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US president-elect Donald Trump said he planned to immediately deport or jail as many as three million undocumented immigrants, as he set out his priorities in the first television interview since his election.

The interview with CBS’s 60 Minutes broadcast on Sunday, with millions tuning in for clues on how the billionaire businessman-turned-politician will govern the country.

Since Tuesday’s election triumph, Trump had appeared to tone down his rhetoric, notably suggesting he might be willing to reconsider a pledge to scrap President Barack Obama’s signature health reform, the so-called Obamacare.

He made clear, though, in excerpts of Sunday’s interview that he still intended to crack down on undocumented immigrants in the country, focusing on people with criminal records.

“What we are going to do is get the people that are criminal and have criminal records, gang members, drug dealers . . . probably two million of them, it could be even three . . . out of our country, or we are going to incarcerate them,” Trump said.

Trump’s stance on his deportation plans stood in opposition with comments by House Speaker Paul Ryan, who said on Sunday the focus under a Trump administration would be on securing the border, not rounding up immigrants.

Trump also said he would keep his promise to build a wall along the US border with Mexico, but said part of it could be a fence, as some members of Congress have suggested.

“There could be some fencing,” he said in the interview, but in other areas “a wall is more appropriate”.

Mike Hanna, reporting from Washington DC, said there was no question about having a barrier on the border or not, but the discussion was about what form it would take as Trump had previously insisted it would largely be a physical wall, not a fence.

“The issue of a strong border is important for many Republicans, and indeed many Democrats. But the differences are as to what form it takes. There are already fences in large areas of the border at present, which the Congress approved,” Hanna said.

“If Donald Trump wants to get his wall, he needs the Republican-majority Congress to approve the expenses for it. He alienated many there during his campaign.”

Separately, 50 000 people in the US have signed a petition asking Trump to openly reject hate and bigotry.

It was set up following more than 200 reports of intimidation and harassment since election day. Some of those cases have been highlighted on social media.

Trump’s campaign was marked by derogatory comments about race, religion, gender and disability.

However, in his victory speech, he vowed to be a President for “all Americans”.

Meanwhile, Trump made his first two key personnel appointments on Sunday, one an overture to Republican circles by naming GOP chief Reince Priebus as his White House chief of staff, the other a shot across the bow of the Washington establishment by tabbing Breitbart news executive Stephan Bannon as chief strategist and senior counsellor.

The two men had made up the president-elect’s chief of staff shortlist, and while Priebus received that job, Bannon’s post also is expected to wield significant clout. The media executive with ties to the alt-right and white nationalist movement was given top billing in the press release announcing their appointments.

Trump’s hires were, at first glance, contradictory, though they fit a pattern of the celebrity businessman creating a veritable Rorschach test that allowed his supporters to see what they wanted. Priebus, who lashed the RNC to Trump this summer despite some intraparty objections, is a GOP operative with deep expertise of the Washington establishment that Trump has vowed to shake up. He has close ties to House Speaker Paul Ryan, a fellow Wisconsinite.

“I am very grateful to the president-elect for this opportunity to serve him and this nation as we work to create an economy that works for everyone, secure our borders, repeal and replace Obamacare and destroy radical Islamic terrorism,” Priebus said in the statement announcing his appointment.

Bannon, meanwhile, helped transform the Breitbart news site into the leading mouthpiece of the party’s anti-establishment wing, which helped fuel the businessman’s political rise. Ryan has been one of his most frequent targets. “Steve and Reince are highly qualified leaders who worked well together on our campaign and led us to a historic victory,” Trump said. “Now I will have them both with me in the White House as we work to make America great again.”

Neither Priebus nor Bannon bring policy experience to their new White House roles. Chiefs of staff in particular play a significant role in policy making, serving as a liaison to Cabinet agencies and deciding what information makes it to the president’s desk. They’re often one of the last people in the room with the president as major decisions are made.

Trump’s adult children, who serve as influential advisors to the president-elect, are said to have been concerned about having a controversial figure in the chief of staff role and backed Priebus for the job.

In announcing the appointments, Trump said Priebus and Bannon would work as “equal partners” — effectively creating two power centres in the West Wing. The arrangement is risky and could leave ambiguity over who makes final decisions.

Trump has long encouraged rivalries, both in business and in his presidential campaign. He cycled through three campaign managers during his White House run, creating a web of competing alliances among staffers.

Priebus is a traditional choice, one meant as an olive branch to the Republicans who control both houses of Congress as Trump looks to pass his legislative agenda.

Trump also told 60 Minutes he would eschew the $400 000 annual salary for the president, taking only $1 a year.

In dramatic scenes of diplomatic intrigue an American woman has announced 30 days of sex sanctions against her husband.

News of the rogue action broke on Friday morning.

Appealing to the global community on Reddit, the husband in question related the events since Tuesday but stopped short of calling them the actions of a rogue, or hostile spouse.

My wife and I vote oppositely usually, and she was sad that Hillary didn’t win and probably more upset that Trump did.

The husband also argued that such a sanction was not how sex ought to be used, and that by reducing access to it was he being subjected to a “control move on her part”.

Critics of the sanctions are likely to view them as disproportionate and could have significant impact on the population. Fears of “a
domino effect” against the 60 million other Trump voters from their spouse is causing a stir in other households.

The move is reminiscent of the sex strike held by the women of Athens and Sparta in the anti-war comedy Lysistrata by Aristophanes, first perfomed in 411 BC.

In the play, the women on both sides of the Peloponnesian war choose to withold sex until their respective husbands sue for peace.

Supporters of the rogue woman’s policy of containment said on Reddit:

Voting for Trump but then not understanding why a woman is withholding access to her body to express disapproval? The irony is palpable.

Suggestions that the sanctions could be increased beyond the month have not been confirmed, yet the husband is keen to open negotiations in order to learn the motive for the unprecedented sanction.

No third party has been named to make the approach.

This man’s sex life is just one more casualty in the Trump era. — AFP