• Hamas asked to reach an agreement with Israel or face consequences
• Zelensky told to make a deal with Putin to end Ukraine war

PALM BEACH: In his first news conference since his election victory six weeks ago, President-elect Donald Trump covered the Ukraine war, mysterious drones flying over New Jersey, the future of TikTok and lawsuits aimed at the media he often loves to hate.

Trump displayed the loquaciousness and bravado of his 2017-2021 White House years as he held court in an ornate room at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida on Monday, making an economic announcement and fielding questions for more than an hour.

He bantered with reporters, a departure from the dark rhetoric and anger he often flashed on the campaign trail. He answered questions about Ukraine and Israel, but declined to say whether he had spoken to Russian President Vladimir Putin or whether he would support military strikes on Iran.

He seemed wiser to the ways of Washington and pleased, if a little bit puzzled, about his own new place in it, marveling at the steady procession of foreign leaders wanting to congratulate him and corporate CEOs rushing to meet him.

“The first term, everybody was fighting me,” he said. “In this term, everybody wants to be my friend. I don’t know my personality changed or something.”

Since his Nov 5 victory, Trump has not held one of his signature rallies or spoken at length to reporters, communicating instead through social media posts and the occasional speech.

On Monday, however, he had good economic news to announce. With SoftBank Group CEO Masayoshi Son at his side, Trump said the Japanese technology company would invest $100 billion in the US over the next four years.

But that was just the warm-up act for the main event.

Standing in front of the Trump coat of arms, the president-elect outlined some of his priorities for his second term, criticised President Joe Biden’s outgoing administration and defended some of his own controversial cabinet picks.

The lengthy back and forth marked a contrast with Biden, who rarely holds news conferences.

Trump predicted his choice for Health and Human Services secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., would be “much less radical than you think” but waxed on about whether there is a link between vaccines and autism while saying he supports the polio vaccine. Studies have found no links between vaccines and autism.

Trump said “it would be a tragedy” if his choice for defence secretary, former Fox News personality Pete Hegseth, does not make it to Senate confirmation amid concerns about allegations of misconduct in his professional and personal life.

He spoke about the possibility of issuing a pardon to New York City Mayor Eric Adams and said he thought it was possible to eliminate $2 trillion in government spending through the Elon Musk-led government efficiency project.

He said his administration will “take a look” at whether the Chinese-owned social media app TikTok should be banned in the US and encouraged the US military to tell the American public more about the nature of the drone sightings that have plagued the East Coast over the last several weeks.

Trump also veered into personal grievances, vowing to file lawsuits against multiple media companies that he felt have abused him.

“Now you need fair elections, you need borders, and you need a fair press,” Trump said, touching on some of his favourite grievance-related topics. “Our press is very corrupt. Almost as corrupt as our elections.” That interlude aside, Trump spent most of his time talking about foreign policy and the economy.

Of the world’s two biggest hotspots, he was blunt: Hamas needs to reach a deal with Israel releasing the remaining hostages it is holding in Gaza, or face the consequences.

If no ceasefire deal is reached by the time he takes office, Trump said, “it’s not going to be pleasant”.

He also said Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky should be prepared to make a deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin to bring an end to the nearly three-year-old Ukraine war. “Gotta make a deal,” Trump said.

Published in Dawn, December 18th, 2024