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DONALD TRUMP TOOK to the White House press podium for an hour and 15 minutes yesterday, ripping the press and denouncing “leakers”.
Trump’s first solo news conference as president was a lot of things including memorable. For all the trappings of the White House and traditions of the forum, his performance was one of a swaggering, blustery campaigner, armed with grievances and primed to unload on his favourite targets.
Here are some of the main talking points:
The news is fake
Trump appeared to confirm the veracity of leaks that led to the resignation of his national security adviser Michael Flynn, but still took aim at those who did the leaking.
The leaks are absolutely real. The news is fake because so much of the news is fake.
Russia is fake news. Russia – this is fake news put out by the media. The real news is the fact that people, probably from the Obama administration because they’re there, because we have our new people going in place, right now.
Trump, however, would not go as far as saying that Flynn lied to Vice President Mike Pence about his contacts with Russian diplomats before Trump’s inauguration.
The travel ban rollout was smooth
The Trump administration last night dropped its appeal against a court ruling that suspended his travel ban. However, despite the ban being defeated in three courts, Trump said the rollout of the ban went well.
We had a very smooth rollout of the travel ban; we had a bad court.
He said he’s not a bad person
Trump, who continually used the pulpit to criticise the media, said there was a negative tone about what he does.
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.
A nuclear holocaust like no other
Trump warned that a nuclear war between the US and Russia would bring about an unprecedented nuclear holocaust. He then explained the many uses of uranium.
We’re a very powerful nuclear country and so are they. I have been briefed. And I can tell you, one thing about a briefing that we’re allowed to say, because anybody that ever read the most basic book can say it, nuclear holocaust would be like no other. They’re a very powerful nuclear country, and so are we.
We had Hillary Clinton give Russia 20 percent of the uranium in our country. You know what uranium is, right? This thing called nuclear weapons, and other things. Like, lots of things are done with uranium, including some bad things. Nobody talks about that.
Hillary made Americans “look like jerks”
Trump’s assessment of Hillary Clinton’s time as Secretary of State was not positive.
Hillary Clinton did the reset, remember? With the stupid plastic button that made us all look like a bunch of jerks. Here, take a look. He looked at her like, ‘What the hell is she doing?’ With that cheap plastic button. Hillary Clinton. That was a reset. Remember it said ‘Reset’? Now if I do that oh, I’m the bad guy.
A problem of maths
Trump had earlier claimed to have the largest electoral margin of victory since Reagan, a provable falsehood. NBC reporter Peter Alexander took him to task.
Alexander: You said today that you had the biggest electoral margin since Ronald Reagan – 304, 306 electoral votes. In fact, President Obama got 365 in 2008.
Trump: Well, I’m talking about Republicans.
Alexander: President Obama 333, George H.W. Bush 426 when he won. So why should Americans trust…
Trump: I was given that information, I was just given it. We had a very big margin.
Alexander: I guess the question is: Why should Americans trust you when you accuse the information they receive as being fake, when you’re providing information that is not accurate?
Trump: Well, I was given that information. I was, actually, I’ve seen that information around. But it was a very substantial victory. Do you agree with that?
Alexander: You’re the president.
Trump also asked a black reporter to set up a meeting with the Congressional Black Caucus, asking if she was “friends with them” and said his administration is “running like a fine-tuned machine”.
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This guy is nuts. God help America, the lunatic is in charge of the asylum!
@Gus Sheridan: I suppose you think Eamon Ryan is sane
Val, Does Eamon Ryan have access to the nuclear codes?
It should be noted that he will win again in 2020, purely because American college students think he talks like a doge meme. Sad, but true.
Have you seen our lot
@Gus Sheridan: It’s a struggle to even read the transcript. He has no clue what he’s saying at all.
A ten year old kid would be more coherent.
I think you’re nuts,though!
@Val Martin: Trump held a Press Conference for an hour and a half ,against a Hostile Media,he put them all in their place,he was brilliant.Normally US presidential press conferences are Staged ,questions given in advance,only about three or four at that,last night President Trump took them all on ,and Won.What a guy.
“Donald Trump also answers the following question: What is 2+2?
“I have to say a lot of people have been asking this question. No, really. A lot of people come up to me and they ask me. They say, ‘What’s 2+2?’ And I tell them look, we know what 2+2 is. We’ve had almost eight years of the worst kind of math you can imagine. Oh my god, I can’t believe it. Addition and subtraction of the 1s the 2s and the 3s. Its terrible. Its just terrible. Look, if you want to know what 2+2 is, do you want to know what 2+2 is? I’ll tell you.
First of all the number 2, by the way I love the number 2. It’s probably my favorite number, no it is my favorite number. You know what, it’s probably more like the number two but with a lot of zeros behind it. A lot. If I’m being honest, I mean, if I’m being honest. I like a lot of zeros. Except for Marco Rubio, now he’s a zero that I don’t like. Though, I probably shouldn’t say that. He’s a nice guy but he’s like, ’10101000101′, on and on, like that. He’s like a computer! You know what I mean? He’s like a computer. I don’t know. I mean, you know. So, we have all these numbers and we can add them and subtract them and add them. TIMES them even. Did you know that? We can times them OR divide them, they don’t tell you that, and I’ll tell you, no one is better at the order of operations than me. You wouldn’t believe it. That I can tell you. So, we’re gonna be the best on 2+2, believe me. OK? Alright. Thank you.”
Lol
@Malachi Shanks: Are you by any chance the guy who writes the speeches for the Orange One?
@Malachi Shanks: That argument is far too coherent to represent Trump’s style of speech.
@Malachi Shanks: I doubt he could come out with such a long speech and still remember he was talking about 2+2 by the end of it.
Atleast he hasn’t bombed a hospital yet..
@Lad: You mean like Israel ?
@Lad: Hillary did many things… http://www.hannity.com/articles/election-493995/heres-the-bombshell-hillaryrussia-uranium-story-15572830/
From what I’ve seen he is more interested in his ratings and how popular he thinks he is than actually worrying about the country.
Asking a black reporter to set up a meeting – so wrong!
You have a problem with black people attending meetings?
The group in question had already written to Trump last month and are atill awaiting a reply. https://twitter.com/OfficialCBC/status/832316384260526081
@Mark: What’s wrong is that there’s a Congreddional Black Caucus at all, that only black members of Congress can join. Can you imagine if there were a white equivaelent? But of course, only whitey can be racist…
Problem was writing. He only watches TV.. Should have took out a TV ad
He won’t last a full term
He’ll never win the Republican nomination.
Then its back to more of the same. Just like Ireland
At least hes entertaining
Narcissistic Personality Disorder + Dunning-Kruger effect = Donald Trump
Can we stop with the “just like Ireland” nonsense? We have plenty of dodgy politicians and even some who pretend to be thick, but none are as genuinely moronic as Trump.
Trump’s election and Brexit are great examples of the wisdom of large crowds.
@alphanautica: Bill Burr was right. The Republicans and Democrats would act like children and refuse to work with him
He ruined their private little party. Whats interesting is ordinary people are against him. Which means they are defending big government and the likes of Bush / Clinton.
@alphanautica, as Terry Pratchett wrote: The intelligence of that creature known as a crowd is the square root of the number of people in it.
@Anton Friendo: the alternative hypothesis is that Trump is an incompetent idiot who believes himself to be a genius – and he fooled a lot of people into believing this too.
@alphanautica: Take a look at this, he promised to do this and he is doing it. Getting people back to work in good sensible jobs. There was no word about this at the conference, but its still happening.
http://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/319938-trump-signs-bill-undoing-obama-coal-mining-rule
Val, from your source: “The bill quashes the Office of Surface Mining’s Stream Protection Rule, a regulation to protect waterways from coal mining waste that officials finalized in December.” would you be pleased about this if your farm was downstream? It’s harming several industries to revive one
Val> All this shows is he is willing to let companies destroy the environment and make people ill. He is is taking a short sighted view to keep jobs. You should listen to latest episode of freakecnomics to hear what is happening.
“The news is fake because so much of the news is fake.” And that, boys and girls, is how a tautology works.
Exactly – I can’t believe he’s allowed to be so blatantly simplistic in his logic and reasoning. He communicates as if he’s talking to children but only because that’s how he himself understands things.
@Harry Whitehead: I dunno, your supposed to use different words in a tautology.
I’d say it’s more how stupidity works.
FAKE NEWS! FAKE NEWS! Trump and his chumps on the Alt-Right are like the boy who cried wolf, such whiny Snowflakes.
Other for the sake of making weapon makers happy, why does the West and Russia have to keep the arms race going?
Would it not be better if both sides would not see each other as a threat and save hundreds of billions on weapons that are aimed at each other?
What is so bad about him trying to get the US to get along with Russia and combine their energies and resources in riding the world of terrorism?
@George Vladisavljevic: He is not though. Trump cabinet is already unblocking previously blocked massive arms deals to S-A (biggest supporter and enabler of Sunni Islamic terrorism) and other theocratic s**tholes in the world.
And to stop feeding the monster you claim to be fighting is not good for the financial or political/hot-air bottomline. And Trump is both a great politician and businessman.
@George Vladisavljevic: One of the best interviews you will hear explaining the controversy surrounding Flynn’s resignation, plus how the normal American taxpayer is ultimately funding perpetual wars, and a misguided foreign policy..
(7.5 minute video)
” Kucinich Pins Flynn Leak on Intel Community, Warns of Another Cold War.”
@George Vladisavljevic: Exactly, why not try and see how it goes? The lefties wanted talks with Russia all during the cold war
@Val Martin: There’s a difference between “talking with” in an official summit style capacity and randomly throwing out unapproved discussions like what Mike Flynn did.
If this was the 70′s would you be supporting Nixon’s interference in peace negotiations at the end of the Vietnam war? That intervention is widely believed to have caused enough issues to have directly contributed to 20,000 deaths.
There are real consequences to stepping outside correct channels.
He’s such a moron.
@Jason Maguire: The conference is a poor gauge of performance. Just read this and see how Mr Trump is delivering on promises 100%. http://yournewswire.com/top-scientist-resigns-admitting-global-warming-is-a-big-scam/ and
https://www.rt.com/usa/377639-trump-repeal-obama-coal-mining-rule/
So he is reversing most of Obama’s terrible attacks on jobs
@Val Martin:
“The conference is a poor gauge of performance”
No, it’s a GOOD gauge of POOR performance.
@Val: Firstly, to disagree with Global Warming because one scientist denies it while millions have proven it is just plain stupid. And he released that statement 7 years ago, a lot has been proven since then.
Second, to allow coal mines to operate again is not ‘bringing back jobs’. I mean it does, but it only has a temporary effect. It poisons the water, the environment, the foods you eat, the water people drink etc. It will be a massive net loss for all the people involved.
When he was talking about ‘bringing back jobs’ he meant companies who left the US and are employing staff or manufacturing abroad. He was about to start a trade war with china but was probably told most US businesses would not survive the drop in the dollar as a result, including his own company. So now he wants to show he is doing something by bringing back a handful of jobs that obama wrote off due to health and environmental reasons so people like you keep thinking hes a great president. Its not stupid on him but that strategy only works on the dumb people. But it seems to have worked on you…. surprised? No.
Val, please stop with the links to crazy websites – yournewswire.com with the tagline ‘news. Truth. Unfiltered’ and one of the breaking news reports is ‘ghost of small girl haunts Spanish town hall’.
@Ross Stewart: That’s asking too much of poor Val, it’s all his tinfoil hat muddled mind can understand
@Val Martin: That bill will destroy the environment in mining areas and endanger health.
Good job the people have affordable healthcare.. oh wait.
You need to get off your knees in front of that brain damaged cheesy Wotsit and grow a brain.
This US administration is prime time entertainment. Trump must be delighted!
Time for our journalists to get out of their offices D2 . They got it wrong with Trump. Got it wrong with brexit,got it wrong about the last election,got it wrong with Nana,got it wrong about bankers,got it wrong about water,got it wrong about vulture funds,got it wrong about immigrants ,and now you have got it wrong about the McCabe fiasco,.It’s time you lot got off your ass and come down the country and find the true feelings of people. We could have told you this ,but alas you choose to sit with the elite in Leinster House and drip feed there shit to the rest of society.Journalists have a mission to protect the public by speaking the truth.The society of professional journalists lists several pillars of ethics,”seek the truth and report it” minimize harm,act independently and be accountable and transparent.Public opinion today has lost confidence with you,this is very evident in the sale of newspapers..
Trump is 100℅ correct and time will tell this.
@Sam: Got it wrong with wind energy, got it wrong with pylons, got it wrong the Celtic Tiger. They don’t want things fixed because if everything were fixed, there would be no news for them to report.
Journalist didn’t expose the McCabe scandal, it was McCabe himself and a few politicians.
@Sam: Got what wrong with poor aul Nana?
They got it wrong about Leicester city
I would question the mental state of this man.
Lez – was initially willing to give him a chance but now of the opinion that he is completely at sea. At what stage he realises this and admits to himself that he has far exceeded his capabilities, remains to be seen?
You guys must have been watching a different press conference then me. The only thing he got wrong was the record of previous elections. He was wrong there. Otherwise he delivered a great show. The Press wanted him to tell them in advance of his plans for military action. He refused, he was right.
55% approval rating too, not bad at all.
@Val Martin: I thought so too. Do people seriously have a problem with Trump calling CNN out??
Rubbish, he is blaming the media for fake news and he himself is the biggest culprit for spreading fake news, he got is so wrong on the electoral vote and immediately blamed someone else and moved on from it. The jewish reporter asked him a serious question and Trump berated him like a child, told him sit down 3 times and refused to answer the question because it was ‘insulting’. Trump is a jumped up playground bully more interested in stroking his own ego.
55% according to a single outlier poll. The polling aggregate has him at 49% 20 points below where Obama was at this point in his first term
Rasmussen are extremely “reliable”,Val .
@Francis Mc Carthy: You are correct Francis. Their polls accurately predicted a Donald Trump win when all others didn’t.
In your head Val , only in your head .
All other polls predicted an electoral college win for Clinton which manifested in reality and the states in which she lost the election were narrow losses well within the margin of error of the polls. The places that were wrong were some of the outlets with improperly tuned aggregator models like the Huff Post. Which had her at 99%. The polls themselves were fine.
@Francis Mc Carthy: They were second in reliability to the LA Times in the Election. In fact The LA Times had trump ahead in the popular vote which was incorrect because Hillary was slightly ahead. Rasmusen had Trump ahead in the state votes. The rest of the polls had Hillary 4 to 8 points ahead and I knew they were wrong. I bet heavily on Trump.
The problem for the failed polstrers was they only picked easy samples. They never picked shop workers, or lorry drivers , it was always retired people who would answer the phone. No good.
This poll is OK , fairly good, Trump is doing well
@EdmundOrlando: The Jewish reported accused Trump of been anti-Jew, that is nonsense. He is a strong supporter of Israel. I don’t know where that reporter came from, but he might be fake jewish.
@thejynxeffect: I guess it’s too much to ask that you, and your fellow troll Val, take your heads out of Trump’s ar$e and see him for what he really is, a narcisstic con-man with a Napoleon complex
@Larissa Caroline Nikolaus: It’s not too much to ask if you debate it on the issues and not pure hysterical emotion. You have to remember that the world has been lead up a very expensive, unfair path which Obama lead and Hillary was set to continue. I have been working to reverse their influence at tremendous cost in time and money. We landed Brexit which was great and now we have Trump and hopefully more to come in Europe.
I am trying to halt climate change hysteria based of fake facts, wind energy with is ongoing in breach of the law, massive electricity grid expansion for no gain. The demonetization of fossil fuel, corruption etc. Trump is against corruption, so am I. You are for corruption, no accountability, the sort of thing which has happened to Maurice McCabe. You are a snowflake , a highly dangerous breed. So debate by all means but begging me to let you off with it wont work.
Isn’t the medias trusted rating below 10% with Americans. They would love to have a rating like Trumps.
@Val Martin: Take off your tinfoil hat and move out of your Ma’s basement
@Larissa Caroline Nikolaus: brilliant Lariassa! Your usual intelligent input.
Val> He just lied about the uranium
@Maurice Bourke: No,it isn’t. That % would probably be amongst the Trump supporters.
Two states, One state, I don’t care as long as you guys are happy. How insulting is that to Israel & Palestine..
@Kal: no he didn’t. Even the New York Times covered that scandal. https://mobile.nytimes.com/2015/04/24/us/cash-flowed-to-clinton-foundation-as-russians-pressed-for-control-of-uranium-company.html
@thejynxeffect: it doesn’t take much to be more intelligent than you, or your fellow troll Val
@Kal Ipers: “Val> He just lied about the uranium”
Yup! He said that America gave Russia 20% of their Uranium.They did not.
Sqaure> It isn’t 20% of the uranium of the US. She didn’t sell anything as it was not owned by the US. She didn’t make the decision to allow the sale as it is done by others no matter what pressure she may have placed on one group there was another group involved. So she didn’t sell anything and it wasn’t 20% of uranium owned by the US. That makes it a lie regardless of a report about her getting a kick back. Which maybe true but doesn’t make what Trump said any less a lie.
@Val Martin: Jesus if you believe even a part of that you are seriously delusional and in need of care.
@Kal: Did you read any of the article? ‘the sale gave the Russians control of one-fifth of all uranium production capacity in the United States.’ I didn’t understand anything else you wrote – something about other groups being involved, even though she was boss of the SD and her husband was getting kickbacks in Moscow. God, the blinkers people are willing to put on when rooting for their team!
Yes I did and I also read about the false claim before and it was a lie then too. 20% of current production is very different from 20% of US uranium. She didn’t have the power or ownership to sell something that was owned by a Canadian company. She didn’t have control to pass or stop the sale.http://www.cnbc.com/2017/02/16/trump-claims–falsely–that-clinton-gave-russia-20-of-us-uranium.html
I love the fact he is just not a politician or even remotely concerned about others opinion of him. It gives him great freedom to press ahead with his vision, which is why he was elected I suppose.
@Zx5vZulB: It doesn’t make him unanswerable.
@Zx5vZulB: “not a politician or even remotely concerned about others opinion of him”
His twitter rants would say otherwise.
“I love the fact he is just not a politician”
And boy has he gone and proven it.
It’s official, this guy is unhinged, any person working in the field of mental health would be concerned, let alone ordinary American citizens. Trump is clearly unwell, I predict an early exit.
All media is fake as long as Rupert Murdoch is printing good things about Trump.
@ChrisKirk Murdock owns Sky news even more anti Trump than the BBC
Shutter Island
These days every senior politician has media training and media experts working for them….Every newspaper radio and tv programme is monitored…..These media experts tell politicians never offend the mainstream media always defer to them….Virtue signal and follow their agenda….Great how Trump is breaking the cardinal rule in politics never offend the media and call them biased.. .. Media always say they are the bastian of democracy and to undermine them is to undermine democracy and free speech…
John, one of the most basic rules in a democratic society is a free press. Also the first step taken by authoritarians is to discredit the press.
He is just a f**k in disaster. How can Americans who are normally so cocksure of themselves and proud of their presidents really and truthfully say we’re proud of Trump? How can they?
It’s the truth though.
The Alt-Left have completely lost the plot.
The lies emanating from the liberal press are astounding, absolutely astounding.
One of the greatest pieces of live TV …………………Ever.
I don’t support Trump or not support Trump as I am not an American, just an outside observer. It’s strange that I feel obliged to state this on an Irish news site, but many commentors here act as if they are directly invested, Pro Trump or Anti Trump as if it makes any difference. They would probably dispute this with the claim that the entire planet is in danger with Trumps finger on the nuclear launch button! while forgetting that the has been a long line of people with their finger on that button over the decades, who were not exactly geniuses or trustworthy. The real problem with a democratic system is that most people actually only support it, when the results reflect their own beliefs, otherwise democracy is according to them, obviously broken! When most of the ordinary people, who have neither a direct involvement or personal agenda in US politics, comment about the current US situation and presidency on social media it really illustrates the fact that, prior to Trump being involved in politics, they either didn’t actually pay attention or didn’t really care what went on in US politics for decades! The US media has acted since World War Two, to a large extent as if US politics was a real life version of the Emperors new clothes, they could all clearly see its naked backside, but pretended to be blind to it. The two most historically notable US Presidencies when it comes to scandal and flat out bare faced lies are those of Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton, but even as those events unfolded, to a large extent the majority of the US media did not attack them, their administrations or families. But to look at the venom of the media currently, you would be forgiven for thinking that Trump had gained power through a coup d’etat, not an election and was some combination of The Antichrist, Hitler, Stalin, Ted Bundy, and Forrest Gump, who spends all day on twitter, thinking about groping women, while sitting with his finger on the button to launch nuclear armageddon! Since Trumps election, the media now wants to highlight and heap criticism on every action, inaction, inconsistent fact, gesture, facial expression or word from the President. Trump himself or anyone associated with Trump, administration or family are all fair game it seems. If the media had gone after President Obama, his administration and family in the same way, there would have been worldwide uproar. But now its Trump in the whitehouse, then it’s not only accepted, but encouraged! Trump himself aside, can you imagine the outcry, if the media had gone after Michelle Obama or the Obama children in the same way as they have Melania Trump and Trumps children?
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