US PRESIDENT Donald Trump has sought to discredit media reports that his top general warned him of the risks of launching an attack on Iran.

The Washington Post, owned by billionaire Trump supporter Jeff Bezos, had cited General Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, as telling Mr Trump that the United States could become entangled in a lengthy conflict involving major casualties.

According to the newspaper, Gen Caine told the far-right president during a meeting last week that a lack of critical munitions and support from regional allies could block US efforts to contain a possible retaliation should the Trump administration decide to open hostilities against Iran.

The report said US stockpiles of munitions, including those used in missile defence systems, have been stretched thin by their use in Israel and Ukraine.

The Washington Post also said: “Caine has raised concerns about the scale of any Iran campaign, its inherent complexity and the possibility of US casualties,” citing a source close to the “internal discussions.”

Mr Trump dismissed the report as “100 per cent incorrect.”

Posting on social media on Monday, he claimed that the general believed a war with Iran, which the president has threatened if the Iranian regime does not accept a series of demands to restrict its nuclear programme, could be “easily won.”

The president branded the Washington Post “fake news media,” adding that the general had “not spoken of not doing Iran or even fake limited strikes. He only knows one thing: how to win and, if he is told to do so, he will be leading the pack.”

Gen Caine’s office responded to the article by saying his job was to provide “a range of military options, as well as secondary considerations and associated impacts and risks, to the civilian leaders who make America’s security decisions.”

Online news outlet Axios also reported the concerns allegedly expressed by Gen Caine.

In an article published on Monday night, the outlet claimed that the general had been the only military figure briefing Mr Trump on the situation with Iran for several weeks, other than US Central Command head Admiral Brad Cooper, who oversees US military operations in the Middle East.

Axios cited the two sources as saying that while Gen Caine “was all-in on the Venezuela operation” to kidnap President Nicolas Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores, he was a “reluctant warrior” on Iran.