In his Facebook post, Najib said that both of them engaged in a very warm and productive telephone conversation earlier yesterday.

“Among other matters, we talked about the economy in the US and Malaysia.

“I congratulated him on his election victory, and we agreed to further strengthen US-Malaysia ties,” said Najib, adding that it was “great to reconnect with Trump following his outstanding win”.

Republican Trump, 70, defeated Democrat Hillary Clinton in the presidential race earlier this month to become the 45th president of the United States.

In an exclusive interview with The Star which was published yesterday, Najib said he had partnered billionaire-turned-politician Trump in a golf game several years ago and they won.

Their winning partnership was the setting for the much-talked about photograph of Najib and the president-elect, which Trump had signed, describing Najib as his “favourite Prime Minister”.

Trump had autographed the memento of their golf encounter with the phrase: “To my favourite Prime Minister. Great win!”

“We called each other a few times and after that, he became so involved in the process (of the US presidential election) so I didn’t quite follow up with him. Maybe later, once he’s settled in,” said Najib in the interview.