'Press is out of control'

US President Donald Trump insisted there was "zero chaos" in his crisis-buffeted White House and railed against enemies in the media, politics and the courts Thursday, in a meandering first solo news conference.

The 70-year-old US president vented frustrations, insisted he is "not a bad person" and wondered out loud about a "nuclear holocaust," in a remarkable one hour, 16 minute ask-me-anything appearance.

From there, the president's criticism of the media went from barbed to personal in a cutting assessment of what he viewed as unfair coverage of his first few weeks in office - a period that has seen a succession of crises.

On a day when he ceded a loss over a signature policy in a federal appeals court, had to replace his labor secretary pick and faced questions over the resignation of his national security adviser, Trump chose to make the media a central focus of an unusually long and combative presidential news conference.

When asked by journalists of contacts between his presidential campaign and Russian operatives, he deflected the questions and put the focus instead on what he described as "illegal" government leaks and "dishonest" media coverage.

"The press is out of control," he said. "The level of dishonesty is out of control,"

After weeks of disclosures in newspapers over turmoil in his administration, he told one reporter to "sit down" for a rambling question.

"Tomorrow, they will say: 'Donald Trump rants and raves at the press,'" Trump said. "I'm not ranting and raving. I'm just telling you. You know, you're dishonest people. But I'm not ranting and raving. I love this. I'm having a good time doing it."

He sought to cast problems buffeting the White House as "the mess" he inherited from former Democratic President Barack Obama, and boasted about the "fine-tuned administration" he is running.

Trump also signaled a new approach to how America talks about its defense and foreign policy.

"I don't have to tell you. I don't want to be one of these guys that say, 'Yes, here's what we're going to do.' I don't have to do that. I don't have to tell you what I'm going to do in North Korea."

"I'm not going to tell you anything about what response I do."