Donald Trump falsely claims he had 'biggest electoral college win since Ronald Reagan'

Donald Trump made an incorrect claim that he won the most electoral college votes since Ronald Reagan - yet almost every President since Mr Reagan won more electoral college votes than Mr Trump.

"I guess it’s the biggest electoral college win since Ronald Reagan," the President said.

Mr Reagan won two terms; he gained 525 electoral college votes in 1984 and 489 the previous election. It was the largest landslide in recent political history, but Mr Trump's 2016 victory did not come close.

Former President Barack Obama won 332 votes in 2012 versus Mitt Romney’s 206 votes, a far higher number than Mr Trump’s 304 electoral college votes in 2016.

And Mr Obama won an even higher number - 365 - in 2008.

Bill Clinton gained 379 electoral college votes in 1996, and George H W Bush gathered an incredible 426 votes in 1988.

Mr Trump said he only needed 270 votes to win, which was "laughable" as he ended up outstripping that number by far.

A reporter questioned why the media should trust the President when he stated incorrect numbers. He first insisted he had meant the biggest victory on the Republican side, but the reporter stated the aforementioned landslide by George H W Bush in 1988.

"I don't know. I was just given that information - it was a big margin," the President replied.

"Actually I've seen that information around. Well, it was a very substantial victory, do you agree with that?"

The President insisted to reporters, his aides and family at his first solo press conference this term that he had "inherited a mess" from Mr Obama, that the Middle East was a "disaster" and that no government had ever taken so much positive action so early on.

"To be honest I inherited a mess. It's a mess," he said. "At home and abroad. A mess. Jobs are pouring out of the country, you see what's going on with all the companies going to Mexico and other places."

He claimed that recent stock market highs and low unemployment numbers were credit to his administration which has been in office for almost one month. Negative reports from the media on his ties to Russia and his alleged sexual assault against women were "fake news".

Mr Trump has been irked by reports that he lost the popular vote to Hillary Clinton last year by almost three million votes, and incorrectly claimed that between three and five million votes had been cast illegally, which prevented him from winning the popular vote. No evidence has backed up the President's claims of widespread voter fraud. His adviser, Stephen Miller, incorrectly insisted to the Sunday morning news shows that illegal voters had been "bussed in" to New Hampshire.

Despite winning the election, including most of the large, swing states, Mr Trump was also irritated that photos of his Inauguration crowd size in 2017 appeared to be smaller than that of his predecessor at Capitol Hill.

Following these reports he temporarily banned the National Park Service, which controls the Mall in the capital, from using twitter after it had also circulated the photos.

His Press Secretary, Sean Spicer, said on the day after the ceremony that Mr Trump's crowd size was the "largest in history. Period" and stormed out of the room without taking reporters' questions.

He later clarified they had been including the millions of people who had watched the ceremony online.