The talk show host came under fire from the president following her stint on the CBS News show, in which she met a group of voters in Michigan - some of whom had voted for Trump in the 2016 US election - to hear their thoughts on his first year in office.

Trump tweeted: "Just watched a very insecure Oprah Winfrey, who at one point I knew very well, interview a panel of people on 60 Minutes.

"The questions were biased and slanted, the facts incorrect. Hope Oprah runs so she can be exposed and defeated just like all of the others!"

Winfrey told chat show host Ellen DeGeneres of her reaction to his tweet: "I woke up and I just thought..."

She shrugged and held her hands up in the air to display her confusion, and added: "And, I don't like giving negativity power, so I just thought... what?"

Winfrey also said Trump's comments made her look back at the footage to see if she had been fair.

"What I actually really did was I went back and looked at the tape to see if there was any place that that could be true," she said.

Winfrey said she thought part of the interview - which saw the panel discuss topics including Trump's comment about people from "s**thole" countries and tax laws - needed to be fixed to make it "more balanced".

She added: "I was working very hard to do the opposite of what I was hate-tweeted about so, it's OK."

Trump's remarks about Winfrey reignited the conversation about her possibly running for office, after she sparked speculation that she could be a strong contender following her rousing speech about equality at the Golden Globe awards.

She later said she had no desire to put herself forward as a Democratic candidate for the 2020 election.

Australian Associated Press