US President Donald Trump spends up to eight hours per day watching television, including mainstream news networks such as CNN, Fox and MSNBC, a new report has revealed.

Citing people close to Trump, major US-based daily The New York Times reported Saturday that the American president sits in front of a TV at least four hours and up to eight hours each day.

According to the report, the only person allowed to touch the remote control for the White House television is Trump himself and the technical support staff at his official residence in Washington.

However, during his trip to Asia last month Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One that he does not watch much television because he is too busy “reading documents.”

“Believe it or not, even when I’m in Washington or New York, I do not watch much television,” Trump said. “People that don’t know me, they like to say I watch television — people with fake sources. You know, fake reporters, fake sources.”

“But I don’t get to watch much television, primarily because of documents. I’m reading documents a lot,” Trump further insisted. “I actually read much more — I read you people much more than I watch television.”

This is while the American president had previously emphasized that he has “very little time for watching TV,” despite often tweeting about Fox News and CNN segments immediately after they air live.

According to the report, Trump spoke to reporters about his TV-watching habit after The Times presented the White House with a long list of fact-checking questions, including one about how often the US president watches television.
The daily further reported that “Trump begins each day around 5:30 am by turning on CNN before quickly flipping to Fox News’s Fox & Friends.”

It then cited “Trump’s friends” as saying that he occasionally watches MSNBC’s Morning Joe “because it works him up.”

Trump’s favorite programs include Fox & Friends as well as Fox News primetime shows from Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham and Jeanine Pirro, while he sometimes “hate-watches” CNN host Don Lemon.

Meanwhile, Time magazine also reported that Trump has a 60-inch flat screen TV installed in his private White House dining room.