President Trump today

Our live coverage has ended for the night. Scroll down to read the highlights from Trump’s trip to West Virginia.

President Donald Trump speaks during a roundtable discussion on tax policy, Thursday, April 5, 2018, in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia.

President Donald Trump ratcheted up the trade war rhetoric with China on Thursday, saying he was considering another $100 billion in tariffs on the country. 

“In light of China’s unfair retaliation, I have instructed the [United States Trade Representative] to consider whether $100 billion of additional tariffs would be appropriate,” the president said in a statement. 

Earlier this week, the United States announced new tariffs on $50 billion worth of Chinese goods, claiming that China is stealing US intellectual property. China responded within hours by announcing $50 billion worth of tariffs on US goods. The moves follow US tariffs that were imposed earlier this year on Chinese steel and aluminum, which also prompted response from China.

Stormy Daniels’ lawyer Michael Avenatti told CNN he plans to refile a motion to depose President Trump and his personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, on Monday.

Avenatti wants to ask them about a $130,000 payout from Cohen to the porn star before the 2016 election.

A federal judge in California denied a similar motion last week because it was “premature.”

Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto issued a statement today in response to President’s Trump’s order to send National Guard troops to the southern border.

He said the Mexican government will “never negotiate out of fear.”

Peña Nieto said they “will not allow negative rhetoric to define their actions.”

Trump told reporters today that he was considering sending “anywhere from 2,000 to 4,000” National Guard troops to the southern border.

Trump said the administration is still looking at how much the deployment might cost, but that he has a “pretty good idea.”

David Schwartz, spokesperson for President Trump’s private attorney Michael Cohen, just issued a statement in response to the President’s remarks on Air Force One about adult film actress Stormy Daniels.

Daniels’ attorney Michael Avenatti took to Twitter to respond to Trump’s remarks. Here’s what he said:

What Trump said on Air Force One

Trump said he did not know about a $130,000 payment made to Daniels for her silence.

Asked why Cohen made the payment, Trump said: “You’ll have to ask Michael Cohen. Michael is my attorney. You’ll have to ask Michael.”

President Trump, speaking to reporters on Air Force One today, said Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt is doing “a fantastic job” and said he’d look at reports about the embattled chief.

“I think he’s done an incredible job,” he said. “He’s been very courageous. It hasn’t been easy, but I think he’s done a fantastic job.”

Asked if he was bothered by reports about Pruitt, Trump said, “I have to look at them. … I’ll make that determination. But he’s a good man, he’s done a terrific job. But I’ll take a look at it.”

President Trump said Thursday he was considering sending “anywhere from 2,000 to 4,000” National Guard troops to the southern border, applying the first figures to his surprise announcement this week that military forces will be deployed to bolster security.

Trump said the administration is still looking at how much the deployment might cost, but that he has a “pretty good idea.”

And he insisted the troops would remain there until his proposed border wall is complete.

The remarks answered, at least in part, several outstanding questions about the deployment plan, which Trump first announced on Tuesday.

President Donald Trump insisted today he did not know about a $130,000 payment made to the adult film actress Stormy Daniels for her silence, his first public acknowledgment of the scandal surrounding an alleged sexual affair that has plagued him for months.

“No,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One when questioned about his knowledge of the payment, which was made by his private attorney Michael Cohen in the month before the 2016 election.

Asked why Cohen made the payment, Trump said: “You’ll have to ask Michael Cohen. Michael is my attorney. You’ll have to ask Michael.”

He said he didn’t know where the money came from and ignored a question about whether he set up a fund for Cohen to draw from in making the payment.

President Donald Trump speaks during a roundtable discussion on tax policy Thursday, April 5, 2018, in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia.

President Trump, at a roundtable on tax reform in West Virginia, talked a lot about immigration.

Trump also reflected back to controversial remarks he made when he announced his candidacy. In 2015, he called some Mexican immigrants “rapists” and criminals.

Here’s what Trump said today:

CNN political analyst Joshua Green said Trump is “conflating victims of rape with perpetrators of rape.”

“What he said when he came down the elevator for his campaign speech, essentially, was Mexican immigrants are rapists,” Green said. “One of the reasons these refugees are traveling in a caravan is for safety, to protect themselves collectively against being attacked and raped by people as they move from Honduras and Central America up to the U.S. Border.”

Green continued: “The idea that they, themselves, are this marauding band of rapists trying to climb the border fence, whatever it is that Trump is trying to imply there is wrong in all sorts of ways.”

Environmental Protection Agency Special Agent Eric Weese, who led Administrator Scott Pruitt’s protection detail, was taken off that assignment and reassigned within EPA when he refused to drive with lights and sirens blaring through the streets of Washington, DC, according to three sources with knowledge of the situation.

The lights and sirens were intended to get Pruitt around town more quickly, the sources said. Weese refused to comply with the requests because lights and sirens are only supposed to be used in actual emergencies, the sources said. 

One of the sources told CNN Pruitt’s schedule often runs late and that his protective team has been asked to use lights and sirens to zip him through red lights and get him to meetings and the airport on time.

The use of lights and sirens by Pruitt’s protective detail was first reported by CBS News.

This isn’t the only controversy Pruitt is facing

Earlier this week, the White House said it is “looking into”  Pruitt’s housing situation amid reports that he rented a room in Washington, DC, from the family of an energy lobbyist.

Meanwhile, a senator has said that Pruitt’s 24-hour security in Washington allegedly extends to at least some of his personal trips.

Another report says Pruitt bypassed the White House to give large pay raises to two aides