White House says Trump now backs House GOP immigration bill

The White House says President Donald Trump does indeed support an immigration bill crafted by House leadership that he said he wouldn’t sign in a morning interview.

Trump had said in the interview with “Fox & Friends” Friday that he was looking at two House immigration bills, but that he: “certainly wouldn’t sign the more moderate one.”

The comment prompted widespread confusion on the Hill as top congressional Republicans struggled to understand why the president would oppose a bill that would achieve his top objectives on immigration and that his team had helped craft.

But White House spokesman Raj Shah clarified Friday evening that the president had been commenting on the separate — and now abandoned — effort by moderate Republicans to push votes on other legislation.

He says would sign a more conservative version “or the leadership bills.”