After a Disciplined Week in Asia, Trump Unloads on Critics
In a stream of tweets on Sunday, the president said those who wanted to investigate his ties to Russia were “haters and fools,” ridiculed “crooked” Hillary Clinton’s ill-fated effort to reset relations with Russia and fired back at North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, for calling him old, saying
that he could call Mr. Kim “short and fat” — but had restrained himself.
“I believe that President Putin really feels — and he feels strongly —
that he did not meddle in our election,” Mr. Trump said Sunday, when he was asked to clarify his comments about Mr. Putin’s sincerity on that question the night before.
But he was no less insistent that the Russia investigation was a distraction from more pressing global matters — Syria, Ukraine
and North Korea — and that time for punishing Russia was over.
I’ve worked with them very strongly.”
Still, Mr. Trump’s endorsement was grudging — he noted
that the assessment reflected only four agencies, not 17 — and he repeated his assertion that Washington needed to move on from the Russia investigation to cooperate with the Russians on issues from North Korea to Syria.