Trump: Media will ruin any deal with Putin
Impromptu media session held by US president in defence of wounded allies, his wife and himself
DONALD TRUMP launched an all-out attack on the media yesterday, accusing it of undermining his chances of developing a good relationship with Vladimir Putin by running stories about links between his administration and Russia.
In an explosive impromptu press conference in the East Room of the White House, the US president’s frustration was clear as he angrily denounced “criminal leaks” to the press emanating from his own intelligence services.
Mr Trump said he had instructed the department of justice to investigate, adding: “The leaks are absolutely real. The news is fake.”
His highly charged, sometimes angry 75-minute backand-forth with journalists was a further signal that Mr Trump’s White House will be unlike any before it. The president said his administration was running “like a fine-tuned machine” but he was a victim of “hatred, venom and distortion”.
In particular, he denounced reports that people in his team had been in touch with Russian officials during the election, saying that “nobody I know has” and that the suggestions were a “ruse” and a “scam”.
Mr Trump said the reports were damaging to his relations with Mr Putin. The Russian president would now assume the political climate in the US would make friendly ties untenable, and he would return to the “old ways”, Mr Trump said.
This week Russian jets buzzed a US destroyer in the Black Sea, and the Kremlin deployed a prohibited cruise missile and sent a spy ship to the US east coast.
Mr Trump said those events were “not good” but he did not see it as Mr Putin “testing” him. He said: “The fake, horrible reporting makes it much harder to make a deal with Russia. Putin is probably sitting behind his desk thinking it’s going to be impossible for me to ever get along with Russia because of this fake story, and that’s a shame. Putin probably assumes he can’t make a deal with me any more because politically it would be unpopular. If you were Putin now you would say ‘OK we’re back to the old ways’.”
Mr Trump added: “The easiest thing I could do is shoot that [Russian] ship 30 miles off the coast right out of the water. People would say that’s great. That’s not great. It would be so easy for me to be tough with Russia but I want to do the right thing for the American people. Secondarily, I want to do the right thing for the world.”
Mr Trump defended Michael Flynn, his former national security adviser, who was forced to resign this week after leaks showed he had discussed sanctions with the Russian ambassador. The president said Mr Flynn had been “just doing his job”.
Boris Johnson, the Foreign Secretary, said Britain and the US should engage with Russia in a “very guarded way” but warned there must not be a return to the Cold War. Mr Johnson had his first meeting with Rex Tillerson, the US Secretary of State, at the G20 summit in Germany yesterday.
DONALD TRUMP insisted that he had “inherited a mess” as he launched the most vigorous defence of his presidency to date during a wideranging 75-minute impromptu press conference yesterday.
Mr Trump claimed his administration was operating like a “fine-tuned machine” and railed against claims to the contrary during a session initially intended as an introduction of his new cabinet nominee.
The president briefly noted that Alexander Acosta would be the next secretary of labour before launching into an impassioned defence of himself and his policies.
“I inherited a mess, at home and abroad, a mess,” he said. “No matter where you look, a disaster ... we’ll take care of it. I just wanted to let you know I inherited a mess.”
Mr Trump said his rivals and the media continued to claim his administration was in “chaos”, but the reality was “the exact opposite”, and that no previous president had accomplished so much and so quickly.
He jolted from anger, to humour to defiance, claiming that while he knew the headlines would say he had “ranted and raved”, he was enjoying himself.
The press conference marked a return to Mr Trump’s improvisational style during the campaign following weeks in which his public statements had come largely on Twitter or in exchanges with friendly media outlets.
A White House official told CNN the president had simply strolled into the Oval Office and said: “Let’s do a press conference today.”
Russia
Mr Trump claimed reports that his senior campaign aides had been in contact with Russian intelligence officials were a “ruse” designed to undermine his presidency.
But he twice declined to say whether they were accurate, until finally clarifying that “nobody that I know of ” had held conversations with Russian agents.
He insisted he personally had “nothing to do” with Russia, and that the leaks from US intelligence sources that led to the reports were the real scandal. “The good thing is it’s starting to turn. People are starting to focus on the illegal giving out of classified information,” he said.
He also appeared to forgive Vladimir Putin for stepping up his aggression toward the US, saying he believed negative media coverage had convinced Mr Putin that a potential “deal” was off.
Mr Trump said he would ultimately be more “tough” on Russia than Hillary Clinton was as secretary of state.
“We had Hillary Clinton give Russia 20 per cent of the uranium in our country. You know what uranium is, right? This thing called nuclear weapons, like lots of things are done with uranium, including some bad things,” he said.
Michael Flynn
Mr Trump said he was not concerned that Michael Flynn, until recently his national security adviser, had discussed sanctions to be handed down by Barack Obama with the Russian ambassador last year despite a law against negotiating with foreign powers.
“Mike was doing his job,” Mr Trump said, adding that he “would have directed him to do it if I thought he wasn’t doing it”. The president said the reason he demanded Mr Flynn’s resignation was that the retired general had not recounted the conversations accurately to Mike Pence, the vice-president.
He described Mr Flynn as a “fine person”, and said the “real problem” was that details of his conversations with Russia had made it into media reports. “It’s an illegal process and the press should be ashamed of themselves. But more importantly, the people that gave out the information to the press should be ashamed of themselves, really ashamed,” he said.
Asked about reports that Stephen Feinberg, the billionaire investor, would be conducting a review of US intelligence amid the high-profile leaks, Mr Trump said he hoped that would not be necessary.
“The gentleman you mentioned is a very talented man, very successful man and he’s offered his services and it’s something we may take advantage of. But I don’t think we’ll need that at all because I think that we are going to be able to straighten it out very easily on its own.”
Electoral college
Mr Trump repeated his claim that his had been “the biggest electoral college win since Ronald Reagan”.
In fact, Mr Obama’s wins in 2008 and 2012 had both been by significantly larger margins than Mr Trump’s. Bill Clinton’s margins of victory in 1992 and 1996 were far larger, too, and in 1988 George HW Bush won 426 electoral college votes, compared with 306 for Mr Trump.
When confronted with those facts Mr Trump simply said he had been “given that information” and suggested that he could not be held responsible for inaccuracies. “I was given that information. I’ve seen that information around. But it was a very substantial victory, do you agree with that?”
Travel ban
Mr Trump said the introduction of his controversial immigration and refugee ban had been “very smooth”, and that a “bad court” had made the wrong ruling in blocking it.
He said he would issue a new executive order next week to protect the American people to lessen the effects of that “bad decision”.
“You do agree there are bad people out there, right? That not everybody’s like you? You have some bad people out there,” he said, contending that such people would flood into the country if his order remains blocked.
Mr Trump offered no details about the forthcoming order.
Media attacks
The president returned to his favourite territory of attacking the media, describing the BBC once again, with deep sarcasm, as “another beauty” and berating journalists, telling them: “I’d be a good reporter.”
He seemed to delight in the verbal jousting with the press, telling them repeatedly: “I love this. I’m having a good time. I don’t mind bad stories. I can handle a bad story better than anybody as long as it’s true,” he said. “But I’m not OK when it is fake. I mean, I watch CNN, it’s so much anger and hatred … and just the hatred.”
He continued: “I see tone. You know the word ‘tone’. The tone is such hatred. I’m really not a bad person, by the way. No, but the tone is such – I do get good ratings, you have to admit that – the tone is such hatred.”
When a black reporter asked him whether he would meet with the Congressional Black Caucus, he suggested she set up a meeting. “Are they friends of yours?” he asked.
Melania
Mr Trump launched a strident defence of his wife, insisting that Melania Trump was “a fantastic person” who would embrace the role of first lady.
“I’ve known her a long time,” he said, speaking of his wife of 11 years.
The 46-year-old, whose absence in the first three weeks of her husband’s presidency has raised eyebrows, would soon begin to work on “women’s issues”, he said. “She gets so unfairly maligned. The things they say. She wouldn’t even want to go out with people. She is a very private person. She was always the highest quality that you will ever find.”
Mr Trump’s choice for national security adviser, retired vice-admiral Robert Harward, has turned down the offer, it was reported last night.
“Harward is conflicted between the call of duty and the obvious dysfunctionality,” an unnamed source told a newspaper. Mr Harward was offered the job after Michael Flynn resigned on Monday.