Jan. 11 (Dow Jones) -- During his press conference on Wednesday, President-elect Donald Trump delved into the controversial issue of Russian hacking and named his nominee for VA Secretary, among other major announcements. Photo: Seth Wenig/Associated PressOne of Donald Trump ’s most valuable assets as a candidate was his ability to bluntly acknowledge and then simply walk past controversies and crises that would submerge other political figures.
It remains to be seen whether he will do the same as president—but he certainly did so as president-elect on Wednesday.
The main controversies at his one and only transition news conference centered, of course, on Russia. First, there was the intelligence community report that President Vladimir Putin had used Russian hacking efforts to try to benefit Mr. Trump during the presidential campaign, followed by new reports that Russian agents were in contact with his campaign and may possess compromising personal information on him.
So how did President-elect Trump handle it? With the same combination of frontal attacks and quick sidesteps that worked so well for him through all of 2016.
First, he dismissed the dossier containing the allegations of Russian influence as “fake news, phony stuff.” He directly attacked the news organizations that disclosed the dossier, while praising those that chose earlier not to do so. He also attacked the intelligence community for perhaps, maybe probably, being the reason the disclosure came about.
He then shifted to dismiss one of the principal claims in the dossier by saying he was too wise in the ways of the world to be caught in a compromising situation in a Russian hotel room—and was too much of a “germaphobe” to do so anyway. And he firmly and specifically rebutted as false the one detail he knew he could disprove, an assertion that his own lawyer had traveled to Prague to meet Russian representatives to discuss hacking of Democrats.
Donald Trump said for the first time that the Russians were behind the DNC hacks, but also shot down unsubstantiated reports that the country had information that could compromise him. Photo: Reuters
After the smoke had cleared, he had managed to shift much of the focus from the mysterious dossier itself to BuzzFeed and CNN, the news organizations that first disclosed its existence, and to the intelligence community that chose to take it seriously.
Less noticed was the fact that along the way he had changed course on a key point: He essentially agreed with the intelligence community’s assessment that Russia appears to have been behind the hacking of political sites during the 2016 campaign, something he had declined to say previously.
Also little noticed was his sidestepping of a question about whether anybody else in his orbit had met with Russian representatives during the campaign, as well as a question on whether he would keep in place the sanctions President Barack Obama imposed on Russia to punish it for election-season hacking activities.
Finally, in classic Trump style, he offered one simple, withering declaration to rebut the suggestion he might be beholden to Mr. Putin: “Do you honestly believe that Hillary [Clinton] would be tougher on Putin than me? Does anybody in this room really believe that? Give me a break.”
In short, the news conference was a prime example of the confounding yet successful communications strategy Mr. Trump deployed throughout the presidential campaign. He doesn’t run from controversy but seems drawn to it—almost to relish it. He doesn’t fear chaos but seems to use it as an opportunity to disorient his foes.
As a result, conventions continue to fall when it comes to President-elect Trump, just as they did when he was Candidate Trump. Some previous presidents were wary of sounding too self-aggrandizing; George H.W. Bush often talked about how uncomfortable he was using the word “I.” Mr. Trump, by contrast, declared Wednesday: “I will be the greatest job producer that God ever created.”
Some presidents have been reluctant to pick fights with the nation’s powerful spy community, or with leaders of their own party in Congress. Mr. Trump did both, first with his criticism of the intelligence agencies and then with a mocking reference to Sen. Lindsey Graham , who is arguing for more sanctions on Russia.
While others are queasy about discussing their personal business dealings, Mr. Trump proudly declared he had just been offered, and had turned down, $2 billion from a business associate to do a deal in the Middle East.
In the process, one thing everybody learned is that while Mr. Trump has gone from candidate to president-elect, his style hasn’t changed. Wednesday’s event suggests there is little reason to think it will going forward.
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Fecha de publicación: 11/01/2017