White House chief of staff John Kelly has denied calling United States President Donald Trump an "idiot" and has branded the reports doing the rounds as "total BS".
"I spend more time with the President than anyone else and we have an incredibly candid and strong relationship. He always knows where I stand and he and I both know this story is total BS," CNN reported, Kelly as saying in a statement.
"I am committed to the President, his agenda, and our country. This is another pathetic attempt to smear people close to President Trump and distract from the administration's many successes," the statement added.
The NBC News report quoted officials as saying Kelly portrays himself as fighting a lonely battle to curb Trump's erratic impulses and preventing Trump from making reckless policy decisions.
According to the report, "He has referred to Trump as 'an idiot' multiple times to underscore his point, according to four officials who say they've witnessed the comments."
The situation is similar to when reports surfaced that then-Secretary of State Rex Tillerson called Trump a "moron."
The US President took to Twitter to deny such reports and branded them as "false stories" which is based on "only unnamed sources (who don't exist)."
"The Fake News is going crazy making up false stories and using only unnamed sources (who don't exist). They are totally unhinged, and the great success of this Administration is making them do and say things that even they can't believe they are saying. Truly bad people!," Trump tweeted.
NBC News has fired back in its own way.
A journalist on the network Stephanie Ruhle, wrote on Twitter, "As one of the people who worked on the story, I can tell you, it is WELL sourced. As for 'smearing' the President, those on your team recount stories of you (not us) undermining his credibility.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)