Donald Trump felt misled by aides over the expulsion of 60 Russian diplomats for the Salisbury spy poisoning and pushed back on Theresa May’s demands to act, The Washington Post has reported.

The paper said the US president was left furious after discovering that Germany and France had only sent home a handful of Russians over the incident.

Aides reportedly had to explain that the US was matching the European Union’s entire number of expulsions rather than that of major EU countries.

Mr Trump was still left fuming, with one source saying that “a lot of curse words” were used, according to The Washington Post.

The president was also said to have pushed back on Mrs May’s call for Russian expulsions after the poisoning of double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia.

“Why are you asking me to do this?” he reportedly told the Prime Minister. “What’s Germany going to do? What about France?”