Trump news – President boasts about playing golf ‘very fast' as Florida records biggest single-day increase in coronavirus cases

Good morning, and welcome to The Independent's liveblog on US President Donald Trump.

President Donald Trump was seen for the first time wearing a face mask in public during a visit to a military hospital, after months of ignoring advice to do so.

During the visit, he met with wounded service members and healthcare providers caring for Covid-19 patients.

Read Chiara Giordano's report on Mr Trump's first public appearance in a face mask below:

It "shouldn't be hard" for rapper Kanye West to siphon Black votes from former Vice President Joe Biden, President Donald Trump has said.

David Harris Jr, an advisor on the president's campaign's Black Voices for Trump advisory board, told Washington-based news site Just The News that Mr West's political strategy may be to "get some black votes that would have voted for Biden to actually vote for Kanye".

Mr West announced his plans to run for president earlier this month, but it may be too late for him to get on the ballot. Last week, the music icon distanced himself from supporting Mr Trump and said his presidency "looks like one big mess to me".

Despite Mr West appearing to hold the president at arm's length, Mr Trump retweeted the interview with Mr Harris and added: "That shouldn't be hard. Corrupt Joe has done nothing for Black people!"

Mueller says Stone remains a felon following Trump’s decision to commute prison sentence

Former special counsel Robert Mueller has defended his investigation into ties between Russia and Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and asserted that Trump ally Roger Stone “remains a convicted felon”.

An op-ed in the Washington Post marked Mr Mueller’s first public statement on his investigation since his congressional appearance last July.

It comes after the president’s extraordinary decision to commute Stone’s prison sentence on Friday, just days before the latter was due to report to prison.

Mr Mueller wrote: “The Russia investigation was of paramount importance. Stone was prosecuted and convicted because he committed federal crimes. He remains a convicted felon, and rightly so.”

The former FBI director has been exceedingly tight-lipped during the investigation and has refused to explain or justify his work - until this op-ed. Mr Mueller recounted how Stone tampered with a witness and lied repeatedly about his efforts to gain inside information about Democratic emails that Russian operatives stole and provided to WikiLeaks.

Mr Trump’s decision was also strongly condemned by Mitt Romney, describing it as “unprecedented, historic corruption”.

Additional reporting by AP

Trump demands extradition of former M16 officer Christopher Steele

The president demanded the extradition of Christopher Steele, the British former M16 officer who compiled the infamous dossier on the president’s ties with Russia.

Donald Trump tweeted on Saturday morning: “This man should be extradited, tried, and thrown in jail. A sick lier [sic] who was paid by Crooked Hillary & the DNC!”

He later tweeted: “Bring back Steele!!!”, and retweeted a link to a book on the Russia investigation by Gregg Jarrett, a legal and political analyst with Fox News.

Read the full report by Oliver O’Connell below:

‘Nobody ever heard’ Abraham Lincoln was a Republican until Trump came along, president claims

Donald Trump claimed that “nobody ever heard” Abraham Lincoln was a Republican until he became US president, during a roundtable discussion on Venezuela.

Speaking at his Doral golf resort in Florida, the president mostly ignored the issue of Venezuela and instead praised his administration’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic, which has seen a death toll over over 135,000 in the US alone.

He said: “The Republican Party has grown incredibly from when it was and we have a whole different group of people in the Republican Party.

“Like people don’t remember, nobody ever heard of it until I came along, nobody remembered it for a long time, or they didn’t use it at least, I use it all the time: Abraham Lincoln was a Republican.

“You know you say that and people say, ‘I didn’t know that’, but he was a Republican, so we’re doing a great job.”

Top infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci ‘made a lot of mistakes’, claims Trump

President Donald Trump criticised one of the country’s top infectious disease experts, telling Fox News’ Sean Hannity that Dr Anthony Fauci “has made a lot of mistakes”.

“A lot of them said don’t wear a mask, don’t wear a mask. Now they are saying wear a mask,” said the president.

“A lot of mistakes were made, a lot of mistakes.”

Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (AFP)Dr Fauci was a regular feature in the president’s daily coronavirus press briefings, but has not briefed Trump in at least two months, he told The Financial Times. According to the FT report, Dr Fauci last saw Trump in person at the White House on 2 June.

Last month, he contradicted Trump’s claim that he directed his healthy policy advisers to slow down the rate of testing, and said: “In fact, we will be doing more testing.”

Poll: Two-thirds of Americans disapprove of Trump’s handling of pandemic

A new poll by ABC News and Ipsos found 67 per cent of Americans disapprove of the Trump administration’s management of the Covid-19 crisis.

Americans’ opinion of the president’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic dropped to a new low since ABC News/Ipsos began surveying the crisis in March. Just one-third of the country approves of Donald Trump’s strategy in dealing with the outbreak, reported the broadcaster.

His approval ratings held steady over the last four months, but the newest poll found support among independents and even Republican voters plunging as the number of coronavirus infections in the US surges.

78 per cent of Republicans approve of his handling of the pandemic, compared to 90 per cent in mid-June.

Trump’s demand for schools to reopen part of re-election strategy

US President Donald J. Trump waves to the press as he returns to the White House in Washington (EPA)

The president’s push for schools in the US to fully reopen this fall is central to an emerging re-election strategy to boost his waning support in the country’s suburbs.

Donald Trump tweeted on Friday that “Schools must be open in the Fall” despite the resurgence of coronavirus cases across the country, and has repeatedly warned of rising urban crime rates as well as threats to civil order in the wake of the George Floyd protests.

Several people close to his campaign said the messaging hopes to appeal to suburban voters, particularly women, and to position Trump as the candidate of public safety and social and economic stability.

But the current US president is trailing behind his Democratic opponent, Joe Biden, in both national and state polls.

According to a Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted last week in the suburbs, only 36 per cent said they approve of Trump, while 59 per cent disapprove. Among suburban women, three in 10 approve of Trump, while four in 10 men support him.

Reporting by Reuters

Republican voters explain why they will not vote for Donald Trump in November

A group called Republican Voters Against Trump have released a video with several members explaining why they will not vote for Donald Trump in November, despite voting for him in 2016.

The ad, which was released on Friday and will aired on Fox News in Arizona and North Carolina on Sunday, includes 15 former Trump voters who say they were “embarrassed” and “riddled with guilt” to have supported him.

“Donald J. Trump has broken my faith in the Republican party,” said one man in the video.

The group is a project by advocacy organisation Defending Democracy. Strategic director Sarah Longwell said in a statement to The Huffington Post: “Research shows that in order to win over swing voters who went with Trump last time, the most effective messenger to give them permission to change their mind is someone like them, former Trump voters.”

Watch the video below: