Trump admin updates: Trump wants Senate to cancel August recess to work on nominees

President Donald Trump continued to defend Attorney General Pam Bondi's handling of Jeffrey Epstein files as he took some questions from reporters on the subject.

One reporter asked about comments from his daughter-in-law Lara Trump that there should be more transparency in the Epstein case.

"The attorney general's handled that very well. She's really done a very good job," Trump said. "And I think that when you look at it, you'll understand that. I would like to see that also. But I think the attorney general, the credibility is very important. And, you want credible evidence or something like that. And I think the attorney general has handled it very well."

ABC News' Katherine Faulders asked the president what Bondi told him about the DOJ and FBI review of the Epstein files and "specifically, did she tell you at all that your name appeared in the file?"

"No, no, she's -- she's given us just a very quick briefing," Trump responded before making baseless claims that the files were created by some of his political foes.

"And in terms of the credibility of the different things that they've seen, and I would say that, you know, these files were made up by Comey, they were made up by Obama, they were made up by the Biden -- and you know, we and we went through years of that with the Russia, Russia, Russia hoax, with all of the different things that we had to go through. We've gone through years of it, but she's handled it very well, and it's going to be up to her. Whatever she thinks is credible, she should release," Trump said.

President Donald Trump, as he left the White House for an event in Pittsburgh, was asked about the new inflation data out Tuesday morning that found consumer prices rose 2.7% in June compared to a year ago.

The reading marked a notable surge in prices as Trump's tariff policy took hold, matching economists' expectations.

Trump called the increase "very slight."

"Essentially, there were exactly as anticipated, very low inflation," he said. "So what you should do is lower the rate, the Fed should lower the rate immediately."

At the White House on Tuesday, Secret Service cleared everyone off the White House North Lawn driveway as Education Secretary Linda McMahon was just about to appear for an interview on Fox News. USSS approached the Fox News tent and alerted McMahon and her staff, ushering her into the White House West Wing.

"Everyone go to the press briefing room please," one USSS police officer said to the press gathered on the North Lawn waiting to gaggle with McMahon.

The White House was situated a short time later and press was allowed back outside.

-ABC News' Katherine Faulders, Michelle Stoddart and Tierra Cunningham

The White House confirmed that President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy discussed whether Ukraine would be able to strike Moscow and St. Petersburg with U.S.-supplied weapons, but the White House is taking issue with the framing of the conversation in news reports.

"President Trump was merely asking a question, not encouraging further killing. He's working tirelessly to stop the killing and end this war," White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement to ABC News.

Leavitt said that a report from The Financial Times was taking the discussion "wildly out of context." The Financial Times reported that Trump had signaled his backing for the idea of striking deep inside Russia, including Moscow and St. Petersburg, citing two people briefed on the call.

-ABC News' Michelle Stoddart