HANOI: US President Donald Trump said on Sunday he backed US intelligence agencies who concluded that Russia meddled in the 2016 US presidential election, but slammed “fools” who oppose better ties with Moscow.
Key former Trump aides are under US investigation for possible collaboration with the Kremlin, and the issue of whether Moscow interfered with last year’s vote has overshadowed the tail end of the president’s Asia tour.
Trump returned to the subject in an early morning Twitter storm in Vietnam, which also saw him take a sarcastic dig at North Korea’s “short and fat” leader Kim Jong Un.
Addressing a press conference in Hanoi, Trump was asked to clarify comments he had made on Air Force One the day before about Russian President Vladimir Putin’s insistence that Moscow had never tried to affect the US vote.
“I believe he feels he and Russia did not meddle in the election,” Trump said.
“As to whether or not I believe it or not, I’m with our agencies. I believe in our... intelligence agencies,” he added.
But in his barrage of tweets, Trump slammed “haters and fools” who questioned his efforts to improve ties with Russia.
“There (sic) always playing politics — bad for our country. I want to solve North Korea, Syria, Ukraine, terrorism, and Russia can greatly help!” he said.
In May, US intelligence chiefs told Congress they agreed with their analysts’ conclusion that Russia had interfered in the election.
CIA Director Mike Pompeo, who was appointed by Trump, said Saturday he still held to that evaluation.
Trump’s tour of Asia has been dominated by the issue of North Korea and its ambitions to become a full-fledged nuclear state.
His public pronouncements on Pyongyang over the last week have veered from denouncing it as a “cruel dictatorship” to offering a hand of friendship to Kim.
On Sunday, his tone shifted back to one of hostility.
Citing descriptions by North Korean officials and state media of him as an “old” man, another Trump tweet suggested he was disappointed by what he took to be a personal attack from the North’s young leader.
“Why would Kim Jong-un insult me by calling me “old,” when I would NEVER call him “short and fat?” Trump wrote.
“Oh well, I try so hard to be his friend — and maybe someday that will happen!” he added.
He later insisted he had not been joking about eventually befriending a man he denounced last week as a “twisted” dictator.
“It’s certainly a possibility. If that did happen, it would be a good thing,” he told reporters.
Trump backs US spies on Russia meddling, but slams Putin ‘haters’
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