9 times the AP had no idea what Donald Trump was saying

Donald Trump is a difficult President to understand sometimes.

Not because of his vocabulary, or any particular ability to discuss complex concepts, but because the man rambles around completely disconnected subject matter with little regard for logical progression.

He also has a nasty habit of changing his stance, and denying he ever said the words he just uttered.

The Associated Press (AP) probably already knew this, but it was thrown into particularly sharp relief in an interview with the commander-in-chief published 24 April.

Here's just a few instances where Donald Trump completely derailed the collective train of thought:

1. On his 100 day plan

Trump:

Things change. There has to be flexibility. Let me give you an example. President Xi, we have a, like, a really great relationship. For me to call him a currency manipulator and then say, 'By the way, I'd like you to solve the North Korean problem,' doesn't work. So you have to have a certain flexibility, Number One. Number Two, from the time I took office till now, you know, it's a very exact thing. It's not like generalities. Do you want a Coke or anything?

AP:

I'm OK, thank you. No...

2. Continuing his 100 day plan

Trump:

But President Xi, from the time I took office, he has not, they have not been currency manipulators. Because there's a certain respect because he knew I would do something or whatever. But more importantly than him not being a currency manipulator the bigger picture, bigger than even currency manipulation, if he's helping us with North Korea, with nuclear and all of the things that go along with it, who would call, what am I going to do, say, "By the way, would you help us with North Korea? And also, you're a currency manipulator." It doesn't work that way.

AP:

Right.

3. A desperate attempt to get back to the question:

Trump:

And the media, some of them get it, in all fairness. But you know some of them either don't get it, in which case they're very stupid people, or they just don't want to say it. You know because of a couple of them said, "He didn't call them a currency manipulator." Well, for two reasons. Number One, he's not, since my time. You know, very specific formula. You would think it's like generalities, it's not. They have — they've actually — their currency's gone up. So it's a very, very specific formula. And I said, "How badly have they been," ... they said, "Since you got to office they have not manipulated their currency." That's Number One, but much more important, they are working with us on North Korea. Now maybe that'll work out or maybe it won't. Can you imagine?

AP:

So in terms of the 100-day plan that you did put out during the campaign, do you feel, though, that people should hold you accountable to this in terms of judging success?

Trump:

No, because much of the foundation's been laid. Things came up. I'll give you an example. I didn't put Supreme Court judge on the 100 (day) plan, and I got a Supreme Court judge.

AP:

I think it's on there.

Trump:

I don't know...

AP:

'Begin the process of selecting.' You actually exceeded on this one. This says, 'Begin the process of selecting a replacement.'

4. On the Military

Trump:

I'm rebuilding the military. We have great people. We have great things in place. We have tremendous borders. I mention the F-35 because if I can save $725 million — look at that, that's a massive amount of money. And I'll save more as we make more planes. If I can save that on a small number of planes — Gen. (Jim) Mattis (the defense secretary) said, 'I've never seen anything like this,' because he had to sign the ultimate (unintelligible) ... He had to sign the ultimate, you know. He said, 'I've never seen anything like this before, as long as I've been in the military.' You know, that kind of cutting.

AP:

Right.

5. On WikiLeaks

AP:

If I could fit a couple of more topics. Jeff Sessions, your attorney general, is taking a tougher line suddenly on Julian Assange, saying that arresting him is a priority. You were supportive of what WikiLeaks was doing during the campaign with the release of the Clinton emails. Do you think that arresting Assange is a priority for the United States?

Trump:

When Wikileaks came out ... never heard of Wikileaks, never heard of it. When Wikileaks came out, all I was just saying is, 'Well, look at all this information here, this is pretty good stuff.' You know, they tried to hack the Republican, the RNC, but we had good defenses. They didn't have defenses, which is pretty bad management. But we had good defenses, they tried to hack both of them. They weren't able to get through to Republicans. No, I found it very interesting when I read this stuff and I said, 'Wow.' It was just a figure of speech. I said, 'Well, look at this. It's good reading.'

AP:

But that didn't mean that you supported what Assange is doing?

Trump:

No, I don't support or unsupport. It was just information. They shouldn't have allowed it to get out. If they had the proper defensive devices on their internet, you know, equipment, they wouldn't even allow the FBI. How about this — they get hacked, and the FBI goes to see them, and they won't let the FBI see their server. But do you understand, nobody ever writes it. Why wouldn't (former Hillary Clinton campaign chairman John) Podesta and Hillary Clinton allow the FBI to see the server? They brought in another company that I hear is Ukrainian-based.

AP:

CrowdStrike?

6. On a plan to defeat Isis

AP:

You had put a request into the Pentagon to put forward an ISIS plan within 30 days. I know they have sent that over. Have you accepted a plan? Are you moving forward on a strategy?

Trump:

We have a very strong plan, but we cannot talk about it, Julie.

AP:

So you have decided on a plan?

Trump:

Remember how many times have you been to the speech where I talked about Mosul.

AP:

Right.

Trump:

Right. Mosul. Four months we are going in, three months. We are still fighting Mosul. You know why? Because they were prepared. If we would have gone in and just done it, it would have been over three months ago.

AP:

Can you say generally what the strategy is? Should people —

Trump:

Generally is we have got to get rid of ISIS. We have no choice. And other terrorist organizations.

7. On his electoral college victory

Trump:

I think that, you know, this is a very tough environment not caused necessarily by me. Although the election has, you know, look, the Democrats had a tremendous opportunity because the electoral college, as I said, is so skewed to them. You start off by losing in New York and California, no matter who it is. If, if Abe Lincoln came back to life, he would lose New York and he would lose California. It's just the registration, there's nothing you can do. So you're losing the two biggest states, that's where you start. OK. The Electoral College is so skewed in favor of a Democrat that it's very, very hard. Look at Obama's number in the Electoral College. His numbers on the win were ... but the Electoral College numbers were massive. You lose New York, you lose Illinois. Illinois is impossible to win. And you look at, so now you lose New York, Illinois, no matter what you do, and California. Right. And you say, man. Now you have to win Florida, you have to win Ohio, you have to win North Carolina. You have to win all these states, and then I won Wisconsin and Michigan and all of these other places, but you remember there was no way to, there was no way to 270.

AP:

Right.

8. On real-time reaction and CNN

Trump:

OK. The one thing I've learned to do that I never thought I had the ability to do. I don't watch CNN anymore.

AP:

You just said you did.

Trump:

No. No, I, if I'm passing it, what did I just say (inaudible)?

AP:

You just said —

Trump:

Where? Where?

AP:

Two minutes ago.

9. On his news consumption

Trump:

I just don't watch them.

AP:

And do you feel like that's, that's because of the office that you now occupy —

Trump:

No.

AP:

That you've made that change?

Trump:

I don't know why it is, but I've developed that ability, and it's happened over the last, over the last year.

AP:

That's interesting.

Trump:

And I don't watch things that I know are going to be unpleasant. CNN has covered me unfairly and incorrectly and I don't watch them anymore. A lot of people don't watch them anymore, they're now in third place. But I've created something where people are watching ... but I don't watch CNN anymore. I don't watch MSNBC anymore. I don't watch things, and I never thought I had that ability. I always thought I'd watch.

AP:

Sure.

Trump:

I just don't. And that's taken place over the last year. And you know what that is, that's a great, it's a great thing because you leave, you leave for work in the morning you know, you're, you don't watch this total negativity. I never thought I'd be able to do that and for me, it's so easy to do now. Just don't watch.

AP:

That's interesting.

Trump:

Maybe it's because I'm here. I don't know.

HT AP

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