Donald Trump proposed border officials "shoot migrants in the legs" and build a moat filled with alligators to stop migrants crossing the US-Mexico border, according to The New York Times.

The US president also wanted his new border wall, a key 2016 campaign promise, to be electrified "with spikes on top that could pierce human flesh", according to officials present for the discussion in March.

The claims were made in an article by two New York Times reporters adapted from their upcoming book on Mr Trump's attempt to curb migration along America's southern border.

According to the report, Mr Trump became increasingly frustrated with the legal and political hurdles to his hard line approach to reducing the tide of migrants attempting to enter the US.

“The president was frustrated and I think he took that moment to hit the reset button,” Thomas Homan, Mr Trump’s former Immigration and Customs Enforcement chief, said of the meeting. “The president wanted it to be fixed quickly.”