Trump on Rosenstein: ‘Not making any changes’

President Trump on Monday gave his clearest indication yet that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein’s job is safe, at least for now. 

“I’m not making any changes. You’d be the first to know,” Trump told reporters at the White House when asked if he plans to fire the top Justice Department official.

Trump said he had a “very nice talk” with Rosenstein aboard Air Force One, a meeting he called to discuss the deputy attorney general’s future in the administration.

{mosads}”We actually get along,” Trump said of Rosenstein.

The president’s comments capped off a day that began with speculation swirling about whether Rosenstein would keep his job.  

Trump had sought for nearly two weeks to personally discuss with Rosenstein an explosive New York Times report that the No. 2 Justice Department official discussed secretly taping the president last year as well as using the 25th Amendment to oust him from office.

But the meeting was postponed several times while the White House was focused on the push to confirm Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. The Senate voted to confirm the judge on Saturday. 

By all indications, Trump and Rosenstein used their 45-minute discussion aboard the presidential aircraft to bury the hatchet.

Trump took the air out of the speculation even before he sat down with Rosenstein when he told reporters he had no plans to fire him.

Rosenstein had repeatedly denied the story but reportedly offered to resign. 

Ousting Rosenstein would have serious legal and political implications for the president.

The top Justice Department deputy oversees the investigation into Russia’s interference in the 2016 election, which Trump has repeatedly called a “witch hunt.” 

Trump said Monday, however, that he expects to be “treated very fairly” by special counsel Robert Mueller’s team. 

“I’m not doing anything — I don’t want to do anything about that,” he said. “Everybody understands there’s no collusion … The Democrats colluded with Russia. And frankly, the previous administration didn’t do anything about Russia when they knew that they should have.”

Mueller is looking into whether any Trump campaign associate cooperated with Moscow during the election and if the president sought to obstruct the probe. 

Trump has lashed out at Rosenstein on several occasions.

Rosenstein hired Mueller to oversee the Russia probe after the president fired James Comey as FBI director, a move that significantly upped the legal stakes for Trump.

Updated at 5:56 p.m.