Trump news: President’s niece slams him over reports he called war dead ‘losers’ and ‘suckers’ as ex-FBI agent says agency wondered if he was ‘Manchurian candidate’

US has seen no proof yet of ‘tragic’ Navalny poisoning, says Trump

(AFP)

Donald Trump has said the US must look “very seriously” into the suspected poisoning of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, but that his administration has not yet seen any proof.

Speaking at a news conference, he also told journalists they should be focusing on China, not Russia.

“It’s tragic. It’s terrible, it shouldn’t happen. We haven’t had any proof yet, but I will take a look,” said the president.

His stand on the issue was not as strong as the State Department, which earlier on Friday expressed grave concern about the finding that Mr Navalny was poisoned.

Department spokesperson Morgan Ortagus said in a statement the Deputy Secretary of State, Stephen Biegun, “urged Russia to cooperate fully with the international community’s investigation into this attack”.

Mr Biegun met Russian ambassador Anatoliy Antonov in Washington earlier on Friday, and told him that Moscow’s use of the this chemical weapon would be a clear violation of its obligations under the Chemical Weapons Convention.

Mr Navalny has been hospitalised in Germany, who said he was poisoned with a Soviety-style Novichok nerve agent. Russia has not opened a criminal investigation and said there is no evidence yet of a crime.

Donald Trump Jr renews attack on TikTok, claims it could ‘weaponise your kids’ data’

(Reuters)

Donald Trump Jr has just joined TikTok competitor Triller and is using the new platform to criticise the wildly popular TikTok while touting Triller as an “American company”.

In a seven-minute video posted to Triller, the president’s eldest son claimed TikTok, which has until 15 September to sell off its US business over concerns that its ties to China pose a threat to national security, was nefarious.

Speaking directly to parents, Mr Trump Jr claimed: “When you have an app like TikTok where the Chinese government could be turning on your kid’s camera, turning on your kid’s video, listening in, turning on their mic at any random time not just when they’re using the app.

“This goes so much further. Having access to all your photos and contacts and emails and the spyware that’s there. I mean this is something that could haunt your kids forever.”

TikTok said its app has been downloaded by 100 million users in the US alone and and has made efforts to sue the president’s executive order.

Trump repeats suggestions his supporters should try to vote twice

(Getty)

President Donald Trump suggested again to his supporters that they should attempt to vote in person even if they have already voted by mail as a way to check that their vote is counted - even though voting twice in the same election is a federal crime, reported CNN.

During a virtual rally in North Carolina on Friday night, which was posted on Facebook, Mr Trump went into detail about how he wanted his supporters to vote.

He said if they vote by mail, they should also go to their polling place to “see whether of not your mail-in vote has been tabulated or counted, noting that they will not be able to vote if it’s been counted.

“If it has not been counted, vote - which is every citizen’s right to do - you go and vote,” he said.

“You press the lever and vote. So if it hasn’t been counted, if it doesn’t show up, go and vote and then, if your mail-in ballot arrives after you vote, which is shouldn’t but possibly it could perhaps, that ballot will not be used or counted in that your vote has already been cast and tabulated, so this way you’re guaranteed to have your vote count.

“So send it in. And then see and then vote and let’s see what happens.”

Trump claims unemployment rate ‘better than expected’

The US unemployment rate fell to 8.4 per cent in August, dipping below 10 per cent for the first time since the coronavirus pandemic hit. 

Unemployment is still significantly higher than pre-pandemic levels of 3.5 per cent in February, while only half of the 22 million jobs lost during the crisis have been recovered.

Donald Trump said the latest unemployment rate is “much better than expected”, and said on Twitter the figures were “Great Jobs Numbers”.

Alex Woodward has the report:

Boris Johnson ‘fascinated’ by Donald Trump, says ex-diplomat

(AFP/Getty Images)

A former British Ambassador to the US has said Boris Johnson is fascinated by US president Donald Trump and has probably been inspired by his US counterpart.

Lord Darroch wrote in a new book serialised in The Times that the UK prime minister is intrigued by Mr Trump’s patchy relationship “with facts and the truth”.

Lord Darroch wrote that Mr Johnson had been “fascinated” by Mr Trump on visits to Washington as foreign secretary, before he became prime minister, and was particularly focused on the president’s use of language.

This includes “the limited vocabulary, the simplicity of the messaging, the disdain for political correctness, the sometimes incendiary imagery, and the at best intermittent relationship with facts and the truth”.

Speaking in an interview that accompanied the excerpts, the former ambassador also said that Mr Trump considered Mr Johnson “a kindred spirit”.

Lord Darroch resigned following the leaking of a cable in which he said Mr Trump was “inept” as president.

US ready to help in China-India border dispute, says Trump

The president has said the US is happy to help resolve the dispute between India and China over the border that runs through the western Himalayas.

Donald Trump said the situation was “very nasty”, adding that India and China were “going at it much more strongly than a lot of people even understand”.

In June, a clash between both sides of the border resulted in 20 Indian soldiers being killed in hand-to-hand fighting. Since then, both sides have deployed additional forces along the frontier.

India and China’s defence ministers held talks in Moscow on Friday, the highest level face-to-face political contact since tensions flared along the disputed border in May.

Mr Trump told reporters: “We stand ready to help with respect to China and India. If we can do anything, we would love to get involved and help.”

However, China previously said there was no need for a third party to mediate the dispute and India has also appeared cool to the idea.

Reporting by Reuters

Part of Trump’s border wall at risk of collapse just months after building it

New engineering reports claim that part of the Trump administration’s border wall between the US and Mexico is at risk of collapsing just months after it was built.

The part of the border wall, constricted at the shore of Rio Grande, is at risk of collapsing because of construction flaws, said the reports, which are to be filed in federal court this week.

Tommy Fisher, who owns the construction company that built the part of the wall, dismissed any concerns of erosion and said “the wall will stand for 150 years”.

James Crump reports:

Trump calls for Fox News reporter to be sacked after she backed 'suckers' report

Fox News’ security correspondent Jennifer Griffin has backed The Atlantic’s report which alleges Donald Trump called dead US soldiers “suckers” and “losers”.

On Friday, she confirmed much of the reporting about Mr Trump’s apparent disdain for veterans.

The president attacked Fox News over its coverage, called for Ms Griffin’s firing and suggested his former Chief of Staff John Kelly could have been an anonymous source quoted in the article, reports Tom Embury-Dennis.

Read the full story here:

Trump calls anti-racist training for federal agencies ‘a sickness’

Donald Trump is ordering federal agencies to stop funding training on anti-racism topics, including “critical race theory:” and “taxpayer dollars”, calling such training “a sickness that cannot be allowed to continue”.

According to a memorandum from the Office of Management and Budget director Russell Vought, the Trump administration labelled such training as “divisive, anti-American propaganda”.

In a tweet on Saturday morning, sharing a Breitbart article on the subject, Mr Trump said: “This is a sickness that cannot be allowed to continue. Please report any sightings so we can quickly extinguish!”

Ex-FBI agent calls attacks from Trump 'outrageous' and 'cruel'

Former FBI agent Peter Strozk has detailed his fall from the Trump administration in his upcoming book, Compromised: Counterintelligence and the Threat of Donald J. Trump, set to release next week. 

Mr Strozk spent his career hunting Russians and Chinese spies as a veteran counterintelligence agent. But then text messages released of him making derogatory comments about President Donald Trump while working for the Trump administration. 

This led to a number of attacks from the president and his supporters. 

"Being subjected to outrageous attacks up to and including by the president himself, which are full of lies and mischaracterisations and just crude and cruel, is horrible," Mr Strzok told The Associated Press in an interview. "There's no way around it."

In his upcoming book, Mr Strozk details his career in the FBI up to his fall from grace with the Trump administration. 

"I deeply regret casually commenting about the things I observed in the headlines and behind the scenes, and I regret how effectively my words were weaponized to harm the Bureau and buttress absurd conspiracy theories about our vital work," Mr Strzok wrote.

His comments not only sparked criticism from the president, his supporters, and his administration, but it also sparked backlash from Mr Trump's critics. This is partially because Mr Strozk's personal comments on a government phone gave Mr Trump ammunition to claim the investigation into his campaign's ties with Russia during the 2016 were driven with a political bias. 

No proof, besides the texts, have shown that Mr Strozk's investigation into Russia was led by a political bias. Multiple probes have since proved there was interference from Russia into the 2016 presidential election. But the text messages remain a stain on the investigation. 

Mr Strozk said he wanted his book to provide insights into the Clinton probe, the Russian interference with the election, and "first and foremost, the counterintelligence threat that I see in Donald Trump."

"To do that," he told the Associated Press, "I wanted to show the reader what happened but also why they should believe me."

The Associated Press contributed to this report