US President Donald Trump raged on Wednesday at a New York Times report that focused on his age and growing signs of fatigue, insisting that he is full of energy and calling the woman author of the article "ugly."
"I have never worked so hard in my life. Yet despite all of this the Radical Left Lunatics in the soon to fold New York Times did a hit piece on me that I am perhaps losing my Energy, despite facts that show the exact opposite," the 79-year-old Republican posted on his Truth Social platform.
Trump is the oldest person ever to have assumed the US presidency and the job has clearly weighed on him since starting a second term in January.
But in the lengthy post, sprinkled with words in all-caps and a misspelling, Trump said the Times article published Tuesday was ignoring his output.
He listed what he said were his many accomplishments, ranging from the election victory last year to a strong US stock market and the settling of wars abroad.
He also boasted that he recently underwent a "PERFECT PHYSICAL EXAM AND A COMPREHENSIVE COGNITIVE TEST ('That was aced') JUST RECENTLY TAKEN."
Trump does remain an omnipresent figure in the media, frequently fielding questions from journalists for marathon sessions -- in sharp contrast to his predecessor Joe Biden, who left office at 81.
But while the White House public relations machine continues to portray Trump as improbably virile -- creating AI-generated pictures of him as muscle-bound superheroes and warriors -- the Republican is visibly slowing down.
The report in the influential Times noted that Trump has sharply reduced his public events and domestic travel, compared to his first term, and generally runs a public schedule between the hours of noon and 5:00 pm.
During one televised event in the Oval Office earlier this month, Trump appeared to fall asleep briefly.
There are unanswered questions about Trump's health, notably why he had an MRI scan in October and what it showed. Photographs of his swollen ankles and a large bruise on his right hand have also triggered speculation.
Trump called the Times "truly an 'ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE.'"
And he branded the female reporter who wrote the Times report "ugly, both inside and out." Earlier this month, he called another woman journalist "piggy" and yet another "a terrible person."
The Times responded to Trump's post with a statement saying its "reporting is accurate and built on first hand reporting of the facts."
"Name-calling and personal insults don't change that, nor will our journalists hesitate to cover this administration in the face of intimidation tactics like this."
