Trump hails $54 billion defense spending proposal

In a short speech aboard USS Gerald Ford, US President Donald Trump hails his proposed $54 billion increase to the Pentagon’s budget, calling it “one of the largest increases in history.”

Trump was joined by Defense Secretary Jim Mattis who did not give an address.

"This is better than land," says @POTUS in Virginia aboard pre-commissioned CVN-78 "Gerald R Ford." pic.twitter.com/DDOgjirB7c

— Steve Herman (@W7VOA) March 2, 2017

The president did not take questions and did not address the firestorm sparked late Wednesday by media reports that Attorney-General Jeff Sessions had not disclosed during confirmation hearings his contacts with the Russian ambassador to the US during the presidential campaign.

Asked earlier Trump if Sessions should recuse himself from an investigation into Russian interference during the campaign, Trump said: “I don’t think so.”

Revelations of the contacts, first reported by The Washington Post, came amid a disclosure by three administration officials that White House lawyers have instructed aides to Trump to preserve materials that could be connected to Russian meddling in the American political process.

The officials who confirmed that staffers were instructed to comply with preservation-of-materials directions did so on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly disclose the memo from White House counsel Don McGahn.

— AP contributed to this report