Donald Trump has said he does not believe in manmade climate change because America’s water and air is “right now at a record clean”.

Asked why he was sceptical of a global warming report published by his own government, the US president gave a rambling response, much of it not backed by evidence, in which he blamed forest management, “small” oceans and China over the issue.

“One of the problems that a lot of people like myself - we have very high levels of intelligence, but we’re not necessarily such believers,” Mr Trump told The Washington Post.

“You look at our air and our water, and it’s right now at a record clean. But when you look at China and you look at parts of Asia and when you look at South America, and when you look at many other places in this world, including Russia, including - just many other places - the air is incredibly dirty.

“And when you’re talking about an atmosphere, oceans are very small. And it blows over and it sails over. I mean, we take thousands of tons of garbage off our beaches all the time that comes over from Asia. It just flows right down the Pacific, it flows, and we say where does this come from? And it takes many people to start off with.”

The US government climate report, made public last week, warned America faced devastating economic and health impacts from climate change by the end of the century.

Trump attacks CNN's Jim Acosta in angry White House press conference Show all 10 1 /10 Trump attacks CNN's Jim Acosta in angry White House press conference Trump attacks CNN's Jim Acosta in angry White House press conference Donald Trump launched an extraordinary tirade against CNN reporter Jim Acosta during a press conference following the midterm elections Reuters Trump attacks CNN's Jim Acosta in angry White House press conference The US president ordered the journalist to put down his microphone and “just sit down” AFP Trump attacks CNN's Jim Acosta in angry White House press conference The row began following a question about the migrant caravan approaching the US, when Mr Trump was asked by CNN’s Jim Acosta if he thought he had “demonised” migrants by calling the group an “invasion” EPA Trump attacks CNN's Jim Acosta in angry White House press conference “I think you should let me run the country, you run CNN, and if you did it well, your ratings would be much better,” said the President AFP/Getty Trump attacks CNN's Jim Acosta in angry White House press conference After Mr Acosta attempted to follow up his question with a second on Robert Mueller’s Russia probe, Mr Trump added, pointing angrily: “That’s enough. That’s enough. That’s enough. Excuse me, that’s enough.” Mr Trump said he was “not concerned about anything” because the investigation was “a hoax”. Continuing to berate Mr Acosta, he added: “That’s enough. Put down the mic.” As the reporter continued to quiz him, Mr Trump became more agitated and stepped away from the podium. EPA Trump attacks CNN's Jim Acosta in angry White House press conference Returning to the podium, Mr Trump said: “I’ll tell you what, CNN should be ashamed of itself having you working for them. You are a rude, terrible person. You shouldn’t be working for CNN REUTERS Trump attacks CNN's Jim Acosta in angry White House press conference Trump continued: 'The way you treat Sarah Huckabee is horrible and the way you treat other people are horrible. You shouldn’t treat people that way.” She was sitting in the room listening on REUTERS Trump attacks CNN's Jim Acosta in angry White House press conference A second reporter, Peter Alexander, was called on by the president and said: “In Jim’s defence I’ve travelled with him a lot, he’s a diligent reporter.” EPA Trump attacks CNN's Jim Acosta in angry White House press conference Mr Trump cut him off, telling the NBC News journalist that “I’m not a big fan of yours either”, prompting laughter in the room AP Trump attacks CNN's Jim Acosta in angry White House press conference Mr Acosta continued to try to ask questions without his microphone, causing Mr Trump to tell him: “Just sit down, please. When you report fake news – no – when you report fake news, which CNN does, a lot, you are the enemy of the people.” REUTERS

It predicted the country’s economy would see economic losses in the hundreds of billions by 2100, and stated there was “no convincing alternative explanation” for climate change besides “human activities, especially emissions of greenhouse gases”.

Dismissing the report, Mr Trump continued: “Number two, if you go back and if you look at articles, they talked about global freezing, they talked about at some point the planets could have freeze to death (sic), then it’s going to die of heat exhaustion.

“There is movement in the atmosphere. There’s no question. As to whether or not it’s manmade and whether or not the effects that you’re talking about are there, I don’t see it — not nearly like it is. Do we want clean water? Absolutely. Do we want clean air to breathe? Absolutely.”

“The fire in California, where I was, if you looked at the floor, the floor of the fire, they have trees that were fallen, they did no forest management, no forest maintenance, and you can light — you can take a match like this and light a tree trunk when that thing is laying there for more than 14 or 15 months,” Mr Trump said. “And it’s a massive problem in California.”

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He continued: “You go to other places where they have denser trees — it’s more dense, where the trees are more flammable — they don’t have forest fires like this, because they maintain. And it was very interesting, I was watching the firemen, and they’re raking brush — you know the tumbleweed and brush, and all this stuff that’s growing underneath.

“It’s on fire, and they’re raking it, working so hard, and they’re raking all this stuff. If that was raked in the beginning, there’d be nothing to catch on fire.