tower, who was with him during the campaign, is someone who was engaged with autocrats throughout the world, likes strongmen just like president trump likes strong autocratic leaders throughout the world, and he sees paul manafort in that sympathetic light. not through the sentencing memo that we saw today. and congressional republicans are privately telling the white house, we are already in containment mode with this mueller report on the horizon. we re going to have to probably spend the rest of the year talking about the president s conduct. don t add another problem, another headache to the mix. and can you believe that publicly we had here today manafort s attorney, who felt the assignment, felt the need to go outside that courthouse, use those two words, no collusion, as we said, directed at one man, and that talking point continues to be generated by one man. that talking point is generated by one man. it s president trump s chief talking point.
the campaign, is someone who was engaged with autocrats throughout the world, likes strongmen just like president trump likes strong autocratic leaders throughout the world, and he sees paul manafort in that sympathetic light. not through the sentencing memo that we saw today. and congressional republicans are privately telling the white house, we are already in containment mode with this mueller report on the horizon. we re going to have to probably spend the rest of the year talking about the president s conduct. don t add another problem, another headache to the mix. and can you believe that publicly we had here today manafort s attorney, who felt the assignment, felt the need to go outside that courthouse, use those two words, no collusion, as we said, directed at one man, and that talking point continues to be generated by one man. that talking point is generated by one man. it s president trump s chief talking point. yet inside of this white house there is an acknowledgment
sympathy. you may see yourself and him as a victim of the mueller probe, but don t take this sort of action. leave him on an island. leave him in the wilderness, especially with the mueller report on the horizon and such a variable. they don t know what to expect. here s the question. does the president end up listening to the advisers? that s a wild card. reporter: it is a wild card. rudy giuliani remains one of his closest confidants. they are not setting up a war room to deal with the mueller operation, but the president i m told sees his own self interest as the paramount priority. while he has sympathy for manaforts, top advisers tell me to expect tweets but not a pardon. let me go back to ken outside the courtroom there. and ken, another update now, and again, just to pull back the curtain a little bit for folks at home. we have a team inside the building. you re outside the building sharing updates. we re getting near live updates
i think this is all about branding and he s going to actually change the message before our eyes. and for trump insiders, it s necessary branding at this moment, looking ahead to the mueller report on the horizon, to all of the political challenges on capitol hill. they thought in 2018 immigration and the caravan, that was the way to stoke their core voter. and in 2020, they believe they have to underscore that the president is not moving away from his commitment to a border wall, even as congress balks at sending any kind of significant funding to that project, politically it remains at the center of what this presidency is all about. let s bring in national security reporter for nbc news julia ainsley with the latest on the newest legal challenges to president trump s national emergency declaration. he did predict there would be challenges. he had that whole sing song thing. is this step one in it? yeah. we ve already seen a number of legal challenges just come out