Team Trump has released a video about the US president’s first 100 days. Picture: AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File

Mr Duterte, who has loosened the Philippines’ long alliance with the US while strengthening ties with China and Russia, said he may turn down the American president because of a busy schedule that included a trip to Moscow.

“I am tied up. I cannot make any definite promise. I am supposed to go to Russia, I am supposed to go to Israel,” he told reporters when asked about Mr Trump’s invitation made in a telephone call on Saturday.

Mr Duterte expressed concerns about not being able to fit in a visit to Mr Trump even though no firm date has yet been proposed for it.

Nevertheless, Mr Duterte said relations with the US were improving now that Mr Trump had taken over from Barack Obama, who criticised the Philippine president for his anti-drug war that has claimed thousands of lives. He last year branded Mr Obama a “son of a whore” in response to the criticism.

It comes as Thailand’s prime minister accepted Mr Trump’s invitation to visit the US.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte (left) said he may turn down an invitation by Donald Trump (right) to visit the United States. Picture: AP Photos/Eugene Hoshiko, Pablo Martinez Monsivais, FilesSource:AP

TRUMP TEAM RELEASES ‘FIRST 100 DAYS’ VIDEO

Mr Trump’s team has released a video celebrating his first 100 days in the White House.

“Donald Trump, sworn in as president 100 days ago. America has rarely seen such success. A respected Supreme Court Justice, confirmed. Companies investing in American jobs again. America becoming more energy independent. Regulations that kill American jobs, eliminated. The biggest tax cut plan in history,” a booming voice says over scenes of proud American families and workers.

“You wouldn’t know it from watching the news. America is winning and President Trump is making America great again,” the video adds, flashing the faces of American journalists who’ve criticised his presidency.

At the end of the 30-second clip, released on Monday, Mr Trump says: “I’m Donald Trump and I approve this message.”

It comes after Mr Trump skipped the White House Correspondents’ Dinner on Saturday to address supporters at a rally in Pennsylvania and criticise “Washington media”.

“A large group of Hollywood actors and Washington media are consoling themselves in a hotel ballroom in our nation’s capital right now,” he said at the event marking his first 100 days in office.

“Media outlets like CNN and MSNBC are fake news ... and they would love to be with us here tonight, but they’re trapped at the [White House Correspondents’] dinner which will be very, very boring.”

He said he was “thrilled to be more than 100 miles from Washington” to discuss the “great journey” of his political milestone.

In an earlier interview with Reuters, he said he didn’t know being president would be as hard as it is.

TRUMP’S PUZZLING CIVIL WAR CLAIM

Mr Trump has made puzzling claims about Andrew Jackson and the Civil War, suggesting he is uncertain about the origin of the US conflict while claiming that Mr Jackson was upset about a war that started 16 years after his death.

Mr Trump, who has at times shown a shaky grasp of US history, said he wonders why issues “could not have been worked out” in order to prevent the secession of 11 Southern states and a war that lasted four years and killed more than 600,000 soldiers.

“People don’t realise, you know, the Civil War, if you think about it, why?” Mr Trump said in an interview with the Washington Examiner. “People don’t ask that question, but why was there the Civil War? Why could that one not have been worked out?”

Mr Trump ruminated after lauding Mr Jackson, the populist president whom he and his staff have cited as a role model. He suggested that if Mr Jackson had been president “a little later, you wouldn’t have had the Civil War”.

“He was really angry that he saw what was happening with regard to the Civil War. He said, ‘There’s no reason for this,”’ Mr Trump continued. But Jackson died in 1845, and the Civil War didn’t begin until 16 years later, in 1861.

President Donald Trump questioned why the Civil War couldn’t have been avoided. Picture: AP Photo/Andrew HarnikSource:AP

TRUMP: KIM JONG-UN A ‘PRETTY SMART COOKIE’

Mr Trump labelled brutal North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un “a pretty smart cookie” as the rogue nation’s nuclear ambitions rattle Asia.

“At a very young age, he was able to assume power. A lot of people, I’m sure, tried to take that power away, whether it was his uncle or anybody else. And he was able to do it. So obviously, he’s a pretty smart cookie,” Mr Trump told CBS News that aired on Sunday.

“But we have a situation that we just cannot let — we cannot let what’s been going on for a long period of years continue.”

Donald Trump called Kim Jong-un a “pretty smart cookie”. Picture: AP Photo/Wong Maye-e, FileSource:AP

The interview came a day after North Korea test-launched a short-range ballistic missile, in defiance of UN sanctions.

“This was a small missile. This was not a big missile. This was not a nuclear test, which he was expected to do three days ago. We’ll see what happens,” Mr Trump said.

“If he (Kim) does a nuclear test, I will not be happy. And I can tell you also, I don’t believe that the president of China, who is a very respected man, will be happy either.”

SOUTH KOREA WARNS OF TRUMP RISK

South Korean media on Monday warned of a “Trump risk” threatening the alliance between Washington and Seoul amid high tensions over the North’s weapons ambitions.

The two countries are bound by a defence pact and 28,500 US troops are stationed in the South.

But the new US president has said in recent interviews that Seoul should pay for a “billion-dollar” US missile defence system being deployed in the South to guard against threats from the nuclear-armed North.

He has also pushed for renegotiation of what he called a “horrible” bilateral free trade pact that went into effect five years ago, calling it an “unacceptable ... deal made by Hillary”.

The remarks stunned Seoul, with South Korean politicians immediately rejecting his push for payment for the Terminal High Altitude Area Defence (THAAD) battery.

Tensions are high over the North’s nuclear and missile programs — it has ambitions to develop a rocket that can deliver a warhead to the US mainland — and threats on both sides have raised fears of conflict.

“Trump’s mouth rattling Korea-US alliance” said a front-page headline in South Korea’s top-selling Chosun daily on Monday.

“There are issues that are far more important than just money,” it said in an editorial.

“If either country keeps reducing the alliance to the matter of money or the economy, it is bound to undermine basic trust.”

Seoul, it said, needed to come up with “various Plan Bs” for the future. The THAAD system is being installed at a former golf course in the South.

This has infuriated China, which sees it as compromising its own capabilities and has responded with a series of measures seen as economic retaliation, even as Washington looks to Beijing to rein in Pyongyang.

An advanced US missile defence system, dubbed the Terminal High Altitude Area Defence, has been deployed to a golf course in South Korea's southeastern county of Seongju. Picture: AAP Image/Yonhap News AgencySource:AAP