Trump defends EPA chief and denies plotting to replace Sessions in latest Twitter freak-out

President Donald Trump on Friday lashed out at media speculation that he planned to name current Environmental Protection Agency chief Scott Pruitt as his new attorney general.

"Do you believe that the Fake News Media is pushing hard on a story that I am going to replace A.G. Jeff Sessions with EPA Chief Scott Pruitt, who is doing a great job but is TOTALLY under siege?" the president wrote. "Do people really believe this stuff? So much of the media is dishonest and corrupt!"

Pruitt for the past couple of weeks has been beset by multiple scandals, including his decision to rent a room at a luxury condo for $50 a night from the wife of an oil lobbyist, his alleged decision to bypass White House recommendations while giving two top aides massive pay increases, and his alleged punishment of EPA staffers who questioned his spending priorities.

As for Sessions, the president has not been shy about ripping into his own attorney general for not doing enough to investigate his political foes. Earlier this year, Trump on Twitter told his followers to ask Sessions — whose name the president initially misspelled as “Jeff Session” — why Democrats weren’t being investigated for “crimes” related to Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election.

And last summer, Trump called Sessions “beleaguered” and “weak” because he was not sufficiently investigating former Democratic rival Hillary Clinton over her use of a private email server during her tenure as secretary of state.