Trump's latest appointee accused of racism and xenophobia after shocking deleted coronavirus tweets resurface

One of Trump's most recent and controversial appointees has already found himself in the midst of a disturbing scandal, barely a week after getting the job.

Michael Caputo was announced as the new spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) last week and began his new role last Wednesday.

Caputo was an adviser on Trump's 2016 presidential campaign, and he was called to testify before Congress during the investigation into Russian collusion.

After he was appointed, he appeared to cleanse his Twitter account, deleting everything prior to 12 April, but CNN used a tool to access the deleted tweets, and what emerged was a shocking litany of xenophobia.

On 12 March, he reportedly responded to a tweet promoting a conspiracy theory that coronavirus originated in the US by tweeting: "Millions of Chinese suck the blood out of rabid bats as an appetizer and eat the ass out of anteaters."

He also responded to a tweet saying: "Don't you have a bat to eat?" and to another with: "You're very convincing, Wang" (that was not his name).

In March he referred to a New York Governor Andrew Cuomo as an "asshat", White House reporter as a "d**k", and said many journalists were "carrying water for the Chinese Communist Party." Many of his tweets throughout the month contained the hashtag #ChineseVirus.

He also tweeted that: "Coronavirus is the Democrats' new Russia", and that they were "pulling for the virus to kill a lot of people".

CNN approached Caputo for comment, which he bizarrely provided, saying:

Fair game, dude. I don't care. It doesn't matter to me at all.

He also implied that he would change his behaviour on Twitter following his appointment, and said that "some may be disappointed".

You can read the full list of tweets from CNN here.