United States President-elect Donald Trump went back on more of his campaign promises on Tuesday, this time appearing to change his stance on climate change and his vow to jail Democratic rival Hillary Clinton, AP reported on Wednesday.
During his campaign, Trump had said he would ensure that Clinton is investigated and arrested for her use of a private email server while she was secretary of state, charges against her that the Federal Bureau of Investigation later dropped. One of his staffers said the president-elect was now prioritising matters that are important to the country’s administration and not comments he made during the “heat of the campaign”.
While he did not rule out a prosecution against the Democrat, Trump said, “I don’t want to hurt the Clintons. She went through a lot and suffered greatly in many different ways.” He said, “It’s just not something that I feel very strongly about.”
Trump had previously suggested that climate change was be a hoax perpetrated by the Chinese to harm United States manufacturers with environmental regulations. On Wednesday, he said he would “keep and open mind” about withdrawing the country from the Paris agreement. He said, “I think there is some connectivity” between human activity and climate change.
In an interview with The New York Times, one of his harshest critics, Trump also dismissed speculation about a possible conflict of interest with his roles as a businessman and US president. He said he would be “phasing control to his children”, while also appearing to suggest that he could still manage both roles.
Earlier in the day, his charity had admitted it had violated the Internal Revenue Service regulations banning it from using its money or assets to benefit Trump, his family, his companies or substantial contributors to the foundation.
Meanwhile, the Dalai Lama said he wasn’t concerned about Trump’s presidency as he was convinced that the Republican would frame policies in compliance with global realities. The spiritual leader said he planned on visiting the newly-elected leader soon, in a move that is bound to rile up Beijing which refers to him as a separatist, the news agency reported.
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