Trump mends fences with CIA: ‘We have to get rid of ISIS’

President Donald Trump told the CIA on Saturday it had his full support as he paid a visit to mend fences after publicly rejecting its assessment that Russia tried to help him win the US election.

"I am with you 1,000 percent," Trump said in a short address to CIA staff after his visit to the agency headquarters in Virginia.

In his first full day in office, Trump moved swiftly to confront simmering tensions left by US intelligence findings that Russia interfered in the US election to try to tip the outcome in Trump's favour.

"I love you, I respect you," he told members of the US intelligence community.

"We're all on the same wavelength, right?" he asked, referring in particular to the fight against the Islamic State group.

"We have not used the real abilities that we have. We've been restrained. We have to get rid of ISIS."

Mike Pompeo, Trump's pick to lead the CIA, has not yet been confirmed by the US Senate.

A 53-year-old Republican lawmaker, Pompeo is considered a foreign policy hawk and was an ardent opponent of former president Barack Obama's administration.

Outgoing CIA director John Brennan had stern words for Trump last Sunday, saying he needed to be more "disciplined" in his public comments.

"I don't think he has a full appreciation of Russian capabilities, Russia's intentions and actions," ​Brennan said of Trump on Fox News on Sunday.

Trump, likening US intelligence to Nazis, suggested Brennan himself may have leaked an unsubstantiated report that the Russians had gathered damaging salacious personal information about him.

The intelligence agencies had given both Trump and Obama a summary of the dossier, which later was published in full by BuzzFeed.

Brennan said the US intelligence chiefs considered it their responsibility to make Trump aware that it was in circulation.

Counting crowds

While standing in front of a spot sacred to the CIA - a wall with stars engraved for employees killed while serving the country, Trump launched his latest attack against the media.

Trump accused the media of downplaying the turnout at his inauguration by focusing on empty spots on Washington's National Mall, insisting against all evidence that he drew 1.5 million people.

"I made a speech. I looked out, the field was, it looked like a million, million and a half people," he told CIA staff. "They showed a field where there were practically nobody standing there. And they said, Donald Trump did not draw well," he added.

Trump said one network estimated turnout at 250,000.

"Now, that's not bad. But it's a lie," Trump said. He insisted there were people stretching from the steps of the Capitol, where he spoke, along 20 blocks back to the Washington Monument.

"So we caught them and we caught them in a beauty and I think they're going to pay a big price," said Trump.

Washington city authorities do not provide official crowd counts but TV footage clearly showed the crowd did not in fact stretch all the way to the Washington Monument and aerial photos indicate that turnout on Friday was significantly smaller than during Barack Obama's second inauguration, in 2013.

Washington visits

President Donald Trump will welcome British Prime Minister Theresa May on Friday in his first meeting with a foreign leader, the White House said on Saturday.

Trump will then receive his Mexican counterpart Enrique Pena Nieto on 31 January.

White House press secretary Sean Spicer made the announcements at a briefing.