Washington DC - Seated in the White House State Dining Room, President Donald Trump called on far-right content creators to name and shame backers of Antifa as he went on a media-bashing rant.

Trump had invited "independent journalists" to the White House on Wednesday to share their experiences with a loosely organized left-wing antifascist movement that his administration accuses of inciting violence against conservatives.

But he and his guests largely used the event to pile on mainstream media, blaming one of his favorite scapegoats for causing tensions.

"I think they [Antifa] work in conjunction with some of the media," Trump told the roundtable, which was also attended by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and other administration officials.

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Trump recently classified Antifa as a terrorist group, despite its amorphous and leaderless nature, and has pledged to pursue its members and backers,

But the 79-year-old focused more on media outlets Wednesday, calling MSNBC "sick," and ABC and NBC "very bad."

Trump e encouraged participants to join in his the tirade against the press corps.

"What network would you say is the worst, if I could ask?"

Seated at a large, U-shaped table, many of the assembled guests joined in.

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"The same media that's sitting in this room with us has declared all of us at this table Nazis and fascists, and they've been doing this for years," said Savanah Hernandez, a representative of Turning Point USA, whose far-right founder Charlie Kirk was assassinated.

Influencer Nick Sortor accused the press of lying about the Trump administration's immigration crackdown.

"People genuinely believe, based on what comes out of the garbage standing over here, that you guys are deporting US citizens," he said, pointing at the press box, cordoned off by a velvet rope.

Several American citizens have been abducted and detained during violent ICE raids, while three children with citizenship were deported alongside their mother – who lacked documentation – in April.

Sortor brought a partially burned American flag as a prop, saying he had recovered it from Portland, which, like other Democrat-led cities across the US, is under attack by the Trump administration.

Trump asked Sortor to give Attorney General Pam Bondi the name of the man who burned the flag so she could file charges. In August, he had signed a decree that makes burning the national flag punishable by up to a year in prison.

Also on Wednesday, Trump lashed out at a journalist attempting during a press conference on the Gaza ceasefire deal: "That's CNN, by the way. She's one of the worst journalists... I don't even want to take that question."

However, Trump said he was optimistic about CBS, where right-wing commentator and blogger Bari Weiss was recently appointed editor-in-chief.

"We have hope for CBS," he said.