ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE — President Trump said Thursday that he did not know that his personal attorney paid adult film star Stormy Daniels $130,000 days before the presidential election to prevent her from publicly accusing Trump of having an affair.
The president said he did not know where his attorney, Michael Cohen, got the money for the payment, and he declined to say if he ever set up a fund for Cohen to cover expenses like that.
As the president returned to Washington from West Virginia on Thursday afternoon, he spoke with reporters aboard Air Force One for about three-and-a-half minutes. At one point, a reporter asked him: ‘‘Did you know about the $130,000 payment to Stormy Daniels?’’
Trump responded: ‘‘No.’’
The reporter then asked: ‘‘Then why did Michael Cohen make it, if there was no truth to her allegations?’’
‘‘You’ll have to ask Michael Cohen,’’ Trump said. ‘‘Michael’s my attorney, and you’ll have to ask Michael.’’
Another reporter then asked the president: ‘‘Do you know where he got the money to make that payment?’’
‘‘No,’’ Trump said. ‘‘I don’t know.’’
That reporter then asked: ‘‘Did you ever set up a fund of money that he could pull from?’’
Trump ignored the question and turned to another reporter who asked the president to repeat comments he made earlier in his visit.
Washington Post
President wants up to 4,000 guard members at border
PHOENIX — President Trump said Thursday that he wants to send 2,000 to 4,000 National Guard members to the US-Mexico border to help federal officials fight illegal immigration and drug trafficking.
Trump’s comments to reporters on Air Force One were his first estimate on guard levels he believes are needed for border protection. It would be a fewer than the 6,400 National Guard members that former president George Bush sent to the border between 2006 and 2008.
Trump said his administration is looking into the cost of sending the troops to the border and added, “We’ll probably keep them or a large portion of them until the wall is built.’’
Earlier Thursday, Ronald Vitiello, the US Customs and Border Protection’s acting deputy commissioner, cautioned against a rushed deployment.
‘‘We are going to do it as quickly as we can do it safely,’’ Vitiello told Fox News Channel.
He said that guard members would be placed in jobs that do not require law enforcement work, an apparent reference to undertaking patrols and making arrests.
The National Guard in Texas expressed support, but said in a statement that deployment remained in ‘‘very early planning stages.’’ The Republican governors of New Mexico and Arizona have also backed the deployment. It remained unclear Thursday how Democratic California Governor Jerry Brown would respond to Trump’s call.
In Washington, Marine Lieutenant General Kenneth F. McKenzie told reporters at the Pentagon that it has not yet been determined how many, if any, of the troops in the border security operation will be armed.
Associated Press
Trump rails against Democrats, immigration
WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS, W.Va. — President Trump on Thursday lashed out at Democrats for opposing his proposals to fortify the border and toughen immigration laws, accusing his political opponents of embracing dangerous policies to secure immigrant votes.
“This is what the Democrats are doing to you, and they like it because they think they’re going to vote Democrat,’’ Trump said, after recounting the terrorist attack in lower Manhattan last October, in which an Uzbek immigrant killed eight people when he drove a truck onto a pedestrian and bicycle path on the West Side Highway. “They’re doing it for that reason, and other reasons.’’
Trump traveled to West Virginia on Thursday to promote his $1.5 trillion tax overhaul before a friendly audience.
But the president grew bored with his prepared remarks after a few moments and returned to the bitter complaints about the nation’s immigration laws that have dominated his attention this week and prompted him Wednesday to ask governors to deploy the National Guard to the southern border.
“This was going to be my remarks — it would have taken about two minutes, but . . . ’’ Trump said, tossing a sheet of paper covered with neat paragraphs of text into the audience.
Trump opted instead for a lengthy tirade against immigrants and the nation’s immigration laws, including a practice known as “catch and release’’ in which migrants who present themselves at the border are released from custody to await an immigration hearing to determine whether they should be allowed to remain in the United States.
“We’re toughening up at the border,’’ Trump said. “We cannot let people enter our country — we have no idea who they are, what they do, where they came from.’’
He also repeated his false claim that millions of people voted illegally in the 2016 election.
Trump’s remarks drew enthusiastic applause from an audience of about 200 in a state that he won with 68 percent of the vote, his largest margin of victory in the country.
But it also drew rebukes.
“President Trump is insulting American voters by making up lies,’’ said Jason Kander, a former Democratic candidate for the Senate and now the president of Let America Vote, a voting rights group.
New York Times
