Washington, August 19 (RHC)-- U.S. President Donald Trump has once again lashed out at the media, accusing them of deliberately giving him negative coverage to affect his approval ratings.  The Republican head of state went on a twitter tirade on Sunday, blasting The New York Times for chasing what he called a “racism witch hunt.”

In his tweets, Trump complained that the Times was changing its focus from Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into his ties with Russia into portraying him as a racist, because Mueller could not prove he colluded with Moscow.

Trump's tweet reads: "The Failing New York Times, in one of the most devastating portrayals of bad journalism in history, got caught by a leaker that they are shifting from their Phony Russian Collusion Narrative (the Mueller Report & his testimony were a total disaster), to a Racism Witch Hunt."  Trump was referring to a leaked transcript of an alleged meeting of the newspaper's executive editor, Dean Baquet, with staff last week.

The meeting came after the Times stirred controversy by running a headline that criticized Trump response to an apparently racially-motivated mass shooting that killed 23 people in El Paso, Texas a few days back.

Trump's disapproval rating has jumped to 56 percent in a Fox News poll.  The president made the remarks after a Fox New poll showed that his disapproval ratings had reached 56 percent this week, 5 points more than last time and just one point short of a record high.

Another Fox News channel also put Trump behind his potential 2020 Democrat presidential rivals, including former Vice President Joe Biden as well as Senators Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and Kamala Harris.

Trump frequently attacks news coverage of his administration he considers unfavorable as "fake news."  He has regarded the Times and several other outlets as “the absolute enemy” of the American people.