The Trumpster Fire: President Trump admitted that the 2016 meeting in Trump Tower with a Russian lawyer was about getting dirt on Hillary Clinton, but he claims he didn’t know anything about it at the time.

He tweeted yesterday, “Fake News reporting, a complete fabrication, that I am concerned about the meeting my wonderful son, Donald, had in Trump Tower. This was a meeting to get information on an opponent, totally legal and done all the time in politics – and it went nowhere. I did not know about it!”

Maybe. We’ll see. What his tweet does admit is that his son Donald Jr. was lying when he first said the meeting was about the issue of adopting Russian children the US. Junior’s statement, which the President helped to write, is included in the Special Counsel’s investigation into obstruction of justice regarding cooperating with Russians to win the election.

And while opposition research is common in politics, it is illegal to accept help from a foreign person or government to win an election.

The President’s concern about his son is a reference to a Washington Post article that said, “At rare moments of introspection for the famously self-centered president, Trump has also expressed to confidants lingering unease about how some in his orbit — including his eldest son, Donald Trump Jr. — are ensnared in the Russia probe, in his assessment simply because of their ­connection to him.”

In yesterday’s tweet rant, Trump also complained about the “17 Angry Democrats” working with Robert Mueller — it used to be 13 — also “FAKE NEWS,” and the “Rigged Witch Hunt.”

Interestingly, he claimed to have better approval numbers than Barack Obama at this point in his presidency. “Better numbers than Obama at this point, by far,” he said. It wasn’t good for Obama at this point; a 45.5 percent approval rating. But Trump’s is 41.4 percent.

Steel Wars: Two major American steel companies have been exercising what amounts to veto power over manufacturing companies asking to be exempted from paying President Trump’s tariff on imported steel, The NY Times reports.

The paper says that Nucor and US Steel, which have close ties to the Trump administration, have successfully blocked 1,600 exemption requests filed with the Commerce Department. The manufacturing companies requesting exemptions rely on imported pipes, screws, wire, and other foreign steel products.

The Times reports that, “The ability of a single industry to exert so much influence over the exclusions process is striking even in Mr. Trump’s business-friendly White House.”

The Roundup: The Indonesian resort island of Lombok was hit by a powerful earthquake that killed at least 90 people. The 6.9 quake was also felt on Bali to the West. — Five people died yesterday when a small plane crashed into the parking lot of a Santa Ana, Calif. shopping mall. No one on the ground was hurt. —A wildfire burning in Northern California has become the fifth largest in the state’s history. The Mendocino Complex Fire, which is two fires merged together, has burned at east 400 square miles of ground and taken 68 homes. It’s one of 17 major fires in the state that have caused President Trump to give California a disaster declaration. — New Mexico sheriffs searching for a missing 3-year-old boy discovered a heavily armed compound housing 11 starving children. The children, ages 1 to 15, were living in a partially-underground shelter made out of junk. Authorities said that both adults and children living in the compound were barefoot and dressed in rags.

Retirement: Robert Redford says he’s retiring from acting at age 81. He says his last movie appearance will be in his upcoming “the Old Man & the Gun.”

The Obit Page: Joel Robuchon, a master chef who shook up French cuisine and once held the most Michelin stars, has died at age 73. He was named cook of the century in 1990 and was one of the cooks at the 1994 “dinner of the century.” He believed in simplicity, using only a small number of ingredients to enhance flavor, not mask it. They say his mashed potatoes were incredible.

Slipped a Mickey: A Maryland baseball card collector paid an astounding $500 for a 63-year-old unopened pack of Bowman bubble gum and the cards that went with it. The pack was opened onstage at the National Sports Collectors Convention in Cleveland on Friday. Inside was a pristine 1955 Mickey Mantle. Chris Rothe, the buyer, said he’s already getting offers of $50,000. If he sells it, he’ll still have the card of Chicago Cubs Hall of Famer Ernie Banks. That was in there too.

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