Trump wants reporter fired for posting phoney photo

San Francisco, Dec 10: US President Dold Trump demanded an apology from a reporter and asked the company to fire him after he tweeted a “phoney photo”.

Trump on Saturday slammed The Washington Post reporter Dave Weigel over a tweet in which he incorrectly called into question Trump’s claim about the crowd size at his Friday night rally in Florida.

According to a report on nymag.com, Weigel posted an image showing Trump’s Pensacola rally venue mostly empty, with a message quoting Trump’s later assertion that the are was “packed to the rafters”.

The photo that was shared was taken before all the rallygoers or the President had arrived. The venue was later filled with people.

Weigel quickly deleted the tweet after another jourlist pointed out his error.

Later in the day, Trump accused Weigel and the news organisation of willingly using a “phony photo” and spreading fake news.

“DaveWeigel WashingtonPost put out a phoney photo of an empty are hours before I arrived @ the venue, w/ thousands of people outside, on their way in. Real photos now shown as I spoke. Packed house, many people uble to get in. Demand apology and retraction from FAKE NEWS WaPo!,” Trump tweeted.

Weigel responded in three minutes and apologised for his mistake.

“Sure thing: I apologise. I deleted the photo after @dmartosko told me I’d gotten it wrong. Was confused by the image of you walking in the bottom right corner,” the reporter tweeted.

“It was a bad tweet on my persol account, not a story for Washington Post,” he added.

Soon after the apology, Trump said Weigel should be fired. (IANS)