Trump rants bizarrely about 25th amendment, George Washington's 'bad past' and 'angry' women in wild and incoherent press conference

President also boasts about 'very, very large' brain, refers to Kurdish reporter as 'Mr Kurd' and tells female journalist to 'sit down' as she asks about sexual assault allegations

Donald Trump embarked on a bizarre rant about the 25^th amendment, suggested George Washington had a “bad past”, and boasted about his own “very, very large brain” during a wild and occasionally incoherent press conference.

The US president faced questions from the media on the eve of a crunch Senate hearing over Brett Kavanaugh, but his rambling, 81-minute performance in New York covered far more ground than just the fate of his Supreme Court nominee.

In his first solo news conference for 20 months, Mr Trump also denied that world leaders had laughed at him during his UN general assembly speech and renewed his attacks on “fake news” media.

He bridled early on in proceedings when CNN’s Jim Acosta suggested he should take questions from some of the female journalists in the room about the sexual misconduct claims against Mr Kavanaugh.

Minutes later, the president bluntly told CBS News reporter Weijia Jiang to “sit down” as she tried to ask him how his own assault allegations had shaped his perspective on the issue.

Mr Trump claimed that women were “very angry” that accusations against Mr Kavanaugh were impeding his appointment of a Supreme Court judge.

“Women are so angry, and I, frankly, think that they like what the Republicans are doing, but I think they would have like to have seen it go a lot faster,” he said.

The president insisted the accusations against his Supreme Court pick were “a big fat con job” and suggested Democrats would object to anyone he put forward – even the Founding Father, who he claimed had skeletons in his own closet.

“Look, if we brought George Washington here and we said, ‘We have George Washington’, the Democrats would vote against him,” he said. “And he may have had a bad past. Who knows, you know?

“He may have had some, I think, accusations made. Didn’t he have a couple things in his past? George Washington would be voted against 100 per cent by [Democrat senator Chuck] Schumer and the con artists.”

Washington owned slaves, but it is unclear if that is what Mr Trump was referring to.

The president attacked the Democrats again after being asked about the threat of his removal from office, in an exchange that appeared to suggested he did not understand the 25^th amendment.

Asked if he suspected “anyone in your administration has ever discussed using the amendment against you”, Mr Trump replied: “Well, yes, enemies, sure.

“They’re not going to beat me in the election. They know that. They’re not going to beat me.”

The 25^th amendment allows the vice-president and the cabinet, rather than opposition politicians, to remove a president deemed unfit for office.

Moving onto foreign affairs, Mr Trump was was no more subtle.

In one bizarre exchange, he referred to a journalist from Kurdistan as “Mr Kurd”.

After accusing China of interfering in the US election, he claimed the country's government “had total respect for Donald Trump and for Donald Trump’s very, very large brain”.

The president also boasted about being admired by South Korean president Moon Jae-in for his role in the North Korea summit – moments after insisting he did not want to brag about it.

He said: “I can’t say because you would say I’m too braggadocious, but what he said about me last night was an unbelievable thing. It couldn’t have happened without President Trump, and it never would happen without President Trump. And nobody else could do it.”