The polio vaccine, Eric Adams and more media lawsuits: Donald Trump’s freewheeling Mar-a-Lago press conference

President-elect Donald Trump on Monday promised to continue his siege against the media, pledging to move forward with more litigation after winning a $15 million settlement in a defamation suit against ABC.

He alleged that the Des Moines Register had committed “fraud” with its pre-election release of a poll by longtime Iowa pollster Ann Selzer that found a 3-point lead for Vice President Kamala Harris over Trump in a state he ended up winning by more than 13 points. He also reiterated frustrations against “60 Minutes” for its handling of an interview with Harris, which is also the subject of a suit from Trump.

He referenced ongoing lawsuits against publisher Simon & Schuster over the rights to recorded interviews he gave to journalist Bob Woodward, and the Pulitzer Prize board for reaffirming awards it gave to the New York Times and Washington Post for their reporting on ties between his 2016 campaign and Russia.

His comments came in his first press conference since winning the presidency. He covered a wide range of topics from vaccine mandates to relationships with foreign countries and a possible pardon of New York Mayor Eric Adams.

“You need a fair press,” Trump said, referencing the lawsuits. “I’m doing this not because I want to. I’m doing this because I feel I have an obligation to.”

Trump’s press conference, a rare engagement with the media in an open setting since winning the presidency, coincided with an event outgoing President Joe Biden was attending at the Labor Department’s headquarters to promote plans to establish a national monument honoring Frances Perkins — the country’s first female Cabinet secretary.

Some of the other topics Trump weighed in on:

The polio vaccine and vaccine mandates

Trump said he was a “big believer” in the polio vaccine and promised that “you’re not going to lose” it, noting that he “saw what happened with polio” and has “friends that were very much affected by that.”

“They’re still not in such good shape because of it,” Trump said. Polio vaccine creator “Jonas Salk did a great job, so I don’t anticipate [getting rid of the polio vaccine] at all.”

But he also said he wasn’t “a big mandate person,” when asked whether schools should mandate vaccines and dodged a question about whether he believes vaccines cause autism, a claim research has repeatedly debunked.

“We’re looking to find out,” he said, later suggesting pesticides, also a target for Kennedy, could be causing rising autism diagnoses. “Something bad’s happening.”

Eric Adams pardon

Trump said he “would certainly look at” pardoning Adams and implied that the mayor’s indictment in a federal criminal bribery case was a reaction to his stance on migrants in New York City.

“He essentially went against what was happening with the migrants coming in,” Trump said of Adams. “He made some pretty strong statements like, ‘This is not sustainable.’ I said you know what? He will be indicted soon. And I said it not as a prediction, a little bit light heartedly but I said it.”

New Jersey drone sightings

Trump said he will avoid going to his Bedminister property this weekend, amidst reports of drones hovering over New Jersey.

“Something strange is going on — for some reason, [the government doesn’t] want to tell the people. And they should,” Trump said. “I mean they happen to be over Bedminster.”

He did not comment when asked if he had received an intelligence briefing on the drone activity.

“I think maybe I won’t spend the weekend in Bedminster,” Trump added. “I decided to cancel my trip.”

Threat to fire federal employees

Trump also doubled down on Republicans’ plans to go after the federal workforce by threatening to fire employees who don’t return to the office.

“If people don’t come back to work, come back into the office, they’re going to be dismissed,” Trump said.

His ire was directed at a recent collective bargaining agreement hatched between the Biden administration and employees at the Social Security Administration, which includes an extension of its current remote work policies for certain employees.

The president-elect said he would go to court to block the contract agreement, though it is not entirely clear on what grounds.

“It is ridiculous, he said. “It was like a gift to a union, and we are obviously going to be in court to stop it.”

Ron DeSantis’ Florida Senate pick

The president-elect downplayed the possibility of his daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, being appointed by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to the Senate, saying that “Ron is doing a good job” and that “it is his choice, nothing to do with me.”

DeSantis has been considering several people for the seat, currently held by Trump’s secretary of State nominee Marco Rubio, including Lt. Gov. Jeanette Núñez, Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody or former Florida House Speaker José Oliva.

World leaders at the inauguration

Trump did not confirm which world leaders would be at his inauguration in January, but he said many have called him and “some really would like to meet.” He added that he will try to meet with some of them: “It would be rude not to.”

“I spoke to over 100 countries. You wouldn’t believe how many countries there are,” Trump said.

He specifically addressed the attendance of Chinese leader Xi Jinping, who he invited to the inauguration last week.

“I don’t know that he won’t be at the inauguration. I haven’t really spoken to him about it,” Trump said, adding that if Xi would “like to come, I would love to have him.”

Relationship with President Xi

Trump emphasized that he and Xi had a very good relationship “until Covid,” saying the pandemic didn’t end the relationship but it was “a bridge too far.”

During the end of his first term, the president-elect often blamed China for the coronavirus outbreak, resulting in a rift in the pair’s relationship. Since then, it appears that fences have been mended, with the Chinese leader sending Trump a “beautiful note” following his first assassination attempt in July.

“He was a friend of mine,” Trump added. “We spent hours and hours talking and he’s an amazing guy. The press hates when I say that but he’s an amazing person.”

Tariffs

Trump said his administration would use tariffs to level the playing field with other countries that impose high tariffs on American goods.

“We’re going to make great deals, and we have all the cards,” Trump said at the press conference, where he was joined by his Commerce secretary nominee, Howard Lutnick.

Lutnick did not answer directly when asked if the incoming Trump administration plans to negotiate a second deal with China, building on the one Trump struck in his first term.

Instead, he stressed the idea that tariff reciprocity was key to Trump’s plans.

“The president has a very clear agenda for tariffs, and I think reciprocity is something that is going to be a key topic for us. How you treat us is how you should expect to be treated,” Lutnick said.

“We’re going to be treating countries very fairly,” Trump added. If India imposes a 100 percent tariff on U.S. bicycles, then the United States will impose the same duty on their bikes, Trump said, citing a hypothetical example.

Russia and Ukraine

Trump said he plans to reverse the Biden administration’s decision to allow Ukraine to fire long-range missiles into Russia.

The Biden administration lifted restrictions that prevented Ukraine from using a longer-range variant of the U.S. Army Tactical Missile System just two weeks after the election.

Trump said he blamed Biden’s decision to lift the restrictions for bringing North Korea into the war, even though North Korean troops were already training in Russia and preparing to engage in combat before the move.

“I don’t think they should have allowed missiles to be shot 200 miles into Russia,” Trump said, referring to the maximum range of the American weapons system. “I think that was a bad thing and that brought the Koreans in. Why would they do that without asking me what I thought?”

While Ukraine’s use of long-range weapons hasn’t significantly changed its recent fortunes on the battlefield, the reversal would be a major setback for Kyiv. Ukrainian officials spent months lobbying Washington to allow strikes deeper into Russia.

Greta Reich, Daniel Payne, Lawrence Ukenye, Nick Niedzwiadek, Doug Palmer, Mia McCarthy and Jack Detsch contributed to this report.