CNN's Jim Acosta has said that he was wrong to compare Donald Trump to a clown - branding his earlier segment as "an insult to clowns."

The CNN anchor was trending on social media following his brutal takedown of the former president, examining how Trump 'is still pretending to play President' with a similar presidential seal on the podium at his press conference.

He also stated that Trump continues to try and play the victim in relation to the 2020 US election. 

Acosta said: "Just look at the press conference he held this week, the flags, the columns, that vaguely familiar seal on the podium. Of course that's not the White House. That's Trump's golf club at Bedminster but it looks like some kind of POTUS Potemkin village with trump as the pretender in chief. Yes, he seems to be spending his post-presidency playing president. 

"A couple of weeks ago, I compared Trump's comeback tour to the circus full of sideshow acts and clowns.

"I later got an email from an expert on the circus industry, this person pointed out that comparison actually was not fair because unlike the chaos of Trump world, the circus is carefully composed and organised."

He added: "That's a great point, comparing Trump to a clown is most definitely an insult to clowns. 

"He's more like one of those mask-hating customers at the grocery store.

"You've seen them, a 'Karen' or whatever the name would be in Trump's case. You can almost hear him saying 'I want to talk to the manager about the election.' 'I want to talk to the manager of Twitter or Facebook.'

"And the American people are kind of like the store manager. We have to explain, 'Well, sir, you lied about the election.

"You incited an insurrection. You're going to have to leave the store or we're calling security. Please take your fake White House seal and go play president somewhere else.'"