Trump 'yells at TV while dining on chicken and burgers with Pence'

President ditches longstanding presidential tradition of holding one-on-one meals with deputy

Donald Trump reportedly yells at cable news during White House lunches with Mike Pence in which they dine on plates of chicken and cheeseburgers.

According to The Atlantic, Mr Trump has ditched a longstanding presidential tradition of holding one-on-one meals with his vice-president.

Instead, the billionaire allegedly invites both his and Mr Pence’s aides to the lunches, which are held in a small dining room off the Oval Office. There he keeps a big screen TV tuned into cable news.

Aides told the magazine they have walked in on lunches to see Mr Trump “yelling at the TV as he sits with Pence and their deputies over plates of chicken and cheeseburgers”.

When he sees something on the TV he disapproves of, sources said Mr Trump would sometimes interrupt the lunch to summon advisers to discuss a response.

Mr Trump’s cable news habit, even over lunch, comes amid an apparent escalation in recent weeks of his attacks on US media outlets, who he baselessly accused over the weekend of being “corrupt and getting worse”.

On Sunday, he claimed without evidence New York Times journalists “lie and cheat anyway possible”, and on Friday complained about the newspaper’s choice of page for a negative story about a lawyer who served in the Obama White House.

The White House has been contacted for comment.