Mr Trump retweeted a post made by Dinesh D’Souza, a conservative commentator and prominent critic of former President Barack Obama, that implied that the media has purposefully downplayed violence from left-wing demonstrators and blaming the right.

“Finally, as if by accident, the Washington Post breaks down & admits the truth about where the violence is coming from,” Mr D’Souza wrote in that post.

Mr D’Souza linked to a Washington Post article that cited the Associated Press, noting that “black-clad antifa”  - short for anti-fascist - demonstrators had “stormed into what had been a largely peaceful Berkeley protest against hate and attacked at least five people.”