U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday denied being taken to a White House bunker for his safety, saying that he only went there to carry out an inspection, CNBC reported.
The New York Times first broke the story that the president was taken to the White House’s emergency bunker as protests raged outside. According to that report, Trump was taken to the bunker on Friday, May 31. However, a subsequent report, this time by NBC News , cited an unnamed Trump administration official who said that the president was taken to the bunker on Sunday, not Friday. The official said that he was taken to the bunker “out of an abundance of caution,” and that he was there for a brief period of time before returning to his private quarters.
Speaking to Fox News Radio , Trump denied being taken to the bunker for his safety at all and said that he went there to inspect it.
“It was a false report. I wasn’t down [in the bunker],” he told host Brian Kilmeade.
He then admitted that he was there, but only to inspect it.
“I went down during the day and I was there for a tiny, little short period of time and it was much more for an inspection, there was no problem during the day,” he said.
Kilmeade pressed his guest for details, asking if the Secret Service told him to go to the bunker for his safety.
“Nope, they didn’t tell me that at all,” he said.
He did, however, say that the Secret Service told him it would be a good idea to check out the bunker. He also said that, during his presidency, he had entered the bunker “two and a half times.” He did not specify when or why he had previously been taken to the bunker.
And as for the protesters outside the White House, Trump told Kilmeade that there was “never a problem.”
As previously reported by The Inquisitr , those reports that he was taken to the White House bunker may have informed much of the president’s behavior since then. Specifically, CNN White House correspondent Kaitlan Collins reported that Trump was upset by media coverage about purportedly being sent to take shelter in the bunker. Further, Collins reported that Trump chose to stage his photo op in front of the nearby St. John’s Church while holding a Bible because he wanted to be seen outside the White House gates.
