Donald Trump has decided there is a group whose rhetoric is too much for him.

The man who mocked a disabled journalist has drawn the line with Richard Spencer and his think-tank, the National Policy Institute.

On Monday, video recorded at the institute's post-election conference was released by the Atlantic. The secretly filmed footage appeared to show several attendees performing the Nazi salute.

Moreover, Spencer, addressing the conference, used strong, fascistic and racist rhetoric.

Hail Trump! Hail our people! Hail victory!

Spencer also referred to the media as the 'Lügenpresse', literally 'lying press', a compound word used by the Nazi Party, and more recently by the European far-right movement Pegida.

America was until this past generation a white country designed for ourselves and our posterity. It is our creation, it is our inheritance, and it belongs to us.

The President-elect has decided this was one step too far, from an "alt-right" whose endorsement he has until now been happy to accept.

Speaking on Tuesday, Trump met with the New York Times - a paper he has repeatedly accused of 'lying'.

Yet in his interview on Tuesday he disavowed the National Policy Institute.

I don’t want to energize the group, and I disavow the group.

Trump also retreated from his campaign promises to prosecute his opponent Hillary Clinton.

She went through a lot and suffered greatly in many different ways, and I am not looking to hurt them at all. The campaign was vicious.

Trump told the New York Times, adding that launching an investigation was 'not something I feel very strongly about.'

Breitbart News, the outlet once led by Trump's chief strategist, Steve Bannon, published a story on Tuesday under the headline, 'Broken Promise: Trump 'Doesn't Wish to Pursue' Clinton email charges.'

Writer and commentator Ann Coulter also balked at the news, tweeting:

Whoa! I thought we elected (Trump) president. Did we make him the FBI, & (U.S. Department of Justice)? His job is to pick those guys, not do their jobs.

She added that no president should block "investigators from doing their jobs".

Reddit, the online forum with a strong pro-Trump community and many members of the alt-right, has also expressed grief regarding Trump's latest statements.

A post on the r/altright subreddit began: 'Anyone here feeling bamboozled by the Donald?'

It received similarly confused and angry responses:

You are fooled if you think Trump was going to give us some sort of permission slip to start cleansing America. He isn’t our ‘man on a white horse’.

Other users wrote:

Trump can’t be non-negative on the alt-right. We support him because he agrees with us on important policy goals, not because he flatters us.

Ofc [sic] he's gonna disavow. The only times he does is when he is pressured to, which is better than any other Republican, who fall over themselves to rebuke before they're even asked.

Others rationalised that Trump was not 'the second coming', but an interim measure:

Not really. Donald isn't alt right, never was. He's a hell of a step in the right direction though.

Trump's a civic nationalist which is a step in the right direction. His election was all about buying time, securing the Supreme Court and stopping illegal immigration. His victory is important but I hope no one deluded themselves into thinking that he was the second coming.