President Donald Trump is marking the National Day of Prayer with faith leaders in the White House Rose Garden amid a firestorm over payments to a porn actress.

Trump acknowledged shortly before the event that he repaid his personal lawyer for hush money paid to Stormy Daniels despite previously claiming he was unaware of the arrangement.

Earlier Thursday, Trump tweeted that the payments just before the 2016 election "had nothing to do with the campaign."

The White House says Trump has signed an executive order to create an initiative on "faith and opportunity" to provide recommendations on administration policies affecting faith-based and community programs.

Members of a Baptist church in Sutherland Springs, Texas, where more than two dozen worshippers were killed in a November 2017 shooting, attended the event.