After a Disciplined Week in Asia, Trump Unloads on Critics<br />In a stream of tweets on Sunday, the president said those who wanted to investigate his ties to Russia were “haters and fools,” ridiculed “crooked” Hillary Clinton’s ill-fated effort to reset relations with Russia and fired back at North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, for calling him old, saying<br />that he could call Mr. Kim “short and fat” — but had restrained himself.<br />“I believe that President Putin really feels — and he feels strongly —<br />that he did not meddle in our election,” Mr. Trump said Sunday, when he was asked to clarify his comments about Mr. Putin’s sincerity on that question the night before.<br />But he was no less insistent that the Russia investigation was a distraction from more pressing global matters — Syria, Ukraine<br />and North Korea — and that time for punishing Russia was over.<br />I’ve worked with them very strongly.”<br />Still, Mr. Trump’s endorsement was grudging — he noted<br />that the assessment reflected only four agencies, not 17 — and he repeated his assertion that Washington needed to move on from the Russia investigation to cooperate with the Russians on issues from North Korea to Syria.
