President-elect Donald Trump backed away from his promise to build a wall on the U.S.-Mexican border, saying some areas could instead be “fencing,” and added he would move to deport up to 3 million immigrants in the country illegally who have criminal records.

Trump, whose pledge to force Mexico to pay for a border wall was a centerpiece of his White House, said in “certain areas” he would accept fencing instead of a brick-and-mortar wall, according to excerpts released on Sunday of his interview with the CBS program “60 Minutes.”

“But certain areas, a wall is more appropriate. I’m very good at this, it’s called construction, there could be some fencing,” the New York real estate developer said.

Since his Tuesday election victory over Democrat Hillary Clinton, Trump and his senior advisers have signaled he may hedge on some of his major campaign promises once he takes office on Jan. 20, including on immigration, healthcare and appointing a special prosecutor to investigate Clinton.

Trump said in the interview once he takes office he would remove immigrants with criminal records who are in the country illegally.

“What we are going to do is get the people that are criminal and have criminal records, gang members, drug dealers, where a lot of these people, probably two million, it could be even three million, we are getting them out of our country or we are going to incarcerate. But we’re getting them out of our country,” he told “60 Minutes.”

During the campaign, Trump said he would deport the estimated 11 million immigrants in the country illegally, most of whom are Hispanic. Trump said Mexico was sending criminals and rapists into the United States.

Republican House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan, who will play a key role in getting Trump’s agenda through the Republican-led Congress, backed away from Trump’s promise during the campaign of a “deportation force” to round up and deport immigrants in the country illegally.

“We are not planning on erecting a deportation force. Donald Trump’s not planning on that,” Ryan told CNN’s “State of the Union” program. “I think we should put people’s minds at ease. That is not what our focus is. That is not what we’re focused on. We’re focused on securing the border.”

Kevin McCarthy, the No. 2 House Republican, said on “Fox News Sunday” the wall with Mexico could in parts be a “virtual” wall patrolled by drones.

“You have to put a wall, it could be all virtual with the UAV airplanes as well, but I think that is doable and one of the first things that needs to be done,” McCarthy said, referring to unmanned aerial vehicles, or drones.

Senior adviser Kellyanne Conway indicated Trump would be results-oriented as he chooses top aides, prepares his transition to the presidency and gets ready to work with Congress.

“He’ll be surrounded by people who want to get things done. Because he’s a transactional guy. He’s a businessman,” Conway said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

Ryan said he agreed with Trump’s comments in a Wall Street Journal interview published on Friday that he would keep elements of President Barack Obama’s signature healthcare law, known as Obamacare.

Repealing and replacing the 2010 Affordable Care Act was another centerpiece of Trump’s campaign. But he told the Journal that after talking to Obama at the White House on Thursday he would consider retaining provisions letting parents keep adult children up to age 26 on their insurance policies and barring insurers from denying coverage to people with pre-existing medical conditions.

“We can fix what is broken in healthcare without breaking what is working in healthcare,” Ryan said. “Obamacare is failing. It must be replaced. We’re going to do that.”

Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, another close Trump adviser, indicated the new Trump administration will have to decide on whether to carry out his campaign promise to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate Clinton’s use of a private email server while secretary of state and private family foundation.

“The next attorney general would have to figure that out,” Giuliani told ABC’s “This Week” when asked if a special prosecutor should be appointed. “We’ve done that in the past. Or maybe that you want to sort of put that behind you. I don’t know ... that’s a tough decision.”

The FBI two days before the election stood by its July finding that no criminal charges were warranted against Clinton in the email probe.

Trump, who pledged during the campaign to “drain the swamp” of corrupt insiders in the U.S. capital, is considering a range of experienced Washington hands for his administration, including some with extensive lobbying experience.

“Look, these are people who are talented and have done this before. You can’t just appoint novices, you have to have people who know what they’re doing. But at the same time moving forward this is an administration that’s going to run very differently than typical Washington,” Conway said on “Fox News Sunday.”</s>(CNN) President Barack Obama Monday will face a barrage of questions about the implications of Donald Trump's coming administration, in his first news conference since last week's stunning election upset .

Obama will appear before reporters before leaving the United States on the last scheduled foreign trip of his presidency, to Greece, Germany and Peru.

The event, scheduled for 3:15 p.m. ET in the White House briefing room. It will take place with many of Obama's subordinates and liberals across the nation still barely able to believe he will be succeeded by Trump, whose volatile character and taboo-busting rhetoric could hardly strike a more overt contrast to the current president.

Obama had hoped to be handing the reins to a fellow Democrat Hillary Clinton, yet is now preparing the way for Trump, a man for whom he has harbored personal and political animosity, and who has pledged to tear up his legacy as quickly as possible.

The President's decision to hold a news conference before leaving will allow him to speak more pointedly about Trump and his policies than he might have been abroad. Given that Obama has pledged to fulfill his constitutional duty to peacefully transfer power, a tirade against a president-elect, by an outgoing president on foreign soil would hardly strike an appropriate tone.

Obama, who met Trump in the White House for 90 minutes Thursday, is likely to stress to reporters the importance of a smooth transition process, similar to the one he was offered by former President George W. Bush.

Trump may be in more need of assistance than other recent presidential election winners, considering he has no experience whatsoever of governing yet is about to take on what may be the world's toughest job.

Some White House staffers were surprised by the businessman's rudimentary grasp of White House operations but say they will work to get the new administration up to speed before January 20.

Officials described his visit as a wake-up call of sorts, revealing the work to be done with the new White House staff before Trump is sworn in.

Obama may also use the news conference to campaign for key items of his legacy -- especially popular parts of Obamacare. For instance, Trump has said Obama asked him last week to consider retaining a provision that allow patients with pre-existing conditions to get insurance and another that allows children to be retained on their parents coverage until the age of 26.

But the news conference is also likely to be a tough one for Obama, since he is sure to be asked about his own legacy, which he had hoped to pass onto Clinton's safe keeping, but which now faces evisceration by Trump.

He may also be asked to explain how, after coming into office on a Democratic wave, he will leave with a Republican president set to replace him and the GOP entrenched in their control of both chambers of Congress.

Obama's comments about Trump may also come back to haunt him during the news conference.

The President repeatedly argued during the campaign that Trump did not have the temperament to control the nuclear codes -- now he is likely to be asked if anything has changed his mind with Trump about to become president.

It's possible Obama will also be asked to weigh in on the anger and fear in some sectors of the population about Trump's presidency, given the Republican's campaign rhetoric targeting minorities during the campaign and harsh criticism of Muslims.

Those fears were exacerbated for many by Trump's naming on Sunday of firebrand polemicist Stephen Bannon as a top White House adviser.

The President is also under pressure to weigh in on the spate of hate crimes and intimidation of minorities apparently sparked by Trump's election, and also the mass protests in many cities by demonstrators who chant that the billionaire will never be their president.

Reporters may also seek to draw out Obama on his personal feelings about Trump and the atmospherics of their meeting last week.

After all, the reality star turned politician pursued Obama for years over his false claims that the first black president was not born in the United States, in a campaign that many Obama supporters saw as deeply racist.

Obama's meeting with reporters will also give him a chance to lay down a marker for how his devastated Democratic Party can rebuild after Clinton's loss and a disappointing showing in the congressional elections.

The fact that the Clintons are now off the political stage, and his own high popularity ratings for a two-term President, will make Obama a much more influential figure in grooming the next generation of Democratic leaders and presidential candidates than would have been the case had the former secretary of state triumphed last Tuesday.</s>WASHINGTON (AP) — It was supposed to be his grand valedictory tour. Now President Barack Obama must use his last major trip abroad to try to calm shocked world leaders about the outcome of the U.S. election, and what comes next when Donald Trump is president.



Trump's unforeseen victory has triggered pangs of uncertainty at home and grave concerns around the world. Though Obama has urged unity and said the U.S. must root for Trump's success, the president's trip to Greece, Germany and Peru forces him to confront global concerns about the future of America's leadership. Obama departs Monday on the six-day trip.



Before leaving the U.S., Obama faces reporters at an afternoon White House news conference, with questions about the presidential election and its consequences for U.S. policy and Obama's own legacy certain to be a focus.



Obama's trip, planned when it seemed certain Hillary Clinton would win, had been designed to reassure the world that the U.S. had regained its footing after a toxic campaign that unnerved foreign capitals, noted Heather Conley, a Europe scholar at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies.



"Now the president has the unenviable task of telling his counterparts and explaining what Europeans are now coining 'the Trump effect,'" Conley said.



For months, Obama lent credence to those concerns as he urged Americans to reject Trump. Standing alongside Singapore's prime minister in August, Obama said Trump was "woefully unprepared" because he lacked "basic knowledge" about critical issues in Europe, Asia and the Mideast. And during a visit to Japan, Obama said he wasn't the only world leader worried about Trump.



"They're rattled by him, and for good reason," Obama said in May. "Because a lot of the proposals that he's made display either ignorance of world affairs, or a cavalier attitude, or an interest in getting tweets and headlines instead of actually thinking through what it is that is required to keep America safe and secure and prosperous, and what's required to keep the world on an even keel."



Now, Obama must reassure the U.S. and other countries that somehow, it will all be OK.



Ben Rhodes, Obama's deputy national security adviser, said the president fully expects Trump's election to be a dominant theme of the trip, but would emphasize his plans to keep carrying out his approach until Trump takes over. He said Obama would argue that basic U.S. principles like honoring treaty commitments have historically survived even the most dramatic changes of administrations.



"He'll want to use these conversations with leaders to express that view that given all the important issues that we face, no matter what our preferred choice may have been in the election, right now we as Americans have a stake in seeing this next administration succeed," Rhodes said.



On his trip, Obama is stopping first in Athens, where he'll tour the Parthenon, meet with the prime minister, and give a speech about democracy and globalization that will take on new relevance in light of Trump's election. He'll use his visit to Berlin to show gratitude to German Chancellor Angela Merkel, his closest foreign partner, and to meet with key European leaders.



In Peru, he'll attend a major Asian economic summit in Lima, and also meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Australian Prime Minster Malcolm Turnbull.



For the most part, foreign leaders have politely if cautiously congratulated Trump on his victory. A few have been more effusive, including Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose perceived sympathies for Trump became an election issue and who now says he wants to fully restore U.S. relations under President Trump.



In Europe, where Obama has sought unity with allies to counter Russia's growing influence, NATO members are alarmed by Trump's suggestions that the U.S. might pull out of the alliance if other countries don't pay more. Many of the same nations are wrestling with whether last year's historic climate change deal can be salvaged after Trump's threats to pull the U.S. out.



Conversely, Trump's "America first" motto has resonated deeply with nationalists and skeptics of globalization who see Trump as a kindred spirit. Trump had dubbed himself "Mr. Brexit" after the U.K.'s vote to leave the European Union.



America's Mideast allies are unsure what Trump's victory means for the nuclear deal with Iran, a foe of U.S. partners Saudi Arabia and Israel, considering Trump's repeated but vague pledges to renegotiate that deal. And misgivings about Trump will certainly follow Obama to Latin America, where Trump has turned off many with his hard-line immigration stance and description of Mexican immigrants as criminals and rapists.



Asian leaders who painstakingly negotiated a landmark free trade deal with the U.S. are swallowing the reality that Congress will not approve the Trans-Pacific Partnership any time soon. Obama planned to meet with TPP country leaders in Peru, but the White House acknowledged the deal is all but dead because Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has ruled out a vote on it before Trump takes office.



Trump is vehemently opposed to TPP and similar deals. That could benefit China, which is eager to fill any void in regional leadership left by a U.S. withdrawal and has its own competing free trade scheme. Yet Beijing has reason to be wary, too: Trump has threatened a trade war with China and vowed to go after the Asian powerhouse for what he deems currency manipulation.



___



Reach Josh Lederman on Twitter at http://twitter.com/joshledermanAP.</s>Donald Trump is president-elect of the United States.

Those simple words have sent too many Americans into a collective tizzy, their giant temper tantrum on display for all the world to see.

The punditocracy, the pollsters and the Hillary Clinton campaign machine continue to scratch their heads and wonder “how did this happen?”

They should look in the mirror.

Turns out millions of voters don’t like to be referred to as a “basket of deplorables” or called sexist, racist and misogynist for not supporting Clinton.

But that approach is what the Clinton campaign decided would be a winning argument against Trump’s repeated and inelegant verbal gaffes.

Clinton didn’t lose because she was a woman. (By the way, she won the popular vote.) She lost because middle America is hurting and she represented a carbon copy of the last eight years under President Barack Obama.

Skyrocketing health care premiums, job losses across the country, increased debt, higher taxes — Clinton’s campaign lost sight of those things long before last Tuesday’s vote.

She lost because millions of Americans didn’t trust her.

She lost because political correctness and ridiculous phrases like “safe spaces” and “trigger warnings” have stifled honest debate.

She lost because something smelled about the Clinton Foundation.

She lost because nobody believed her explanation of the email scandal while she was secretary of state.

She lost because too many media acted as her surrogates and became, in effect, an arm of the Democratic party, telling her there was no way she could lose to Trump.

As for Trump supporters, they knew he wasn’t an ideal candidate. He wasn’t even close.

But the country wanted change, someone to “drain the swamp” in Washington.

For those wringing their hands and filling up social media posts with “what am I going to tell my children”, the answer is simple.

Don’t like it? Move to North Korea where the only candidate you’re allowed to vote for wins every time.

Early on Nov. 9, when Trump reached the 270 electoral college votes needed to win the White House, he put aside his often nonsensical rhetoric from the campaign and became “Presidential”.

Trump acknowledged the deep divide in the country.

He was gracious in thanking “Secretary Clinton” for her years of service to the United States.

He promised to work for all Americans, important because Clinton declined to make a traditional concession speech on the night of her defeat.

Trump met with Obama, praising him as “a very good man” and, at Obama’s request, said he would consider retaining some of the most popular elements of Obama’s signature health care plan.

How has the so-called tolerant left responded?

By burning up the streets in cities across the U.S.

When Obama won in 2008, there were minor demonstrations on the right, but nothing like what we are seeing now.

There are calls on social media for Trump to be assassinated.

A UK journalist tweeted: “It’s about time for a Presidential assassination.” It’s clear how the “tolerant left” react when they don’t get their way. They go berserk.

As for their argument “Trump only won because of white men voting for him”, wrong again.

In fact, 42% of women voters supported Trump, exit polls indicate 29% of Hispanics supported him and Trump did slightly better among blacks than Mitt Romney in 2012, 8% to 7%.

Trump ran against the Clinton political machine, the Obamas, the chattering classes and a good chunk of the Republican party and he still won.</s>WASHINGTON (AP) — Donald Trump’s tough-talking plan to rein in illegal immigration showed signs Sunday of cracking, with the president-elect backing off his vow to build a solid wall along the southern U.S. border and House Speaker Paul Ryan rejecting any “deportation force” targeting people in the country illegally.

After Trump told CBS’ “60 Minutes” that his border wall might look more like a fence in spots, the combative billionaire took to Twitter to settle some scores.

During a four-hour spree, Trump savaged the New York Times and gloated about the GOP stalwarts lining up to congratulate him, bragging that staunch critics and GOP rivals John Kasich, Mitt Romney and Jeb Bush had sent attaboys. Former presidents George W. and George H.W. Bush also had sent their “best wishes on the win. Very nice!” The New York Times, Trump wrote to his 14 million followers, is “dishonest” and “highly inaccurate.”

As Trump revenge-tweeted, threats flew between power brokers, and protests across the country continued.

The president-elect retreated from the campaign promise that had inspired his supporters chant “Build the wall!” at Trump’s massive campaign rallies.

Would he accept a fence in some spots on the border? In an interview to be aired Sunday, Trump told “60 Minutes”: “For certain areas, I would, but certain areas, a wall is more appropriate. There could be some fencing.”

Excerpts of the interview were released in advance.

Trump also had vowed to immediately deport all 11 million people in the country illegally. But in the interview, he said he’s focusing first on ousting or incarcerating 2 million to 3 million “that are criminals and have criminal records, gang members, drug dealers.” Trump emphasized that securing the border is his very first immigration priority.

On that, Ryan agreed. But on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Ryan rejected the kind of “mass deportations” Trump had championed during the campaign.

“We are not planning on erecting a deportation force,” he said.

More tension emerged Sunday when Trump’s campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway, said Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid should be careful in a “legal sense” about characterizing Trump as a sexual predator. When asked whether Trump was threatening to sue Reid, Conway said no.

But Adam Jentleson, Reid’s deputy chief of staff, said Trump is “hiding behind his Twitter account and sending his staff on TV to threaten his critics.”

Meanwhile, another Trump aide — Rudy Giuliani — suggested that the president-elect should have a “blind trust” to run his global empire to avoid potential conflicts of interest. But he said three of Trump’s adult children should probably have a hand in that trust.

“There’s no perfect way to do this,” he told CNN’s “State of the Union.” ”You have to have some confidence in the integrity of the president.

Also on Sunday, Republicans backed off decades of investigating Clinton. House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy said on “Fox News Sunday” that GOP-led congressional Republicans will focus on policy and leave any probes of Clinton to law enforcement.

Ryan, meanwhile, tried to calm the nation by suggesting that “people should just really put their minds at ease, we are pluralistic, we’re inclusive.” Acts of hate, he said, had nothing to do with the GOP.

“People who espouse those views, they’re not Republicans and we don’t want them in our party even if they’re thinking about it. And I’m confident Donald Trump feels the same way,” the Wisconsin Republican said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

But at least on Sunday, Trump seemed to prefer to relish his election win.

At one point, he noted that Gov. Kasich, who refused to endorse him, “of the GREAT, GREAT, GREAT STATE OF Ohio called to congratulate me on the win.” Trump pointedly did not return the congratulations or offer thanks to Kasich. “The people of Ohio were incredible!” he tweeted.

He later attributed his win to his performance in the presidential debates against Democrat Hillary Clinton.

“The debates, especially the second and third, plus speeches and intensity of the large rallies, plus OUR GREAT SUPPORTERS, gave us the win!”</s>Donald Trump is president-elect of the United States.

Those simple words have sent too many Americans into a collective tizzy, their giant temper tantrum on display for all the world to see.

The punditocracy, the pollsters and the Hillary Clinton campaign machine continue to scratch their heads and wonder “how did this happen?”

They should look in the mirror.

Turns out millions of voters don’t like to be referred to as a “basket of deplorables” or called sexist, racist and misogynist for not supporting Clinton.

But that approach is what the Clinton campaign decided would be a winning argument against Trump’s repeated and inelegant verbal gaffes.

Clinton didn’t lose because she was a woman. (By the way, she won the popular vote.) She lost because middle America is hurting and she represented a carbon copy of the last eight years under President Barack Obama.

Skyrocketing health care premiums, job losses across the country, increased debt, higher taxes — Clinton’s campaign lost sight of those things long before last Tuesday’s vote.

She lost because millions of Americans didn’t trust her.

She lost because political correctness and ridiculous phrases like “safe spaces” and “trigger warnings” have stifled honest debate.

She lost because something smelled about the Clinton Foundation.

She lost because nobody believed her explanation of the email scandal while she was secretary of state.

She lost because too many media acted as her surrogates and became, in effect, an arm of the Democratic party, telling her there was no way she could lose to Trump.

As for Trump supporters, they knew he wasn’t an ideal candidate. He wasn’t even close.

But the country wanted change, someone to “drain the swamp” in Washington.

For those wringing their hands and filling up social media posts with “what am I going to tell my children”, the answer is simple.

Don’t like it? Move to North Korea where the only candidate you’re allowed to vote for wins every time.

Early on Nov. 9, when Trump reached the 270 electoral college votes needed to win the White House, he put aside his often nonsensical rhetoric from the campaign and became “Presidential”.

Trump acknowledged the deep divide in the country.

He was gracious in thanking “Secretary Clinton” for her years of service to the United States.

He promised to work for all Americans, important because Clinton declined to make a traditional concession speech on the night of her defeat.

Trump met with Obama, praising him as “a very good man” and, at Obama’s request, said he would consider retaining some of the most popular elements of Obama’s signature health care plan.

How has the so-called tolerant left responded?

By burning up the streets in cities across the U.S.

When Obama won in 2008, there were minor demonstrations on the right, but nothing like what we are seeing now.

There are calls on social media for Trump to be assassinated.

A UK journalist tweeted: “It’s about time for a Presidential assassination.” It’s clear how the “tolerant left” react when they don’t get their way. They go berserk.

As for their argument “Trump only won because of white men voting for him”, wrong again.

In fact, 42% of women voters supported Trump, exit polls indicate 29% of Hispanics supported him and Trump did slightly better among blacks than Mitt Romney in 2012, 8% to 7%.

Trump ran against the Clinton political machine, the Obamas, the chattering classes and a good chunk of the Republican party and he still won.</s>If there's one way to get Donald Trump's attention, it's via television, and President Barack Obama used a White House news conference to openly coach the man who will succeed him in January.

Obama dispensed advice on how to do the top job and tips on how to behave as commander in chief, in a rolling presidential tutorial.

He also sought to reassure anxious Americans about the prospect of a volatile character like Trump in the Oval Office. Before embarking on his last foreign trip as president, Obama told a nervous world that the next president was committed to America's overseas security alliances.

Obama also mounted a fierce defense of his own presidency -- challenging Trump to build on his achievements not to destroy them and urged the new president to reach out to women and minorities scared about his impending administration.

But most of all, Obama appeared to be continuing a process he started last week in a 90-minute White House meeting to get Trump, who has no government experience whatsoever, up to speed before his inauguration on January 20.

"As I said to the President-elect when we had our discussions ... campaigning is different from governing. I think he recognizes that. I think he's sincere in wanting to be a successful president," Obama said.

Only a week ago, Obama was on the campaign trail in New Hampshire for Hillary Clinton, branding Trump unfit to handle the nuclear codes. Yet on Monday, the President argued that the magnitude and the stakes that come with being the most powerful man in the world would moderate Trump's rhetoric and behavior.

"Regardless of what experience or assumptions he brought to the office, this office has a way of waking you up," Obama said. "Those aspects of his positions or predispositions that don't match up with reality, he will find shaken up pretty quick because reality has a way of asserting itself."

But the President also warned that the flamboyant rhetoric and freewheeling behavior on which Trump built his political brand, could backfire as president.

In effect he was telling Trump: Be careful what you say.

"I think what will happen with the President-elect is there are going to be certain elements of his temperament that will not serve him well unless he recognizes them and corrects them," Obama said. "When you're a candidate and you say something that is inaccurate or controversial, it has less impact than it does when you're president of the United States.

"Everybody around the world's paying attention. Markets move. National security issues require a level of precision in order to make sure that you don't make mistakes," he added.

Trump's supporters are unlikely to embrace the idea that Obama has anything to teach Trump. Many of them believe his presidency has been a disaster at home and abroad and reveled in the denunciations of the President by Trump on the campaign trail. Many conservatives meanwhile find Obama professorial and patronizing, so may also balk at his performance on Monday.

And even though Trump has expressed appreciation for his treatment by the President since the election, he grabbed power by breaking every single convention in the political rulebook -- and may be planning to do the same to the presidency.

Leaks about the kind of people under consideration for Trump Cabinet appointments meanwhile appear to indicate that the next President has every intention of carrying out the anti-Obama agenda he campaigned on.

The Republican Party is also salivating, with control over Congress, the White House, and soon with a conservative majority on the Supreme Court, about eradicating Obama's legacy.

That is one reason why Obama's supporters, who watched their President humiliated by what many saw as Trump's racist birtherism campaign, might be puzzled about the outgoing commander in chief's magnanimity.

With that in mind, he stressed that he had clear differences with Trump.

"Do I have concerns? Absolutely. Of course I have got concerns. You know, he and I differ on a whole bunch of issues," Obama said.

But the advice did not stop coming.

Obama said the most important point he made to Trump was the need to set up a proficient staffing structure, including the chief of staff, national security adviser and White House counsel.

"I hope it was useful," Obama said. "I hope that he appreciated that advice."

No one really knows what Obama is thinking behind his cool cat demeanor or if he is still harboring hidden grief at the prospect of his eight years of achievements being wiped out.

Some White House officials however have privately expressed surprise at how little the incoming Trump team understands about running a government, and top staffers remain shocked at Clinton's defeat.

Yet the emerging detente between Obama and Trump is fast becoming one of the most intriguing relationships in politics.

The President asked Americans to give his successor time and said it would not be right for him to weigh in on the appointment as a top White House adviser of Steve Bannon, a firebrand who has close links to the alt-right white nationalist movement on the conservative fringe.

He did reveal another nugget of advice he gave to Trump on Thursday: "One of the things I advised him to do was to make sure that, before he commits to certain courses of action, he has really dug in and thought through how various issues play themselves out."

While never saying specifically that he believed Trump was qualified to be president, Obama did speak almost admiringly of the "Trump phenomenon" and the real estate mogul's connection with his political base.

"That's powerful stuff," he said, and praised Trump as a pragmatist and not an ideologue.

In fact, Obama was so complimentary towards Trump that it was tempting to wonder whether he had ulterior motives beyond the smooth transfer of power.

Certainly, the President could benefit from having Trump's ear if any of his legacy is to survive.

He has already impressed upon Trump how he might be advised to retain some of the more popular provisions of Obamacare, which the new president has vowed to repeal.

And he may have observed that people who are nice to Trump and show him respect appear to have more influence than the President-elect than those who dismiss him out of hand.

But while he was surprisingly cordial to his successor, Obama also spelled out a clear warning. He made a case that he had nurtured the country back to health after the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, and offered the American people yardstick to judge the new presidency.

"I think the President-elect rightly would expect that he is judged on whether we improve from that baseline and on those metrics or things get worse. And if things get worse, then the American people will figure that out pretty quick," Obama said.

Obama made a case that some of his proudest political achievements, including the Iran nuclear deal and the Paris climate agreement reflected the gap between rhetoric and reality in Washington.

He said both were examples of international agreements that bind other countries into action that was beneficial to the US were the kind of deals that should be carried on across administrations.

Amid reports of hate crimes and deep anxiety among some ethnic groups about Trump's campaign rhetoric, Obama also advised his successor to reach out and do more to unite the nation.

"It's really important to try to send some signals of unity and to reach out to minority groups or women or others that were concerned about the tenor of the campaign," Obama said.

If there was an common theme to Obama's appearance, it was that the campaign is over, and it's now time for Trump to step up.

"Now comes the hard part," Obama said. "Now is governance."</s>WASHINGTON, (Reuters) – President-elect Donald Trump backed away from his promise to build a wall on the U.S.-Mexican border, saying some areas could instead be “fencing,” and added he would move to deport up to 3 million immigrants in the country illegally who have criminal records.

Trump, who made his pledge to force Mexico to pay for a border wall a centerpiece of his White House campaign, said “for certain areas” he would accept fencing instead of a brick-and-mortar wall, according to excerpts released today of his interview with the CBS program “60 Minutes.”

“But certain areas, a wall is more appropriate. I’m very good at this, it’s called construction, there could be some fencing,” the New York real estate developer said.

Trump, who defeated Democrat Hillary Clinton in Tuesday’s election and replaces Democratic President Barack Obama on Jan. 20, also said once he takes office he would remove immigrants in the country illegally with criminal records.

“What we are going to do is get the people that are criminal and have criminal records, gang members, drug dealers, where a lot of these people, probably two million, it could be even three million, we are getting them out of our country or we are going to incarcerate. But we’re getting them out of our country,” he told “60 Minutes.”

During the campaign, Trump said he would deport the estimated 11 million immigrants in the country illegally, most of whom are Hispanic. In calling for the construction of a border wall, Trump said Mexico was sending criminals and rapists into the United States.

Trump and his senior advisers have signaled they could be flexible on some of his campaign promises once he takes office.

Republican House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan, who will play a key role in getting Trump’s agenda through the Republican-led Congress, backed away from Trump’s promise during the campaign of a “deportation force” to round up and deport immigrants in the country illegally.

“We are not planning on erecting a deportation force. Donald Trump’s not planning on that,” Ryan told CNN’s “State of the Union” programme. “I think we should put people’s minds at ease. That is not what our focus is. That is not what we’re focused on. We’re focused on securing the border.”

Kevin McCarthy, the No. 2 House Republican, said on “Fox News Sunday” the wall with Mexico could in parts be a “virtual” wall patrolled by drones.

“You have to put a wall, it could be all virtual with the UAV airplanes as well, but I think that is doable and one of the first things that needs to be done,” McCarthy said, referring to unmanned aerial vehicles, or drones.

On Sunday, senior adviser Kellyanne Conway indicated Trump would be results-oriented as he chooses his top aides, prepares his transition to the White House and gets ready to work with Congress.

“He’ll be surrounded by people who want to get things done. Because he’s a transactional guy. He’s a businessman,” Conway said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

Ryan said he agreed with Trump’s comments in a Wall Street Journal interview published on Friday that he would keep elements of President Barack Obama’s signature healthcare law, known as Obamacare.

Repealing and replacing the 2010 Affordable Care Act was another centerpiece of Trump’s campaign. But he told the Journal that after talking to Obama at the White House on Thursday he would consider retaining provisions letting parents keep adult children up to age 26 on their insurance policies and barring insurers from denying coverage to people with pre-existing medical conditions.

“We can fix what is broken in healthcare without breaking what is working in healthcare,” Ryan said. “Obamacare is failing. It must be replaced. We’re going to do that.”

Ryan also sidestepped questions about Trump’s plan to impose tariffs on imports from countries such as Mexico and China. Ryan said changes to tax law could accomplish the same goals “without any collateral damage to the economy.”

Trump, who pledged during the campaign to “drain the swamp” of corrupt insiders in the U.S. capital, is considering a wide range of experienced Washington hands for his administration, as well as some officials with extensive lobbying experience.

Conway said that experience was needed in Washington.

“Look, these are people who are talented and have done this before. You can’t just appoint novices, you have to have people who know what they’re doing. But at the same time moving forward this is an administration that’s going to run very differently than typical Washington,” Conway said on “Fox News Sunday.”</s>Members of President-elect Donald Trump's transition team as well as Democratic officials on Nov. 13 responded to protesters marching in several cities against Trump's election. (Bastien Inzaurralde/The Washington Post)

Kellyanne Conway, Donald Trump's former campaign manager, said it is incumbent upon Hillary Clinton, President Obama and other Democratic leaders to calm their supporters and encourage a peaceful transition of power amid anti-Trump demonstrations that have swept U.S. cities since Election Day.

Trump is “there for them. And he is going to be a president that listens and takes the counsel of many different people, including those from the other side of the aisle,” Conway told Chuck Todd on NBC's “Meet the Press” on Sunday. " . . . It's time really for President Obama and Secretary Clinton to say to these protesters, 'This man is our president.'”

Both Clinton and Obama made speeches urging exactly that last week. In her concession speech to Trump, Clinton said, “We owe him an open mind and the chance to lead.”

In a similar vein, Obama met with Trump at the White House on Thursday and has said that his priority is to ensure a smooth transition so that Trump's presidency is successful.

Conway on Sunday also accused Senate Minority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) of “acting like some garden-variety political pundit” and “egging people on” to protest Trump's coming presidency.

[Demonstrators square off against opponents and police as Anti-Trump protests spread]

Speaking to host Chris Wallace on “Fox News Sunday,” Conway also suggested that professional, paid protesters were behind the anti-Trump demonstrations across the country.

Nationwide protests gripped many cities for days following the presidential election as thousands march against Donald Trump's victory. Trump tweeted to condemn "professional protesters, incited by the media." (Jenny Starrs/The Washington Post)

Wallace had asked Conway what Trump would do to reach out to those scared of what his presidency would bring, then read a portion of a statement Reid issued Friday charging Trump with assuaging the fears that he said the Republican's campaign had stoked.

“If this is going to be a time of healing, we must first put the responsibility for healing where it belongs: at the feet of Donald Trump, a sexual predator who lost the popular vote and fueled his campaign with bigotry and hate,” Reid's statement read in part. “Winning the electoral college does not absolve Trump of the grave sins he committed against millions of Americans. Donald Trump may not possess the capacity to assuage those fears, but he owes it to this nation to try.”

Conway cited Trump's victory speech as evidence that he was “off to a great start” in unifying the country, then turned her anger on Reid.

“Talk about not wanting my children to listen to somebody,” Conway said. “I’m calling for responsibility and maturity and decency. I hope President Obama calls Harry M. Reid today and says, 'Cut it out.'”

If Trump wants to roll back the tide of hate he unleashed, he has a tremendous amount of work to do and he must begin immediately. — Senator Harry Reid (@SenatorReid) November 11, 2016

Conway also told Wallace that the Trump administration still would be one “for the forgotten man and the forgotten woman” — despite his transition-team picks being filled with Washington insiders.

Throughout his campaign, Trump played up his lack of political experience as a positive trait, saying he was an outsider who would “drain the swamp” of D.C. politics. His transition team now includes former federal bureaucrats, think-tank academics, corporate lawyers and special-interest lobbyists.

“These are people who are talented and who have done this before,” Conway told host Chris Wallace, defending Trump's transition-team choices. “You can’t just appoint novices. You have to have people who know what they’re doing.”

Conway had previously said Trump's pick for White House chief of staff was “imminent.” It is widely expected that Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus and Trump campaign chief executive Steve Bannon are on the shortlist for that position, and Trump's choice could signal the direction of his presidency.

Conway told Wallace that both men would have “very important roles” in the administration.

“We couldn’t have done it without Preibus or Bannon,” she said, referring to winning the election.

.@KellyannePolls on #FNS: We can't just appoint novices. This is an administration that is going to be run very differently. — FoxNewsSunday (@FoxNewsSunday) November 13, 2016

On the issue of Obamacare, Conway said that she didn't know whether Trump would amend portions of the health-care law or repeal and replace it completely but that Trump would act quickly, perhaps even convening a special session right after the January inauguration to address the law.

“As you know, the House and Senate under Republican control have repealed Obamacare dozens of times, but they’ve never had a Republican president go to the next step,” Conway said. " . . . that excuse has been removed, and I think you're going to see some significant action.”

A full repeal of the Affordable Care Act had been central to Trump's campaign. Over the past week, however, Trump said he would be open to keeping portions of the law, such as ensuring that people with preexisting conditions are covered and allowing children to stay on their parents' health plans through age 26.

When Wallace asked whether Obama had changed Trump's mind about a full repeal, Conway brushed it off as Trump being polite.

“I wouldn’t take it that far,” she said. “I believe that President-elect Trump is being properly respectful to President Obama. This is obviously his signature domestic legislative achievement, to hear Obama say it.”

1 of 75 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad × Protests swell across U.S. after Trump victory View Photos Vigils and protests flare up among opponents of the president-elect. Caption Vigils and protests flare up among opponents of the president-elect. Nov. 20. 2016 People participate in an anti-hate rally at a Brooklyn park named in memory of Beastie Boys band member Adam Yauch after it was defaced with swastikas. Spencer Platt/Getty Images Buy Photo Wait 1 second to continue.

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No one has a clue what kind of president Donald Trump will be

Donald Trump on ‘60 Minutes’: Hillary Clinton ‘couldn’t have been nicer’

Can Trump broaden his government beyond loyalists — and does he want to?</s>(CNN) President Barack Obama Monday will face a barrage of questions about the implications of Donald Trump's coming administration, in his first news conference since last week's stunning election upset .

Obama will appear before reporters before leaving the United States on the last scheduled foreign trip of his presidency, to Greece, Germany and Peru.

The event, scheduled for 3:15 p.m. ET in the White House briefing room. It will take place with many of Obama's subordinates and liberals across the nation still barely able to believe he will be succeeded by Trump, whose volatile character and taboo-busting rhetoric could hardly strike a more overt contrast to the current president.

Obama had hoped to be handing the reins to a fellow Democrat Hillary Clinton, yet is now preparing the way for Trump, a man for whom he has harbored personal and political animosity, and who has pledged to tear up his legacy as quickly as possible.

The President's decision to hold a news conference before leaving will allow him to speak more pointedly about Trump and his policies than he might have been abroad. Given that Obama has pledged to fulfill his constitutional duty to peacefully transfer power, a tirade against a president-elect, by an outgoing president on foreign soil would hardly strike an appropriate tone.

Obama, who met Trump in the White House for 90 minutes Thursday, is likely to stress to reporters the importance of a smooth transition process, similar to the one he was offered by former President George W. Bush.

Trump may be in more need of assistance than other recent presidential election winners, considering he has no experience whatsoever of governing yet is about to take on what may be the world's toughest job.

Some White House staffers were surprised by the businessman's rudimentary grasp of White House operations but say they will work to get the new administration up to speed before January 20.

Officials described his visit as a wake-up call of sorts, revealing the work to be done with the new White House staff before Trump is sworn in.

Obama may also use the news conference to campaign for key items of his legacy -- especially popular parts of Obamacare. For instance, Trump has said Obama asked him last week to consider retaining a provision that allow patients with pre-existing conditions to get insurance and another that allows children to be retained on their parents coverage until the age of 26.

But the news conference is also likely to be a tough one for Obama, since he is sure to be asked about his own legacy, which he had hoped to pass onto Clinton's safe keeping, but which now faces evisceration by Trump.

He may also be asked to explain how, after coming into office on a Democratic wave, he will leave with a Republican president set to replace him and the GOP entrenched in their control of both chambers of Congress.

Obama's comments about Trump may also come back to haunt him during the news conference.

The President repeatedly argued during the campaign that Trump did not have the temperament to control the nuclear codes -- now he is likely to be asked if anything has changed his mind with Trump about to become president.

It's possible Obama will also be asked to weigh in on the anger and fear in some sectors of the population about Trump's presidency, given the Republican's campaign rhetoric targeting minorities during the campaign and harsh criticism of Muslims.

Those fears were exacerbated for many by Trump's naming on Sunday of firebrand polemicist Stephen Bannon as a top White House adviser.

The President is also under pressure to weigh in on the spate of hate crimes and intimidation of minorities apparently sparked by Trump's election, and also the mass protests in many cities by demonstrators who chant that the billionaire will never be their president.

Reporters may also seek to draw out Obama on his personal feelings about Trump and the atmospherics of their meeting last week.

After all, the reality star turned politician pursued Obama for years over his false claims that the first black president was not born in the United States, in a campaign that many Obama supporters saw as deeply racist.

Obama's meeting with reporters will also give him a chance to lay down a marker for how his devastated Democratic Party can rebuild after Clinton's loss and a disappointing showing in the congressional elections.

The fact that the Clintons are now off the political stage, and his own high popularity ratings for a two-term President, will make Obama a much more influential figure in grooming the next generation of Democratic leaders and presidential candidates than would have been the case had the former secretary of state triumphed last Tuesday.
Trump's campaign manager Kellyanne Conway asks outgoing U.S. President Barack Obama and former U.S. First Lady and Democratic Party presidential nominee Hillary Clinton to discourage the protests.