Trump admitted he fired Comey because of the “Russia thing” in an interview with Lester Holt:
“And, in fact, when I decided to just do it, I said to myself, I said: ‘You know, this Russia thing with Trump and Russia is a made up story, it’s an excuse by the Democrats for having lost an election that they should’ve won.’”
This contradicted the original White House memo that stated Comey was fired because of his handling of the Hillary email investigation. He again backtracked the comments later after claiming that the interview had been “fudged,” though no evidence was offered.
Trump told Russian officials visiting the Oval Office that “I just fired the head of the FBI. He was crazy, a real nut job…I faced great pressure because of Russia. That’s taken off.” He also said he was unconcerned with Russian election interference and shared classified intelligence with the Russian officials gathered by Israel, despite Russia’s ally Iran being Israel’s longtime enemy.
Trump’s style of handshake became so infamous that other leaders began to preempt it. He has employed it against not just other leaders or oppositional politicians, but even with his own Vice President and Supreme Court nominees.
On August 21 of 2017, Trump witnessed a solar eclipse alongside fifth child Barron and third wife Melania. Despite being issued safety glasses, Trump was photographed looking directly at the eclipse.
While Trump’s glance into the eclipse lasted only a moment, he quickly did it twice before someone in attendance shouted, “don’t look!”
Trump claimed that he lost the popular vote because of millions of double votes and illegal immigrants committing voter fraud. Though he repeated the claims many times, no evidence has been provided. He has asserted that voter ID laws are necessary to curb fraud, saying that Americans need ID to buy groceries but not to vote.
The claims began immediately after Trump’s election victory.
In addition to winning the Electoral College in a landslide, I won the popular vote if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally
Trump repeated the assertions even after inauguration. Then-Press Secretary Sean Spicer said in Trump’s defense,
I think he’s stated his concerns of voter fraud and people voting illegally during the campaign and he continues to maintain that belief based on studies and evidence people have presented to him.
During the public portion of Trump’s first cabinet meeting, Vice President Pence set the tone for the unusual 11-minute spectacle that followed, praising Trump while he sat smiling. Each of Trump’s cabinet members took turns offering praise and thanks.
Trump had previously asserted by tweet that President Obama had placed an illegal “tapp” on Trump, but provided no evidence.
In an interview held in the Oval Office with CBS’ John Dickerson, when asked to elaborate on his claims, Trump abruptly ended the interview.
RESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: — and I thought that — well, you saw what happened with surveillance. And I think that was inappropriate, but that’s the way–
JOHN DICKERSON: What does that mean, sir?
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: You can figure that out yourself.
JOHN DICKERSON: Well, I– the reason I ask is you said he was– you called him “sick and bad”.
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Look, you can figure it out yourself. He was very nice to me with words, but– and when I was with him — but after that, there has been no relationship.
JOHN DICKERSON: But you stand by that claim about him?
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: I don’t stand by anything. I just– you can take it the way you want. I think our side’s been proven very strongly. And everybody’s talking about it. And frankly it should be discussed. I think that is a very big surveillance of our citizens. I think it’s a very big topic. And it’s a topic that should be number one. And we should find out what the hell is going on.
JOHN DICKERSON: I just wanted to find out, though. You’re– you’re the president of the United States. You said he was “sick and bad” because he had tapped you– I’m just–
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: You can take– any way. You can take it any way you want.
JOHN DICKERSON: But I’m asking you. Because you don’t want it to be–
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: You don’t–
JOHN DICKERSON: –fake news. I want to hear it from–
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: You don’t have to–
JOHN DICKERSON: –President Trump.
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: –ask me. You don’t have to ask me.
JOHN DICKERSON: Why not?
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Because I have my own opinions. You can have your own opinions.
JOHN DICKERSON: But I want to know your opinions. You’re the president of the United States.
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Okay, it’s enough. Thank you. Thank you very much.
The raid was one of the first high-profile military actions of the administration. Trump was reportedly told that the proposal had been considered too aggressive by Obama before he signed off on it. It led to the death of a Navy SEAL, 23 civilians including an 8 year old girl, and the crash of a $90 million aircraft.
A house destroyed by an airstrike in Sana’a in Yemen. Mohamed Al-Sayaghi / Reuters
This was the first direct American intervention in Yemen, which had been in the middle of a civil war.
US Senator John McCain referred to it as botched, and refused to retract the statement despite a request to do so by the White House.
During a visit to MacDill AFB in 2017, Trump made a variety of claims. Among them, like how “our Navy is at a point almost as low as World War One – that’s a long time ago, that’s a long time ago,” Trump also claimed “I saved over $700 million when I got involved in the negotiation on the F-35.”
