President Donald Trump on Thursday defended his son Donald Jr.’s meeting with a Russian lawyer as “opposition research,” suggested he was open to changing his mind about the Paris climate accord and ruffled some American reporters’ feathers by calling on a Chinese journalist during a news conference with French President Emmanuel Macron.

And in a transcript of an off-the-record meeting with reporters, Trump brushed off allegations of collusion with Russia and said, “You know what treason is? That’s Julius and Ethel Rosenberg for giving the atomic bomb, okay?”

IT’S CALLED ‘OPPOSITION RESEARCH,’ TRUMP SAYS

Trump was in Paris on Thursday but the scandal involving his son Donald Jr.’s meeting with Russian attorney Natalia Veselnitskaya figured prominently into his news conference with Macron.

“Most people would have taken that meeting,” Trump said. “It’s called ‘opposition research,’ or even research into your opponent. And honestly, I think the press made a very big deal out of something that really a lot of people would do.” Donald Jr. released an email exchange on Tuesday that discussed plans to meet Veselnitskaya and talk about potentially damaging information related to Hillary Clinton.

See recap of Trump-Macron news conference live blog.

TRUMP DEFINES TREASON

Flying to Paris on Wednesday, Trump had what was initially billed as an off-the-record meeting with reporters. But the White House released the transcript on Thursday. Trump assailed Democrats for their pursuit of evidence he colluded with Russia to influence the election and said, “the Democrats have played their card too hard on the Russia thing, because people aren’t believing it.”

“When they say ‘treason,’ you know what treason is? That’s Julius and Ethel Rosenberg for giving the atomic bomb, okay?” Trump said, referring to two Americans executed in 1953 after being convicted of spying for the Soviet Union. See the transcript of Trump’s talk with reporters.

‘SOMETHING COULD HAPPEN’ ON CLIMATE DEAL

Trump, who halted U.S. participation in the Paris climate accord earlier this year, said during the news conference Thursday that “something could happen” with respect to the greenhouse-gas-cutting agreement. The president sounded open to making some sort of change or perhaps new deal, but did not offer a specific commitment. “We’ll see what happens,” he said.

“On climate, we know what our differences are,” Macron said.

CHINESE JOURNALIST CALLED ON

Trump called on a man who identified himself as a journalist from “Phoenix TV of China” after Macron asked for a final question from an American journalist at the news conference. Trump’s decision to call on the reporter raised eyebrows, such as in a tweet from a White House reporter for the Associated Press, who said: “Seems like a clear violation of protocol for this question not to go to an American journalist.”

Sarah Huckabee Sanders, a White House spokeswoman, told CNN Trump is free to “call on any reporter he chooses.”