Trump says he’s a ‘believer’ in polio vaccine, and other news conference takeaways

US President-elect Donald Trump delivers remarks at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, U.S., December 16, 2024. (REUTERS)
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Updated 17 December 2024
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Trump says he’s a ‘believer’ in polio vaccine, and other news conference takeaways

  • Trump defended his choice for health secretary, prominent vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr., but said he personally is a “big believer” in the polio vaccine and would preserve access to it

WASHINGTON: President-elect Donald Trump on Monday held a wide-ranging news conference in which he said he would preserve access to the polio vaccine but equivocated on other vaccines, pledged to look at bringing down the costs of pharmaceuticals and expressed doubts that his daughter-in-law might be Florida’s next senator.
Trump held forth for over an hour, the first time he took questions from reporters since winning the election. The event harkens back to his long-winding news conferences from his first term and is a stark contrast from President Joe Biden, who doesn’t often take questions from reporters.
Here’s a look at some of what he touched on:
Trump provides some assurances on polio vaccine
Trump defended his choice for health secretary, prominent vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr., but said he personally is a “big believer” in the polio vaccine and would preserve access to it.
“You’re not going to lose the polio vaccine,” he said. “That’s not going to happen.”
Over the weekend, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, who had polio as a child, spoke out in defense of the polio vaccine after a recent report disclosed that one of Kennedy’s advisers filed a petition to revoke approval for the polio vaccine in 2022.
Kennedy has long advanced the debunked idea that vaccines cause autism. Trump seemed to question whether there’s a link, saying “We’re looking to find out,” and remarked on the rising cases of autism being diagnosed.
“There’s something wrong, and we’re going to find out about it,” he said.
There are no blood or biological tests for autism; instead, a doctor bases the diagnosis on a child’s behavior. While the autism diagnosis has been available for at least 80 years, the definition gradually expanded to include milder cases, which are more common. A study last year found that about a quarter of kids with autism — about 110,000 in the US — have the most severe version of the developmental disability, which has left them unable to speak or with an IQ below 50 or both.
Of Kennedy, “He’s going to be much less radical than you would think,” he said. “I think he’s got a very open mind, or I wouldn’t have put him there.”
Trump blames middlemen for high price of pharmaceutical drugs
Trump described a dinner he had this month with Kennedy; Dr. Mehmet Oz, a celebrity heart surgeon turned talk show host and lifestyle guru whom he’s tapped to run the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services; and top pharmaceutical executives in which they discussed drug prices.
Trump heaped praise on the companies — the same ones that Kennedy has routinely argued profit off of Americans unfairly — but said the high cost of health care was a focus of their dinner.
“What came out of that meeting is that we’re paying far too much,” Trump said.
Trump also hit pharmaceutical benefits managers, calling them “horrible middlemen” who drive up the cost of drugs. Pharmaceutical companies have been aggressively lobbying Congress to restrict the role of pharmaceutical benefit managers, which help health insurance companies’ biggest clients decide how and what prescription drugs will be covered in their insurance plans.
“I don’t know who these middlemen are, but they are rich as hell,” Trump said.
Trump’s appearance is a clear break from Biden’s style
The press conference was Trump’s most extensive public appearance since his victory six weeks ago — a rare absence from the public stage for the former reality star.
But it also underscored how even while president-elect, Trump has seized the spotlight from Biden, who still has a month left on his term in office. Biden has not held a press conference in months and has had a limited public schedule.
While Trump was addressing some of the top-of-mind issues of the day — including sightings of drones flying over the Northeast — Biden himself has been silent, leaving it to aides to try to calm the public.
‘I don’t know’ if Lara Trump will be a senator
Trump seemed skeptical that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis would appoint his daughter-in-law to be a Florida senator, taking the seat held by Marco Rubio, who has been nominated for secretary of state.
Asked whether he expected DeSantis to name Lara Trump to replace Rubio, Trump said, “I probably don’t, but I don’t know.” Trump recently spoke with DeSantis at a memorial for Florida law enforcement officers.
Trump’s allies have been pushing DeSantis to nominate Lara Trump, who is married to Trump’s son, Eric, and served as co-chair of the Republican National Committee this year.
“Ron’s doing a good job with his choice,” Trump said, without elaborating.
He lavished praise on Lara Trump, including for her work at the RNC, where part of her duties involved focusing on “election integrity,” a priority of Trump’s after he falsely claimed fraud in the 2020 presidential election.
Trump open to intervening in potential TikTok ban
Trump indicated he would look at intervening in the potential ban of TikTok in the US The popular social media platform must cut ties with its China-based parent company or be banned by mid-January under a federal law.
He didn’t offer specifics, but Trump credited the platform with helping him win the election. His campaign saw it as a bridge to reach younger, less politically engaged voters, particularly when clips circulated showing him with celebrities at UFC fights.
“We’ll take a look at TikTok,” he said. “You know, I have a warm spot in my heart for TikTok.”
Trump tried to ban TikTok during his first term but changed his mind and pledged to “save” TikTok. Once he takes office, his Justice Department would be tasked with enforcing the new federal law against TikTok.
Trump on Monday was meeting with TikTok CEO Shou Chew at his Mar-a-Lago club, according to two people familiar with the president-elect’s plans who were not authorized to speak publicly about them and spoke to AP on condition of anonymity.
’Everybody wants to be my friend,’ he says
Trump noted the differences between the first time he was to take office eight years ago and today, saying executives now want to meet with him.
He said they were “hostile” back then.
“Everybody was fighting me,” he said about his first term. “This term, everybody wants to be my friend. I don’t know. My personality changed or something.”
While he left office in 2021 ostracized and angry, Trump has had a stunning turnaround leading to his election win. Last week, he was honored by being named Time magazine’s Person of the Year and ringing the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange.
His meeting with the TikTok executive was part of a string of meetings he’s had with Silicon Valley billionaires and other technology leaders since becoming president-elect. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, Apple CEO Tim Cook and Google CEO Sundar Pichai have all flown to Trump’s club to meet with him.
He revealed Monday that he had also met with Google co-founder Sergey Brin. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos will meet with him this week, Trump said.
“We have a lot of great executives coming in — the top executives, the top bankers, they’re all calling,” he said. “It’s like a complete opposite from the first one.”
Trump already returning to world stage
With multiple wars going on, Trump has sought to insert himself back on the world stage. He said he is working to get Israeli hostages held by Hamas in Gaza to be released and had a “very good talk” with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
But on Monday he seemed to buffer expectations about his promise to solve the Russia-Ukraine war even before taking office, describing the conflict as a “tough one” and a “nasty one.”
“We are trying to get that war stopped, that horrible, horrible war” he said. “It’s a tough one. It’s a nasty one. It’s nasty. People are being killed at levels that nobody’s ever seen.”
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is Europe’s biggest armed conflict since World War II and has cost tens of thousands of lives on both sides.
Trump declined to say whether he’s spoken to Russian President Vladimir Putin since winning the election. He met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Paris this month when he visited for the reopening of Notre Dame Cathedral.
Trump’s incoming press secretary has said that Trump invited Chinese leader Xi Jinping and other world leaders to his Jan. 20 inauguration, but Trump said Monday that Zelensky was not among them. “If he’d like to come, I’d like to have him,” Trump said.
Trump said Xi has not yet said whether he is coming. He described the Chinese leader as “a friend of mine” and “an amazing guy” but acknowledged that the COVID-19 pandemic had affected their relationship.
“It was a bridge too far for me,” he said.
 

 


Columbia University lays off nearly 180 after Trump pulled $400M over his antisemitism concerns

Updated 14 sec ago
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Columbia University lays off nearly 180 after Trump pulled $400M over his antisemitism concerns

  • Pro-Palestinian demonstrators set up an encampment and seized a campus building in April, leading to dozens of arrests and inspiring a wave of similar protests nationally

NEW YORK: Columbia University said Tuesday that it will be laying off nearly 180 staffers in response to President Donald Trump’s decision to cancel $400 million in funding over the Manhattan college’s handling of student protests against the war in Gaza.
Those receiving non-renewal or termination notices Tuesday represent about 20 percent of the employees funded in some manner by the terminated federal grants, the university said in a statement Tuesday.
“We have had to make deliberate, considered decisions about the allocation of our financial resources,” the university said. “Those decisions also impact our greatest resource, our people. We understand this news will be hard.”
Officials are working with the Trump administration in the hopes of getting the funding restored, they said, but the university will still pull back spending because of uncertainty and strain on its budget.
Officials said the university will be scaling back research, with some departments winding down activities and others maintaining some level of research while pursuing alternate funding.
In March, the Trump administration pulled the funding over what it described as the Ivy League school’s failure to squelch antisemitism on campus during the Israel-Hamas war that began in October 2023.
Within weeks, Columbia capitulated to a series of demands laid out by the Republican administration as a starting point for restoring the funding.
Among the requirements was overhauling the university’s student disciplinary process, banning campus protesters from wearing masks, barring demonstrations from academic buildings, adopting a new definition of antisemitism and putting the Middle Eastern studies program under the supervision of a vice provost who would have a say over curriculum and hiring.
After Columbia announced the changes, US Education Secretary Linda McMahon said the university was ” on the right track,” but declined to say when or if Columbia’s funding would be restored. Spokespersons for the federal education department didn’t immediately respond to an email seeking comment Tuesday.
Columbia was at the forefront of US campus protests over the war last spring. Pro-Palestinian demonstrators set up an encampment and seized a campus building in April, leading to dozens of arrests and inspiring a wave of similar protests nationally.
Trump, when he retook the White House in January, moved swiftly to cut federal money to colleges and universities he viewed as too tolerant of antisemitism.


Trump hopes India-Pakistan clashes end ‘very quickly’

Updated 5 min 2 sec ago
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Trump hopes India-Pakistan clashes end ‘very quickly’

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump said Tuesday he hoped clashes between nuclear-armed India and Pakistan end “very quickly,” after New Delhi’s forces launched strikes and Islamabad vowed retaliation.
“It’s a shame, we just heard about it,” Trump said at the White House, after the Indian government said it had hit “terrorist camps” on its western neighbor’s territory following a deadly attack on tourists in Indian-administered Kashmir.
“I guess people knew something was going to happen based on the past. They’ve been fighting for many, many decades and centuries, actually, if you really think about it,” he added.
India and Pakistan have fought three full-scale wars since gaining independence from the British in 1947. Both claim Kashmir in full but administer separate portions of the disputed region.
“I just hope it ends very quickly,” said Trump.
India had been widely expected to respond militarily since gunmen shot dead 26 people in Indian-administered Kashmir, mostly Hindus.
New Delhi has blamed militants that it has said were from Pakistan-based group Lashkar-e-Taiba, a UN-designated terrorist organization.
Pakistan’s army said the Indian strikes targeted three sites in Pakistan-administered Kashmir and two in Punjab province, the country’s most populous.
Islamabad said that three civilians, including a child, had been killed in Indian strikes.
The Indian strikes came just hours after the US State Department issued a fresh call for calm.
“We continue to urge Pakistan and India to work toward a responsible resolution that maintains long-term peace and regional stability in South Asia,” State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce told reporters.
Her statement came after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi warned of stopping water from flowing across borders following the Kashmir attack.


‘World cannot afford’ India-Pakistan confrontation: UN

Updated 12 min 21 sec ago
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‘World cannot afford’ India-Pakistan confrontation: UN

UNITED NATIONS: UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was “very concerned” about Indian military strikes on Pakistan, his spokesperson said on Tuesday, hours after India said it hit nine sites in Pakistani territory.
“The Secretary-General is very concerned about the Indian military operations across the Line of Control and international border. He calls for maximum military restraint from both countries. The world cannot afford a military confrontation between India and Pakistan,” said Stephane Dujarric, the spokesperson.


Germany’s Merz vows to be ‘very European’ chancellor

Updated 16 min 46 sec ago
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Germany’s Merz vows to be ‘very European’ chancellor

BERLIN: Germany’s new Chancellor Friedrich Merz vowed Tuesday to be a “very European” leader, with the continent’s other countries hopeful Germany will take on a greater international role.
“I am influenced by my work in the European Parliament, that has shaped me a lot to this day,” Merz said after being elected chancellor by the Bundestag earlier in the day.
On his first full day in office, Merz will head Wednesday to France and then Poland seeking to boost ties with European neighbors in turbulent times.
Europe has sought to present a united front as US President Donald Trump upends long-standing security and diplomatic ties, and in the face of a hostile Russia.
But Germany has for the most part been on the sidelines since the collapse in November of former chancellor Olaf Scholz’s government, with politics all but paralyzed as the country awaited a new leader.
Asked how Germany could seek to influence talks on a possible peace deal in the Ukraine war, Merz said there was a “proven format” of Berlin working together with France and Britain.
“Germany has been quite reticent in recent months due to the transition from one government to another,” Merz told public broadcaster ZDF, before adding that he planned to “consult intensively” with London and Paris from now.
“If we can include the Poles, then it will be even better,” he added.
European countries have been worried about being sidelined in talks on the conflict, after Trump’s overtures to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Merz has vowed a crackdown on immigration but he insisted that European neighbors’ views would be “taken into consideration.”
“I will be discussing these issues with both the French president and the Polish prime minister — we want to prepare a European policy together,” he said.


US judge blocks Trump from shuttering three small federal agencies

Updated 21 min 25 sec ago
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US judge blocks Trump from shuttering three small federal agencies

A federal judge on Tuesday blocked President Donald Trump’s administration from firing workers and taking other steps to shut down federal agencies that fund museums and libraries, mediate labor disputes and support minority-owned businesses.
US District Judge John McConnell in Providence, Rhode Island, agreed with 21 mostly Democrat-led states that Trump’s March executive order directing that the agencies effectively be wiped out violated the US Constitution.
“This executive order ... ignores the unshakable principles that Congress makes the law and appropriates funds, and the Executive implements the law Congress enacted and spends the funds Congress appropriated,” wrote McConnell, an appointee of Democratic former President Barack Obama.
The judge halted Trump’s order from being implemented at the US Institute of Museum and Library Services, the Minority Business Development Agency, and the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service pending the outcome of the case.
McConnell did not order the agencies to take any specific steps. The judge told the states to consult with the Trump administration and submit a more detailed order for his approval.
Trump in his order directed that those agencies and four others be reduced “to the minimum presence and function required by law.” A judge in Washington, D.C. last week had separately blocked the museum and library agency from being shut down.
White House spokesman Davis Ingle said McConnell had defied US Supreme Court precedent by blocking Trump from closing elements of the federal bureaucracy.
“The lower court’s outrageous order will not be the last say on the matter,” Ingle said in a statement.
Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha, a Democrat whose office is leading the lawsuit, called the decision a critical win for the public.
“When the Trump Administration attempts to dismantle these agencies, it is making a targeted, concerted effort to prohibit everyday people from accessing their full potential,” Neronha said in a statement.
Trump’s executive order was part of his broader effort to dramatically shrink the federal government and slash government spending. Tens of thousands of federal workers have been fired, placed on leave indefinitely or accepted buyouts to leave their jobs.
At the three agencies involved in Tuesday’s case, virtually all employees were placed on administrative leave shortly after Trump issued his executive order, according to court filings.
The states in their lawsuit filed in April say that because Congress created the agencies and set their funding levels, Trump had no power to order that their work be halted.
McConnell on Tuesday agreed. Federal law includes a mechanism for the president to return unneeded funding to Congress, the judge said, but Trump failed to follow that process.
State libraries and museums have abandoned programs and implemented hiring freezes, business development offices are curbing training and other support programs, and state agencies have fewer options to mediate disputes with unions, McConnell said.