Trump says he doesn’t believe Russia still meddling in US
After mea culpa, the US prez says people in intelligence loved his news conference
WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump on Wednesday said he does not believe Russia is still targeting the US , contradicting the assessments of his intelligence agencies that Moscow was continuing its attempts to meddle in American elections.
He also insisted his summit with Russia’s Vladimir Putin was a success, despite the outrage that his Monday meeting in Helsinki evoked from allies and opponents alike. He, however, reaffirmed his “full faith” in US intelligence agencies and their finding that Russia meddled in the 2016 presidential election.
On Monday, he said that he believed Putin did not order the meddling. When asked if he believed the findings of his intelligence agencies on Russia’s meddling, Trump had said: “My people came to me. They said they think it’s Russia. I have President Putin; he just said it’s not Russia. I will say this – I don’t see any reason why it would be.”
On Tuesday, Trump appeared to walk back those remarks, saying: “I said the word ‘would’ instead of ‘wouldn’t.’ ... The sentence should have been ‘I don’t see any reason why I wouldn’t,’ or ‘why it wouldn’t be Russia.’”
On Wednesday, though, he defended his Helsinki news conference. “So many people at the higher ends of intelligence loved my press conference performance in Helsinki,” he tweeted. “Putin and I discussed many important subjects at our earlier meeting. We got along well which truly bothered many haters who wanted to see a boxing match. Big results will come!”
Hours later, just before the start of a cabinet meeting, Trump claimed no American president has been tougher on Russia and that Putin knows that. Asked by a reporter if Russia was still targeting the US, he said no — in direct contrast to the head of US intelligence Dan Coats.
Asked by reporters on Wednesday if Russia was still targeting the United States, Trump shook his head and said: “No.”
Trump returned home from Helsinki on Monday night to widespread outrage, with staunch allies such as former House speaker Newt Gingrich publicly calling the news conference the “most serious mistake” of the presidency.
Trump seemed surprised by the backlash, and tried to push back in a tweet on Tuesday morning by saying that Helsinki was a successful visit and blaming the controversy on “Fake News media crazy”. But that didn’t work, and the criticism continued with House speaker Paul Ryan and Senate majority leader Mitch Mcconnell joining in.