Too much should not be read into Trump's telephonic talk: aide

US President-elect Donald Trump is not out there making policy or announcing new policy prescriptions worldwide but is merely taking phone calls from world leaders and people "should not read" too much into it, his close aide said today.

"President-elect Trump is not out there making policy or announcing new policy prescriptions worldwide. He's merely taking phone calls. He will, I'm sure, reengage with many of these world leaders once he takes the oath of office," Trump's Senior Advisor Kellyanne Conway told Fox News.

Conway was responding to questions being generated on Trump's phone calls with world leaders in particular those with Pakistan, the Philippines and Taiwan.
 

Trump, she asserted, is not skipping any of those classified intelligence briefings.

"He's not always skipping those briefings. He's briefed by any number of credible sources on these issues. I think people, frankly, are cherry picking about these world leaders. They're accusing the President-elect of somehow countenancing some of these behaviours in these other places," she said.

"That's really unfair when you think about we just had an election and the opponent, Hillary Clinton, who was the secretary of state, was using the State Department to get money from foreign governments like Saudi Arabia, which doesn't even respect girls and women," Conway said.

"I think people just have their hair on fire, particularly those who are still entrenched in the campaign, are trying to reverse the election results from last week. Let's give this man time to form his cabinet. He's also showing respect to the current president, President Obama, who's still the president for about 6 1/2 more weeks and the commander in chief, certainly," she said in response to a question.

Conway said Trump's phone call with the Taiwanese leader was "just a phone call" at this point.

"It signals the fact that he accepted a congratulatory call. I know that China has a perspective on it. The White House and State Department probably have a perspective on it. Certainly, Taiwan has a perspective on it," she said.

"The President-elect's perspective is that he accepted a congratulatory call. When he's sworn in as president and commander- in-chief in a little over a month, he'll make clear the fullness of his plans. But people shouldn't read too much into it," she said.

"Some of the press coverage, not here necessarily, is really astonishing when you think about how it was covered when Barack Obama was going to try to reach out to Iran and come up with an Iran nuclear deal. The president-elect received a phone call from a world leader in another country. We know about one-China. He knows about one-China. He's routinely briefed on these matters. That just is what it is," Conway said.