Donald Trump has mounted an aggressive defence of his young presidency, lambasting the media, vowing to clamp down on leaks and denying any connections with Russia.

Key quotes: "The leaks are real. The news is fake."

"The leaks are real. The news is fake." "I open the paper and I see stories of chaos, chaos. It's the exact opposite. This administration is running like a fine-tuned machine, despite not being able to get my cabinet approved.

"I open the paper and I see stories of chaos, chaos. It's the exact opposite. This administration is running like a fine-tuned machine, despite not being able to get my cabinet approved. "Well, I guess one of the reasons I'm here today is to tell you the whole Russian thing, that's a ruse. That's a ruse."

Although originally called to announce his new nomination for labour secretary after Andrew Puzder withdrew from consideration, Mr Trump's lengthy conference covered a wide range of topics.

"I'm not ranting and raving — I love this," he said, nearly an hour into the conference. "I'm having a good time doing this."

Here are some of the topics he touched on.

'Russia is fake news'

Mr Trump's supposed links with Russia are often questioned — and this media conference was no different in that respect.

He initially did not provide a straight yes or no answer on whether anyone on his campaign staff had contacted Russian officials before his election.

The questions came after Mr Trump asked for the resignation of Michael Flynn over reports the national security adviser misled Vice-President Mike Pence about his conversations with a Russian official.

Sorry, this video has expired 'Russia is a ruse'

Pressed repeatedly, Mr Trump said "nobody that I know of" on his campaign staff had contacted Russian officials.

"Well, I guess one of the reasons I'm here today is to tell you the whole Russian thing, that's a ruse. That's a ruse," he said.

"Russia is fake news. This is fake news put out by the media."

Mr Trump continued to say it made sense for the US to get along better with Russia because both were nuclear powers, and the risks of conflict with the country would be enormous.

"Nuclear holocaust would be like no other," he said.

"They are a very powerful nuclear country and so are we. But if we have a good relationship with Russia, believe me, that is as good thing, not a bad thing."

Mr Trump also said he would not forecast how he would respond to provocations from Russia, North Korea or Iran, to maintain the element of surprise.

Hillary Clinton and uranium

Yes, Mr Trump's former presidential campaign foe Hillary Clinton was still in the talking points.

Loading

When speaking further on the relationship between the US and Russia, Mr Trump said "it would be great if we could get along with Russia".

"Tomorrow, you will say 'Donald Trump wants to get along with Russia; this is terrible.' It is not terrible.

"It is good. We had Hillary Clinton try to do a reset. We had Hillary Clinton give Russia 20 per cent of the uranium in our country," he claimed.

"You know what uranium is, right? It's this thing called nuclear weapons. And other things. Like lots of things are done with uranium. Including some bad things."

He presented no evidence for his claim that Mrs Clinton had provided Russia with uranium, and when later pressed on his connections with the country, Mr Trump elaborated further on his foe.

"I have nothing to do with Russia. I have no deals there, I have no anything there," he said.

"Now, when WikiLeaks, which I have nothing to do with, comes out and happens to give … they're not giving classified information, they're giving stuff that was said in an office about Hillary cheating in the debates.

"Which, by the way, nobody mentions. Nobody mentions that Hillary received the questions to the debates. Seriously, can you imagine if I received the questions?

"It would be the electric chair. He should be put in the electric chair. You would even call for the reinstitution of the death penalty."

'The leaks are real, the news is fake'

Sorry, this video has expired 'Mike Flynn is a fine person'

Mr Trump said Mr Flynn was "just doing his job" in talking with Russian officials before the inauguration.

But he said he was "not happy" with how Mr Flynn described his phone call with a Russian diplomat to Mr Pence.

"You know, first everybody got excited because they thought he did something wrong. After they thought about it, it turned out he was just doing his job," Mr Trump said of Mr Flynn regarding the discussion with the Russian ambassador.

"No, I didn't direct him, but I would have directed him if he didn't do it."

Mr Trump knew for weeks that Mr Flynn had misled Mr Pence but did not inform the Vice-President, according to a timeline of events supplied by the White House.

Amid reports of widespread leaks within his administration, Mr Trump also warned that he would clamp down on the dissemination of sensitive information, saying he had asked the Justice Department to investigate.

"Those are criminal leaks," he said. "The leaks are real. The news is fake."

Adding to Mr Trump's troubles, Vice Admiral Robert Harward — the President's pick to replace Mr Flynn — turned down his offer, according to a senior White House official.

'The press are out of control'

Sorry, this video has expired Trump's administration 'running like a fine-tuned machine'

Mr Trump's media conference soon turned into a fierce critique of the media.

"I open the paper and I see stories of chaos, chaos," Mr Trump said.

"It's the exact opposite. This administration is running like a fine-tuned machine, despite not being able to get my cabinet approved."

Mr Trump claimed the media was not serving the people but rather "special interests" profiting from a broken system.

"The press has become so dishonest that if we don't talk about it we are doing a tremendous disservice to the American people. The press are out of control. The level of dishonesty is out of control.

"We're not going to let it happen. I'm here again to take my message straight to the people."

Mr Trump had previously said his electoral college win was the biggest since Ronald Reagan's — but when a reporter told him that Barack Obama and George HW Bush's numbers were higher, Mr Trump shrugged it off, saying he was simply "given that information".

"Actually, I've seen that information around. But it was a very substantial victory, do you agree with that?"

He argued that there had been "incredible progress" over the past four weeks.

"I don't think there's ever been a president elected who in this short period of time has done what we have done."