Trump criticized The New York Times and The Washington Post as being dishonest in a series of tweets that featured several typos. The reason for the early morning onslaught was not immediately clear.
Trump was scheduled to speak during the day with Putin and the leaders of Japan, Germany, France and Australia.
Rather than address what he did in his fast-paced first week in power, or prepare for the frenetic day ahead, Trump laid into two of the most prestigious US dailies.
Trump wrote that the two papers "got me wrong right from the beginning and still have not changed course, and never will. DISHONEST."
"The failing @nytimes has been wrong about me from the very beginning. Said I would lose the primaries, then the general election. FAKE NEWS!," he added.
Twitter is one of Trump's preferred conduits for communication. He has more than 22.5 million followers on the messaging platform.