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Trump’s son, UN envoy in backlash over Grammy skit

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Trump's eldest son, top US diplomat slam reading of controversial book at music awards

NEW YORK:  A Grammys skit poking fun at US President Donald Trump sparked a backlash on Twitter from Mr Trump's eldest son and the ambassador to the United Nations.

In lighthearted political commentary during the music industry's biggest award night on Sunday, host James Corden introduced a video of famous names reciting from the controversial book, FireAnd Fury: Inside The Trump White House.

Published early this month and written by Michael Wolff, the instant bestseller paints Mr Trump as disengaged, ill-informed and unstable.

The Grammy video shows musicians John Legend, Cher, Snoop Dogg, Cardi B and DJ Khaled reading short excerpts and sometimes interjecting their own comments.

"I definitely wasn't there," Snoop Dogg said after reading a passage about Mr Trump's inauguration. Cardi B quoted a line referring to Mr Trump in bed with a cheeseburger. "I can't believe this," she said.

The Grammy video ends with Mrs Hillary Clinton, who lost to Mr Trump in the bitter 2016 election, quoting the book as saying Mr Trump liked to eat at McDonald's.

"The Grammy's in the bag," Mrs Clinton quips about her performance, which prompted Mr Trump's son Donald Trump Jr to respond on Twitter: "Getting to read a #fakenews book excerpt at the Grammys seems like a great consolation prize for losing the presidency."

He added that the more Mrs Clinton appears on TV, "the more the American people realise how awesome it is to have @realDonaldTrump in office."

Mr Trump's UN ambassador, Ms Nikki Haley, left Mrs Clinton alone but said the musicians had struck a sour note.

"I have always loved the Grammys but to have artists read the Fire And Fury book killed it," she said on Twitter. "Don't ruin great music with trash. Some of us love music without the politics thrown in it."

In a separate development, Mr Trump may have added more fuel to the ridicule fire when he said in an interview that he sometimes tweets from bed, though he occasionally allows others to post his words.

Mr Trump frequently uses Twitter to announce policy, assail his adversaries and tangle with countries, including North Korea, over world affairs. The @realDonaldTrump account had 47.2 million users as of Sunday.

"If I don't have that form of communication, I can't defend myself," Mr Trump said in an interview broadcast on Sunday. "I get a lot of fake news, a lot of news that is false or made up."

It was a crazy situation, he told Britain's ITV channel, that many people in the world waited for his tweets. He usually tweets himself, sometimes from bed.

Asked about eating burgers and drinking Coke, Mr Trump, 71, said: "I eat fine food, really from some of the finest chefs in the world.

"I eat healthy food, I also have some of that food on occasion... I think I eat actually quite well." - AFP, REUTERS

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