WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — President Trump stepped up his search for a national security adviser Sunday, conducting interviews with several candidates, and held talks with aides on health care policy, while his team pushed back against depictions of a young administration in disarray.
His chief of staff used appearances on the Sunday news shows to echo Trump’s complaints about media coverage of the White House and cited what he said were multiple accomplishments in the first few weeks of the new presidency.
‘‘The truth is that we don’t have problems in the West Wing,’’ Reince Priebus told NBC’s ‘‘Meet the Press.’’ He also denied a report Trump advisers were in touch with Russian intelligence advisers during the 2016 campaign, and said he had assurances from ‘‘the top levels of the intelligence community’’ that it was false.
Trump is seeking a replacement for ousted Michael Flynn as national security adviser.
Scheduled to discuss the job with the president at Mar-a-Lago were John Bolton, a former US ambassador to the United Nations; Army Lieutenant General Robert Caslen, superintendent of West Point; retired Army Lieutenant General Keith Kellogg, an acting Trump adviser; and Army Lieutenant General H.R. McMaste.
The interviews were conducted as details of a draft of Trump’s revised immigration ban were leaked. The ban targets the same seven countries listed in his original executive order and exempts travelers who already have a visa to travel to the United States, even if they haven’t used it yet.
A senior administration official said the order, which Trump revised after federal courts held up his original immigration and refugee ban, will target only those same seven Muslim-majority countries — Iran, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Somalia, Sudan and Libya.
The official said that green-card holders and dual citizens of the United States and any of those countries are exempt.
The new draft also no longer directs authorities to single out — and reject — Syrian refugees when processing new visa applications.
The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the order before it’s made public. The official noted that the draft is subject to change ahead of its signing, which Trump said could come sometime this week.
Asked about the revised order, White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said the document circulating was a draft and that a final version should be released soon.
Trump pushed out Flynn last Monday after revelations he had misled Vice President Mike Pence about having discussed sanctions with Russia’s ambassador to the United States during the presidential transition.
Trump said Thursday that he was disappointed by how Flynn had treated Pence but did not believe Flynn had done anything wrong. Trump’s first choice to replace Flynn, a retired vice admiral, Robert Harward, turned down the offer.
In a separate development, a Democrat on the Federal Election Commission said she will quit her term early because of the gridlock that has gripped the panel, offering Trump an unexpected chance to shape political spending rules.
Ann M. Ravel said she’ll send a letter of resignation this week. She pointed to a series of deadlocked votes between the panel’s three Democrats and three Republicans that she said left her little hope the group would ever be able to rein in campaign finance abuses.
“The ability of the commission to perform its role has deteriorated significantly,’’ Ravel told The New York Times.
Her departure could set off a fight over how a new commissioner should be picked. By tradition, Senate Democrats would be allowed to select the replacement, but by law the choice belongs to the president.
But the panel can’t have more than three members from any political party.
