Source: Newsweek

Russia chose Donald Trump as the U.S. presidential candidate who would be most advantageous to Moscow, and used online tactics to win him the presidency, according to a former agent of the Israeli intelligence agency the Mossad.

"Officials in Moscow looked at the 2016 U.S. presidential race and asked, ‘Which candidate would we like to have sitting in the White House? Who will help us achieve our goals?’ And they chose him. From that moment, they deployed a system [of bots] for the length of the elections, and ran him for president,” former Mossad chief Tamir Pardo told the audience at the Marker’s digital conference in Israel on Monday, where experts gathered to discuss online disinformation campaigns and bots.

“What we’ve seen so far with respect to bots and the distortion of information is just the tip of the iceberg. It is the greatest threat of recent years, and it threatens the basic values that we share—democracy and the world order created since World War Two,” Pardo noted, according to Haaretz.

Read more: https://www.newsweek.com/russia-picked-donald-trump-and-ran-him-president-former-israeli-intelligence-1273009

Trump and first lady Melania Trump late Monday took calls from children about Santa’s whereabouts, a presidential tradition in conjunction with the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD).

"Merry Christmas. How are you?” Trump asked one caller. “How old are you?.... Are you doing well in school? Are you still a believer in Santa?"


After a short pause to hear the child’s response, the president then added: “Because at seven, it’s marginal, right?”

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) later tweeted disapproval of Trump’s remark, saying: “It’s just too freaking fantastic that Trump spent his Christmas Eve calling seven year olds and telling them believing in Santa at their age is ‘marginal,’ "

“If you’re 7, yes, Santa Claus exists and loves you,” tweeted former U.S. attorney Preet Bharara, a prominent Trump critic. “And he’s on his way.”

https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/422810-social-media-reacts-to-trump-asking-a-seven-year-old-if-he-believed

"Donald Trump says, build a wall. Deport all illegal immigrants. Rules are rules. You either play and stay or you cheat and you get deported. What challenges does this plan pose?" Patti Mercer asked in the August 25, 2015, interview on WRHI radio in South Carolina.
"A bunch," Mulvaney responded.
"The fence doesn't solve the problem. Is it necessary to have one, sure? Would it help? Sure. But to just say build the darn fence and have that be the end of an immigration discussion is absurd and almost childish for someone running for president to take that simplistic of [a] view," Mulvaney added, without making a distinction between a fence or wall.

https://www.cnn.com/2018/12/21/politics/mulvaney-on-trump-in-2015/index.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+rss%2Fcnn_allpolitics+%28RSS%3A+CNN+-+Politics%29