Donald Trump 'watches up to eight hours of TV and drinks 12 Diet Cokes' every day, say friends

Donald Trump usually starts the day by watching TV and tweeting from his bed, according to a survey of his close circle.

Waking at 5.30am every day, the president reportedly tunes in to CNN, which he has discredited, as well as "Fox & Friends" and MSNBC's "Morning Joe" - beginning the four to eight hours a day the 71-year-old spends watching telly.

He then picks up his iPhone, either still in bed or in the den next door.

Sometimes he does not send his first tweet until he goes to the Treaty Room, where he takes a series of official and unofficial calls.

TV news shapes the president's views and mood until he goes to bed just after midnight, according to a questionnaire by the New York Times of 60 of Mr Trump's advisers, friends, and members of Congress.

The research suggested that the president watches TV to reinforce his own beliefs and get him fired up for the daily battle of defending himself against what he sees as attacks on his legitimacy.

He drinks up to a dozen Diet Cokes a day and broadcasts his views to anybody in the room who will listen, the newspaper found.

“He feels like there’s an effort to undermine his election and that collusion allegations are unfounded,” Senator Lindsey Graham, a Republican from South Carolina, told the New York Times. Senator Graham has spent a large amount of time with the president and is seen as a key ally.

“He believes passionately that the liberal left and the media are out to destroy him,” he added.

Mr Trump has not responded directly to the article, but yesterday tweeted: "Things are going really well for our economy, a subject the Fake News spends as little time as possible discussing!"