But the president saw it differently, saying that Ms. Conway was entitled to express her opinion, even using her taxpayer-paid White House position. “It looks to me like they’re trying to take away her right of free speech,” he said.

Mr. Kerner’s spokesman, Zachary Kurz, said his office would accept Mr. Trump’s decision.

“Under the statute, it is up to the president to impose appropriate discipline, if any, in this type of case,” Mr. Kurz said. “We respect his prerogative to do so.”

Mr. Trump also used the Fox interview on Friday to announce that he plans to bring back to his administration Thomas D. Homan, who served as acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement until retiring last year. His nomination to keep the job permanently languished in the Senate.

Mr. Homan, who has been a strong supporter of Mr. Trump’s hard-line immigration policies in his own appearances on Fox, would become a “border czar” working out of the White House, the president said. “He’ll be very much involved in the border,” Mr. Trump said. “He’ll be reporting directly to me.”

But the president said he has not yet decided on a replacement for Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the White House press secretary who announced on Thursday that she will step down at the end of the month after nearly two years as Mr. Trump’s chief spokeswoman.

The president said he had many good candidates to take the job, but did explicitly rule out one, Anthony Scaramucci, who served for 11 days as White House communications director before being fired in 2017 after a foul-mouthed rant about his colleagues to a reporter. “I like Anthony and he’s been very nice and all,” Mr. Trump said, “but I think Anthony, he should stay where he is right now.”

The president’s comments on taking campaign help from Russia came after more than a day of withering criticism from Democrats, and even uncomfortable distancing from Republicans who said any candidate should automatically report a foreign effort to influence American elections.