Video PlayerClose WASHINGTON, Sept. 7 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday again brushed off media allegations that he disparaged slain U.S. service members by referring to them as "losers" and "suckers."
An article published in The Atlantic on Thursday, quoting anonymous sources, claimed Trump made the remarks when he visited France in 2018. The president cancelled a trip to a French cemetery where American soldiers killed in World War I were buried at the time.
"Only an animal would say that," Trump said at a press conference in the White House, adding the article's author, The Atlantic Editor-in-Chief Jeffrey Goldberg, is pro-Democrat and has a "tremendously bad history."
"He (Goldberg) made up the story, it's a totally made-up story," Trump said.
One day earlier, Goldberg said the article was just the tip of the iceberg.
"I would fully expect more reporting to come out about this and more confirmation and new pieces of information in the coming days and weeks," Goldberg told cnn on Sunday. cnn has confirmed several aspects of The Atlantic's reporting, also with sources who chose to remain anonymous.
Trump has previously described Goldberg as a "slimeball" and called for the firing of a Fox News reporter who also confirmed some details of the article.
The latest Military Times poll, conducted before the Democratic and GOP conventions as well as The Atlantic's reporting, showed a steady decline in troops' opinion of the commander in chief since his election four years ago.
Among active-duty service members surveyed in the poll, 41 percent said they would vote for Joe Biden, the Democratic nominee, while 37 percent said they plan to vote to re-elect Trump.
In a poll conducted at the start of Trump's presidency, 46 percent of troops had a favorable view of him, versus 37 percent who had an unfavorable opinion, according to a Military Times report.