Donald Trump in the Oval Office CREDIT: GETTY
In a lengthy interview with Time magazine he added: "I guess I can't be doing so badly because I'm president and you're not. I'm a very instinctual person, but my instinct turns out to be right."
The president's declaration on spying followed revelations from Devin Nunes, the Republican chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, that the names and communications of Mr Trump and his team appeared in intelligence reports as part of an "incidental collection".
Mr Trump told Time: "So, that means I’m right. Who knows what it is? You know, why, because somebody says 'incidental'.
"(We) were under surveillance during the Obama administration following November’s election. Wow."
Mr Trump also stood behind Judge Andrew Napolitano, a Fox News legal analyst who first suggested GCHQ had been asked by the Obama administration to carry out spying on him.
Mr Napolitano was later dropped by the television network and GCHQ called the assertions "utterly ridiculous".
But Mr Trump said: "I quoted the judge the other day. I have a lot of respect for Judge Napolitano, and he said that three sources told him things that would make me right.
"I don’t know where he has gone with it since then. But I’m quoting highly respected people from highly respected television networks. Why do you say that I have to apologise?"
In a series of tweets on March 4 Mr Trump said he had been "wiretapped" but he told Time: "When I said wiretapping, it was in quotes. It is just a good description. What I'm talking about is surveillance."
According to Mr Nunes the surveillance was during the period between Mr Trump's election win and his inauguration, a period when he would have been talking to foreign leaders..
Mr Trump also declined to back down from previous controversial claims including that millions of people voted illegally, and that immigration caused violence in Sweden.
source: telegraph Watch More video
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