All countries will respect us far far more now, says Trump
’FAKE NEWS’ In first press conference since winning, presidentelect concedes Russia interfered in polls, but criticises reports it has compromising info on him
WASHINGTON: US president-elect Donald Trump called unverified claims about Russia possessing compromising personal and financial information about him “crap” put together by “sick people” and seemed to accuse American intelligence of leaking it.
He also announced a plan to comprehensively separate himself from his sprawling businesses, which will be put under a trust to be run by his two sons, Don Trump Jr and Eric Trump, and a long time Trump Organization executive.
Significantly, with implications for the organisation’s overseas interests, all 30 pending foreign deals will be terminated forthwith, which may include some in India. And the organisation will not sign any new foreign deal.
According to the long-awaited separation plan, Trump will not discuss his business with his sons, nor see detailed reports about them. All new deals made by the organisation, to be made only domestically, will be vetted by an ethics adviser.
Trump made these remarks and announcements at a news conference at Trump Tower in New York on Wednesday.
The conference, his first since winning the 2016 presidential election, was dominated by reports US intelligence chiefs had told the president-elect about Russia possessing damaging information on him.
“It’s a disgrace,” Trump said when asked about the reports, which he had slammed in tweets earlier in the day, and called them “fake news”, “phony stuff” and said some “sick people had put that crap together”.
And, he said in his typical manner giving himself room to deny it later, that “nonsense” may have been released or leaked by intelligence agencies, which he added, “would be a tremendous blot on their record if they did”.
The unsubstantiated information, which was contained in a two-page note given to him along with a report on Russian meddling in US elections last Friday, was gathered by a former British intelligence operative working for Trump’s political rivals.
They also informed him of exchanges between his surrogates and Russian intermediaries during the campaign. Both claims were made in a two-page note they gave him with a report on Russian meddling in the polls.
At the conference, Trump finally conceded that Russia hacked the Democratic National Convention’s emails but said a lot of other people try to hack the US too. He said Putin would stop such behaviour when he, Trump, is president. “He shouldn’t have done it. I don’t believe he will be doing it more.”
He went on to speak of what he believed was China taking advantage of the US economically: “All countries will respect us far more, far more than they do under past administrations.”