AP Photo/Mary Altaffer
President Donald Trump speaks during a
President Donald Trump gave a rare solo press conference on Wednesday to address the swirl of news rocking his administration this week.
Many of the reporters' questions focused on developments from his appearance at the United Nations General Assembly and on Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, who is facing multiple accusations of sexual misconduct.
Here are six takeaways from Wednesday's press conference:
- When asked to comment on the growing sexual assault allegations against Brett Kavanaugh, Trump indicated he still supports Kavanaugh, but suggested he could change his mind if he believes any of the accusations against his nominee are true. Written testimony from Christine Blasey Ford, the first woman to go public with her accusations against Kavanaugh was made public Wednesday afternoon.
- On whether he plans to fire Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein amid reports that Rosenstein was willing to secretly tape Trump in the White House, Trump said he would "certainly prefer not" to fire Rosenstein, who is overseeing special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation of Russian influence in the 2016 US election.
- On the ongoing trade war with China: Trump claimed, inaccurately, that the dispute - which hit another crescendo this week with the addition of $200 billion in tariffs on consumer goods - has had "absolutely no impact on the economy." Numerous US businesses have contradicted Trump's claim. Those businesses are complaining of increased costs they've incurred as a result of the tariffs.
- On US-Canada relations and the current state of his diplomatic relationship with the Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau: Trump claimed he rejected a request to meet Trudeau because of what Trump said was the prime minister's unwillingness to budge in negotiations over revisions to the North American Free Trade Agreement, known as NAFTA.
- The US president referred to a Kurdish journalist as "Mr. Kurd."
- And took another jab at Democrats who he believes are bent on trying to railroad his agenda.