President Donald Trump on Thursday reiterated that his push to reset the U.S. relations with Russia would continue regardless of the political blowback.
The new administration’s efforts to start afresh with Russia, which is considered an irreconcilable adversary by the U.S. security apparatus, has prompted a media outcry leading to the ouster of Michale Flynn as the National Security Adviser.
“I know politically it’s probably not good for me... I would love to be able to get along with Russia,” Mr. Trump said even as the Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was about to meet Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrvov in Germany on the sidelines of the G20 foreign ministers’ meet. After his first meeting with the Russian counterpart, Mr. Tillerson said he would work with Russia in areas of common interest but will stand up for the values of the U.S. and its allies. Mr. Tillerson also called on Russia to honour the Minsk agreement to end the fighting in Ukraine.
Mr. Trump’s impromptu press conference at the White House that lasted for 75 minutes was dominated by questions regarding alleged links of his advisers to Russia. The President defended his track record in office and accused the media and leaks from intelligence agencies of trying to undermine his policy initiatives.
“Those are criminal leaks. They’re put out by people... in agencies. I think you’ll see it stopping because now we have our people in,” Mr. Trump said, reiterating that the real scandal is that his conversations with foreign leaders were getting reported in the press. The President said he didn’t mind when details of his conversations with the leaders of Australia and Mexico found their way into media, but it would be tricky when he deals with more sensitive foreign policy issues such as North Korea. “All of a sudden, people are finding out exactly what took place,” the President said.
President defends Flynn
Mr. Trump said his former NSA Flynn was merely doing his duty by talking to the Russian envoy to the U.S., as he did with officials of 30 other countries. The President said he asked Mr. Flynn to quit because his recollection of the conversation to the Vice-President was inadequate. Mr. Trump also made light of the allegations that Russia has deployed cruise missiles in violation of an arms control treaty.
“It happened when — if you were Putin right now, you would say, hey, we’re back to the old games with the United States... I think Putin probably assumes that he can’t make a deal with me any more because politically it would be unpopular for a politician to make a deal... it would be much easier for me to be tough on Russia, but then we’re not going to make a deal,” said Mr. Trump. Russia has denied reports about the missiles.
Meanwhile, a National Public Radio report said Mr. Flynn did not make any promise on sanctions when he spoke to the Russian envoy.
“Flynn talked about sanctions, but no specific promises were made. Flynn was speaking more in general ‘maybe we’ll take a look at this going forward’ terms,” the report quoted an unnamed intelligence official as saying.
Mr. Trump said he has “inherited a mess” globally and domestically, but his administration has done more than any other President in the past to set things right in the first few weeks. “I didn’t come along and divide this country. This country was seriously divided before I got here,” he said, adding that “to be fair to Obama” the division started before his presidency.
