Trump’s Russia troubles dog him ahead of first trip abroad
WASHINGTON : Donald Trump will on Friday start his first overseas trip as US president, hoping to put behind, for a while at least, an escalating controversy about his campaign aides’ alleged contacts with Russia during the 2016 election and his own role in trying to quash an FBI investigation into it.
In remarks on Thursday, Trump tried clear his name, saying, “There is no collusion between certainly myself and my campaign, but I can always speak for myself — and the Russians, zero.” He was not going to stand surety for his aides any longer.
Especially not for his first national security adviser Michael Flynn. New revelations show he was hired despite his own admission to being under an FBI probe. Questions are now being raised about vice president Mike Pence, who had headed the transition team.
“Getting ready for my big foreign trip,” Trump tweeted, hours before taking off for Saudi Arabia, his first stop. “Will be strongly protecting American interests — that’s what I like to do!” There was no mention of Russia, former FBI director James Comey, or Robert Mueller, the special counsel who now heads the Russia probe.
Trump’s aides have said the trip is about reaffirming America’s global leadership, building relationships with key world leaders and “broadcast a message of unity to America’s friends and to the faithful of three of the world’s greatest religions”.
Trump will be out of the US for nine days. He might just like to escape the withering scrutiny he has faced in the last few days at home — Trump called Mueller’s appointment a “witch-hunt”.
“I think it divides the country. I think we have a very divided country because of that and many other things,” Trump told reporters at a news conference with visiting Columbian President Juan Manuel Santos.