To get to the point which he was to reiterate endlessly in his memorable solo press conference the next day: that those media outlets (in Trump’s Twitter terminology, “the failing New York Times and Washington Post”) had been fed “illegal” leaks by conspiring security services which were determined to undermine the Trump presidency.

And, if they had, then that is the big story here, Trump claimed over and over again: not his shambolic White House, but a plot by Washington insiders and the intelligence agencies to undermine a democratically elected president.

The press briefing with Mr Netanyahu – however dramatic it may have been in actual foreign policy consequences – turned out to be just a warm-up act for the spectacular event that came 24 hours later.

As we saw – those of us who watched goggle‑eyed through that entire 75-minute performance – the second press conference was almost beyond belief. It was certainly the most shocking public display of unhinged, out-of-control, buffoonish aggression by a US president in living memory.

There are two equally alarming possibilities: either his relentless outpouring of accusation, self‑contradiction and on-the-hoof pronouncements does reflect his view of reality, or it was an almost hysterically defensive fusillade designed to bolster his own confidence in the face of a string of unexpected setbacks.

The most serious of the concerns about his presidency is the one he would not deal with for the longest time: at least two attempts were made to get him to give a “yes” or “no” answer to the question of whether members of his election team were in touch with Russian officials during the campaign.

On each occasion, he threw out vague accusations about the Russian connection story being a “ruse”: a sham designed by Hillary Clinton’s people to conceal the mistakes they made in her campaign. On what I believe was the third request, he finally replied that “nobody I know of” had held conversations with Russian agents.

Nobody he knows of? There is enough deniability there to cover a number of eventualities. Where he left no room for doubt was in another statement about Russian associations.

He was adamant that he personally had nothing to do with Russia – no loans, no deals, no financial arrangements of any kind. Should this categorical denial prove to be false in any respect, it would be grounds for impeachment.

David Fuller's view

Many of us who have seen a few of Donald Trump’s press conferences, and would be relieved if he could grow into the presidential role, will feel uneasy about what we have witnessed. 

Aside from the very important challenge of helping the US economy to fulfil more of its awesome GDP growth potential, Trump appears to be a complete novice in too many other respects.  Nevertheless, he has appointed a number of highly experienced and accomplished people to his cabinet.  That speaks well for the President and I hope he relies on them.  If not, and if there is a high turnover in senior positions, Trump will be in real trouble when faced with the 2018 mid-term elections.  

Here is a PDF of Janet Daley's column.