"The collusion story is a joke. I honestly don't believe there is a lot of people out there that actually believe that campaign people were sitting on telephones and having meetings and passing secret messages trying to figure out how to mess around with the election. It is ridiculous," Priebus told Fox News in a Friday interview that took place soon after his resignation.
Both during the 2016 US presidential race and after Trump's victory a number of media outlets and US politicians, such as former presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, said about alleged Moscow's support of the Republican Party's candidate. Both the White House and multiple Russian officials have refuted the allegations of collusion, and Moscow has repeatedly denied it interfered in the 2016 US presidential election.
On Friday, Trump named US Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly as his new chief of staff. At the same time, Priebus denied that he had been replaced adding that he had resigned and the US leader accepted the move.