‘Total bulls***’: Donald Trump lashes out at aides who spoke to Robert Mueller as US president’s approval rating drops three points to 2019 low

US President Donald Trump lashed out on Friday at current and former aides who cooperated with special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation, insisting the deeply unflattering picture they painted of him and the White House was “total bulls***”.

The outburst came as his approval rating among Americans dropped by three percentage points to the lowest level of the year following the release of a report detailing Russian interference in the last presidential election, according to an exclusive Reuters/Ipsos public opinion poll.

In a series of angry tweets from rainy Palm Beach, Florida, Trump laced into those who, under oath, had shared with Mueller their accounts of how Trump tried numerous times to squash or influence the investigation and portrayed the White House as infected by a culture of lies, deceit and deception.

“Statements are made about me by certain people in the Crazy Mueller Report, in itself written by 18 Angry Democrat Trump Haters, which are fabricated & totally untrue,” Trump wrote, adding that some were “total bulls*** & only given to make the other person look good (or me to look bad).”

The attacks were a dramatic departure from the upbeat public face the White House had put on it just 24 hours earlier, when Trump celebrated the report’s findings as full exoneration and his counsellor Kellyanne Conway called it “the best day” for Trump’s team since his election.

While the president, according to people close to him, did feel vindicated by the report, he also felt betrayed by those who had painted him in an unflattering light – even though they were speaking under oath and had been directed by the White House to cooperate fully with Mueller’s team.