Foreign reporters challenged President Trump to address his wiretapping accusation and attacks on the media at a joint press conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Friday.

A German reporter asked Trump whether he regrets claiming that former President Obama bugged Trump Tower during the presidential campaign, provoking Trump to joke about reports that the National Security Agency had once monitored Merkel’s phone under Obama.

“As far as wiretapping, I guess by this past administration, at least we have something in common, perhaps,” Trump said with a grin during an otherwise subdued press conference.

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Trump beat back questions about why the White House had accused Britain’s intelligence agency of having helped Obama surveil Trump Tower, saying press secretary Sean Spicer had merely read aloud a report from a Fox News legal analyst.

“We said nothing. All we did was quote a certain very talented legal mind who was the one responsible for saying that on television. I did not make an opinion on it,” Trump said.

“That was a statement made by a very talented lawyer on Fox. So you should not be talking to me. You should be talking to Fox.”

Another German reporter was more aggressive with Trump, asking why he is "so scared of diversity in the news and the media that you speak so often of a ‘fake news’ and that things that in the end cannot be proven, like for the fact that you were wiretapped by Mr. Obama."

“Nice, friendly reporter,” Trump said.

Rather than respond to that question, Trump answered a question directed at Merkel about whether she believes the president’s "isolationist policy" is “dangerous.”

“I don't believe in an isolationist policy,” Trump said. “But I also believe a policy of trade should be a fair policy. The United States has been treated very, very unfairly by many countries over the years, and that is going to stop. I am not an isolationist. I'm a free trader, but I am also a fair trader. … But I am not an isolationist by any stretch of the imagination.”

“So I don't know what newspaper you are reading, but I guess that would be another example of, as you say, fake news,” Trump said.

American reporter Mark Halperin asked Merkel how she found working with Trump, who he said “has a different style than most.”