Mum's letter to Trump over daughter's death

US President Donald Trump listens during a meeting with county sheriffs in the Roosevelt Room of the White House. Photo / AP

The mother of a backpacker slain in an Australian hostel has written an open letter to Donald Trump saying her daughter's death shouldn't be politicised by the US President's claim the media is covering up terror attacks.

Trump is standing by his claim yesterday that the media has failed to adequately cover some terror attacks in America and across the globe, including the Sydney Lindt Cafe siege and four other Australian incidents.

After Trump's claim, the White House released a list of 78 terror attacks to support it, but most of the incidents - including the San Bernardino, Orlando nightclub, Paris, Brussels airport - were extensively covered by the media.

The December 2014 Sydney Lindt siege was aired live for hours by CNN to millions of Americans and was front page news on major US newspapers, including the New York Times.

The White House list curiously also included the stabbing of Mia Ayliffe-Chung and fellow Brit Tom Jackson, at a Townsville Hostel in August last year that was deemed a murder, not a terror attack.

Mia's mother Rosie Ayliffe has hit back at the Trump White House.

"My daughter's death will not be used to further this insane persecution of innocent people," she wrote in an open letter to Trump.

The 2014 stabbing of a Victorian Police officer and Australian Federal Police officer at Endeavour Hills police station in Melbourne, the 2015 shooting of NSW Police accountant Curtis Cheng and last year's stabbing of a man in Minto, NSW, were also on the list.

Trump, speaking to reporters today while meeting the National Sheriffs' Association at the White House, said he understood "the total dishonesty of the media better than anybody and I let people know".

"I have to know because I am reported on possibly more than anybody in the world," Trump said.

The President raised eyebrows yesterday when he told US military members at MacDill Air Force Base in Florida terror attacks were happening all over Europe and "it's got to a point where it's not even being reported and, in many cases, the very, very dishonest press doesn't want to report it".

"They have their reasons and you understand that," Trump said.

Media organisations, including Australian Associated Press, refuted the Trump Administration's allegations.

- AAP

White House releases Trump's list of terror attacks 'media ignored' despite widespread international coverage https://t.co/ODoEoqpmC0

— The Independent (@Independent) February 7, 2017