The four most bizarre moments from Donald Trump’s CBS interview
Donald Trump has been in power for 100 days and to mark the occasion he spoke with CBS to reflect on what he has done so far.
However, the interview on ‘Face The Nation’ will be remembered more for the odd moments than for Trump’s inside view on running the US.
The President chatted about the “bigness” of his decisions so far – and made one or two baffling comments about his new workplace.
Here are the four most bizarre moments…
Failing to understand the Oval Office metaphor
‘Face The Nation’ host John Dickerson tried to get Trump to muse on former George W Bush’s comment on how the Oval Office was round and therefore had no corners to hide in – meaning accountability always sat firmly at the President’s lap.
However, Trump failed to spot the metaphor and took it just a bit too literally. He said: “Well, there’s truth to that. There is truth to that. There are certainly no corners. And you look, there’s a certain openness. But there’s nobody out there. You know, there is an openness, but I’ve never seen anybody out there actually, as you could imagine.”
Repeated the false claim about savings billions on fighter jets
Pentagon officials have previously shot down Trump’s claim that his actions have saved billions of dollars on 90 F-35 jets after a meeting with Lockheed CEO on the costs of the deal. They stated that a decision was made to cut costs before November’s election, with Senator Jack Reed – the ranking Armed Services Democrat – stating that the savings “would have happened anyway”.
Nevertheless, the President is not shy of a boast and declared on CBS: “I was negotiating to reduce the price of the big fighter jet contract, the F-35, which was totally out of control. I will save billions and billions and billions of dollars. And calling from here and meeting here and having meetings on that contract, I think gives you great additional power, if you want to know the truth.”
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Felt the need to point out what phones are
Being President of the United States probably means having some fancy gadgets at your disposal. However, when asked what kind of technology the White House has, Trump felt the need to explain something quite obvious.
He said: “Well, everyone thinks that this is very ominous right here. See this? These are phones. These are very, you know, secure phones. But this is a – very ominous looking because of the red button.” That red button gets him a Coke or Pepsi, for the record…
Repeated the Obama wiretapping claims
Trump claimed in a series of tweets in March that Obama ordered his phones wiretapped during the Presidential campaign. No proof was ever offered and his own team appeared to row back on his claims. However, in a tetchy end to the CBS interview, the President repeated the claims – still without offering up any actual evidence. When asked if Obama had offered any helpful advice, Trump replied: “Well, he was very nice to me. But after that, we’ve had some difficulties. So it doesn’t matter. You know, words are less important to me than deeds. And you saw what happened with surveillance. And everybody saw what happened with surveillance… I think that was inappropriate.”
When asked what he meant, Trump added: “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.” Trump then ended the interview, stating: “I have my own opinions. You can have your own opinions.”
Top pic: CBS
