'They will say Donald Trump rants and raves': Trump lashes out in extended rant at 'out of control' media

President Donald Trump on Thursday gave an extended press conference blasting the media, occasionally seeming to anticipate how reporters would cover the briefing.

After briefly announcing his new pick to lead the US Department of Labor, the president launched into an extended tirade lamenting media coverage, particularly taking aim at reports of the leaks about Trump campaign's relationship with Russia and Trump's calls with foreign leaders.

"I turn on the TV, open the newspapers, and I see stories of chaos, chaos. Yet it is the exact opposite. This administration is running like a fine-tuned machine," Trump said.

Trump slammed the press, saying media outlets were "out of control," insisting that while the leaks were "real,"
the "news is fake."

The president particularly took aim at CNN, claiming - without singling out any particular areas - that he sees "many untruthful things" in the network's reporting.

"You look at your show that goes on at 10 in the evening. That is a constant hit. The panel is almost always exclusively anti-Trump. The good news is he doesn't have good ratings," Trump said.

The president continued:

"When I go to rallies they start screaming at CNN, they want to throw their placards at CNN. I think you would do much better by being different. But just take a look at some of your shows in the morning and the evening, if a guest comes out and says something positive about me, it's brutal. Now they'll take this news conference - I'm actually having a very good time. Don't forget, that's how I won, I used to give a news conference every day. That's how I won, with news conference, and probably speeches. I certainly didn't win with people listening to you people. But I'm having a good time. Tomorrow they will say 'Donald Trump rants and raves.' I'm not ranting and raving. I'm just telling you people."

Though reporting on his statements and internal staff strife regularly provoked verbal outrage from Trump on the campaign trail, he's been equally vocally outraged at the media in his first weeks in the White House.