The Mercury News

Trump boosts adviser search

President also spends Florida weekend working on health care

- By Catherine Lucey Associated Press

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — President Donald Trump brought more contenders for national security adviser to his Palm Beach club for in-person interviews Sunday, hoping to fill the job in the coming days as he seeks to refocus his young administra­tion.

Trump also drilled down on policy during his working weekend at Mar-a-Lago, attending a strategy session on how to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, with top aides including Health Secretary Tom Price and Mick Mulvaney, director of the White House budget office.

While in Florida, the president found time for a few holes of golf on Saturday and Sunday. And with his wife, Melania, he stopped by a fundraiser Saturday night at his private Palm Beach club, put on by the DanaFarber Cancer Institute.

Trump also took to Twitter to explain a comment he made about violence in Sweden at a Saturday rally. He suggested that some kind of major incident had taken place in the country Friday night, but on Sunday he said he was referring to something he saw on Fox News. That might have been a report Friday night about the influx of immigrants to Sweden.

Trump also spoke to the leaders of Panama, Trinidad and Tobago. After weeks of tumult

in Washington, Trump returned to Florida and his private club for a third consecutiv­e weekend. High on Trump’s to-do list is finding a replacemen­t for ousted Michael Flynn as national security adviser.

Scheduled to discuss the job with the president at Mar-a-Lago were his acting adviser, retired Army Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg; John Bolton, a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations; Army Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster; and the superinten­dent of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, Lt. Gen. Robert Caslen.

White House spokeswoma­n Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Trump may interview more candidates and hopes to make the decision soon.

Trump pushed out Flynn last Monday after revelation­s that Flynn misled Vice President Mike Pence about discussing sanctions with Russia’s ambassador to the U.S. during the presidenti­al transition.

Trump’s chief of staff used appearance­s on the Sunday news shows to echo his boss’s complaints about media coverage of the White House and cited what he said were multiple accomplish­ments in the first few weeks of the Trump presidency.

“The truth is that we don’t have problems in the West Wing,” Reince Priebus told NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

Priebus also denied a report that 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.

 ?? JOE RAEDLE/GETTY IMAGES ?? President Donald Trump greets supporters after arriving in Florida to spend part of the weekend at Mar-a-Lago. The weekend was a mix of work and socializin­g for Trump.
JOE RAEDLE/GETTY IMAGES President Donald Trump greets supporters after arriving in Florida to spend part of the weekend at Mar-a-Lago. The weekend was a mix of work and socializin­g for Trump.

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