Last Updated Jan 11, 2017 4:50 PM EST
President-elect Donald Trump held a free-wheeling, hour-long press conference at Trump Tower Wednesday morning — the first formal news conference he\u2019s held since winning the presidency in November.
The motivation for the news conference, which was initially scheduled for December but delayed by almost a month, was to outline how he will deal with his complex web of business interests once he\u2019s in the White House, Since his election, Mr. Trump has faced serious questions about who will handle his businesses while he\u2019s in the White House — and how to avoid the myriad conflicts of interest that could arise when a sitting president owns a business empire.
In an opening statement before his first press conference as president-elect, Donald Trump spoke about his ties to Russia, the upcoming inaugurat…
However, much of the press conference ended up focusing on Russian election interference and on reports Tuesday that the intelligence community\u2019s classified report on Russian hacking had an addendum with unverified details of potentially compromising information that Russia has gathered on the president-elect, and that Mr. Trump was briefed on last week.
President-elect Donald Trump slams reports that Russia has potentially compromising information about him.
\u201cThese papers are all just a piece of the many, many companies that are being put into a trust to be run by my two sons,\u201d he said. Mr. Trump continued that he hopes he will come back \u201cat the end of eight years\u201d to a company that has been well run, but that if not he will tell his sons \u201cYou\u2019re fired.\u201d
\u201cHe shouldn\u2019t be doing it, he won\u2019t be doing it,\u201d he said. \u201cRussia will have much greater respect for our country when I\u2019m leading it than when other people have led it. You will see that.\u201d
Mr. Trump repeated that \u201cit\u2019s not just Russia\u201d that has been hacking U. S. entities.
\u201cThat\u2019s something that Nazi Germany would have done and did do,\u201d he said, referencing his tweet Wednesday morning.
Mr. Trump called BuzzFeed, which posted the intelligence memo about Russian information, \u201ca failing pile of garbage,\u201d and also criticized CNN for publicizing the reports on Tuesday.
After attacking CNN and BuzzFeed over Russian intel reports, President-elect Donald Trump gets into a heated exhange with a CNN reporter at his n…
A CNN reporter in the audience attempted to ask a follow-up question, but Mr. Trump repeatedly shut him down.
\u201cNo, not you, your organization is terrible. Quiet. Quiet,\u201d he said. As the reporter continued trying to ask a question, talking over another reporter, Mr. Trump continued: \u201cDon\u2019t be rude. Don\u2019t be rude. Don\u2019t. Be. Rude. I\u2019m not going to give you a question. You are fake news.\u201d
\u201cI want to get the wall started,\u201d he said. \u201cI don\u2019t want to wait a year and a half until I make my deal with Mexico.\u201d
As for the form that reimbursement will take, Mr. Trump said it\u2019s more likely it will be through a \u201ctax\u201d than a \u201cpayment.\u201d
\u201cThey will reimburse us for the cost of the wall, whether it\u2019s a tax or whether it\u2019s a payment,\u201d he said. \u201cProbably less likely that it\u2019s a payment.\u201d
During his first news conference as president-elect, Donald Trump talks about his plan to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act.
\u201cObamacare is a complete and total disaster,\u201d he said, citing increased premiums and high deductibles. \u201c… Frankly, we could sit back — and it was a thought from a political standpoint — but it wouldn\u2019t be fair to the people.\u201d
To people who suggest Mr. Trump should sell his business, Dillon said that would only \u201cexacerbate\u201d the possibility for conflicts.
Dillon said Mr. Trump\u2019s business holdings and investments will be put in a trust before Inauguration Day, and that his two adult sons will run the company. Ivanka Trump, whose husband Jared Kushner is set to become a senior adviser to the Trump White House, will have \u201cno further management\u201d role in the company.
She also said there will be \u201cno new foreign deals\u201d made during the duration of Mr. Trump\u2019s presidency, and that domestic deals will be subject to \u201csevere restrictions.\u201d
Still, Mr. Trump asserted that he would have been able to continue running his business from the White House if he wanted to.
\u201cI could actually run my business … and run government at the same time,\u201d he said. \u201cI don\u2019t like the way that looks but I\u2019d be able to if I wanted to.\u201d
President-elect Donald Trump slammed allegations of Russia having potentially compromising information on him during his first news conference si…
He also reaffirmed what he posted on Twitter Wednesday morning, stating that he has no conflicts of interest with Russia.
\u201cI tweeted out that I have no dealings with Russia, I have no deals in Russia, I have no deals that could happen with Russia because we\u2019ve stayed away, and I have no loans,\u201d he said.
\u201cIf Putin likes Donald Trump I consider that an asset not a liability because we have a horrible relationship with Russia,\u201d he said.
\u201cNow I don\u2019t know that I\u2019m going to get along with Vladimir Putin,\u201d he said. \u201cI hope I do, but \u2026 do you honestly believe that Hillary [Clinton] will be tougher on Putin than me?\u201d
\u201cAs far as hacking, I think it was Russian,\u201d he said. \u201cBut I think we also get hacked by other countries and other people and I can say that when we lost 22 million names and everything else that was hacked recently, they didn\u2019t make a big deal out of that, that was something that was extraordinary.\u201d
He also blamed Democratic National Committee for getting hacked, saying the committee \u201cwas totally open to be hacked, they did a very poor job.\u201d
Mr. Trump said he\u2019s not allowed to discuss information that was presented during his intelligence briefing — but confirmed he did in fact see the memo in question on compromising information, calling it a \u201cdisgrace.\u201d
\u201cI saw the information, I read the information outside of that meeting it\u2019s all fake news, it\u2019s phony stuff, it didn\u2019t happen and it was gotten by opponents of ours,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was a group of opponents who got together, sick people, and they put that crap together.\u201d
He thanked news organizations that did not run stories on Russia\u2019s alleged compromising information about him.
\u201cI want to thank a lot of the news organizations, some of whom have not treated me well over the years, a couple in particular, and they came out so strongly against that fake news,\u201d he said. \u201cI have great respect for the news, I have great respect for freedom of the press and all of that, but I will tell you there were some news organizations \u2026 that were so professional, so incredibly professional.\u201d
He also intimated that the stories may have come from intelligence agency leaks — and said it would be \u201ca tremendous blot on their record if they did that.\u201d
He denied that three individuals associated with Mr. Trump\u2019s campaign were ever in touch with Russian officials.
\u201cFor all the take lately about fake news this political witch-hunt by some in the media is based on some of the most flimsy reporting,\u201d he said.
This is not the first time Mr. Trump has scheduled a press conference to address the future of his business empire. A press conference was previously scheduled for Dec. 15, almost a month before this new date, but Mr. Trump canceled that press conference three days beforehand, saying his team needed more time to sort out the details.
Before Wednesday, Mr. Trump has taken a handful of questions from reporters at gaggles but has not held full news conferences. It will be his first full news conference since July 27.<\/p>\n

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