On September 26th, US President Donald Trump came out at a rare solo press conference and spoke to reporters in New York, following his controversial speech at the UN General Assembly on the previous day.
“This is quite a gathering. Wow!” Trump exclaimed, at the start of 81 minutes of confusion, lack of notes, complimenting outlets, such as congratulating a Sky News report “over the purchase,” with which she had nothing to do, as well as disregarding questions.
A Fox reporter that asked about NAFTA, got the compliment “You do a very good job.”
He also continued his narrative of the New York times failing, when a reporter from the outlet said the newspaper was thriving, Trump responded with “Say ‘Thank you, Mr. Trump.’”
Honestly, that press conference was so bad that they need to encourage Trump to tweet more.
— Jemele Hill (@jemelehill) September 26, 2018
CNN reporter Jim Acosta asked President Trump whether “one of our female colleagues” could be called on after he questioned the president.
“What does he mean by that,” Trump asked.
In a series of crosstalk, during which Trump repeatedly asked him to “explain,” Acosta said he thought “it would be great if a female reporter would ask you a question about this issue.”
The president replied: “I wouldn’t mind that at all, no.” As Acosta began to speak again, Trump added: “Wouldn’t make any difference to me.” The president did call on a female reporter after Acosta concluded his questioning.
At that point, no female journalists had been called upon, and when he did, he sometimes talked over them as they tried to get a question out.
Trump is have a full on melt-down on TV by way of rambling by way of train-of-thought run on sentences by way of narcissism.
— Mimi Imfurst (@MimiImfurst) September 26, 2018
CBS News’ Weijia Jang tried to ask about how allegations that have been made against him have affected his opinion of the Kavanaugh situation. “You’ve been asking a question for 10 minutes. Please sit down,” Trump said. She persisted, and he said that the “false” accusations made against him “absolutely” colored how he felt about the Kavanaugh case.
In addition to the Brett Kavanaugh case, Trump commented on George Washington’s past. “If we brought George Washington here,” he said, “the Democrats would vote against him, just so you understand, and he may have had a bad past, who knows.”
It's like performance art. Except he's the president.
— Chris Cillizza (@CillizzaCNN) September 26, 2018
“He may have had a bad past…Didn’t he have a couple of things in his past?” Trump said, seemingly amused at the speculation. George Washington would be voted against 100 percent by Schumer and the con artists. 100 percent. 100 percent. So, it really doesn’t matter from their standpoint.”
Regarding sexual assault charges he had the following to say: “I’ve had a lot of false charges made against me. Really false charges! “So when you say ‘does it affect me in terms of my thinking with respect to Judge Kavanaugh?’ Absolutely. Because I’ve had it many times.” Regarding the accusations, Trump said “You can check with Sean Hannity.”
Jim Acosta also asked him why he always sides with the accused, not the accusers, to which Trump went on a tirade.
Pres. Trump: "Jerusalem stone—one of my favorite stones." pic.twitter.com/ZGKwXSVM3t
— Evan McMurry (@evanmcmurry) September 26, 2018
“I was accused by four or five women who got paid a lot of money to make up stories about me,” Trump incorrectly stated; there are reportedly at least 17 women who have accused him of sexual misconduct. “[…] I’m a very famous person, unfortunately. I’ve been a famous person for a long time, but I’ve had a lot of false charges made against me. Really false charges. People want fame, they want money, they want whatever. So, when I see it, I view it differently than somebody sitting home watching television where they say, ‘Oh, Judge Kavanaugh, this or that.’ It’s happened to me many times. I’ve had many false charges. I had a woman sitting in an airplane, and I attacked her while people were coming on to the plane? And I have a number one bestseller out?”
TRUMP claims that women "got paid a lot of $ to make up stories about me."
FACT CHECK: We reported that @LisaBloom raised $ to support women who leveled allegations. But there’s NO EVIDENCE that women were paid to "make up stories." https://t.co/im1iT36tYS pic.twitter.com/J0k29CF70L— Kenneth P. Vogel (@kenvogel) September 26, 2018
He also claimed that he had always said women are smarter than men.
After getting a question from a reporter from Kurdistan, while interrupting him several times, he kept exclaiming “They’re great people, they’re great fighters, I like them a lot,” after which he referred to the reporter as “Yes please, Mr. Kurd.”
Confirmed! "Yes, please, Mr. Kurd?" pic.twitter.com/4WtGsfPOeS
— Alejandro Alvarez (@aletweetsnews) September 26, 2018
Regarding his ridiculed speech at the UN General Assembly, Trump said that it has been presented falsely by the media and that everybody had been laughing together with him. Despite during the speech he exclaimed “Not the reaction I expected,” following the laughter.
“They weren’t laughing at me, they were laughing with me,” he insisted, defending his comments that his Administration had done more than any other in US history.
Trump on laughter at UN speech: “They weren’t laughing at me, they were laughing with me. We were having fun.” pic.twitter.com/4dnTzUgnaU
— Marcus Gilmer (@marcusgilmer) September 26, 2018
Regarding Xi Jinping, Trump said that he would “tomorrow, make a call to him and say ‘Hey, how are you doing?’ Trump said with a smile after admitting that Xi “may not be a friend of mine anymore. They are doing studies on Donald Trump, they are trying to figure it all out,” saying that the Chinese respect him for his “very, very large brain,” referring to a Chinese expert who was “on a show,” talking about the administration’s strategy, which includes the imposition of a number of tariffs.
To end his odd questioning session, Trump ended by citing Elton John, interrupting reporters and refusing to even hear their questions. “Elton John said when you hit that last tune and it’s good, don’t go back,” he said, after which he went into vocal thoughts on what happens when a performer doesn’t deliver a good encore after a concert. “They don’t hit it and … everyone leaves and they say ‘that wasn’t a very good concert, was it?’”
There really is a tweet for everything. #UNGA https://t.co/GHIXKO0hzZ
— Julia Ioffe (@juliaioffe) September 25, 2018
Let's hear it for the debut of new comedian Donnie Trump, in front of a tough crowd…I suspect that he'll be on tour in a town near you soon.
Please be generous with your laughter
— John Laprise, Ph.D. (@JohnLaprise) September 25, 2018
On the same day, Trump also accused China of seeking to interfere in the US midterm elections in November, while he was chairman at the UN Security Council.
When asked for proof, the president later cited a Chinese-funded newspaper advertisement in Iowa, a battleground state in the congressional campaign, that the Chinese government had paid for, lobbying against his trade policies. Administration officials, who appeared surprised by the allegations were able to give few other supporting details and pointed instead to repressive actions by the Chinese government to suppress domestic dissent. The purpose of the UNSC meeting was to discuss the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, completely unrelated to any US elections or US-China trade war. He did not mention Russia.
“They don’t want me or us to win because I am the first president to ever challenge China on trade,” Trump said. “We don’t want them to interfere in our upcoming election.”
The Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi rejected what he described as “unwarranted accusations” against Beijing.
“China has all along followed the principle of non-interference,” Wang said. “We did not and will not interfere in any country’s domestic affairs. We refuse to accept any unwarranted accusations against China.”
It wouldn’t be uncommon for Trump’s aides to walk back on all of his claims during the UNSC and the following press conference press conference.
Ok but I almost died with laughter @ how the UN literally laughed at Trump talking about how great his administration is. Beautiful. Incredible.
— emily waldman ☾☆ (@elxtric_emily) September 25, 2018
World leaders at the United Nations just laughed at Trump, as he bragged & praised himself for the greatest achievements of any administration in US history.
Responding to his usual rhetoric & lies, loud laughter at #UNGA18 reflects how the world TRULY sees POTUS.
Embarrassing! pic.twitter.com/9mkgA2r9Yx— Rula Jebreal (@rulajebreal) September 25, 2018
Pres. Trump on audience reaction to comment during #UNGA speech: "They weren't laughing at me, they were laughing with me. We had fun." https://t.co/NI3Ib2jtXS pic.twitter.com/zXTApPfNlf
— ABC News (@ABC) September 26, 2018
Me watching this Trump press conference pic.twitter.com/psxM7nCVHj
— Adam Blickstein (@AdamBlickstein) September 26, 2018

