The Saturday Night Live line, which is very characteristically Trump, was supposedly uttered during an interview aboard AirForce One.

<div class="image-550">
<img loading="lazy" src="https://cdn.kahimyang.com/resources-4/little-narco-sm.webp" alt="Marco Rubio and Trillanes" />
</div>

Trillanes was threatening to "file appropriate cases" against those who wrote about his claimed fake news.


The senator's basis for claiming that the remark was fake news was a non-statement from the US Embassy which referred inquiries about the supposed Trump quip to the official White House page containing transcripts of official press briefings.


The page obviously will not contain an off-the-cuff Trump remark.


The attempt of Trillanes for some form of recognition or retribution as a result of the unverified Trump remark was mainly also due to the fact that based on the recounting of the "fake news," Trump was not aware of the senator, nor his name.


In a Facebook post of US-based Pinoy journalist Mike Cohen, he related the background of the Trillanes-claimed fake news as having been the result of a group of GOP (Grand Old Party a.k.a Republican) supporters chatting within earshot of the (reporters') pool covering the (US) President.


The Republican hangers on then supposedly informed Trump of a senator from the Philippines cowing to the USA as part of a group of critics of both Rody Duterte and Trump.


Asked about it, the President (Trump) was overheard as joking "senator who?" as he supposedly joked about the meeting with his critic "who couldn't even win his party's nomination in his own state."


"When pressed further about (Trump's views regarding) the critics trying to block his (Philippines) visit he remarked about "too many li'l narco meeting with Marco, adding he shouldn't listen to narco-politicians," Cohen's post recounted.


The fake news was supposedly passed around and reached members of local media.


Last Sunday, Trillanes in a statement said that he accepted an apology from one columnist who wrote and that he is waiting for the same retraction from the others who wrote about it.


"Now, I am waiting for RJ Nieto a.k.a (not) Thinking Pinoy and Ms. Mary Ann Reyes of The Philippine STAR for their apologies for using the same fake news," Trillanes said in the statement.


The statement added that his lawyers are already preparing the appropriate cases to file against Nieto and Reyes if they refuse to apologize to him.


The Philippine STAR story about the hullabaloo was aptly titled as "No Trump mention of Trillanes" which was also a statement of fact since the US President hardly recognizes him.


The Senator and his yellow principals are apparently ticked off by Trump's decision to extend his stay to three days from two during the Asean events that start November 12 and ends with the East Asian Summit on November 14.


It was a source of huge disappointment for anti-Duterte forces since Trillanes' US trip had the purpose of applying pressure on Trump to skip Manila in his grueling Asian tour, although Trillanes denied that he talked with Sen. Marco Rubio about Trump skipping Manila.


Trump's main destination in the Asian tour is the November 10 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meetings in Danang, Vietnam where Rody and Trump will also meet.


The focus of the Asian trip, however, is the anticipated meeting between Rody and Trump. Alternatively, Duterte is referred to as Trump of the East as Trump is referred to by some as Duterte of the West.


Since the effort to derail the Philippines trip failed, the extension by one day can even be interpreted as an added endorsement for President Duterte.

Sources: 

<ul class="article-sources">
<li>
Li’l pursuits, <a href="https://goo.gl/94sFij" class="news_link" target="_blank" title="Source">Editorial</a>, November 7, 2017, The Daily Tribune
</li>
</ul>


(This article is adapted from the source listed above. We are unable to grant permission for any kind of reproduction other than social media shares.)

That reported "li'l narco" comment and Trump's scheduled extended stay in Manila