Trump attacks Fox News reporters and mistakenly names random teenage girl on Twitter
US president rails against failure to secure funding for US-Mexico border wall
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Your support makes all the difference.Donald Trump has launched a furious attack on two Fox News reporters over their coverage of his border wall negotiations, and accidentally involved a random teenage girl in the ensuing furore.
In a tweet, the US president criticised chief White House correspondent John Roberts and and another person he wrongly believed was Washington-based journalist Gillian Turner over their “understanding” of the issue.
But instead of naming Ms Turner in his tweet, he included the Twitter handle of a teenager from California named Jillian Turner.
“Never thought I’d say this but I think @johnrobertsFox and @JillianTurner @FoxNews have even less understanding of the Wall negotiations than the folks at FAKE NEWS CNN & NBC!” Mr Trump tweeted.
“Look to final results! Don’t know how my poll numbers are so good, especially up 19% with Hispanics?” he added, referring to a poll published earlier this month showing 50 per cent of Hispanics approved of his job performance.
The president later deleted the tweet and reposted it with the correct Twitter handle, @GillianHTurner, but not before Jillian Turner was caught up in the thousands of responses routinely generated by any of Mr Trump’s tweets.
Ms Turner said she was “kinda pissed” over the president’s mistake.
It is unclear what coverage by Mr Roberts and Ms Turner the president was referring to, though both appeared on Fox News Sunday over the weekend.
Fox News has been contacted for comment.
Mr Trump’s outburst comes just days after he caved in to increasing pressure to reopen the government without securing $5.7bn (£4.3bn) in funding for his proposed “steel slats” border wall across the US-Mexico border.
He agreed on Friday to sign a spending bill keeping federal agencies open for three weeks while negotiations between Republicans and Democrats continue over border security.
But he threatened another government shutdown if talks fail to deliver on his wall demands, and suggested he may use emergency presidential powers to bypass Congress completely.
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