DAVOS (AA): U.S. President Donald Trump at the World Economic Forum in Davos on Friday was booed after he called the press “nasty”, “me-an”, “vicious”, and “fake”.
Speaking at a special closing session of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Friday, he said: “It was not until I became a politician, that I realized how nasty, how mean, how vicious and how fake the press can be.”
“As president of the United States, I will always put America First,” said Trump. “Just like the leaders of other countries should put their countries first also. But America First does not mean America alone.”
“America is a cutting-edge economy, but our immigration system is stuck in the past,” he added. “We must replace our current system of extended-family chain migration with a merit-based system of admissions that selects new arrivals based on their ability to contribute to our economy, to support themselves financially, and to strengthen our country.”
He also brought up the issue of defense.
“To make the world safer from rogue regimes, terrorism, and revisionist powers, we are asking our friends and allies to invest in their own defenses and to meet their financial obligations. Our common security requires everyone to contribute their fair share,” he added, in reference to NATO.
Trump underlined the efforts to put “maximum pressure to de-nuke the Korean peninsula.”
“We continue to call on partners to confront Iran’s support for terrorists and to block Iran’s path to a nuclear weapon,” Trump said.
Earlier this month, Trump extended sanctions relief to Iran for what he said would be the final time, calling on European allies to work with Washington to fix “significa-nt flaws” in the nuclear deal.
World Trade Organization (WTO) Director General Roberto Azevedo at the World Economic Forum on Thursday urged countries to refrain from taking measures towards protectionism in reference to Trump.
In an interview with British ITV channel, Trump said he knew “nothing” about the organization when he retweeted three video clips it had posted.
Trump’s official Twitter account retweeted a series of inflammatory anti-Muslim videos in November 2017.
The three clips were previously tweeted by Britain First deputy leader Jayda Fransen, who was convicted by a U.K. court in November 2016 of religiously aggravated harassment.
The videos were automatically tweeted and retweeted by at least three accounts associated with the group. The accounts have since been suspended by Twitter.
“I don’t want to cause any difficulty for your country,” Trump said in his interview with ITV’s Piers Morgan. The full interview is to be broadcast on Sunday.
“If you are telling me they’re horrible people, horrible, racist people, I would certainly apologize if you’d like me to do that,” he said.
Britain First is well known in the U.K. for anti-Islam outbursts, anti-mosque protests as well as for street and online provocations. It was founded by former members of the British National Party in 2011.
Paul Golding, Britain First’s leader, and his deputy Fransen have been arrested numerous times and both have received convictions. They still face charges of using hate speech at a rally in Northern Ireland in August 2017.
“Of course I didn’t know that. I know nothing about them and I know nothing about them today other than I read a little bit,” Trump said.
“I don’t know who they are. I know nothing about them so I wouldn’t be doing that. “I am often the least racist person that anybody is going to meet. Certainly I wasn’t endorsing anybody.” May said following Trump’s retweets that “Britain First is a hateful organization.”
