Trump knew “nada” about Sloppy Steve Bannon wall scam
United States President Donald Trump, denied on Thursday, August 20, any knowledge of a campaign to finance a wall on the border with Mexico led by his former adviser and campaign strategist Steve Bannon, who was arrested and charged earlier for the allegedly fraudulent initiative.
“I don’t know anything about this project,” Trump told reporters in the White House Oval Office, adding that he felt “very bad” and that it is a “very sad thing.”
Bannon, a key player in Trump’s 2016 election victory and architect of the real estate magnate’s nationalist ideology, is accused of defrauding donors who contributed to a $25 million fund allegedly to build a wall on the border between the United States and Mexico, reported the New York prosecutor’s office.
Trump who is always quick off the mark to distance himself from erstwhile supporters when trouble brews said he does not deal “at all” with Bannon. “I have not had contact with him for a long time,” he said.
When the break with the Breitbart News- co-founder came, Trump added him to the Pantheon of nicknames that he has bestowed on opponents or those who have fallen out of favor, and labeled him “Sloppy Steve”
The president also said he was opposed to the idea of seeking private funds to build the wall. “I was convinced that this was something that should not be done,” he insisted.
The White House issued a statement stressing that the president was not “at all involved” with this project.
Trump’s spokeswoman, Kayleigh McEnany, said that the Trump administration has already built more than 300 miles (482 kilometers) of a border wall “thanks to the work of the Army Corps of Engineers”, and that by the end of the year “it will have completed almost 500 miles (804 kilometers) ”.
