{"id":171028,"date":"2018-07-15T04:19:08","date_gmt":"2018-07-15T08:19:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=171028"},"modified":"2018-07-15T04:19:08","modified_gmt":"2018-07-15T08:19:08","slug":"trump-tweets-hits-links-before-high-stakes-putin-meeting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2018\/07\/15\/trump-tweets-hits-links-before-high-stakes-putin-meeting\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump tweets, hits links before high stakes Putin meeting"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Trump<\/a>
Trump was later seen playing the Turnberry links, several holes of which are visible from a nearby beach, where dozens of people staged a protest picnic Saturday. (Photo<\/a>: Donald J. Trump\/Twitter<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

TURNBERRY, Scotland \u2014 Two days before a high-stakes summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin, President Donald\u00a0Trump\u00a0played golf and tweeted Saturday from one of his namesake resorts, blaming his predecessor for Russian election meddling and lashing out at the free press from foreign soil.<\/p>\n

Aides had said\u00a0Trump\u00a0would spend the weekend preparing to meet Putin on Monday in Helsinki, but the tweets showed other topics were on his mind.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have arrived in Scotland and will be at\u00a0Trump\u00a0Turnberry for two days of meetings, calls and hopefully, some golf – my primary form of exercise!\u201d he tweeted early Saturday, referencing his seaside golf resort. \u201cThe weather is beautiful, and this place is incredible! Tomorrow I go to Helsinki for a Monday meeting with Vladimir Putin.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump\u00a0was later seen playing the Turnberry links, several holes of which are visible from a nearby beach, where dozens of people staged a protest picnic Saturday. He was videotaped waving at protesters as they shouted \u201cNo\u00a0Trump, No KKK, No Racist USA!\u201d before resuming his game. He was also seen posing for photos.<\/p>\n

A line of police, some on horseback, stood between the course and protesters. Snipers perched atop a nearby tower overlooking the vast property.<\/p>\n

The protesters were among the thousands who came out in Scotland and England in opposition to the U.S. president’s visit to both countries.<\/p>\n

Some 10,000 people marched Saturday through the Scottish capital of Edinburgh, while police searched for a paraglider who breached a no-fly zone and flew a protest banner over the resort in western Scotland where\u00a0Trump\u00a0and his wife, Melania, are staying through Sunday.<\/p>\n

The glider carried a banner that said \u201cTrump: Well Below Par\u201d over the resort Friday night to protest his environmental and immigration policies.<\/p>\n

In Edinburgh, anti-fascist groups and political activists joined those who said they’d never protested before, weaving through the capital’s streets waving an array of makeshift anti-Trump\u00a0banners. A choir, a bagpiper, a tambourine band and poetry readings added to the carnival spirit.<\/p>\n

\u201cDonald\u00a0Trump\u00a0is not welcome here,\u201d Scottish Labour leader Richard Leonard told the crowd. \u201cThe horrific scenes at the Mexican border are just the latest example of his repudiation of decent human values.\u201d<\/p>\n

Protesters also launched a 20-foot-tall (6-meter) blimp depicting\u00a0Trump\u00a0as an angry baby that had flown over anti-Trump\u00a0protests in London on Friday.<\/p>\n

Trump\u00a0has spent the weeklong trip wreaking havoc in Europe, first at a NATO summit in Brussels where he questioned the value of the decades-old alliance, and later in Britain, where he faced fallout from a stunning newspaper interview in which he undermined British Prime Minister Theresa May at an especially vulnerable time.<\/p>\n

But\u00a0Trump\u00a0was also keeping tabs on domestic issues, including the investigations into Russian election meddling.<\/p>\n

In Saturday’s tweets,\u00a0Trump\u00a0tried to blame former President Barack Obama for failing to stop the Russians from working to help him win the 2016 election.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe stories you heard about the 12 Russians yesterday took place during the Obama Administration, not the\u00a0Trump\u00a0Administration,\u201d\u00a0Trump\u00a0tweeted, asking why they didn’t \u201cdo something about it, especially when it was reported that President Obama was informed by the FBI in September, before the Election?\u201d<\/p>\n

It was\u00a0Trump’s first response to indictments announced Friday in Washington against 12 Russian military intelligence officers who allegedly hacked into the presidential campaign of Hillary Clinton,\u00a0Trump’s Democratic rival, and the Democratic Party, and released tens of thousands of emails in a sweeping Kremlin conspiracy to help\u00a0Trump.<\/p>\n

Trump\u00a0denies that he or any campaign aides were involved with the Russian campaign and repeatedly dismisses the ongoing investigation that produced Friday’s indictments as a \u201cwitch hunt.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump\u00a0told reporters he plans to raise election meddling with Putin but said he doesn’t expect Putin to ever accept blame.<\/p>\n

\u201cI will absolutely bring that up. I don’t think you’ll have any ‘Gee, I did it. I did it. You got me,\u201d’\u00a0Trump\u00a0said Friday, referring to Putin.<\/p>\n

Leading Democratic senators asked\u00a0Trump\u00a0in a letter Saturday to scrap the summit if he was not prepared \u201cto make Russia’s attack on our election the top issue you will discuss.\u201d And John McCain, a leading Republican senator and\u00a0Trump\u00a0critic, said\u00a0Trump\u00a0must hold Putin accountable or not proceed with the meeting.<\/p>\n

But\u00a0Trump’s chief diplomat, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, told journalists travelling with him that he was confident the meeting would \u201cput America in a better place.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump’s tweets also targeted CNN, mocking the American cable channel’s president, Jeff Zucker, as \u201cLittle Jeff Z\u201d and knocking its election coverage following the president’s spat with a CNN correspondent at a news conference Friday in England.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo funny! I just checked out Fake News CNN, for the first time in a long time (they are dying in the ratings), to see if they covered my takedown yesterday of Jim Acosta (actually a nice guy). They didn’t!\u201d Acosta had objected to\u00a0Trump\u00a0dismissing the news outlet as \u201cfake news.\u201d<\/p>\n

In fact, CNN reported on the exchange of words and interviewed Acosta on air about what happened. Acosta also replied to\u00a0Trump\u00a0on Twitter.<\/p>\n

\u201cTakedown? I don’t think so. Perhaps we should even the playing field next time and you can take my question. (You’re right about one thing.. I am a nice guy),\u201d Acosta said Saturday.<\/p>\n

Trump’s repeated attacks on the news media while overseas \u2014 he also lashed out at NBC News and The Sun newspaper during Friday’s news conference \u2014 has alarmed free speech advocates, especially asTrump\u00a0is set to hold a joint press availability Monday with Putin, whose country is known for being deeply hostile to a free press.<\/p>\n

White House Correspondents’ Association President Margaret Talev said in a statement that \u201csaying a news organization isn’t real doesn’t change the facts and won’t stop us from doing our jobs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump’s decision to stay yet again at a property he owns \u2014 and has repeatedly advertised during the trip \u2014 caught the attention of ethics experts, who say he should not profit off the presidency.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

TURNBERRY, Scotland \u2014 Two days before a high-stakes summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin, President Donald\u00a0Trump\u00a0played golf and tweeted Saturday …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":171029,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24157,16,17],"tags":[14087,18135],"class_list":["post-171028","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-american-news","category-news","category-news-w","tag-president-donald-trump","tag-russian-president-vladimir-putin","mauthors-jill-colvin","mauthors-renata-brito","mauthors-the-associated-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171028","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=171028"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171028\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/171029"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=171028"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=171028"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=171028"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}