Trump keeping ‘open mind’ on pulling out of climate accord

The relationship between presidents and those who cover them is often an adversarial one, but media experts say Trump’s blasts against reporters – he called them the “lowest form of humanity” during the campaign – have broken new ground.

“If Trump effectively shuts down the White House press corps, and only provides interviews to some amalgamation of Breitbart.com and Fox News”, he says, “there’s a very real risk that within six months to a year we’re going to have something that looks like [state-controlled] Russia Today and [former Soviet newspaper] Pravda”.

In Trump’s discussion with the Times, Trump said he is also keeping his mind open about whether global warming is mainly due to human activities, such as the burning of fossil fuels, or other causes.

Amid the hustle and bustle of his transition, according to The New York Times, President-elect Trump found time last week for a visit from the Indian partners with whom he is developing a pair of residential towers in Pune, a sprawling city not far from Mumbai.

The statements could mark a softening in Trump’s position on USA involvement in efforts to fight climate change, although he did not commit to specific action in any direction.

Campaigning ahead of November 8, Trump repeatedly told crowds of rustbelt and southern voters – factory workers, coal miners and oilmen among them – that he would tear up worldwide climate agreements.

“In theory, I could run my business perfectly and then run the country perfectly”, Trump said, according to Times reporters.

“It’s a one-day story about Trump University and a four-day story about Hamilton“.

He said he and like-minded “identitarians” – his preferred label for white identity politics – see Trump’s election as validating their view that the United States is flailing because it has embraced multiculturalism and political correctness at the expense of its European heritage. “There are lots of conflict of interest laws that do apply to the president”.

The ABC’s North America correspondent Michael Vincent said Mr Trump had also told the reporters he was happy to hear from Times reporters. The Times, arguably the world’s most powerful news organization, is an institution to which even an American president must pay a degree of respect.

On Tuesday, Trump did not deny that conversation took place. But he is now backing down from his threat to pull out the USA from the Paris Climate Change Agreement.

Trump was asked about concerns from minority groups that the coverage of Breitbart News under Bannon, its former chairman, has become a “platform” for the so-called alt-right movement.

On another topic, the president-elect, who has been criticized for being slow to denounce racist acts done in his name, said, “I disavow and condemn” a recent “alt-right” conference in Washington where some attendees raised their arms in a Hitler-like salute while chanting “Heil Trump”.

Trump met with several network news anchors and executives on Monday.

In a video message posted to YouTube Monday, Trump called the TPP a “potential disaster” for the U.S.

Mr Trump’s statement “is only partially true”, said Scott Amey, general counsel for the Project on Government Oversight, a nonpartisan watchdog group in Washington. “Do you want me to do it again for the 12th time?“.

“We’re waiting for action, and Trump is kidding nobody on climate as he simultaneously stacks his transition team and cabinet with climate science deniers and the dirtiest hacks the fossil fuel industry can offer”, Brune said.