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WASHINGTON U.S. President Donald Trump said on Thursday a major conflict with North Korea is possible in the standoff over its nuclear and missile programs, but he would prefer a diplomatic outcome to the dispute.

"There is a chance that we could end up having a major, major conflict with North Korea. Absolutely," Trump told Reuters in an Oval Office interview ahead of his 100th day in office on Saturday.

Nonetheless, Trump said he wanted to peacefully resolve a crisis that has bedeviled multiple U.S. presidents, a path that he and his administration are emphasizing by preparing a variety of new economic sanctions while not taking the military option off the table.

"We'd love to solve things diplomatically but it's very difficult," he said.

REUTERS RECOMMENDS Racism on the rise: Reuters poll How North Korea gets its oil from China

In other highlights of the 42-minute interview, Trump was cool to speaking again with Taiwan's president after an earlier telephone call with her angered China.

He also said he wants South Korea to pay the cost of the U.S. THAAD anti-missile defense system, which he estimated at $1 billion, and intends to renegotiate or terminate a U.S. free trade pact with South Korea because of a deep trade deficit with Seoul.

Asked when he would announce his intention to renegotiate the pact, Trump said: Very soon. Im announcing it now.

Trump also said he was considering adding stops to Israel and Saudi Arabia to a Europe trip next month, emphasizing that he wanted to see an Israeli-Palestinian peace. He complained that Saudi Arabia was not paying its fair share for U.S. defense.

Asked about the fight against Islamic State, Trump said the militant group had to be defeated.

"I have to say, there is an end. And it has to be humiliation," he said, when asked about what the endgame was for defeating Islamist violent extremism.

XI 'TRYING VERY HARD'

Trump said North Korea was his biggest global challenge. He lavished praise on Chinese President Xi Jinping for Chinese assistance in trying to rein in Pyongyang. The two leaders met in Florida earlier this month.

"I believe he is trying very hard. He certainly doesnt want to see turmoil and death. He doesnt want to see it. He is a good man. He is a very good man and I got to know him very well.

"With that being said, he loves China and he loves the people of China. I know he would like to be able to do something, perhaps it's possible that he cant," Trump said.

Trump spoke just a day after he and his top national security advisers briefed U.S. lawmakers on the North Korean threat and one day before Secretary of State Rex Tillerson will press the United Nations Security Council on sanctions to further isolate Pyongyang over its nuclear and missile programs.

The Trump administration on Wednesday declared North Korea "an urgent national security threat and top foreign policy priority." It said it was focusing on economic and diplomatic pressure, including Chinese cooperation in containing its defiant neighbor and ally, and remained open to negotiations.

U.S. officials said military strikes remained an option but played down the prospect, though the administration has sent an aircraft carrier and a nuclear-powered submarine to the region in a show of force.

Any direct U.S. military action would run the risk of massive North Korean retaliation and huge casualties in Japan and South Korea and among U.S. forces in both countries.

'I HOPE HE'S RATIONAL'

Trump, asked if he considered North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to be rational, said he was operating from the assumption that he is rational. He noted that Kim had taken over his country at an early age.

"He's 27 years old. His father dies, took over a regime. So say what you want but that is not easy, especially at that age.

"I'm not giving him credit or not giving him credit, I'm just saying that's a very hard thing to do. As to whether or not he's rational, I have no opinion on it. I hope he's rational," he said.

Trump, sipping a Coke delivered by an aide after the president ordered it by pressing a button on his desk, rebuffed an overture from Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen, who told Reuters a direct phone call with Trump could take place again after their first conversation in early December angered Beijing.

China considers neighboring Taiwan to be a renegade province.

"My problem is that I have established a very good personal relationship with President Xi," said Trump. "I really feel that he is doing everything in his power to help us with a big situation. So I wouldnt want to be causing difficulty right now for him.

"So I would certainly want to speak to him first."

Trump also said he hoped to avoid a potential government shutdown amid a dispute between congressional Republicans and Democrats over a spending deal with a Saturday deadline looming.

But he said if a shutdown takes place, it will be the Democrats' fault for trying to add money to the legislation to "bail out Puerto Rico" and other items.

He also defended the one-page tax plan he unveiled on Wednesday from criticism that it would increase the U.S. deficit, saying better trade deals and economic growth would offset the costs.

"We will do trade deals that are going to make up for a tremendous amount of the deficit. We are going to be doing trade deals that are going to be much better trade deals," Trump said.

(Editing by Ross Colvin)

SEOUL North Korea test-fired a ballistic missile on Saturday from a region north of its capital, but it appears to have failed, South Korea's military said, defying intense pressure from the United States and the reclusive state's main ally, China.

UNITED NATIONS U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson warned on Friday that failure to curb North Korea's nuclear and ballistic missile programs could lead to 'catastrophic consequences,' while China and Russia rebuked Washington's threat of military force.

The rest is here:
Exclusive: Trump says 'major, major' conflict with North Korea possible, but seeks diplomacy - Reuters

Vitali has been covering Trump for over 600 days. Nikki Kahn / for NBC News

Not that I was in the business of making predictions. The presidential campaign was full of pundits and analysts, but I wasn't one of them. I was an embed: Attending every rally; toting 50 pounds of TV gear; filming protesters by standing on tables; emailing rally-by-rally readouts to NBC, MSNBC, CNBC, plus affiliate networks; trying to break news; get some TV hits and also making sure to call my mom enough.

That job is how I landed here, at the White House.

Everyone knows it hasn't been a laugh riot for the media covering this president. Not only does he make news more than anyone in recent memory, but he's continued his attacks on the press as "fake news."

For me? The sting's gone out of it a bit. Head down, work to do. I've moved on. For sure, it's easier to handle now than it was during the campaign, when those same anti-media grenades were lobbed from a podium and into a sea of thousands of cheering Trump fans, excited for the chance to boo the press.

I'm a baseball fan from New York, so I think of it like how the Yankees must feel when they're playing in Fenway Park. It's a small distraction, at most. The fans enjoy the razzing; the players learn not to be fazed by it.

Bottom line: The shock value of Trump's anti-media campaign has worn off.

WATCH:

I first met Trump while he served jury duty in New York City in the summer of 2015, introduced by his longtime body man Keith Schiller. The first question I had a chance to ask him about was how he planned to pay for the wall on the Mexico border (he didn't really say). I've spoken with him before tapings of interviews and seen him pose for pictures with reporters at a post-election off-the-record gathering at Mar-a-Lago.

Amid the opulence and gold of his estate, where he's more at home than in the White House, I glimpsed another side of Trump. I began to understand what his aides often said of their boss he can read a room.

In those settings, I understood why former business partners and current associates describe him as likable and even charming; a guy who cajoles, laughs and does deals. It was almost enough to make me forget about the time he

The predictable unpredictability of Trump. And Twitter's still the perfect platform for him.

Tweets have always been a cornerstone of covering Trump and he can still send reporters on a merry-go-round of fact-finding with one tap. It's his way of circumventing a media that he says doesn't treat him fairly.

The social media firebombs have changed with the absence of "Lyin' Ted" or "Little Marco" to riff about. "Crooked Hillary" Clinton has not made an appearance on Trump's feed in months, though even five months later he still finds ways to raise the specter of last year's campaign to remind people that, yes, he did beat her even though everyone said he couldn't.

Trump's 140-character messages now include real threats on trade, new promises on healthcare, and seemingly spontaneous reflections on foreign policy all with the gravitas of the @POTUS handle to retweet them. The messenger hasn't changed; he's just got a bigger platform and a national archive.

PHOTOS:

New office, new house, new city, same Trump who yearns for the campaign trail and the reassurance of his base. It's 2017 and yet I still find myself booking flights to campaign-style rallies where he can speak directly to his people. He's got another one in Pennsylvania on Saturday, the same night as the annual White House Correspondents' Dinner that he's boycotting. I joke with friends about checking the calendar to make sure I haven't somehow time traveled back to 2016 when a press "pen" cobbled together with bike racks in the middle of thousands of screaming Trump fans felt like my natural habitat.

Trump's still at home there, too. Gripping his podium, using his crafted TelePrompter remarks as suggestions for what he should say. He often doesn't stick to the script.

Same as ever on the stage, but those close to him say they've seen a change in the former real estate mogul. And even Trump himself has mentioned his realizations about the vastness of the government he now helms and the weight of the decisions he now makes. He's not just talking about bombing "the s--t out of" enemies anymore he can literally do it.

When the campaign ended, many people asked me if I would follow the president-elect to the White House. I had dedicated so many hours, attended hundreds of rallies, logged thousands of miles and charted intimately his rise. It had been exhausting; it had consumed my personal life. Admittedly, there was a part of me that would have liked to close the book there.

But separating from this beat and him is impossible. I feel beholden to this story. On the job at the White House or overhearing the table next to me at dinner, Trump is everywhere especially on my phone, which still buzzes every time he tweets.

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My 100 Days of Covering President Donald Trump - NBCNews.com

The President Show is Comedy Centrals new bet that theres a sizable American audience craving to watch a buffoonish illustration of President Donald Trump.

Certainly mere existence of the show, itself debuting in the wake ofAlec Baldwins popular Saturday Night Live impersonations, has proven some sort of market for self-help comedy consumption. But the new, half-hour President Showis a next level of commitment to making fun of the man in the Oval Office.

After weeks of hype, the show finally premiered Thursday night.In a continuation of his live performances with the Upright Citizens Brigade, comedian Anthony Atamanuik gives audiences what is arguablythe most spot-on Trump parodyof the moment.

To see for yourself, catch a segment last nights show above, where the fictional Trump rates various figures in the news as either NICE! or NOT NICE!

French politician Marine Le Pen got NICE!

Shes French, shes blonde and she hates Muslims, explained Atamanuiks Trump. Shes a triple threat.

Ivanka Trump also got NICE! due to her skin being like Italian marble. After sheillicited boos while defending her father to a German audience earlier this week, however, the German people earned a solid NOT NICE!

This is the worst thing the Germans have ever done, Atamanuik said. Ever. Ever done. Ever.

One moment hopefully hinted at more informative segments of the show, rather than beat-by-beat jokes about the weeks news, when Atamanuik went after White House press secretary Sean Spicer as both NOT NICE!and NICE!

Hes a muttering slobber-mouth with a taste for his own foot, Atamanuik explained, before showing a news clip about the real Trump not firing Spicer because of the press secretarys impressive ratings. This blending of a more nuanced recap of the week amid the easy Trump jokes could certainly be a sign of good things to come.

You can watch the full episode at Comedy Centrals website. Catch a teaser for the show, in which Atamanuiks Trump describes how his show is actually a better version of Franklin Roosevelts fireside chats, below:

Continue reading here:
Comedy Central's Donald Trump Talk Show Is Here - Huffington Post

WASHINGTON Just three months into his presidency, Donald Trumps bestselling The Art of the Deal might be due for a sequel: The Humility of the Failed Bluff.

The boastful businessman who claimed that his negotiating skills were unsurpassed appears to have met his match a number of times already.

Trump went from accusing the Chinese of manipulating their currency to agreeing that they didnt. He has not made any visible progress in forcing Mexico to pay for a border wall. He was talked out of abandoning the North American Free Trade Agreement by the leaders of Mexico and Canada. And he was unable to bully Democrats into working with him to repeal the Affordable Care Act.

He has folded like a lawn chair at the slightest hint of pressure, and hes getting played like a violin by enemies like Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un, said Adam Jentleson, former deputy chief of staff to retired Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid of Nevada.

In Mexico, the country Trump has vilified since the start of his campaign nearly two years ago, a senator told The New York Times that political leaders there have started to see Trump primarily as a bluffer.

In front of a bluffer, you always have to maintain a firm and dignified position, Armando Ros Pitertold the Times.

Some Trump supporters challenge that view. Michael Caputo, a western New York political consultant who worked for Trumps primary campaign last year, said Ros and others who underestimate Trump will be sorry.

Bluffers win. And they win big, Caputo said. At the end of the poker game that the senator is speaking about, well end up with more chips. The senator is going to be awful surprised and out of the game early.

But other Trump allies, including radio talk-show host Rush Limbaugh, are starting to fret about Trumps strategy. Im not happy to have to pass this on, Limbaughtold his listenersearlier this week. But it looks like, from here, right here, right now, it looks like President Trump is caving on his demand for a measly $1 billion in the budget for his wall on the border with Mexico.

On the campaign trail, Trump marketed himself as the ultimate closer, a tough-talking businessman who could renegotiate trade deals and international agreements to better benefit the American worker. He regularly disparaged weak and stupid leaders in Washington for failing to accomplish what someone who had actually sat at a boardroom table could easily do once in the Oval Office.

Jonathan Drake / Reuters

Ive watched the politicians. Ive dealt with them all my life, Trumpsaidin 2015. If you cant make a good deal with a politician, then theres something wrong with you. Youre certainly not very good.

Nearly 100 days into his presidency, however, Trump appears to be finding the job is much tougher than he imagined. He has issued bold ultimatums in negotiations on health care, immigration and trade only to have to back down. While his predecessor once said henever bluffedon the world stage, Trump has embraced the risky tactic on both foreign and domestic fronts with little to show for it.

People put in for the TV character of Donald Trump, a hyper-confident negotiator, a wheeler-dealer mogul, said GOP strategist Rick Wilson. The real Donald Trump is a 70-year-old man who inherited a bunch of money whos been bankrupt four times and who basically turned into a branding company. Hes intellectually sloppy and temperamentally unsuited for the job.

In the health care debate, Trump has been all over the map. He first warned Republican lawmakers that he would leave the Affordable Care Act in place and move on to other priorities unless they approved a bill to repeal and replace it. The ultimatum failed to sway skeptical conservatives in the House, and lawmakers bolted town for a two-week recess without voting on the measure. He and his aides then threatened toreach out to Democratsto resuscitate his stalled agenda, but that too went out the window. This week, the administration is once again pushing for a party-line vote on an Obamacare repeal bill.

Trumps bluster toward Democrats also fell flat. Earlier this month, hethreatened to sabotage Obamacareif they didnt agree to proposed changes regarding the law. White House budget director Mick Mulvaney announcedWednesdaythat the administration was considering cutting off crucial payments to health insurance companies a move thatwould be devastatingfor people who buy coverage on their own, rather than through employers. Later that day, less than 48 hours before a crucial government funding deadline, Trump backed down and said hewould honor the payments after all.

Trump didnt fare any better on funding his proposed border wall, either. Facing likely odds of a government shutdown, the president on Tuesday backed off demands that Democrats agree to fund the construction of a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border the same wall he said Mexico would pay for on the campaign trail. Trump maintained that the wall remained a priority and that it would eventually get built. But its hard to see what more he could do to persuade Democrats to vote to fund the wall between now and the next round of budget talks in September.

That issue, because it was a promise repeated throughout his campaign, could do Trump serious damage if he doesnt deliver, said Ari Fleischer, a press secretary to former President George W. Bush.

I think Trump must demonstrate this year, not necessarily now, progress toward building the wall or his base will be disappointed, Fleischer said. He went too far in saying Mexico will pay for it, but I believe his base cares far more about it being built and a lot less about who pays.

Trumps efforts to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement may yet bear fruit. His threat to pull the U.S. out of the agreement brought Canada and Mexico to the negotiating table this week. But its less clear what kind of concessions hell be able to wring out of them. Even Trump admitted that withdrawing from the trade pact would amount to a shock to the system.

If Im unable to make a fair deal for the United States, meaning a fair deal for our workers and our companies, I will terminate NAFTA. But were going to give renegotiation a good, strong shot, he said at the White House on Thursday.

See more here:
Donald Trump's Art Of The Retreat - Huffington Post

If he's not tweeting about something or hosting members of Congress at the White House, he's huddled with a foreign leader at Mar-a-Lago or putting his John Hancock on some executive action or order.

Or boasting about how much he's gotten done. "No administration has accomplished more in the first 90 days," Trump said earlier this month.

The truth is more nuanced and less favorable to Trump. Yes, Trump has been moving almost non-stop for his first 97 days as president. But, movement is not accomplishment. And, any analysis of Trump's first 97 days makes clear there has been much more of the former and much less of the latter.

Consider this: The single, large-scale accomplishment of the Trump administration to date is the nomination and confirmation of Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court.

Now, that is a biggie. Gorsuch will likely remain on the Court for decades to come.

But, aside from the Court nomination, there's precious little that Trump has pro-actively accomplished on his agenda. He has signed two dozen executive orders and issued a series of presidential proclamations. By and large, those moves are aimed at rolling back initiatives begun under his predecessor President Barack Obama -- with a particular focus on the environment -- not on proactively pushing Trump's broader agenda. (An argument can -- and will -- be made by Trump forces that in undoing a series of Obama-era regulations, Trump has accomplished a great deal.)

Then there is the fact that Trump's broadest and most high profile executive order -- the so-called "travel ban" -- has been in legal limbo almost since its inception. While Trump took a second crack at re-writing it -- dropping Iraq as a country from which all travelers would be banned -- it remains tied up in legal wrangling and there appears to be no near-term timetable under which it will be implemented.

On the legislative front, Trump has been almost entirely stymied. The White House's push to pass legislation to reform and replace the Affordable Care Act never even made it to a House floor vote due to a revolt within the GOP ranks. Promises made by Trump -- and his White House allies -- that a new and improved health care bill is about to be re-introduced hasn't come to fruition yet. And significant doubts seem to remain within the Republican conference that a solution exists on healthcare that could secure a majority of the majority in the House.

The crisis of a government shutdown -- which would happen if Congress can't pass a bill to fund the government by midnight Friday -- appears to be less than likely. But that's only because Trump backed off his demand that $1.4 billion in funding for the border wall be included in any spending bill. Funding for the wall, which Trump insists will be built, will have to wait.

Trump has been most active in foreign policy over his first 97 days. But again, action doesn't necessarily equal accomplishment.

Trump reversed his view of Syria following President Bashar al-Assad's chemical attack on his own people -- targeting nearly five dozen Tomahawk missiles at the airbase believed to be the launching point for the attacks. But there has been very little follow-up to those missile strikes -- either militarily or from a policy perspective.

In regard to North Korea, Trump has been aggressive in his rhetoric. But,the mistake over the location of the U.S.S. Carl Vinson, which the President seemed to imply was steaming toward the Korean peninsula in response to North Korea's aggression but wound up 3,500 miles away on a training mission, seemed to undercut the attempt at forceful message-sending. Trump has asserted that China will be far more willing to help contain North Korea than they have been in the past but that seems based largely on his surprisingly friendly relationship developed with Chinese President Xi Jinping during a two-day visit to Mar-a-Lago.

Viewed broadly and without spin, Trump's first 97 days have largely been defined by often-frenetic movement with relatively few actual results or deliverables to show for it. Movement is a hallmark of Trump's presidential personality. To date, results aren't.

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Donald Trump has spent 97 days in constant motion. But what has he actually done? - CNN