President Donald Trump said on Thursday that he believes Robert Mueller, the special counsel in the Russia investigation, will treat him fairly, contradicting some members of his party who have waged a week-long campaign to try to discredit Mueller and the continuing inquiry.

During an impromptu 30-minute interview with The New York Times at his golf club in West Palm Beach, the president did not demand an end to the Russia investigations swirling around his administration, but insisted 16 times that there has been “no collusion” discovered by the inquiry.

“It makes the country look very bad, and it puts the country in a very bad position,” Mr Trump said of the investigation. “So the sooner it’s worked out, the better it is for the country.”

Asked whether he would order the Justice Department to reopen the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s emails, Mr Trump appeared to remain focused on the Russia investigation.

“I have absolute right to do what I want to do with the Justice Department,” he said, echoing claims by his supporters that as president he has the power to open or end an investigation. “But for purposes of hopefully thinking I’m going to be treated fairly, I’ve stayed uninvolved with this particular matter.”

Hours after he accused the Chinese of secretly shipping oil to North Korea, Mr Trump explicitly said for the first time that he has “been soft” on China on trade in the hopes that its leaders will pressure North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons program.

He hinted that his patience may soon end, however, signalling his frustration with the reported oil shipments.

“Oil is going into North Korea. That wasn’t my deal!” he exclaimed, raising the possibility of aggressive trade actions against China. “If they don’t help us with North Korea, then I do what I’ve always said I want to do.”

Despite saying that when he visited China in November, President Xi Jinping “treated me better than anybody’s ever been treated in the history of China,” Mr Trump said that “they have to help us much more.”

“We have a nuclear menace out there, which is no good for China,” he said.

Mr Trump gave the interview in the Grill Room at Trump International Golf Club after he ate lunch with his playing partners, including his son Eric and pro golfer Jim Herman. No aides were present for the interview, and the president sat alone with a New York Times reporter at a large round table as club members chatted and ate lunch nearby. A few times, members and friends — including a longtime supporter, Christopher Ruddy, the president and chief executive of the conservative website and TV company Newsmax - came by to speak with Mr Trump.

Noting that he had given Mr Herman $50,000 years ago when he worked at the president’s New Jersey golf club and was trying to make the PGA Tour, Mr Trump asked him how much he made playing on the professional circuit.

“It’s like $3 million,” Mr Herman said.

“Which to him is like making a billion because he doesn’t spend anything,” Mr Trump joked. “Ain’t that a great story?”

In the interview, the president touted the strength of his campaign victories and his accomplishments in office, including passage of a tax overhaul this month. But he also expressed frustration and anger at Democrats, who he said refused to negotiate on legislation.

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“Like Joe Manchin,” Mr Trump said, referring to the Democratic senator from West Virginia. He said Manchin and other Democrats claimed to be centrists but refused to negotiate on health care or taxes.

“He talks. But he doesn’t do anything. He doesn’t do,” Mr Trump said. “'Hey, let’s get together, let’s do bipartisan.’ I say, ‘Good, let’s go.’ Then you don’t hear from him again.”

Nonetheless, Mr Trump said he still hoped Democrats will work with him on bipartisan legislation in the coming year to overhaul health care, improve the country’s crumbling infrastructure and help young immigrants brought to the country as children.

Mr Trump repeated his assertion that Democrats invented the Russia allegations “as a hoax, as a ruse, as an excuse for losing an election.” He said that “everybody knows” his associates did not collude with the Russians, even as he insisted that the “real stories” are about Democrats who worked with Russians during the 2016 campaign.

“There’s been no collusion. But I think he’s going to be fair,” Mr Trump said of Mueller.

In recent weeks, Republican lawmakers have seized on anti-Trump texts sent by an FBI investigator who was removed from Mueller’s team as evidence of political bias. At a hearing this month,Jim Jordan, Representative for Ohio, said that “the public trust in this whole thing is gone.”

Although Mr Trump said he believes Mueller will treat him fairly, Trump raised questions about how the special counsel had dealt with lobbyist Tony Podesta. Podesta is the brother of Clinton’s campaign chairman, John Podesta, and Tony Podesta is under investigation for work his firm, the Podesta Group, did on behalf of a client referred to it in 2012 by Paul Manafort, the former Trump campaign chairman.

“Whatever happened to Podesta?” Mr Trump said. “They closed their firm, they left in disgrace, the whole thing, and now you never heard of anything.”

Mr Trump tried to put distance between himself and Manafort, who was indicted in October. The president said that Manafort - whom he called “very nice man” and “an honourable person” — had spent more time working for other candidates and presidents than for him.

“Paul only worked for me for a few months,” Mr Trump said. “Paul worked for Ronald Reagan. His firm worked for John McCain, worked for Bob Dole, worked for many Republicans for far longer than he worked for me. And you’re talking about what Paul was many years ago before I ever heard of him. He worked for me for — what was it, 3 and a half months?”