Returning from an overseas trip that was both celebrated and controversial, President Trump is plowing “full steam ahead” with his domestic agenda, the White House said Tuesday, brushing aside jibes by foreign leaders and new questions about top aides’ links to Russia.
White House press secretary Sean Spicer looked for momentum from the president’s history-making journey across the Middle East and Europe, hoping to break free of the unyielding news coverage of alleged collusion with Russia and other criticisms that have distracted from Mr. Trump’s accomplishments.
“We’re back at home now, and the president and his Cabinet are moving full steam ahead on the president’s agenda,” Mr. Spicer said at the daily White House press briefing. “We’ve got a pretty bold agenda.”
Little had changed in Washington during Mr. Trump’s nine-day trip, however, and Mr. Spicer again clashed with reporters and accused them of peddling “fake news.”
He abruptly ended the briefing after arguing with reporters about what qualified as “fake news.”
Mr. Trump’s plans to replace Obamacare, overhaul the tax code and launch a massive infrastructure program remained bogged down in Congress.
The frustration inside the White House was evident.
Mr. Trump repeatedly took to Twitter to vent about news reports focusing on Russia and on comments by German Chancellor Angela Merkel that were presented as an indictment of the president’s diplomatic skills.
“We have a MASSIVE trade deficit with Germany, plus they pay FAR LESS than they should on NATO & military. Very bad for U.S. This will change,” the president tweeted.
He also tweeted about the stalled agenda, which has denied him a major legislative victory after five months in office.
“The U.S. Senate should switch to 51 votes, immediately, and get Healthcare and TAX CUTS approved, fast and easy. Dems would do it, no doubt!” tweeted Mr. Trump.
The suggestion that the Senate do away with the filibuster rule, a proposal that would dramatically alter the nature of the chamber, had virtually no support from GOP senators. What’s more, the two bills Mr. Trump named are, under current rules for certain budget bills, already exempt from filibuster.
Mr. Spicer took a different tack.
He insisted the president’s agenda was on track and gaining steam, although he acknowledged some frustrations with the pace of Congress.
“He wants to see action done,” said Mr. Spicer. “This president was elected to get things done and he wants to see things moved through the House and the Senate, especially when you’ve got a majority of support and [he wants] people to stop playing games.”
Mr. Spicer dismissed questions about a Washington Post report that Mr. Trump’s son-in-law and top aide Jared Kushner attempted to set up backchannel communications with Moscow during the transition. The report, based on anonymous sources, furthered speculation that the FBI’s Russia probe had identified Mr. Kushner as a person of interest.
National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster and Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly have defended the practice of using backchannel communications, but Mr. Spicer refused to say if Mr. Trump approved of it.
“What your question assumes is a lot of facts that are not substantiated by anything but anonymous sources that are so far being leaked out,” he told reporters. “You’re asking if he approves of an action that is not a confirmed action.”
Mr. Trump also had to contend with German Chancellor Angela Merkel saying her country could no longer depend on the U.S. for security, a comment widely interpreted in the U.S. news media as evidence the president had strained relations with European allies.
Mr. Spicer said the comment was a validation of Mr. Trump’s call for NATO members to pay their fair share for security.
“That’s great. That’s what the president called for. He called for additional burden sharing,” he said.
He was ready for the question and read back the quote from Ms. Merkel:
“The times when we could fully count on others are over to a certain extent. I have experienced this in the last few days. We Europeans must really take our destiny into our own hands, of course in friendship with the United States, in friendship with Great Britain, with other neighbors wherever possible, also with Russia.”
Mr. Spicer said it was good for everybody in countries like Germany to meet their NATO obligations.
“That is a good thing for them, that is a good thing for NATO, that is a good thing for America,” he said.
Mr. Trump raised eyebrows last week at a NATO summit in Brussels when he stood before European leaders and told them that their countries had to start paying their agreed share for military security.
Mr. Trump has pushed that issue since the campaign and has already seen some NATO members increase their payments, which is supposed to be 2 percent of a country’s gross domestic product. Currently, only five of NATO’s 28 members pay the agreed amount for defense.
In the clash over “fake news,” Mr. Spicer said the president was “rightly concerned” about disinformation spread in the news media.
Asked to name a ’fake news’ story, Mr. Spicer noted a tweet by a reporter about Mr. Trump disrespecting the Italian prime minister during the G7 summit in Taormina, Italy.
Mr. Trump was accused of being disrespectful because he wasn’t wearing headphones to hear a translation of Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni’s remarks. Mr. Trump was, however, wearing an earpiece.
The tweet by a BBC reporter was shared by a Politico reporter who is moving to the New York Times.
Mr. Spicer said that was the type of false story that was pushed instead of focusing on the successes on the trip, including visiting Saudi Arabia, Israel and Vatican City in Rome to unite three major religions in the struggle against radical Islamic terrorism.
Reporters objected.
“It’s true. You did it,” Mr. Spicer said.
Another reporter responded: “Reporters make mistakes.”
“No,” said Mr. Spicer, “that’s just fake. That is fake.”
A New York Times reporter defended his colleagues by saying the mistake was only in a tweet and reports about the president’s trip were all over the front page.
“The problem is the president gets frustrated when he sees fake stories get published, things that are not based in fact,” Mr. Spicer said.
He could have pointed to major news stories that have been discredited, such as front-page reports that Mr. Trump fired FBI Director James B. Comey after he requested more money and resources for the Russia investigation.
The story was presented as evidence that Mr. Trump was attempting to obstruct the investigation.
Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein told a House panel earlier this month that he was unaware of such a request.
“Moreover, I consulted my staff and Acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe, and none of them recalls such a request,” he said.
• S.A. Miller can be reached at smiller@washingtontimes.com.
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