Trump now says 15,000 troops could be sent to the southern border

President Trump on Wednesday told reporters that 15,000 U.S. troops could ultimately be deployed to the southern border.

The Pentagon had been planning on sending "more than 7,000" troops to assist Border Patrol agents. The number of troops being deployed goes up the closer it gets to Election Day on Nov. 6, however; last week, only 800 to 1,000 troops were getting ready to go to the border, and that number jumped to 5,200 on Monday.

Trump, who has been working to mobilize his base, insists the troops need to head to the border as a caravan of Central American migrants makes its way through Mexico. The caravan of some 4,000 migrants is about 1,000 miles away from the border, and it's unclear how many of those people might try to apply for asylum in the U.S. Many are fleeing violence and poverty in their home countries.

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Defense Secretary James Mattis on Wednesday rejected the idea that the military is being politicized, saying: "We don't do stunts." There are 15,000 or so U.S. service members in Afghanistan, and about 5,000 stationed in Iraq.