The Boy Scouts of America anticipated Donald Trump would spark controversy with a politically tinged speech at its national jamboree but felt obliged to invite the US President out of respect for his office, its leader said.

In an address to 30,000 of Boy Scouts on Monday, Mr Trump bragged about his election victory, promoted his political agenda and launched broadsides against "fake news", Hillary Clinton and former president Barack Obama.

Other US presidents have addressed past jamborees with speeches steering clear of partisan politics.

Boy Scouts of America president Randall Stephenson, who also the chief executive of telecommunications giant AT&T, said every US president since Franklin Delano Roosevelt has been invited to address the jamboree.

He said the Boy Scouts leadership gave "a lot of thought about Donald Trump coming to speak".

"If I suggested I was surprised by the President's comments, I would be disingenuous," Mr Stephenson said.

"Anyone knows his speeches get highly political — we anticipated that this could be the case.

"Do I wish the President hadn't gone there and hadn't been political? Of course."

Hoping to minimise friction, the Boy Scouts of America issued what Mr Stephenson called "stringent guidelines" to adult staff members for how the audience should react to the speech.

The guidance said: "You can help make the President's visit a success by ensuring that any reactions to the President's address are, as we state in our Scout Law, friendly, courteous, and kind. "This includes understanding that chants of certain phrases heard during the campaign (e.g. 'build the wall,' 'lock her up') are considered divisive by many members of our audience, and may cause unnecessary friction between individuals and units. "Please help us ensure that all Scouts can enjoy this historical address by making sure that your troop members are respectful not only of the President, but of the wide variety of viewpoints held by Scouts and Scouters in the audience tonight."

Mr Stephenson, who was not in attendance at Mr Trump's speech, said the guidance was not followed impeccably during the speech, which induced some boos at the mention of Mr Obama.

"There were some areas where perhaps they were not in compliance with what we instructed," he said.

"There's probably criticism that could be levelled."

Mr Stephenson has been a senior Boy Scout official through several of its recent controversies, including decisions to admit gay and transgender youths as Scouts and to accept openly gay adults as unit leaders.

Scouts could invite Trump back

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He said the organisation anticipated there might be some people upset by Mr Trump's speech but he would not rule out inviting Mr Trump to return.

"I don't see why we would break with tradition, whoever is holding office," Mr Stephenson said.

"We are not to going to censor or edit the President of the United States. That's beyond our pay grade regardless of who it is."

The controversy occurred as AT&T, which is based in Dallas, is seeking the approval of Mr Trump administration regulators for its proposed $US85 billion ($105 billion) purchase of Time Warner.