Trump says Obama behind some political protests

Washington — President Donald Trump says he believes President Barack Obama is behind some of the protests against Republican lawmakers across the country.

In an interview with Fox News Channel’s “Fox & Friends” that aired Tuesday, Trump responded to a question about the protests, saying, “I think that President Obama is behind it, because his people are certainly behind it.”

He adds that he thinks Obama loyalists are also behind White House leaks.

Trump concedes, “I also understand that’s politics. And in terms of him being behind things, that’s politics. And it will probably continue.”

He says he’s not surprised, saying “I’m changing things that (Obama) wanted to do.” Trump said he’s tougher than Obama in terms of his efforts to deport anyone living in the country illegally.

Trump also denies that there’s a “major leak process” at the White House following reports that White House press secretary Sean Spicer targeted leaks from his own staff.

Trump responded to a Politico report that said Spicer convened an “emergency meeting” after details of a planning meeting got out, and conducted a “phone check” to prove they hadn’t been leaking information.

He says he “would have handled it differently than Sean. But Sean handles it his way and I’m OK with it.”

Trump says “Sean Spicer is a fine human being,” but adds, “I would have gone one-on-one with different people.”

Trump also White House officials have “sort of ideas” about who may have leaked information, adding that “we have people from other campaigns, we have people from other governments.”