Donald Trump: Nine unsettling moments from US President's first full White House interview

Donald Trump gave his first full interview as President of the United States on Wednesday night, covering topics from waterboarding to the "Sea of Love" at his inauguration as he rambled around the White House before sitting down in front of the camera.

"You have a 17 per cent approval rating, which is pretty bad," he told interviewer David Muir of ABC, as they clashed repeatedly throughout a 40-minute broadcast segment.

A Washington Post fact checker said: “This interview is so filled with inaccurate and misleading statements by Trump I don’t even know where to begin." His counterpart at the Toronto Star described the discussion as "the most bonkers presidential interview transcript I've ever read".

Here are nine stand-out lies, boasts, and threats from the President's media debut.

Lowering his voice to a gravelly murmur, Mr Trump said: "David, I know you're a sophisticated guy. The world is a mess. The world is as angry as it gets.

"What? You think this is gonna cause a little more anger? The world is an angry place."

He was referring to the White House order to halt immigration from Muslim-majority countries Iran, Syria, Sudan, Yemen and Iraq, with whom America is currently allied in the fight to retake Mosul from Isis.

Pressed over his suggestion that America might have "another chance" to seize all of Iraq's oil, presumably by invading a nation currently allied with the US, Mr Trump found a simple way to avoid a yes or no answer.

"When it comes to the military I don't wanna discuss things," he said, suggesting this could compromise the security of American troops. "I wanna let the action take place before the talk takes place."

Critics have noted seizing Iraq's oil supply in this way would "break all international law", but Mr Trump dismissed these concerns: "I don't call them critics. I call them fools."

While stopping short of confirming he would reintroduce waterboarding and other forms of torture currently illegal under US law, Mr Trump confirmed the policy was on the table.

"I have spoken as recently as 24 hours ago with people at the highest level of intelligence," he said. "And I asked them the question, 'Does it work? Does torture work?' And the answer was, 'Yes, absolutely'."

His intention, he said, is to "fight fire with fire."

The media in general came in for a battering, but Mr Trump was full of nothing but praise for Fox News. During the squabble over his CIA speech, he lectured the journalist: "I hate to say this to you, and you probably won't put it on, but turn on Fox and see how it was covered."

The ABC anchor asked if Mr Trump regretted using his speech at CIA headquarters to rake over the inauguration crowd debate and boast about appearing on the cover of Time magazine rather than somberly addressing his fraught relationship with the intelligence agency.

"That speech was a home run," Mr Trump replied. "We see what Fox said... they showed the people applauding and screaming, and they were all CIA....

"People loved it. They loved it. They gave me a standing ovation for a long period of time. They never even sat down."

Former Mexican president Vincente Fox Quesada recently told Trump's administration in no uncertain terms: "We're not paying for the f****** wall".

But Mr Trump thinks his southern neighbours will come round to the idea, saying: "It's gonna be good for Mexico. We wanna have a very stable, very solid Mexico...

"Lots of things are coming over to Mexico that they don't want... I think we're gonna end up with a much better relationship with Mexico."

On inauguration day, Mr Trump will have been briefed on his nuclear capabilities, and given a small device known as the "biscuit" which includes the codes he alone can use to launch a nuclear strike.

"It’s very, very, very scary in a sense," he confided. "I have the confidence I’ll do the right thing, the right job, but it’s a very scary thing."

He added that he had not lost any sleep over the issue.

Spokesperson Sean Spicer, under attack since fiercely criticising the media and refusing all questions at an initial press conference, has said there were Trump employees scattered through the receptive crowd at the CIA briefing.

Mr Trump simply told his interviewer it was "all CIA people."

Towards the end of the interview segment, Mr Trump strolled through corridors freshly decorated with photographs of the inauguration and his family.

He drew Mr Muir's attention to multiple images of the inauguration crowd, repeatedly insisting it was the largest ever, in defiance of analysis by political scientists. One picture was emblazoned with the incorrect date, placing his inauguration on 21 rather than 20 January.

Pointing to the crowd, he said: "I call it a Sea of Love."