Washington

US President-elect Donald Trump said on Thursday he has picked the tough-talking retired general James Mattis to be his defence secretary as he soaked up adulation at a buoyant Ohio rally that recalled this year's rough-and-tumble campaign.

The splash of hard news came during a sea of soaring - and then blunt - rhetoric from the 70-year-old Republican billionaire, who was speaking at his first post-election event following days of meetings about forming his Cabinet.