According to The Atlantic magazine, when Mr Trump cancelled a visit to the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery outside Paris in November 2018, 100 years after the end of World War One, he said it was “filled with losers”.

Four sources told the magazine he had rejected the idea of visiting because the rain would dishevel his hair, and he did not believe it important to honour America’s war dead.

During the same trip, the president also allegedly referred to 1,800 US soldiers who died at Belleau Wood as “suckers”. The battle helped to prevent a German advance on Paris during World War One and is venerated by the US Marine Corps.

The Atlantic’s reporting was based on anonymous sources but a “senior Defense Department official with first-hand knowledge of events” and a “senior U.S. Marine Corps officer who was told about Trump’s comments” confirmed the cemetery comments to AP.

Without referring to Jeffrey Goldberg, the author of the Atlantic report, by name, he tweeted on Saturday: “You work so hard for the military, from completely rebuilding a depleted mess that was left by OBiden [the previous presidential administration when Joe Biden was vice-president to Barack Obama], to fixing a broken V.A. and fighting for large scale military pay raises, and then a slimeball reporter, maybe working with disgruntled people, makes up such a horrible charge..”

Mr Trump went on to attack another journalist, Jennifer Griffin of Fox News, normally one of the president’s favourite news outlets.

Griffin had reported disparaging remarks about the US military allegedly made by Mr Trump on other occasions such as calling soldiers who fought in the Vietnam War “suckers”.

“Jennifer Griffin should be fired for this kind of reporting,” Mr Trump tweeted. “Never even called us for comment. @FoxNews is gone!”

White House officials have either denied the remarks allegedly made on the trip to France or stressed the president’s respect for the military.

I don’t like to get political on this blog. When I check out editorial cartoons, 99.9 percent of them are anti-Trump. Wonder why that is? Getting back to the real situation. Trump has got to go. He doesn’t have the temperment, patience, intelligence or basic understanding of the office to be president. I contend this guy is dangerous. We don’t even know if he will accept the results of the election in November if he loses. This Trump nightmare has to end.

Donald Trump may not be qualified or competent enough to be President of the United States, but one thing he is very competent at, is name calling.  From “Sleepycreepy” Joe Biden, “Crooked Hillary” Clinton, “Mini Mike” Michael Bloomberg, “Slimeball” James Comey, ‘Al Frankenstein” Al Franken, “Basically braindead Bernie” Bernie Sanders and many many more.

Such bizarre presidential behaviour. But the strange thing is Trump’s base and supporters like the name calling. They like the way he ‘tells it like it is’. Where has social decorum gone?

But now Trump has come up with a nickname for covid-19. Kung Flu!

White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany on Monday defended President Donald Trump’s use of the term “Kung Flu” in referring to COVID-19 at a rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

McEnany said Trump’s rhetoric Saturday was an indictment of China rather than Asian Americans. Experts, however, said that besides being offensive to both groups, the excuse doesn’t hold up because Asians and Asian Americans are often viewed as a monolith because of implicit bias, the history of the racial group in the U.S. and the current political climate.

Asian American advocacy groups responded to Trump’s use of the racist phrase, which he used after joking that the coronavirus “has more names than any disease in history.”

“I can name ‘kung flu,'” Trump told the crowd. “I can name 19 different versions of names.”

“It’s not a discussion about Asian Americans, who the president values and prizes as citizens of this great country,” McEnany said. “It is an indictment of China for letting the virus get here.”

But Andy Kang, executive director of the civil rights nonprofit Asian Americans Advancing Justice-Chicago, told NBC News that given the political and racial environment of the U.S., Trump’s words could have harmful consequences.

“We’re currently in the middle of a global pandemic that has caused a tremendous amount of suffering, both in economic terms and, more importantly, lives lost. On top of that, it’s a presidential election year,” he said. “With such an emotionally charged political atmosphere, it’s irresponsible and reckless for our political leaders and candidates for our nation’s highest office to engage in rhetoric that incites xenophobic scapegoating and violence.”

WASHINGTON — Officials in Tulsa, Okla., are warning that President Trump’s planned campaign rally on Saturday — his first in over three months — is likely to worsen an already troubling spike in coronavirus infections and could become a disastrous “super spreader.”

They are pleading with the Trump campaign to cancel the event, slated for a 20,000-person indoor arena — or at least move it outdoors.

“It’s the perfect storm of potential over-the-top disease transmission,” said Bruce Dart, the executive director of the Tulsa health department. “It’s a perfect storm that we can’t afford to have.”