Donald Trump told reporters on Saturday that he gets along better with everyone, including authoritarian leaders, than he does with members of the media.
‘I get along with everybody, except you people,’ the president told a room of reporters in Osaka, Japan gathered for a press conference during the G-20 Summit.
‘I get along with President Putin, I get along with Mohammed [bin Salman] from Saudi Arabia,’ Trump added.
President Trump made his assertion during a confrontation with CNN White House correspondent Jim Acosta
‘What is it with your coziness with some of the dictators and autocrats at these summits?’ the reporter, who often butts heads with the president, asked.
President Donald Trump said Saturday that he gets along better with dictators than American media. ‘I get along with everybody, except you people,’ he said, mentioning his relationships with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman
CNN White House correspondent Jim Acosta asked Trump about his ‘coziness’ with dictators during the G-20 Summit
Trump told the room of reporters in Osaka, Japan Saturday that he gets ‘along with everybody, except you people’
Trump often lauds his relationship with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, and said on Saturday that ‘we understand each other,’ of the authoritarian leader.
‘I think he understands me and I think I maybe understand him. Sometimes that can lead to very good things,’ Trump said.
Trump made a historic move on Sunday by becoming the first sitting president to cross the line from the Demilitarized Zone into North Korea.
The president took a few steps in to North Korea, shook Kim’s hand, and the two made their way back to the DMZ where they pledged to continue halted negotiations on peace and denuclearization in the region.
‘This has a lot of significance because it means that we want to bring an end to the unpleasant past and try to create a new future, so it’s a very courageous and determined act,’ Kim told Trump through a translator after smiling during their initial greeting.
Trump confirmed that he invited Kim to visit the U.S., and said in a tweet that crossing the line into North Korea was a ‘great honor.’
Trump, on Sunday, became the first sitting U.S. president to cross the Demilitarized Zone into North Korea. A move North Korean leader Kim Jong Un praised as ‘courageous’
While meeting with Putin on Thursday, the two leaders joked about the ‘fake news,’ and Trump said he wants to ‘get rid of them’
‘Leaving South Korea after a wonderful meeting with Chairman Kim Jong Un,’ Trump tweeted after his almost hour meeting with the North Korean dictator. ‘Stood on the soil of North Korea, an important statement for all, and a great honor!’
According to the U.S. intelligence community, bin Salman, who Trump mentioned during his praise of his relationship with authoritarian leaders, ordered the killing and dismemberment of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi.
Acosta asked Trump if he didn’t confront bin Salman about Khasoggi’s murder because he was ‘afraid of offending’ the Saudi leader.
‘I don’t really care about offending people,’ Trump quipped. ‘I sort of thought you knew that.’
During Trump’s meeting with Putin at the G-20 Summit in Japan Thursday, the two shared in their hatred of the media.
Trump jokingly said he wants to ‘get rid of them,’ in reference to journalists.
‘Fake news is a great term, isn’t it? You don’t have this problem in Russia, but we do,’ Trump said of the term he coined for American media’s coverage of him and his administration.
‘We also have,’ Putin said of ‘fake news.’ ‘It’s the same.’