Donald Trump Says Ann Coulter is 'Off the Reservation,' Credits Fox News Hosts for Emergency Declaration

President Donald Trump has credited conservative media voices like Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh and Laura Ingraham for helping to influence his decision to declare a national emergency at the southern border.

The comments came during the president's news conference on Friday morning, where he announced that he would circumvent Congress and declare a national emergency in order to build his long-promised border wall between the United States and Mexico.

"I'm going to be signing a national emergency," Trump said. "We're talking about an invasion of our country with drugs, with human traffickers, with all types of criminals and gangs.

When asked by NBC News White House correspondent Kelly O'Donnell about how his outside conservative advisers had influenced his opinion of the border situation, Trump responded by talking at length about media figures Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter, Laura Ingraham and Tucker Carlson.

"Sean Hannity has been a terrific, terrific supporter of what I do," Trump said. The president then added that "if I changed my views he wouldn't be with me."

Trump had previously been accused of heeding the political advice of the Fox News host. On Thursday, CNN's Chris Cuomo suggested that the president is effectively following the orders of Hannity, saying that conservative media figures are "in his head all the time, rent-free."

After discussing Hannity, the president then moved on to praise conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh.

"I think he's a great guy," Trump said. "He's a guy who could speak for three hours without a phone call, try doing that sometime. For three hours he speaks. He has one of the biggest audiences in the history of the world."

Trump lists some conservative voices that helped shaped his decision to call for an national emergency. He "likes" Ann Coulter, who has been critical of the president's national declaration, but hasn't spoke to her recently. https://t.co/rPePQTU8uT pic.twitter.com/OXo9pty0aP

— CBS News (@CBSNews) February 15, 2019

Earlier this week, Limbaugh told his radio listeners not to underestimate Trump's motivation for the border wall even if he signed Congress's bipartisan federal spending bill. Limbaugh also signaled support for Trump's declaration of a national emergency to secure funds for the wall.

"Anything that happens that solidifies and cements that effort as being undertaken and underway, the president can portray as a win. He can always hold out the card of a declaration of a national emergency to get the rest of it built and so forth," Limbaugh said on his show on Tuesday.

The president then began discussing Ann Coulter, who has been a vocal critic over his compromise with Congress and the decision to sign a national emergency.

In a series of tweets on Thursday and Friday, Coulter ripped Trump as the "American Merkel" and said that the national emergency is just a way for the president to "scam the stupidest people in his base for 2 more years."

But during the news conference on Friday, Trump seem unfazed by Coulter's criticism, telling reporters that he "hardly" knows her.

"I don't know her, I hardly know her. I haven't spoken to her in way over a year… I just don't have the time to talk to her," Trump said. He said he liked Coulter because of her support during his 2016 campaign, but now she's "off the reservation."

While Trump acknowledged their support and influence, he emphasized that the conservative media figures ultimately "don't decide policy."

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About the writer


Alexandra Hutzler is currently a staff writer on Newsweek's politics team. Prior to joining Newsweek in summer 2018, she was ... Read more

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