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For the first time in nearly six months, Donald Trump held a press conference on Wednesday morning. The result was an hour-long event that was equal parts confusing, infuriating, and disheartening. Overall, the best way to describe it, and Trump's whole political career in general, is just WTF. So here are the seven most WTF-inducing quotes from Trump's press conference.
The conference came one day after an explosive and controversial report published by Buzzfeed alleged that Russian intelligence had damaging information on Trump, most notably that he had hired prostitutes for golden showers while in the country in 2013 for the Miss Universe pageant. Trump denied the allegations, calling it "fake news" and a "political witch hunt" on Twitter.
The 35-page dossier had apparently been in the hands of most major news publications for months, but all had declined to publish the report until it could be further substantiated. Understandably, questions about the report took up a big chunk of time in the presser, and plenty of topics like the proposed Obamacare repeal, the future of LGBTQ+ rights, and his children's involvement in the administration were never even touched on.
The conference could have lasted about 10 hours, and reporters would still have had questions that needed answering. Hopefully, this is the first of many, many press conferences, because otherwise the American people are going to be scratching their heads over these seven confusing quotes for a long time.
On His History Of Press Conferences
"I think we probably maybe won the nomination because of news conferences," Trump said right at the beginning of the speech, starting it off on a WTF note at the start. Trump hadn't given a press conference in 167 days before this one, and during the campaign, he only had limited, sporadic interactions with the press.
On His Germaphobia
Trump legitimately argued that the "golden shower" allegations from the dossier published by Buzzfeed can't be true because he's a germaphobe.
On His Conflicts Of Interest
"[I] was offered $2 billion to do a deal in Dubai — a number of deals. And I turned it down. I didn't have to turn it down. Because as you know, I have have a no conflict situation because I'm president, which is — I didn't know about that until about three months ago," Trump said about the conflict between his business and his presidency.
While this may be legally technically true, it's still infuriating that Trump hasn't figured out why most people are so concerned about his business dealings and their impact on his presidency.
On His Russian Business Dealings
"I have no dealings in Russia, I have no deals in Russia, I have no deals that could happen in Russia because we have stayed away, and I have no loans with Russia." Except for the fact that your son, the one you're signing your business over to, said the exact opposite just a few years ago and you haven't given anyone the documents needed to verify your claim.
On Russian Hacking
"As far as hacking, I think it was Russia. But I think we also get hacked by other countries and other people. And I can say that, you know, when we lost 22 million names and everything else that was hacked recently, they didn’t make a big deal out of that." So he finally admits that Russia hacked the election, but still tries to play down the fact that it matters just because it's convenient to him. All you're left with really is WTF.
