Donald Trump’s senior adviser Steve Bannon said the media should "keep its mouth shut" after being "humiliated" by a surprising election outcome.

"The media should be embarrassed and humiliated and keep its mouth shut and just listen for awhile," Mr Bannon told the New York Times.

"I want you to quote this," Mr Bannon added.

"The media here is the opposition party. They don’t understand this country. They still do not understand why Donald Trump is the president of the United States."

Mr Bannon, who said last July that he had founded Breitbart as a "platform for the alt-right", was propelled into the White House as Mr Trump’s right-hand man, and has been a key adviser on appointees to the cabinet and policy.

He said the media got the election "dead wrong" and they represented the "opposition party" to Mr Trump’s administration.

Mr Bannon rarely gives interviews - apart from to Breitbart - and tends to stay out of the spotlight.

His comments come off the back of press secretary Sean Spicer’s angry rant at the media on Saturday, blaming them for accurately reporting Mr Trump’s relatively small inauguration crowd size.

"It was the largest crowd size in American history. Period," he said.

Mr Trump’s senior adviser, Kellyanne Conway, defended her colleague and said Mr Spicer had just provided reporters with "alternative facts".

In a heated interview with NBC, Ms Conway said the government "might have to rethink its relationship with the press".

Mr Trump, during his first official stop at the CIA headquarters, said he had a “war” with the media, labeling them as the "most dishonest people" he had ever met.

During the campaign and after the election, the President has routinely called individual reporters "sleazes" and "liars".