Donald Trump's voicemails hacked by Anonymous

Donald Trump's voicemail has allegedly been hacked by members of Anonymous, the loose group of hackers and activists.

The 2012 messages appear to show leading figures in the US media showering him with praise, compliments, and thanks for his financial support.

Gawker, which acquired the messages from members of the '/b/' forum on the website 4chan, say that although they cannot "independently verify their authenticity", the recordings "certainly appear to be genuine."

Anonymous "declared war" on Mr Trump last December, after he announced plans to ban all Muslims from entering the US.

As figureheads of America's top left-leaning television network, MSNBC news anchors Joe Scarborough, Mika Brzezinski and Tamron Hall have been tasked with cross-examining Mr Trump on several occasions during the Republican primary campaign.

But on the Anonymous recordings then Mr Scarborough and Ms Brzezinski, the co-hosts of a morning show on MSNBC, can be heard thanking Trump profusely for his donation to a charity event.

"You must be, like, on your jet or something," says Ms Brzezinski once the call goes to answerphone. "We'd love to talk to you."

Mr Scarborough says: "We are so, so grateful for everything, Donald, and we just want to call you and tell you how much it means to us," before Ms Brzezinski continues to thank the billionaire tycoon for his donation.

In behind-the-scenes audio leaked from an MSNBC interview in February, Mr Trump instructs Mr Scarborough and Ms Brezinski to "make us all look good", and asks for "nothing too hard" when Ms Brezinski asks if she should question him about his immigration policies.

Tweets posted by Mr Scarborough appear to confirm the authenticity of the messages in which he can be heard speaking.

"Oh my God. I just read the transcripts! Trump must have contributed to a children's charity. Scandalous!!!!" he writes, before continuing: "Should Mika and I now apologise for raising money for children's charities from rich people?"

A woman identifying herself as “T Hall”, believed to be MSNBC's Tamron Hall, can be heard on the recording saying she was going to use Mr Trump's discount in a luxury clothing store.

She says: “I celebrated by going to Gucci, and I’m going to use your discount, because there’s a green dress that’s like $3,000, and I need a discount bigger than... my discount.“

In one message, Ms Hall does appear to castigate Mr Trump for questioning whether Barack Obama was born in the USA, and she has repeatedly challenged Mr Trump and his spokespeople during this election cycle.

Another video was also released in which hackers appeared to gain access to the administration rights of Mr Trump's answerphone and change his voicemail greeting.

The messages may also provoke awkward questions for Mr Trump. He has repeatedly distanced himself from what many of his supporters perceive as a liberal elite in the media.

He has described the media as “dishonest scum” and “lying, disgusting people”, and said that he he “hates” journalists, although he “would never kill them”.

Barack Obama's aide David Axelrod can also be heard thanking Mr Trump for donating to his epilepsy charity. Other celebrities who can be heard speaking in a friendly, personal manner to the oligarch include American football star Tom Brady and boxing promoter Don King.

On 12 December 2015, a day after declaring “war” on Mr Trump, Anonymous hackers took his website offline for around an hour.