President Trump talked up his part in thawing relations between North and South Korea in a 10-minute press conference Saturday at Camp David.
“Without my rhetoric and without my tough stance they would not be talking now,” he said of the negotiations that could bring a North Korean team to South Korea’s Winter Olympics next month.
“I’d love to see them take it beyond the Olympics,” Trump said. “And at the appropriate time we will get involved.”
Trump also labeled the author of a gossipy book about the chaotic early months of his administration as “a fraud.”
Calling himself a “very excellent student” who “went to the very best colleges,” he denied the assertion by Michael Wolff, author of the explosive book “Fire and Fury,” that he had sat down for a lengthy interview.
“This guy does not know me,” Trump insisted. “It didn’t exist, it’s in his imagination.”
Trump said he was “heartened” that members of the media “came to the defense of this great administration. They know the author and they know he’s a fraud.”
Again, Trump denied his 2016 presidential campaign colluded with the Russian government.
“Everything I’ve done is 100 percent proper. That is what I do, is I do things proper,” he said.
He added later, “Just so you understand, there’s been no collusion, there’s been no crime.”
The possibility that his campaign had Russian help is the object of an investigation by Special Counsel Robert Mueller.
Trump spoke as he gathered with GOP leaders and cabinet members who had just emerged from two days of meetings on the administration’s 2018 agenda.