Putin probably involved in assassinations, trade war with China only a ‘skirmish’: Trump

US president Donald Trump has said he believes Russian president Vladimir Putin is “probably” involved in “assassinations” and “poisonings” but sought to downplay his assessment, his harshest yet of his Russian counterpart, saying the killings were “not in our country”.

Trump’s remarks came in an interview with CBS News’s 60 Minutes programme in which he also said China meddles in US elections, that the trade war with China was actually a “skirmish” and that he doesn’t think climate change is a hoax, but remains doubtful of who or what caused it.

“Probably he is, yeah. Probably. I mean, I don’t …,” Trump said in response to a question if he agreed “that Vladimir Putin is involved in assassinations? In poisonings”.

“But I rely on them, it’s not in our country,” he added.

The United States joined its western allies last August to slap sanctions against Russia for allegedly poisoning a former spy Sergei Skirpal and his daughter in Britain. Russia has denied it, as it has all previous instances and allegations of murders and assassinations of those critical of the government.

Trump has rarely ever had harsh things to say about Putin and took a lot of criticism for his performance at a joint conference in Helsinki during which the American president had seemed to have granted equal weightage to US intelligence’s assessment that Russia interfered in the 2016 election and to the Russian president’s denial of it.

Asked if Russia interfered in the 2016 elections, which is being investigated by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, Trump said: “They– they meddled. But I think China meddled too.” Trump tends to view any suggestion of Russian interference as casting doubt on his election, questioning the legitimacy of his presidency. He has thus been reluctant to get behind the combined assessment of the US intelligence.

Trump has begun accusing China of meddling in US elections only recently and in connection with Beijing’s selective targeting of his voter-base for retaliatory measures against tariffs imposed by Trump on Chinese imports. After alluding to it in recent remarks, the president launched a full and frontal attack on China at a UN security council meet he chaired recently, eliciting a quick and sharp rejoinder.

“I think China meddled also,” Trump insisted in the interview. “And I think, frankly, China is a bigger problem.”

Trump’s views on China have shifted markedly from the accommodation and warmth he had shown in the early months of his presidency. He has since slapped tariff on $250 billion worth of imports from China accusing it of employing unfair trade practices, theft of intellectual property rights and denying market access, and slapped sanctions on it for buying Russian defence equipment.

The US president said he wants a trade deal with China but doesn’t think Beijing is ready for it yet. And he disputed the interviewer’s characterization of the escalating trade tensions as war. “I (have) called it a battle. But, actually, I’m gonna lower that. I consider it a skirmish.”

He also revisited the issue of climate change in the interview in view of the super storms that have hit the United States in recent months — Michael in Florida and Georgia past week, coming on the heels of Florence in the Carolinas, Maria in Puerto Rico, and Harvey in Texas.

“I think something’s happening,” he said in reply to a question about his well-known views on the subject — that it’s a hoax. “Something’s changing and it’ll change back again. I don’t think it’s a hoax, I think there’s probably a difference. But I don’t know that it’s man-made.”
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