US President Donald Trump speaks during a Coronavirus Task Force press briefing at the White House in Washington, DC. Photo: AFP

US President Donald Trump on Monday fumed at negative media coverage of him playing golf over the Memorial Day weekend, as the US death toll from the coronavirus pandemic neared 100,000.

"The Fake and Totally Corrupt News makes it sound like a mortal sin!" the golf-loving president said on Twitter, noting that the game at his own course in Virginia was the first time he had played since early March.

The timing of his outing, as the nation approached a milestone in deaths from the pandemic, sparked widespread criticism in the media, with commentators recalling Trump's own past attacks on his predecessor Barack Obama for playing the game during the 2014 Ebola outbreak.

"There are times to play and times that you can't play. It sends the wrong signal," Trump said in a statement at the time.

"You know when you're president you sorta say, like, 'I'm gonna give it up for a couple of years and I'm really gonna focus on the job,'" he said in 2014.

After being raked over the coals on the weekend, Trump lambasted the media as being "sick with hatred and dishonesty."

"I knew this would happen!" he said. "What they don't say is that it was my first golf in almost three months, and, if I waited three years, they would do their usual 'hit' pieces anyway."

The Republican leader went on to say that in 2014 Obama flew to his home state of Hawaii shortly after he had publicly denounced the beheading of American hostage James Foley by Islamic State militants. 

Obama apologized for the poorly timed visit afterwards and acknowledged the gravity attached to presidential behavior at such moments.  

Trump received some unexpected support from one-time Obama adviser David Axelrod.

"I don't often defend this @POTUS but I don't begrudge him a round of golf," Axelrod, now a political commentator, said on Twitter.

"Besides, it gives the rest of us a respite from those crazy tweets! Yes, it's hypocritical for @realDonaldTrump to have attacked @BarackObama for seeking some relief from the pressures of the presidency on the golf course when Trump has logged many more rounds," he said. 

AFP