Trump says he feels ‘very badly’ about Bannon charges

President Trump said Thursday he feels “very badly” about the arrest of Stephen Bannon on wire fraud charges but distanced himself from his former strategist and the border-wall fundraising project that led to the alleged crimes.

“I feel very badly. I haven’t been dealing with him for a very long period of time. Haven’t been dealing with him at all,” Mr. Trump said during an Oval Office meeting with the Iraqi prime minister.

Federal prosecutors in New York allege that Mr. Bannon, who was arrested, and others siphoned money from an online campaign to raise private funds for building the president’s signature wall along the Mexico border.

The president said he doesn’t know anything about the project, though he doesn’t like it.

“I thought it was being done for showboating reasons,” he said. “It was something I very much thought was inappropriate to be doing.”

The White House released a formal statement saying Mr. Trump always felt the border wall should be a government project.

“As everyone knows, President Trump has no involvement in this project and felt it was only being done in order to showboat, and perhaps raise funds,” White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany said.

She noted that 300 miles of the wall have been built so far.

“President Trump has not been involved with Steve Bannon since the campaign and the early part of the administration, and he does not know the people involved with this project,” she said.