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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.
