Despite US President Donald Trump labelling his first 100 days in office as an “artificial” marker, the White House is still eager to tout progress on the agenda items he promised to fulfil following his January 20 inauguration.

The President said he will have spent his first 100 days laying the “foundation” for progress later.

On foreign policy, Mr Trump said it was “possible” the US would withdraw from the nuclear accord with Iran.

The President also appeared to side with his advisers’ increasingly harder line on WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, saying if the Justice Department wants to charge him, “it’s OK with me”.

No matter how much I accomplish during the ridiculous standard of the first 100 days, & it has been a lot (including S.C.), media will kill!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 21, 2017

Meanwhile, young immigrants brought to the US as children and in the country illegally can “rest easy”, said Mr Trump, telling the “dreamers” they will not be targets for deportation under his immigration policies.

 Mr Trump said on Friday his administration was “not after the dreamers, we are after the criminals”.

The President, who took a hard line on immigration as a candidate, vowed anew to fulfil his promise to build a wall along the US-Mexico border.

But he stopped short of demanding that funding for the project be included in a spending bill Congress must pass by the end of next week to keep the government running.

“I want the border wall. My base definitely wants the border wall,” Mr Trump said in the Oval Office interview.

Asked whether he would sign legislation that did not include money for the project, he said: “I just don’t know yet.”

Eager for progress on other campaign promises, Mr Trump said he would unveil a tax overhaul next week that would include a “massive” tax cut for individuals and corporations.

He would not provide details but asserted the cuts for Americans would be “bigger, I believe, than any tax cut ever”.

Congressional Republicans seemed caught off guard by Mr Trump’s announcement and did not appear to have been briefed on the details of the White House’s plan.

He has faced setbacks including court bans on his proposed immigration limits and a failure to repeal and replace the current healthcare law.

— AP