A trio of Republican senators reacted sharply today to US President Donald Trump's latest apparent defence of Russian President Vladimir Putin, rejecting Trump's suggestion in an interview that America cannot claim moral superiority to Putin's Russia.
Trump's remarks came in an interview with Fox News Channel's Bill O'Reilly that was previewed yesterday and is set to be broadcast in full today before the Super Bowl.
Donald Trump has unleashed a furious response to an expose that takes an unflattering look at his first two weeks inside the White House.
The President has blown up on Twitter, saying the article, appearing on the front page of today's New York Times, is "total fiction".
The story, entitled"Trump and Staff Rethink Tactics After Stumble", contains embarrassing descriptions of Trump inside the White House, including him ranting in his bathrobe and his staffers literally struggling to turn on the lights in some rooms.
Based on anonymous accounts from government officials, congressional aides and other insiders, the Times reveals that the Trump administration is reconsidering its strategies in the wake of a tough couple of weeks.
Among the insights that have got under Trump's skin is the claim that his aides are literally fumbling around in the dark because they can't operate the light switches in the cabinet room.
Then there's the detail that Trump enjoys watching TV in his bathrobe. (To be fair, who doesn't?)
The article highlights how it has been a chaotic fortnight for the President and shows how he wasn't fully briefed before signing an executive order elevating his adviser Stephen Bannon to the National Security Council.
President Donald Trump waves to the crowd as he steps off from Air Force One. Photo / AP
The piece has once again drawn anger from the President, who has long accused the New York Times of waging a campaign of "fake news" against him.
In a tweet overnight, Mr Trump not only accused the paper of getting it wrong for the past two years, but repeated his claim that it makes up stories about him.
The President repeated a claim that the Times is "failing", despite the fact that subscriptions to the masthead have increased tenfold compared to the previous year. Figures show the paper actually added 276,000 digital subscriptions in the past three months of last year, according to the Financial Times.
Here are five of the things we learned about the workings of Trump and his new administration from the New York Times expose.
THE WHITE HOUSE IS IN THE DARK Trump and his aides are still evidently finding their feet and apparently also their way around the 132-room White House.
According to the Times, Trump's aides often work in the dark because they cannot work out how to turn on the lights. Further to that, they are having trouble with doorknobs, testing various ones after their meetings until they find one that leads to an exit.
And the aides are not the only ones in the dark.
Kellyanne Conway, left, and senior adviser Steve Bannon. Photo / AP
Mr Trump's trusted aide Steve Bannon works in a "darkened, mostly empty West Wing ... planning new lines of attack", the article reveals.
While Trump retires upstairs about 6.30pm to "recharge, vent and intermittently use Twitter", Bannon works 16-hour days.
TRUMP IS IMAGE CONSCIOUS He may lead one of the world's most powerful nations, but just like the everyday person, the President wants to be comfortable.
Trump likes to watch TV in his bathrobe. When he's not doing that or not on his phone, he sometimes likes to explore the "unfamiliar surroundings of his new home".
But when it comes to the Oval Office, Mr Trump is obsessed with decor, going so far as to tell staff to schedule televised events there as much as possible.
Trump likes to show visitors the newly hung golden drapes, which he said were once used by Franklin D Roosevelt. But they were actually designed for Bill Clinton.
TRUMP'S TEAM IS SMALL AND CHAOTIC Not only is Trump's team small but the President is reportedly frustrated by its inability to control the backlash on his executive orders.
A former staffer told the Times the aggressive approach seen in first two weeks of the presidency was like D-Day but the President and his team had "stormed the beaches without any plan for a longer war".
The crew consists of "no more than a half-dozen empowered aides with virtually no familiarity with the workings of the White House or federal government", the article states.
THE PRESIDENT LOVES CABLE TV Now he's in the White House, Trump doesn't have as much access to his supporters and fans as he once had and is feeling "increasingly pinched by the pressures of the job". To try and understand what's going on outside the White House walls, Trump watches cable news.
Some aides say he watches too much cable and spends a lot of time criticising his critics.
TRUMP THINKS HE IS DOING GREAT Still in the honeymoon period, Trump has told friends, advisers and anyone who will listen that his first couple of weeks as President were going well.
He even apparently mocked an aide who dared to question this view during a West Wing meeting last week, saying "Did you hear that, this guy thinks it's been terrible!"
However, this view is changing after a backlash to his executive orders and run of bad media.
A CNN-Opinion Research Company poll last week found most Americans were opposed to Trump's ban on travellers from seven Muslim-majority countries and his plan to build a wall to keep Mexicans out of the US.
Fifty-five per cent of those surveyed were against the travel ban and six in 10 opposed the Mexican border wall.
TRUMP'S TWITTER TIRADE AGAINST MEDIA This isn't the first time, and won't be the last, that the President has criticised a media outlet.
Hours ago, Trump lashed out at mainstream polls that showed his controversial travel ban was unpopular.
The tweets follow a US federal appeals court decision, which turned down the White House's emergency request to resume Mr Trump's executive order on immigration.
Any negative polls are fake news, just like the CNN, ABC, NBC polls in the election. Sorry, people want border security and extreme vetting.
