U.S. President Donald Trump ordered the firing of his national security correspondent from the Fox News network after denying reports that he had fired the army-a bombshell that has been dogging him for two days.

Trump came under fire after The Atlantic magazine claimed that he had named "losers" and "suckers" marines killed in action in World War I in connection with a visit to France in November 2018 in which he missed a visit to a military cemetery in the United States.

On Saturday, Fox News reporter Jennifer Griffin said two former officials of the administration had confirmed to her that the president "did not want to drive to honor the American war dead" at the Aisne-Marne cemetery outside Paris, suggesting that the weather was not a factor.

One official also told her Trump had used the word "suckers" to denigrate the military, but in a different context related to the Vietnam War.

"When the president spoke about the Vietnam War, he said, 'It was a stupid war. Anyone who went was a sucker'," she quoted the unnamed official as saying.

"It was a character flaw of the president. He could not understand why someone would die for their country, not worth it," the source said.

Trump has furiously defended himself in the wake of the story in The Atlantic, tweeting and retweeting stories condemning it as "fake news".

"You work so hard for the military, from completely rebuilding a depleted mess that was left by OBiden, to fixing a broken V.A. and fighting for large scale military pay raises, and then a slimeball reporter, maybe working with disgruntled people, makes up such a horrible charge," a furious Trump tweeted on Saturday. See Tweet Below

A day earlier, the US president had tweeted: "Jennifer Griffin should be fired for this kind of reporting. Never even called us for comment. @FoxNews is gone!"

According to The Atlantic, in a conversation with senior staff members, on the morning of the visit, Trump said: "Why should I go to that cemetery? It's filled with losers."

The official explanation for that missed visit was bad weather.

The habitually Trump-friendly Fox News has been criticised for seemingly sidelining Griffin's reporting in its coverage of the story.

On Saturday a report was headlined on its website: "Sources deny that Trump's nixed visit to the military cemetery over contempt for slain veterans."

Several of Griffin 's colleagues at Fox, along with Republican congressman Adam Kinzinger, have publicly defended her on Twitter, calling her "equal and fearless."

"I can assure you that my sources are incontrovertible," Griffin said on-air Saturday on her network. "My sources are not confidential to me, and I doubt that the President is confidential."

Just before The Atlantic published its story, a poll by the Military Times and the Syracuse University Institute for Veterans and Military Families found that just 37.4 percent of active-duty personnel support Trump's re-election bid, while 43.1 percent back Joe Biden.

SOURCE: Al Jazeera and news agencies