Trump phoned Fox News to complain coverage of him was not supportive enough

Donald Trump called the chief executive of Fox News to complain the coverage he was receiving on the right wing news outlet was not supportive enough, it has been reported.

The news network has often been criticised for its vociferous defences of the president – accused of producing pro-Trump administration “propaganda” by media outlets and political figures alike.

However the president, a regular viewer of the channel, is said to be unhappy over occasional criticism of his tenure in the White House – with the New York Times reporting Mr Trump phoned Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott to complain he was being treated unfairly late this summer.

She went on to urge the president to sit for an interview with the network’s Bret Baier in an attempt to placate him, an offer Mr Baier himself put forward on live TV in August after Mr Trump was unhappy with a series of polls run by the network.

Addressing the president’s criticism at the time that the network was “a lot different than it used to be”, Mr Baier said: “Fox has not changed – we have a news side and an opinion side”.

More recently the president’s annoyance over polling numbers has prompted him to heap criticism on Fox News yet again. In the wake of the Democratic party’s move to remove Mr Trump from office, a recent poll published by the network found 51 per cent believed the president should be impeached.

The same day Mr Trump took out his frustrations over the survey on Twitter, writing: “From the day I announced I was running for President, I have NEVER had a good Fox News poll.

"Whoever their pollster is, they suck. But Fox News is also much different than it used to be in the good old days."

He has continued to disparage the network and its hosts in the days since, bringing up broadcaster Chris Wallace’s reporting on his phone call with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky.

Placing support behind the full whistleblowers' complaint against Mr Trump, the Fox host said “The whistle blower says that there was a troubling call in which the president asked the Ukrainian president to look at, and investigate, the allegation of misdoing by Vice President Biden and his son – we now have a rough transcript of that phone call and that’s exactly what happened.”

On Sunday, after repeated scepticism from the journalist, Mr Trump hit back on Twitter - writing: “Somebody please explain to Chris Wallace of Fox, who will never be his father (and my friend), Mike Wallace, that the Phone Conversation I had with the President of Ukraine was a congenial & good one,”

The president has regularly compared Mr Wallace to his father, the former CBS 60 minutes host who died in 2012. Last month the Fox newscaster is reported to have told advertisers: “He often likes to say about me, ‘You know, I was covered by Mike Wallace, I liked him much more – to which my reaction is always: One of us has a daddy problem, and it’s not me.”