Trump policies would "backfire horribly" - Richard Branson

Richard Branson has warned that if Donald Trump were to introduce all the policies that he maintained during his presidential election campaign in the US there would be disastrous consequences.

The owner of the Virgin Group told Fortune that perhaps the most worrying aspect of a Trump victory is his attitude towards climate change, but if he chooses to surround himself with "decent people", then he can be a success during his four-year term.

"What I pray is that he surrounds himself with decent people, and that he will want a presidency that he can be proud of," Branson said during the interview.

"He's going to have to compromise, because if he pursues the policies he talked about when he was elected, I think it would backfire horribly."

He added that it now becomes the responsibility of business leaders to ensure that investment in clean energy and the fight against climate change continues, despite Trump's apathy towards the issue.

"When you have a new government that doesn’t believe in global warming, it's going to be up to us business people to make sure we create tens of thousands of jobs in the clean energy space," Branson said.

The Paris Agreement came into effect earlier this month, but Trump has suggested that he may pull the United States out of the ground-breaking accords, putting the deal in jeopardy.