Ten highlights from Donald Trump's press conference

The US President-elect touched on a gamut of issues from Russian hacking to creating jobs

Here are the top ten highlights from US President-elect Donald Trump's first press conference in New York since his election.

Russian influence:

Trump tonight dismissed as "nonsense" the media claims that Russia has compromising information on him, saying the allegations may have been leaked by US intelligence agencies and it would be a "tremendous blot" on their record if they did that.

"I think it's a disgrace that information would be let out. I saw the information, I read the information outside of that meeting," Trump told reporters in his first formal press conference in six months.

Referring to a dossier with allegations that Russia has compromising material on him, the President-elect said, "It's all fake news. It's phony stuff. It didn't happen."

"The DNC was totally open to be hacked. They did a very poor job," he said.

Intel agencies

A visibly composed Trump said his team is going to put "some of the greatest computer minds" together and put up a defence against hacking by foreign entities.

The press conference came amid media reports that chiefs of American intelligence agencies had last week presented President Barack Obama and Trump with a summary of unsubstantiated reports that Russia had collected compromising and salacious personal information about Trump.

"Sick people, group of opponents have put them together. It shouldn't have entered paper, its an absolute disgrace," he said, referring to the allegations.

Jobs

"I will be the greatest jobs producer that God ever created," he said. 

Putin

"If Putin likes Donald Trump, it is an asset not a liability. I hope I do get along with Putin, there’s good chance I won't," he said.

Alluding to Moscow’s response on the leak of intelligence information, Trump said Putin and Russia said this was fake news."

Healthcare

aid pharmaceutical companies are "getting away with murder" in the prices that they charge the government for medicines, and promised that would change.

Trump has made few public comments about drug pricing since he was elected but his campaign platform had included allowing the Medicare healthcare program to negotiate with pharmaceutical companies, which the law currently prohibits.

The healthcare sector dropped 0.787% after Trump said the country needs more competitive drug bidding.

Trump assets

He said he is separating himself from his global business empire by transferring his assets into a trust and putting his two oldest sons in charge, an arrangement that watchdogs said was inadequate to prevent potential conflicts of interest in office.

At a news conference, Trump said he would resign from all positions overseeing hotels, golf courses and hundreds of other businesses to help ensure that he will not consciously take actions as president that would benefit him personally.

'You Are Fake News!'

Trump today got into a shouting match with a CNN reporter during his press conference as the President-elect refused to allow him a question and slammed the news network as "fake news".

Trump engaged in a war of words with the CNN reporter over the release of an unverified dossier by BuzzFeed, which he termed as "failing piece of garbage".

With Trump looking to call on other reporters, CNN journalist Jim Acosta yelled out, "Since you are attacking us, can you give us a question?"

"Not you," Trump said, adding that, "Your organisation is terrible!"

Obamacare

Trump said Obamacare should be repealed and replaced “essentially simultaneously,” weighing in on a political debate among Republican lawmakers who are grappling with how to tackle the effort.

“It’ll be repeal and replace. It’ll be essentially simultaneously,” Trump said.

Auto industry

Trump nudged General Motors Co., the largest U.S. automaker, to follow its biggest peers by investing in domestic auto plants and adding jobs.

Less than two minutes into his first formal press conference after the November election, Trump highlighted Ford Motor Co.’s plans to cancel a $1.6 billion factory in Mexico and expand an existing plant in Michigan. Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV committed $1 billion toward building three new Jeeps in the U.S. and enabling a Michigan facility to build a Ram pickup now produced in Mexico.

Mexico

Trump today said his administration will soon build a massive border wall with Mexico to keep out illegal migrants and claimed that the cost of constructing the controversial structure would be reimbursed by the southern neighbour.

"I don't feel like waiting a year or a year and a half to start building. Mexico in some form, in their many different forms, will reimburse us," Trump said during his first press conference in six months.

"They will reimburse us for the cost of the wall. That will happen. Whether it's a tax or if it's a payment. Probably less likely that it's a payment. But it will happen," Trump said.