President Trump responded to a hostile question from a German journalist on Friday by telling her she’s been reading “fake news.”
Disputing the journalist’s characterization of him as an “isolationist” during a joint news conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Trump said: “I don’t know what newspaper you are reading, but I guess that would be another example of, as you say, ‘fake news.'”
It began when the reporter asked Merkel: “How dangerous do you think this isolationist policy of the U.S. president is with the import tariffs that he’s planned, and also with the fact he doesn’t think deal with the EU in a very respectful way?”
Turning to Trump, the German journalist then said: “And Mr. President, ‘America first,’ don’t you think that this is going to weaken the European Union? And why are you so scared of diversity in the news and the media that you speak so often of ‘fake news’ and things that, in the end, cannot be proven, like for the fact that you were wiretapped by Mr. Obama?”
Trump, speaking in the East Room of the White House, sarcastically quipped: “Nice, friendly reporter.”
“First of all, I don’t believe in an isolationist policy,” Trump said. “But I also believe a policy of trade should be a fair policy. And the United States has been treated very, very unfairly by many countries over the years, and that is going to stop. But I’m not an isolationist. I’m a free trader, but I am also a fair trader.”
He added: “I am a fair trader. I’m a trader that wants to see good for everybody worldwide, but I am not an isolationist by any stretch of the imagination.”
