BORDER/MEDIA/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT/TRUMP PEOPLE/WALL: “Ann Coulter? ‘I don’t know her,’ President Donald Trump said at a press conference Friday [2-15-19], describing his relationship with the conservative commentator who has introduced him at rallies. Asked Friday whether conservative media personalities influenced his policy on building a border wall, the president denied commentators like Coulter and Fox News’ Sean Hannity pushed him to declare a national emergency to get a physical barrier on the southern border. The question came after Fox network figures and conservative commentators prodded the president to declare an emergency over the past few months and railed against him for ending the government shutdown without over $5 billion for the wall. But Trump insisted Friday that the emergency declaration he had just issued was his own doing…Coulter was an early, vocal Trump supporter who eventually condemned the president over his slow progress on a border wall. The conservative author mocked the president in December when the White House announced it would accept a funding bill without securing over $5 billion for the wall.”
–Matthew Choi, “Trump on Ann Coulter: ‘I don’t know her’,” Politico, February 15, 2019 12:07 pm