President Donald Trump has claimed he could be “the most popular person in Europe” and could “run for any [European] office” if he wanted – as he dismissed how lowly he is thought of across the continent.

The comments from the White House followed an opinion piece penned Utah Republican Senator-elect Mitt Romney noting that the president has not “not risen to the mantle of the office.” In the piece, the 2012 Republican presidential candidate highlighted Mr Trump’s low approval ratings across Europe.

“In a 2016 Pew Research Centre poll, 84 percent of people in Germany, Britain, France, Canada and Sweden believed the American president would “do the right thing in world affairs,” Mr Romney wrote. “One year later, that number had fallen to 16 percent.”

Mr Trump rebuffed Mr Romney’s concerns of the American president’s public image among allies by insisting that it was American taxpayers, not Europeans, that elected him president.

“I’m not elected by Europeans, I’m elected by Americans — by American taxpayers,” Mr Trump said of the European polls.

“My relationship, I will tell you, with the leaders of Europe is very good,” he added.

A number of leaders across Europe, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron have clashed with Mr Trump over issues from immigration to climate change.

However, Mr Trump made clear that he believed his populist rhetoric would play well in Europe.

“I could be the most popular person in Europe,” Mr Trump said. “I could be -- I could run for any office if I wanted to. But I don’t want to. I want people to treat us fairly, and they’re not.”

Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events

“I shouldn’t be popular in Europe,” he said. “I want Europe to pay. I don’t care about Europe”.