Washington: President Donald Trump cut short a television interview on Saturday in the US after being asked about his unsubstantiated claim that President Barack Obama had spied on him, reviving an incendiary charge even as his re-election campaign released its first advertisement taking aim at "fake news."
In the interview, which was timed to place a capstone on his first 100 days, Trump resurfaced allegations made in a bombshell Twitter post from early March that Obama had tapped his phones in Trump Tower, saying that while the former president had been "very nice to me," the two have had "difficulties."
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Trump abruptly ends interview on wiretapping
The US President walks away from an interview with CBS in the Oval Office, when he refuses to substantiate claims he made about wiretapping.
"You saw what happened with surveillance," Trump said, declining to elaborate.
Asked by John Dickerson, the host of CBS' Face the Nation, "What does that mean, sir?"
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Trump said: "You can figure that out yourself."
When Dickerson asked whether Trump stood by his characterisation of Obama as "sick and bad," the president appeared to become agitated and said, "You can take it any way you want."
"I have my opinions," Trump continued, as Dickerson tried to ask him for an explanation. "You can have your opinions."
The president then ended the interview, saying, "OK, it's enough."
The testy exchange, which was shown on Monday, was at odds with the image of competence and message discipline White House officials have laboured to show over the past week, as they have tried to demonstrate progress around Trump's 100-day mark.
As part of the effort, Trump released a campaign advertisement on Monday declaring his first 100 days a triumph, and questioning the way the media has covered him.
Trump's snub of Dickerson encapsulated the president's paradoxical relationship with a media he professes to loathe but refuses to ignore.
Shortly after cutting short the interview on Saturday, Dickerson flew with the president on Air Force One and then had dinner with him, according to a person with knowledge of the interaction.
The TV advertisement is paid for by Trump's re-election campaign, for which he filed papers in January, on the day he was sworn in. The campaign said it would spend $1.5 million to air the ad across the country.
New York Times