Good Morning Britain host Piers Morgan has penned a heavily-critical piece about Donald Trump in the Daily Mail, accusing the President of an "undignified and pathetic display" in his Monday presser.

During the disastrous press conference, Trump became involved in a number of fiery exchanges with reporters when challenged on his handling of the coronavirus crisis, branding one journalist "so disgraceful" and "a fake" when she asked if he could have done more sooner to stem the spread of the deadly disease.

Morgan has previously described himself as a friend of Trump, having got to know him well on Celebrity Apprentice USA, and has often defended his pugnacious style.

"This was worse than just a meltdown," Morgan wrote. "This was the most undignified and pathetic display I have ever seen from any world leader, let alone the President of the United States – in the middle of a global crisis.

"And where once I could occasionally defend his combative, abrasive style against what I have often felt has been an unfairly hostile media, I cannot defend this."

In the lengthy piece, Morgan compared Trump to the "narcissistic, deluded, arrogant, materialistic and detached" subject of the fairy tale 'The Emperor's New Clothes' and denounced his "nauseating" performance in the press conference.

"Time and again reporters asked him perfectly legitimate questions about his administration's handling of this crisis, and time and again Trump furiously abused, denounced and dismissed them with sneering contempt," he continued.

"He ranted, raved, mocked and derided in such an appalling manner that by the the time he finished, the hashtag #TrumpMeltdown was No1 trending topic on Twitter in America."

The US has recorded more coronavirus deaths than any other country in the world, with more than 25,000 losing their lives to date.