Ivanka Trump watches as President Trump speaks before presenting a Medal of Honor at the White House this week. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post) 
 
 When Samantha Bee used a vulgarity last month to describe his eldest daughter, President Trump lashed out at the “no talent” comedian and asked why she hadn’t been fired. 
 
 White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders called Bee’s language “vile and vicious” and said that her “disgusting comments and show are not fit for broadcast.” 
 
 Ivanka Trump remained silent. 
 
 During a television interview Friday morning, she sought to explain why. 
 
 “I have chosen, and I made a conscientious decision a long time ago, that I was not going to get into the fray, and that means that I’ll absorb the body blows that come my way,” Trump told host Maria Bartiromo during an appearance on the Fox Business Network. 
 
 “It is important to me to focus on the task at hand, which is serving the American people and using this moment in my life to advance an agenda that I deeply believe in and feel very fortunate to be able to work on,” added Trump, who serves as a White House adviser. 
 
 [Trump says Samantha Bee has ‘no talent,’ asks why she hasn’t been fired] 
 
 During a segment of her “Full Frontal” show on TBS last month, Bee took aim at Trump for tweeting a photo of herself with her younger son around the same time as reports that the U.S. government had lost track of nearly 1,500 migrant children last year. 
 
 “You know, Ivanka, that’s a beautiful photo of you and your child,” Bee said. “Let me just say, one mother to another, do something about your dad’s immigration practices, you feckless c---. He listens to you.” 
 
 Bee later apologized, saying her use of the vulgarity was “inappropriate and inexcusable” and that she had “crossed a line.” 
 
 During Friday’s broadcast on Fox Business, Trump also confirmed reports that she had advocated that her father reverse his administration’s policy of separating migrant families at the border. 
 
 “Of course, I have very strong opinions on that topic,” Trump said when asked by Bartiromo if she had advised the president on the issue before his issuance of an executive order last week. 
 
 Ivanka Trump was among administration guests on the network Friday who talked up the importance of the GOP tax bill signed by the president six months ago. 
 
 She said the tax cuts and other administration policies had served “to really release the animal spirits of the economy.” ||||| Rapper Kanye West visited President Trump in the Oval Office Thursday to supposedly talk prison reform, gang violence and Chicago. 
 
 And man, did he talk. Sitting next to football legend Jim Brown and a lawyer for Gangster Disciples founder Larry Hoover, West launched into nearly 10 minutes of largely uninterrupted remarks before taking questions from the reporters in the room. 
 
 Here is the transcript: 
 
 Really the reason why they imprisoned him is because doing positive for the community. He started showing that he actually had power, that he wasn't just one of a monolithic voice, but he could wrap people around. So there's theories that there's infinite amounts of universe, and there's alternate universe, so it's very important for me to get Hoover out because in an alternate universe, I am him. And I have to go and get him free because he was doing positive inside of Chicago, just like how I'm moving back to Chicago and it's not just about, you know, getting on stage and being an entertainer and having a monolithic voice that's forced to be a specific party. 
 
 You know people expect that if you're black you have to be Democrat. I have -- I have conversations that basically said that welfare's the reason why a lot of black people end up being Democrat. They say, you know, first of all, it's a limit to an amount of jobs. So the fathers lose the jobs and they say we'll give you more money for having more kids in your home. And then we got rid of the mental health institutes in the ‘80s and the ‘90s and the prison rates just shot up and now you got Chiraq, what people call Chiraq, which is our murder rate is going down by 20 percent every year. 
 
 I just talked to the superintendent, met with Michael Sacks, that's Rahm's right-hand man. So I think it's the bravery that helps you beat this game called life. You know they tried to scare me to not wear this hat. My own friends. But this hat, it gives me power in a way. 
 
 You know my dad and my mom separated so I didn't have a lot of male energy in my home. And also, I'm married to a family that, you know, [laughs] not a lot of male energy going on -- it's beautiful though! But there's times where you know, there's something about -- you know, I love Hillary, I love everyone, right? But the campaign "I'm With Her" just didn't make me feel, as a guy that didn't get to see my dad all the time, like a guy that could play catch with his son. It was something about putting this hat on, it made me feel like Superman. You made a Superman. That's my favorite superhero. And you made a Superman cape for me, also as a guy that looks up to you, looks up to Ralph Lauren, looks up to American industry guys, non-political, no bulls---t -- put the beep on it, however you want to do it, five-seconds delay -- and just goes in, and gets it done! 
 
 Right now, you gave me the heart to go to Adidas. Because at Adidas, when I went in 2015, we were a $14 billion company losing $2 billion a year. Now we have a $38 billion market cap. 
 
 It's called "the Yeezy effect." And I went to Kasper, we had a meeting in Chicago, and I said, you have to bring manufacturing onshore, inshore, not even [inaudible] -- into the core. It's not about the borders, it's the core of [inaudible] and Chicago is the core of Middle America, and we have to make Middle America strong. 
 
 So I had the balls - because I had enough balls to put on this hat. I mean, this Adidas thing made me a billionaire and I could have lost $200 million walking away from that deal. But even with that, I knew it was more important for me to take the chance of walking away from that deal than to have no fathers in Chicago, with no homes, and when we do have prison reformation for no -- 'cause, it's uh, it’s habilitation, not rehabilitation, because they didn't have the abilities in the first place . 
 
 We never had anyone that taught us, they didn't teach us. Exactly, cause "we ain't have no one that taught us." Right? Ha. 
 
 So it's more important than any specific deal, anything, that we bring jobs into America and that we provide a transition with mental health and the American education curriculum that Jim has worked on, Larry Hoover also has a curriculum that he's worked on, we have Montessori curriculums that were were worked on, [inaudible] has a beautiful curriculum, the Waldorf establishment has a curriculum, we have meditation. 
 
 There's a lot of things affecting our mental health that makes us do crazy things that puts us back into that trap door called the 13th Amendment. I did say abolish with the hat on, because why would you keep something around that's a trap door? If you're building a floor, the Constitution is the base of our industry, right? Of our country, of our company. Would you build a trap door that if you mess up, accidentally something happens, you fall and you end up next to the Unabomber? You end you -- you gotta remove all that trapdoor out of the relationship. 
 
 The four gentlemen that wrote the 13th Amendment -- and I think the way the universe works is perfect. We don't have 13 floors, do we? You know the four gentlemen that wrote the 13th Amendment didn't look like the people they were amending. Also, at that point, it was illegal for blacks to read. Or African Americans to read. So that meant if you actually read the amendment, you'd get locked up! And turned into a slave! 
 
 Again, so, what I think is we don't need sentences, we need partners. We need to talk to people. I was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. I was connected with a neuropsychologist that works with the athletes in the NBA, the NFL, and he looked at my brain [inaudible]. I'm gonna go ahead and drop some bombs for you -- 98 percentile IQ test. I had a 75 percentile of all human beings, but it was counting eight numbers backwards [inaudible], repeating something. We're gonna work on that one. The other ones, 98 percent -- Tesla, Freud. You know. 
 
 So he said that I actually wasn't bipolar, I had sleep deprivation, which would cause dementia 10 to 20 years from now, where I wouldn't even remember my son's name. So all this power that I got and I'm taking my son to the Sox game and all, I wouldn't be able to remember his name from a misdiagnosis. And what we need is we can empower the pharmaceuticals and make more money. That's one thing, I've never stepped into a situation where I didn't make people more money. So we can empower pharmaceuticals, we can empower our industries, we can empower our factories. We can bring not only Adidas on shore, we can bring Foxconn to set up a factory in I think Minnesota, maybe three. 
 
 Trump: Wisconsin. 
 
 Yeah, Wisconsin. They have 4,000 jobs, people making $53,000 a year, and one of the things we've got to set is, Ford to have the highest design, the dopest cars, the most amazing -- I don't really say dope, I don't say negative words and try to flip them we just say positive, lovely, divine, universal words. So the flyest, freshest, most amazing car, and what we want to start with is -- I brought up, I brought a GIF with me right here. 
 
 [Opens his phone] This right here is the iPlane 1. It's a hydrogen-powered airplane. And this is what our president should be flying in. Look at this. 
 
 Trump: We'll get rid of Air Force One [laughs in the room]. Can we get rid of Air Force One? [Turns to group near him] No? You don't like that. 
 
 Well, we're going to have Apple, an American company work on this plane. 
 
 But you know what I don't like about -- it's not I don't like. What I need “Saturday Night Live” to improve on, or what I need the liberals to improve on, is if he don't look good [points to Trump], we don't look good. This is our president. 
 
 Trump: It's true. 
 
 He has to be the freshest, the flyest, the flyest planes, the best factories and we have to make our core be empowered. We have to bring jobs into America, because our best export is entertainment ideas, but when we make everything in China and not in America, then we're cheating on our country. And we're putting people in positions that have to do illegal things to end up in the cheapest factory ever, the prison system. 
 
 Trump: I’ll tell you what, that was pretty impressive. [Laughs in the room] I hate to say this -- Jim, you want to say something? What do you do after that? 
 
 Abby Ohlheiser, Sonia Rao and Helena Andrews-Dyer contributed. ||||| President Donald Trump defended his forthcoming executive orders that are expected to suspend the United States’ refugee program and halt the issuing of visas to citizens of certain countries, saying, "We can't take any chances." 
 
 "Right now, the FBI has over 1,000 [terrorism] investigations going on … and these are people that we let in," Trump told Fox News' Sean Hannity in an exclusive cable interview from the White House Thursday. "We don’t need this. Some people have come in with evil intentions. Most haven’t, I guess, but we can’t take chances." 
 
 A draft executive order, which Trump could sign as early as Saturday, reportedly would halt the United States' broader refugee program for 120 days and prohibit citizens of Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria or Yemen from obtaining U.S. visas for at least 30 days. 
 
 "We’ve taken in tens of thousands of people. We know nothing about them. They can say they vetted them. They didn’t vet them, they have no papers. How can you vet somebody when you don’t know anything about them and they have no papers?" Trump asked. 
 
 TRUMP TO ORDER CONSTRUCTION OF US-MEXICO BORDER WALL; EXPECTED TO SUSPEND REFUGEE PROGRAM 
 
 Trump also defended his executive order to construct a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, a key promise of his presidential campaign. 
 
 "The wall is necessary," Trump said. "That’s not just politics, and yet it is good for the heart of the nation because people want protection and a wall protects. All you’ve got to do is ask Israel." 
 
 The president also revisited the issue of torture, saying that he believes methods such as waterboarding are effective. However, Trump added that he would follow the advice of Defense Secretary James Mattis, who has argued against the use of such tactics. 
 
 "Look, I spoke with people who were in this world that we’re talking about," Trump told Hannity. "They said, ‘Absolutely, it works.’ Now, General Mattis said that he doesn’t intend to use it. I’m with him all the way. Do I believe it works? Yes, I do." 
 
 The president also swiped at the media, which he said was made up of "very hostile people" and "very angry people." 
 
 WATCH: TRUMP STRATEGIST BANNON TORCHES NY TIMES, MAINSTREAM MEDIA 
 
 "The media — much of the media, not all of it – is very, very dishonest," Trump said. "Honestly, it’s fake news. It’s fake. They make things up." 
 
 Trump covered a range of other topics in the interview, including his goal of repealing and replacing ObamaCare, which he called a "horror show” and a “disaster.” 
 
 “It actually explodes [this year]," Trump said, "and I told [congressional] Republicans. I said, 'Look if you really want to do something, just let it explode, and then [the Democrats will] come begging us to fix it.’ But that’s not the right thing for the public because we have to get it fixed." 
 
 "I do believe we're going to have a much better plan, we're going to have a cheaper plan, I think it's going to be a lot less expensive,” he added. 
 
 Trump also disclosed that he had decided on his nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court "pretty much in my mind." He had previously said he would announce his choice Feb. 2. 
 
 The president blasted Democrats threatening to hold up his eventual nominee – and said he would want Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., to use the so-called “nuclear option” if they filibuster. 
 
 “I would. We have obstructionists,” Trump said, complaining about Democrats’ treatment of other nominees, including Attorney General pick Jeff Sessions. The “nuclear option,” if pursued, would allow majority Republicans to seek approval of Trump’s Supreme Court nominee with just a simple majority, as opposed to a 60-vote threshold. 
 
 The president also said he was examining the case of Navy sailor Kristian Saucier for a possible pardon. Saucier, 29, was sentenced to a year in prison for taking photos of parts of a submarine's nuclear propulsion system. As a candidate, Trump contrasted Saucier's treatment with the FBI's decision not to charge Hillary Clinton for using personal email while secretary of state. 
 
 PARDON ME: NAVY SAILOR IN JAIL FOR SUBMARINE PHOTOS PLEADS FOR MERCY FROM TRUMP 
 
 "I think it’s very unfair in light of what’s happened with other people," said Trump, who added that he wouldn't even consider a pardon if not for the outcome of the Clinton investigation. "How can you have somebody else get away with such a tremendous amount and then this person who takes a picture of his desk on an old submarine? Look, if China or Russia wanted information on that submarine, they’ve had it for many years. That I can tell you."
– One night after sitting down for his first one-on-one interview as president with ABC News, Donald Trump granted Sean Hannity the same privilege at the White House Thursday evening, and he offered as many ear-perking nuggets as he had the day before. Still on his radar, per Deadline: the "very hostile" media, which he went on to describe as also being "very angry" and "very dishonest." "I get stories that are so false," he told Hannity, specifically calling out an erroneous report by Time magazine writer Zeke Miller that Trump had removed a Martin Luther King Jr. bust from the Oval Office (Miller later tweeted a correction for his mistake). "It's fake news. … They make things up," he added, per Fox News. Other snippets from the interview: He let fly his feelings about Madonna, who made headlines at the Women's March Saturday for saying she'd thought "an awful lot about blowing up the White House." "Honestly, she's disgusting," Trump told Hannity, adding that what she said was "disgraceful," per the Telegraph. "I think she hurt herself very badly. I think she hurt that whole cause." "Disgrace" is also a word he used to describe a recent tweet about his son, Barron, by now-suspended SNL writer Katie Rich. "I don't mind some humor, but it's terrible," Trump said. "For NBC to attack my 10-year-old son … it's a disgrace. He's a great boy. And it’s not an easy thing for him. Believe me." He had thoughts on President Obama as well, who rode with him in a limo on Inauguration Day. "What amazed me is that I was vicious to him in statements, he was vicious to me in statements, and here we are getting along … riding up Pennsylvania Avenue," he said, adding, "I like him, he likes me … you're going to have to ask him, but I think he likes me." Moving on to official presidential business, he labeled ObamaCare a "horror show" and a "disaster," said he had a Supreme Court justice nominee "pretty much in my mind," and noted that even though Secretary of Defense Mattis doesn't advocate waterboarding, he himself "absolutely" believes it is effective, per Fox. On his long-talked-about wall, Trump said it was "necessary." "People want protection and a wall protects," he said. "All you've got to do is ask Israel." (One possible way to pay for the wall: a 20% tax on Mexican imports.)