Fox News interrupts coverage of Trump celebrating the US economy to announce stock market plunge

President has frequently boasted of Dow Jones index reaching new highs

Fox News interrupted its coverage of Donald Trump lauding the strength of the US economy to cover the breaking news of a stock market plunge.

The US President accused Democrats in congress of being "un-American" and perhaps even treasonous for refusing to cheer positive economic news during his State of the Union address.

Mr Trump, who has frequently bragged about the record value reached by the Dow Jones as an indicator of his economic success - and a boon for everyday Americans and their retirement accounts - did not specifically mention the stock market during that speech.

But all three major US cable news networks, CNN, Fox News and MSNBC, cut away from live coverage of it to cover the news the Dow Jones industrial average was plunging towards its largest single-day point drop ever.

In his State of the Union address last week, Mr Trump said: "The stock market has smashed one record after another, gaining $8 trillion and more in value in just this short period of time."

Early last month, he wrote on Twitter: "The Stock Market has been creating tremendous benefits for our country in the form of not only Record Setting Stock Prices, but present and future Jobs, Jobs, Jobs. Seven TRILLION dollars of value created since our big election win!"

Three days before that, he tweeted, "Dow just crashes through 25,000. Congrats! Big cuts in unnecessary regulations continuing."

On Monday, the Dow fell to below 24,000 but regained some of its midday losses to close at 24,345.

In the past five trading days, the index has erased all its gains since late November.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed on Monday night at 24,353 points, down 1,175 points on the day.