Trump defends playing golf in rambling Twitter rant as US coronavirus death toll nears 100,000

Donald Trump has defended his decision to play golf twice over the Memorial Day weekend as the death toll from the coronavirus pandemic continues to mount.

In a series of rambling tweets, the president argued that he played in order to "get outside" for "a little exercise", before complaining about the media scrutiny.

He then attempted to deflect attention away towards former vice president Joe Biden, and former president Barack Obama, accusing the latter of extravagant trips to Hawaii to play golf.

The US is currently nearing the grim milestone of 100,000 officially recorded deaths from Covid-19.

More follows...