Trump Defends Accomplishments, Attacks Media at Press Conference

President Donald Trump speaks during a news conference in the East Room at the White House on February 16, 2017 in Washington, DC.

“The press has become so dishonest, that if we don’t talk about it we are doing a tremendous disservice to the American people, a tremendous disservice, we have to talk about it”, he said. “It’s going to be impossible for President Trump to ever get along with Russian Federation because of all the pressure he’s got with this fake story”.

He said what could be interpreted as Russian actions created to test the news administration, such as a Russian ship coming close to the U.S., are not tests, they are because Mr Putin “assumes he can’t make a deal with me anymore”.

After a 24-minute opening statement that included quotes such as, “Drugs are becoming cheaper than candy bars”, Trump took questions from reporters, who he called “fake news” to their faces. “I want to just tell you, the false reporting by the media, by you people, the false, horrible, fake reporting makes it much harder to make a deal with Russian Federation”.

Just six days into his presidency, Donald Trump was informed his national security adviser had misled his vice president about contacts with Russian Federation. People giving out illegal classified information.

He also said he’s got someone good to replace Flynn, which made the decision to let him go easier. “It was-it’s a joke, and the people mentioned in the story, I notice they were on television today saying they never even spoke to Russian Federation”. What’s going to happen when I’m dealing with really, really important subjects like North Korea?

The hastily called press conference came as a surprise to reporters, who would typically had a briefing with White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer during that time.

But Trump’s supporters had a different take on his Q&A session, praising him for sticking it to reporters. But I know you well enough. But so did many other leaders, nearly all other leaders from nearly all of the countries.

He later talked about a Wall Street Journal story that said intelligence officials didn’t trust the president.

“Nobody that I know of”. There’s no upside. We’re a very powerful nuclear country and so are they. He also downgraded CNN from “fake news” – his usual label for the news channel – to “very fake news”.

When addressing the intelligence leaks that led to Michael Flynn’s exit, Trump agreed with their validity, but accused the news media of false reporting of the incident.

“The people get it”, the president added.

On The Tonight Show, Jimmy Fallon joked: “The only time I remember this much craziness is when Charlie Sheen was on that winning streak”. “You see what’s going on with all of the companies leaving our country, going to Mexico and other places – low-pay, low-wages”, he explained.

He rattled off early successes, including the record highs in the stock market, major companies such as Ford opting to keep factories in the US, the cancellation of the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal and ordering the Pentagon to devise new plans to destroy the Islamic State. “I didn’t direct him, but I would have directed him because that’s his job”, he said. “I don’t hate you”.