DONALD Trump has labelled an intruder who broke into the White House grounds as a “troubled person”.

The President said the Secret Service did a “fantastic job” stopping the intruder, who scaled a fence and entered the grounds while Trump was in the White House at the time, setting off a top-level security threat.

It comes as Defiant Manhattan US Attorney Preet Bharara was fired, a stunning reversal of a Trump administration promise to keep the corruption-busting prosecutor on board, the New York Post reports.

HOW THE SECURITY BREACH UNFOLDED

The male suspect scaled the White House’s South Grounds fence at 11:38pm on Friday, and uniformed officers arrested him, the Secret Service said in a statement.

CNN is reporting the man said he was “a friend” of the president and that he “had an appointment.”

The White House was placed under security condition “orange,” one of the highest levels of security for the Secret Service.

We are making great progress with healthcare. ObamaCare is imploding and will only get worse. Republicans coming together to get job done! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 11, 2017

Mr Trump was not in any danger during the incident, CNN reported, citing an unnamed source.

A 2014 intrusion at the White House prompted the resignation of Secret Service director Julia Pierson and a series of recommendations to tighten security. In 2015, a row of sharp spikes was bolted to the top of the black iron fence surrounding the property.

In the latest incident, the suspect was apprehended near the south portico entrance, where presidents often address the public, CNN said. The entrance is near the part of the White House where the president resides.

Police did not immediately identify the suspect but Martin Mulholland, a spokesman for the Secret Service, said he had no arrest record or history with the agency, which is charged with protecting the president, his family and other elected officials.

The backpack carried by the intruder was screened and searched as a precaution, and no hazardous material was found, according the statement. The Secret Service searched the north and south grounds but nothing of concern turned up. Neither the Secret Service nor the White House responded immediately to a request for further details.

The most serious of the recent security incidents at the White House occurred in September 2014, when an Army veteran carrying a knife climbed the fence and pushed his way inside the building before he was stopped.

Another man wearing an American flag jumped the fence in November 2015. In April 2016, an intruder threw a backpack over the outer fence and then scaled it before getting arrested.

The Secret Service and National Park Service have been working on a new fence design and other upgrades.

The security breach comes as the Trump administration finally opened the White House up to the public last week, almost two months after Mr Trump became president.

As for the President himself, he was seemingly unbothered by the security breaching, tweeting early on Saturday morning commending his party on making “great progress” on health care reforms.

“We are making great progress with healthcare. ObamaCare is imploding and will only get worse. Republicans coming together to get job done!” Mr Trump tweeted.

BHARARA ‘FIRED’

Defiant Manhattan US Attorney Preet Bharara was fired in a stunning reversal of a Trump administration promise to keep the corruption-busting prosecutor on board, nypost.com reports.

“I did not resign. Moments ago I was fired,” Bharara tweeted at 2:29pm. “Being the US Attorney in SDNY [the Southern District of New York] will forever be the greatest honor of my professional life.”

He and 45 other US Attorneys held over from the Obama administration were yesterday asked to resign by Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

I did not resign. Moments ago I was fired. Being the US Attorney in SDNY will forever be the greatest honor of my professional life. — Preet Bharara (@PreetBharara) March 11, 2017

That’s because President Trump, shortly after his election, had asked Bharara — the crusading US Attorney for the Southern District of New York who has been a stalwart against public corruption — to stay on board.

Bharara refused to resign, forcing the Trump administration to go back on the president’s pledge to keep him in his job.

Even Republicans were dumbfounded by the announcement that Sessions had included Bharara on the list of US Attorneys ordered to hand in their resignations.

HEALTH CARE BILL

As Mr Trump stayed in Washington, he dispatched his top lieutenant, Vice President Mike Pence, to the southern state of Kentucky to make a pitch for the Republican party’s new health care bill.

“Here are the heartbreaking facts: today, Americans are paying US$3000 (A$4000) more a year on average for health insurance than the day Obamacare was signed into law,” Mr Pence told a crowd in the city of Louisville.

Just landed in Louisville where we will bring this message with @GovMattBevin to the Bluegrass State. https://t.co/8QI3f3zj60 — Vice President Pence (@VP) March 11, 2017

Hosting a listening session with KY's small businesses & job creators at @HarshawTrane to discuss the challenges they face due to Obamacare. pic.twitter.com/3Za90pm7sy — Vice President Pence (@VP) March 11, 2017

Since the day we were elected, our top priority has been to repeal Obamacare and replace it with something that actually works. — Vice President Pence (@VP) March 11, 2017

Obamacare has failed the people of Kentucky and America—and Obamacare must go. — Vice President Pence (@VP) March 11, 2017

“Last year alone, premiums spiked by 25 per cent and millions of Americans have lost their health insurance plans and lost their doctors,” Mr Pence said, touting the Republican reform plan, unveiled last Monday, as the solution.

“We’re going to give Americans more choices. We’ll expand health savings accounts,” Mr Pence declared.

“Under President Trump’s leadership, we’re actually also going to finally allow Americans to purchase health insurance across state lines — the way you buy life insurance, the way you buy car insurance.”

Barack Obama’s signature health insurance reform bill was the crowning domestic achievement of his presidency.

But like much of the rest of his legacy, it has come under attack from Mr Trump, who has made dismantling it one of his top goals.

Republicans’ market-driven plan to replace it, however, has been roundly criticised by some members of their own party — especially in the US Senate — and also has been met with consternation from conservative pundits.

“The Republican health plan would make America’s economic chasm worse. It would cut health subsidies that go to the poor while eliminating the net investment income tax, which benefits only the top one per cent,” right-of-centre political columnist David Brooks wrote in the New York Times this week.

Democrats were no less harsh in their assessment of the Republican health care reform plan.

“They’re calling it the American Health Care Act: the AHCA. But they should call it the BBBA: the Big Breaks for Billionaires Act,” said Congresswoman Cheri Bustos on Saturday.

In their plan, which “takes coverage away from the people who need it the most, Washington Republicans found a way to give massive tax breaks to the CEOs of health insurance companies, as well as to America’s billionaires,” Bustos said.

Mr Pence has been the chief salesman for Mr Trump’s push to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. The House is expected to vote on the bill in less than two weeks but faces fierce resistance from critics, including Senator Rand Paul who has called the initial draft “Obamacare Lite.”

Several influential conservative groups such as Heritage Action, FreedomWorks and the Club for Growth have also come out against the plan.

Thanks to @HarshawTrane, KY small business owners, & @GovMattBevin for coming out to hear our message of repealing and replacing Obamacare. https://t.co/I49i59tNtG — Vice President Pence (@VP) March 11, 2017

Mr Pence suggested this week that the Trump administration was open to negotiating changes to the bill, telling Fox News’ Bret Baier that the House legislation, which was introduced this week and was cleared by two committees, was simply the start of the process.

Conservatives have urged the White House to halt the extra money Mr Obama’s law gives states to expand the federal-state Medicaid program for 70 million low-income people. The Republican bill would end that additional funding in 2020 except for those already in the program, but conservatives want to accelerate that to 2018 to save money.

In Kentucky, Democrats have praised former Governor Steve Beshear’s use of the health care law to drive down the state’s uninsured rate and his smooth rollout of kynect, the state-run exchange, even while Obama struggled with the national release of healthcare.gov.

But Mr Bevin, Mr Beshear’s successor, has warned that the state cannot afford to pay for its growing Medicaid program, which has cost the state millions more than initially expected and now covers more than 25 per cent of the state’s population. He has dismantled Kentucky’s state-based exchange but indicated he would not favour eliminating the federal health insurance exchange.

Mr Bevin said late last week he would tell Mr Paul that “we support their effort to fix this problem,” but that he was not a fan of the initial proposal. The governor told reporters that Mr Paul “is not impressed with what has currently been offered. Truth be told, I’m not either. So I’m with him.”

Mr Paul has been among the Senate’s foremost critics of the bill. Even before the legislation was released, he brought a copy machine outside of the room where House Republicans were drafting the bill and asked for a copy, all to draw attention to the secrecy of the plan.

Mr Trump, who faced Mr Paul in the Republican presidential primaries last year, made a pitch for persuasion on Twitter, writing that he was sure Mr Paul would “come along with the new and great health care program.”

The event at the Harshaw Trane facility is in the hometown of Senate Majority Mitch McConnell, who was not attending due to a scheduling conflict.