Trump cracks that he and Merkel share experience of Obama spying on them

President Donald Trump on Friday again refused to back down from his unsupported claim that President Barack Obama ordered an illegal wiretap of his phone, cracking that he has “something in common, perhaps” with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Obama’s relationship with Merkel was tested in 2013 as reports, culled from documents stolen by Edward Snowden, emerged that the National Security Agency had monitored Merkel’s cell phone activity.


A German reporter confronted Trump about his explosive wiretapping allegations at a joint news conference during Merkel’s visit to Washington on Friday.

“As far as wiretapping, I guess by, you know, this past administration, at least we have something in common, perhaps,” Trump said, gesturing toward Merkel.

Obama and his former director of national intelligence, James Clapper, have denied Trump’s claim, and Trump has offered no evidence to support it. Leaders of the House and Senate intelligence committees, meanwhile, came out this week and also said there is no evidence to suggest the allegation is true.

Many Republicans are reportedly frustrated that Trump continues to advance the unproven theory.

But Trump dodged when the reporter asked him about the White House's decision to reference Fox News commentator Andrew Napolitano's unsubstantiated claim that Obama had asked the British spying agency to surveil Trump. Trump blamed the allegation on a “very talented legal mind," and then told the reporter to ask the network about it.

“I didn’t make an opinion on it,” Trump said. “That was a statement made by a very talented lawyer on Fox. And so you shouldn’t be talking to me. You should be talking to Fox.”

The British spy agency has strongly denied the claim. And shortly after the press conference, Fox anchor Shepard Smith said Friday that the network cannot confirm Napolitano's commentary.

White House press secretary Sean Spicer refused to back down from the unsupported allegation on Friday or to take responsibility for spreading it. The White House, he said in a brief gaggle with reporters, does not regret repeating it.

"We just reiterated the fact that we were just simply reading media accounts," he told reporters. "That’s it."

“I don’t think we regret anything," he added. "We literally listed a litany of media reports that are in the public domain."

Tara Palmeri contributed reporting.