Donald Trump says he was surprised being US President was such a big job

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Donald Trump has said he was surprised at how big a job the presidency is.

The leader of the free world told Fox News interviewer Bill O'Reilly he works "long hours" and often gets only about four or five hours' sleep a night.

Mr Trump said that at the start of his presidency he has been surprised by "the size, the magnitude of everything" and being president can be a "surreal experience in a certain way".

He said: "The other day I walked into the main entrance of the White House and I said to myself, 'This is sort of amazing.' Or you walk into Air Force One, it's like a surreal experience in a certain way, but you have to get over it because there's so much work to be done.

He typically works until midnight or 1am, then wakes up at 5am to eat, read newspapers and check the television, he said.

The President is reported to routinely go through new clips about himself with his Press Secretary, Sean Spicer, outlining in marker pen the stories he doesn’t like.

And amid signs he began his presidency with the same chaotic operation that marked his campaign, a report has claimed he was not even aware he was elevating Steve Bannon to a senior security post when he signed one of several executive orders.

Since Mr Trump’s inauguration on 20 January, reports have emerged of a West Wing marked by confusion and unpreparedness—alongside intense turf battles being fought by his top officials.

A report in the New York Times painted a picture of chief-of-staff Reince Priebus trying to assert greater control, says he has set in place a set of checks and processes before new policies and executive orders are issued.

This was reportedly done following the backlash over the haphazard and chaotic rollout of the order halting the refugee programme and suspending travel for people from seven Middle Eastern and North African countries.

It said Mr Trump would be looped in on the drafting of orders much earlier in the process. Remarkably, the report says, Mr Trump was not fully briefed on details of the order he signed giving his chief strategist, Mr Bannon, a seat on the National Security Council.