President Trump's National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, and acting Homeland Security Secretary Tom Bossert joined Sarah Sanders for her Friday briefing:
- Sanders announced that Trump plans to go to Texas early next week following Hurricane Harvey. She also addressed Gary Cohn's FT interview, where he criticized Trump's Charlottesville response, saying that the remarks were a "very small portion" of the interview.
- Mnuchin assured the press that the debt ceiling will be raised in September. He also acknowledged that he was "wrong" in initially assuming the administration would get tax reform done by August. "I'm hopeful we can get it done by the end of the year."
- McMaster said that winning in Afghanistan "is allowing Afghanistan to be Afghanistan." Not nation building.
- Bossert said the administration is evaluating Texas Gov. Greg Abbott's request for an emergency declaration ahead of the hurricane. He later added that the storm "is right up President Trump's alley."