Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has described US President Donald Trump as “a patriot” while disagreeing with Mr Trump’s refusal to accept his own spy chiefs’ finding that Russia meddled in the presidential election.

As the Turnbull government grappled with the challenge of finding a diplomatic response to Mr Trump’s extraordinary joint press conference in which he sided with Russian leader Vladimir Putin against his own intelligence community, Treasurer Scott Morrison offered the bluntest assessment.

Asked whether he was bothered by seeing Mr Trump taking such a soft line against the autocratic Mr Putin on the fourth anniversary of the Russian-backed shooting down of flight MH17, Mr Morrison told radio station 6PR: "I think that troubles everybody".

The US President’s remarks following a two-hour private meeting in Helsinki, Finland, with Mr Putin on Monday produced widespread shock in the US, including a tweet by former CIA director John Brennan that Mr Trump’s performance was “nothing short of treasonous”.