No one is buying Donald Trump’s ‘would/wouldn’t’ backflip on Russia

AS DONALD Trump completed a staggering backflip, people spotted a revealing handwritten message in his notes.

IN A shocking revelation, no one is buying Donald Trump’s latest backflip.

The US President executed an astonishing 180 following his deeply criticised show of support for Vladimir Putin at their summit in Finland yesterday.

Mr Trump said he now “accepts” the intelligence community’s conclusion that Russia meddled in the US presidential election — the opposite of what he said in Helsinki — and claimed he used the wrong word.

“In a key sentence in my remarks, I said the word ‘would’ instead of ‘wouldn’t’,” he explained.

He said the sentence should have been, “I don’t see any reason why it wouldn’t be Russia,” rather than, “I don’t see any reason why it would be Russia.”

Mr Trump said it was “sort of a double negative,” adding, “I think that probably clarifies things pretty good by itself.”

That didn’t go down too well online:

Kudos to whichever White House genius came up with the would/wouldn't defense! Very creative. Not credible, but creative! Next we will hear that when he says "Rigged Witch Hunt" several times a day, he just forgets to omit "Not a."

— Max Boot (@MaxBoot) July 17, 2018

Trump says he misspoke. For 46 minutes.

— Alt. U.S. Press Sec. (@AltUSPressSec) July 17, 2018

President Trump said that he misspoke and said “would” instead of “wouldn’t”. If you watch the video below, Trump emphasizes the word “WOULD”.

Any speech expert would tell you that this means he was consciously aware of exactly what he was saying! pic.twitter.com/ML8CtalntM

— Ed Krassenstein (@EdKrassen) July 17, 2018

'Trump derangement syndrome' is anyone believing the 'would vs wouldn't' explanation

— Roland Scahill (@rolandscahill) July 17, 2018

Trump was very upset about coverage of his Putin presser. He is not going to be happy with coverage of "would vs. wouldn’t."

— MJ Lee (@mj_lee) July 17, 2018

If you need any further proof that Trump is a six year-old, his only defense over his Helsinki comments is “It’s Opposite Day!”

— Bryan Behar (@bryanbehar) July 17, 2018

Hey @realDonaldTrump , were you "misspeaking" when you claimed there was "no collusion," too?#resist #trumprussia #trump #TrumpTreason

— Dr. DaShanne Stokes (@DaShanneStokes) July 17, 2018

It was also pointed out he made a handwritten note of his own during his “clarification” moment.

Despite saying he now accepts the intelligence community’s verdict on Russia, he’s written a misspelled note that says “THERE WAS NO COLUSION”.

Trump was reading for a typewritten script during his "clarification" moment but he made some handwritten additions, including: "THERE WAS NO COLLUSION" pic.twitter.com/0IfleZm8yJ

— Kevin Liptak (@Kevinliptakcnn) July 17, 2018

Hmm.

CNN’s chief political analyst Gloria Borger said: “This president looked like he was in a hostage situation, reading from a script that others had written for him, that he clearly did not want to read.”

At the Helsinki summit, Mr Trump appeared to unquestioningly accept the Russian President’s “strong and powerful” denials of meddling in the election.

Mr Putin asserted his country had “never interfered, and does not plan to interfere in internal American electoral process”.

Mr Trump said: “All I can do is ask the question. My people came to me, (director of national intelligence) Dan Coats came to me and some others. They said they think it’s Russia.

“I have President Putin. He just said it’s not Russia. I will say this. I don’t see any reason why it would be.”

But he faced a significant backlash, with former president Barack Obama condemning the “politics of fear, resentment, retrenchment” in a stinging rebuke.

“Each day’s news cycle is bringing more head-spinning and disturbing headlines,” Mr Obama said, calling these “strange and uncertain times we are in”.

Mr Obama urged people around the world to respect human rights and other threatened values in his most high-profile speech since leaving office, at the 100th anniversary of Nelson Mandela’s birth in South Africa.

“We see much of the world threatening to return to a more dangerous, more brutal, way of doing business,” he said.

He did not directly mention Mr Trump, but his comments were clearly a response to the President’s heavily criticised performance in Helsinki.

“I am not being alarmist, I am simply stating the facts,” Mr Obama said. “Look around.”

He also spoke for equality, saying that “I would have thought we had figured that out by now.”

— with US correspondent Emma Reynolds