President Donald Trump has accused his predecessor, Barak Obama, of being behind nationwide protests against his administration and White House leaks.
In an interview on a US television programme, Fox & Friends, Trump was asked if he believed Obama was behind the “organising” against his presidency and various executive orders.
The president responded: “No, I think he is behind it. I also think it’s politics. That’s the way it is..”
The interviewer brought up how previous presidents have not done this to their successors.
To that, President Trump brought up leaks saying: “Well, you never know exactly what’s happening behind the scenes. You’re possibly right but you never know. But I think President Obama’s behind it, because his people are certainly behind it.”
“And some of the leaks possibly come from that group. You know, some of the leaks, which are really very serious leaks, because they’re very bad in terms of national security, but I also understand that’s politics. And in terms of him being behind things, that’s politics, and it will probably continue.”
The president has also said the protesters are paid to go to demonstrations and attend town hall events to harass Republican legislators.
Trump has been wrong about Obama before. Only last year did he publicly state that he believed the 44th president was born in the United States.
In the interview with Fox, Trump also touched on the Academy Awards and accused the show of “pulling out the race card”.
Trump said: “Look, it just seems like the other side, whenever they’re losing badly, they always pull out the race card. I’ve watched it for years. I watched it against Ronald Reagan, I’ve watched it against so many other people.’
“And they always like pulling out the race card. In fact I did much better than many other Republicans in the last election. I did much better with Hispanics, I did much better with African Americans, if I didn’t do better, I wouldn’t be sitting here.”
Trump is also saying no to a night with Hollywood and the press by not attending the White House Correspondents Dinner this year.
He explained his choice to Fox, saying: “Over the years you make a mistake, I fully understand when they hit you. But when they make stories up, when they create sources, cause I believe that sometimes they don’t have sources, you know, the sources don’t exist, sometimes they do exist, I’m not saying all sources, but I do believe that a lot of the sources are made up. A lot of the stories are made up.
“I believe a lot of, the stories are pure fiction, they just pull it out of air. Now, with all of that being said, I just thought it would be better if I didn’t do the dinner, that doesn’t mean I’m not going to do it next year but I just thought it would be better if I didn’t do it this year. ”
