By Denny Gulino
THE WHITE HOUSE (MaceNews) – There was one question President Trump refused to answer Monday and many he did answer, though as usual some of those answers were disputed.
The question that was put to him, and to which he listened, and then ignored to jump to another question was whether new tariffs against Mexico are off the table. The question is of interest to more than just peso traders on foreign exchange desks.
“Right now Mexico has been doing a great job for us, and, frankly, we’re very appreciative,” Trump did say for those reporters on the South Lawn of the White House who could hear him over the noise of the nearby Marine One presidential helicopter, idling and ready to take Trump to a North Carolina rally.
“But we’ve also been very, pretty rapidly changing the regulations, the rules,” Trump went on, seemingly qualifying his praise and adding some ambiguity.
A few minutes earlier in an exercise that has become exceedingly rare – a White House briefing – Acting Commissioner of Customs and Border Protection Mark Morgan told reporters that Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard is meeting with U.S. officials Tuesday on the border situation, with Mexican officials having said last week they have now cut entrants to the U.S. by a sizable amount.
But Ebrard says Mexico is still not agreeing to be a country that formally accepts those seeking asylum in the U.S. Guatemala has agreed, but the agreement has not been ratified by the government. Honduras is in negotiations about the same status.
Morgan said that 64,000 people trying to enter were kept from being freed in the United States, turned back or kept in custody, last month. That was 22% fewer people than in July but still the most in any August in more than 10 years.
Other questions Trump answered, either in person or in tweets, included whether he overruled his vice president in first inviting the Taliban to Camp David. No, he did not, he tweeted. Pence followed up with his own tweet that he fully supports Trump.
“A lot of Fake News is being reported that I overruled the VP and various advisers on a potential Camp David meeting with the Taliban. This Story is False!” Trump tweeted Monday. “I always think it is good to meet and talk, but in this case I decided not to. The Dishonest Media likes to create,” he went on, “the look of turmoil in the White House, of which there is none. I view much of the media as simply an arm of the Democrat Party.”
For good measure he added about the media “They are corrupt, and they are extremely upset at how well our Country is doing under MY Leadership.”
It was not clear whether the Taliban ever actually agreed to a Sunday meeting at Camp David. Some reports of Taliban leaders’ remarks were that representatives insisted an agreement be already announced before they showed up and that to attend a meeting where the president of Afghanistan was present, as was planned for Camp David, would be “political suicide.”
Trump said he canceled the meeting because a U.S. soldier was killed last week with the Taliban confirming they did it.
A spokesman for U.S. forces in Afghanistan, echoed by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, claimed the U.S. has killed nearly 1,100 Taliban in little more than a week during intensified air strikes. Trump tweeted Monday, “Over the last four days, we have been hitting our Enemy harder than at any time in the last ten years!”
Reports from Kabul were of a sense of foreboding now that Trump has declared a peace deal “dead,” anticipating a new round of bombings in an effort to keep the upcoming presidential election there from happening.
Another key topic of the day at the White House was the U.S. support for the Bahamas, with a top Customs official and President Trump differing in their description of what’s happening.
Acting Customs Commissioner Morgan emphasized during his briefing that the U.S. is sheltering those from the storm ravaged Bahamas. “Already, we’ve received two cruise ships, thousands of folks that we have processed,” he said. “Flights are coming in constantly. We’ve deployed additional folks out to even the small airports. We’re reaching out to the aviation companies and corporations to coordinate.”
A few minutes later, in his South Lawn comments, Trump emphasized how the Bahamians are being carefully screened and, he said, they are being moved with U.S. help to places in the Bahamas that are not ravaged by the hurricane.
Morgan said, “If your life is in jeopardy and you’re in the Bahamas and you want to get to the United States, you’re going to be allowed to come to the United States, whether you have travel documents or not.”
Trump then told reporters that anyone entering the U.S. from the Bahamas “”needs totally proper documentation.”