Trump, again on Twitter, continues criticism of media

WASHINGTON –– President Donald Trump renewed his attacks on the media early Sunday, hours after news that his campaign paid $50,000 in late June to the law firm later revealed to be representing Donald Trump Jr. in the matter of a meeting during 2016 with a Russian lawyer to seek damaging information on Hillary Clinton.

“With all of its phony unnamed sources & highly slanted & even fraudulent reporting, #Fake News is DISTORTING DEMOCRACY in our country,” Trump wrote.

Separately, an ABC/Washington Post poll released Sunday showed Trump’s approval rating at the six-month mark of his term at 36 percent, down 6 points from a survey taken after his first 100 days. The previous president closest to that level after six months into his term was Gerald Ford, at 39 percent, in February 1975.

About 63 percent of those polled said it was inappropriate for Trump’s son, son-in-law Jared Kushner and campaign manager Paul Manafort to have met with a Russian lawyer offering information on Clinton. Sixty percent said Russia tried to influence the campaign and, among those who say so, 67 percent said Trump aides helped, similar to results in April.

The president defended his son, writing that “Hillary Clinton can illegally get the questions to the Debate & delete 33,000 emails but my son Don is being scorned by the Fake News Media?”

The president was at his golf resort in Bedminster, N.J., and planned to spend part of Sunday watching the U.S. Women’s Open golf tournament for a third day before returning to Washington.

The ABC/Post poll was conducted by landline and mobile phone July 10-13, in English and Spanish, among a random sample of 1,001 adults. It had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percent.