What is really going on in politics? Get our daily email briefing straight to your inbox Sign up Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Invalid Email

Donald Trump says the world faces a “nuclear holocaust like no other“ if he is unable to pursue a good relationship with Russia.

And he appeared to blame a string of aggressive moves from Russia on the media, because negative reporting of the Trump administration’s links to Russia led Vladimir Putin to believe he could no longer get a “good deal” with the US.

Russia’s provocative actions include a spy vessel “loitering” 30 miles off the coast of Connecticut and the deployment of cruise missiles in apparent breach of international agreements.

Trump argued: “When did it happen? If you were Putin, you would say ‘we’re back to the old games with the United States. There’s no way Trump can ever do a deal with us.”

(Image: Getty)

But he said he did not believe Putin was testing him.

He said: “I don’t know that we’re going to make a deal. But it would much easier for me to be so tough on Russia. The tougher I am on Russia the better, but you know what? I want to do the right thing for the American people and the right thing for the world."

Video Loading Video Unavailable Click to play Tap to play The video will start in 8 Cancel Play now

(Image: TASS)

He added: “Don’t forget, we’re a very powerful nuclear country. So are they. There’s no upside.

“Let me tell you, I’ve been briefed. And the one thing about a briefing that I can say was … nuclear holocaust would be like no other.

“If we have a good relationship with Russia, believe me, that’s a good thing, not a bad thing.”

He also denied he had any knowledge of his campaign staff having contact with Russian officials before the election.

But he said he had not fired Mike Flynn for discussing sanctions with the Russian ambassador before he took office - actions which could be illegal.

Complaining again that Flynn had been "unfairly treated" by the media, he said he was glad his former National Security Advisor had the conversation with the Russian ambassador.

(Image: Getty)

But he said he had not ordered him to do so, and he was fired because he misled Vice President Mike Pence about the content of the phone call.

The bizarre exchanges came during a lengthy and rambling press conference, in which he railed at the media, attacking individual reporters for not “telling the truth”, singled CNN and the BBC out as “fake news” - and went on to misrepresent the scale of his election victory.

He said his 306 electoral vote victory was “I guess the biggest electoral win since Ronald Reagan.”

This is untrue

Every president since Ronald Reagan, with the exception of George W Bush, won their elections by a greater margin than Donald Trump.

Confronted with this falsehood, Trump at first said he had been talking about Republicans. But when he was told of George HW Bush’s 426 vote win, he said: “I was just given that information, I was just - given it, we had a very big margin.”

The reporter asked: “I guess the question is, why should Americans trust you when you accuse the information they receive as being fake when you’re providing information that is not accurate?”

Trump said: “Well, I was given that information. I was, actually I’ve seen that information around. But it was a very substantial victory, do you agree with that?”

The exasperated reporter simply replied: “You’re the President.”

Trump also took aim at Hillary Clinton, whom he claimed had given 20% of America’s uranium to Russia while she was Secretary of State, in a bid to “reset” US relations with Putin.

This is untrue