President Donald Trump has been clear about his position on the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program and border security all along, and he "wants to get a deal done."
"He wants to do that with DACA, but also to include massive border security and interior enforcements," Sarah Huckabee Sanders, White House press secretary, told Fox News' "Fox and Friends" program. "That was the message he relayed last night."
Trump, in a series of early morning tweets Thursday, denied reports that he'd made a deal Wednesday night with Democrats on the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, and that the wall at the Mexican border is "already under construction."
In a statement following their working dinner with Trump at the White House, however, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Pelosi reported that they had come to an agreement with Trump about protecting the estimated 800,000 young adults who remain in the United States under the DACA program, established by the Obama administration in June 2012.
"The president is clear about what his priorities are all along," Sanders told Fox News. "He went into last night specifically wanting to talk a lot about tax reform, which they did. Schumer and Pelosi came in wanting to talk a lot about DACA, which they also did."
The border wall with Mexico, meanwhile, is already undergoing extensive renovations, said Sanders.
"They're already building sample walls," she said. "That part is already moving forward. That's going to continue. The president's 100 percent committed to the wall. The deal with DACA, they want to include border security. The president wants to make sure that massive border security and interior enforcement is part of any deal on that front."
Trump, she also said, is the "ultimate dealmaker."
"I think we have seen him in the course of his personal life and in business make big deals and be extremely successful in that front," Sanders said. "The American people want to see him continue to be successful in deal making as we move into the fall, past this massive tax cut."
The president is focused on tax reform, she continued, which "was the reason he was elected and hopefully Republicans and Democrats can come together and help all push those things forward."
Sanders also commented about her call for ESPN to take action against anchor Jamile Hill, for calling Trump a white supremacist, saying she still believes the incident was a fireable offense.
"I haven't had a conversation about that, but I think that ESPN should probably stick to sports and leave the rest of the news to other networks, because that clearly isn't something that I think they're very good at on that front," she said. "I think it was highly inappropriate, and I think ESPN should take action. But I'll leave that up to them to decide, and I'll stay focused on my day job."
Sanders also discussed the Obama-era decision to reopen relations with Cuba, saying that the Trump administration is reviewing the matter.
"We'll continue to do that and certainly make sure that Americans are protected and that this is done correctly and properly," Sanders said. "But we've got to make sure that we get to the bottom of it and get some real answers, and that's what we're in the process of doing right now."