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As it happenedended

Trump news: President says 'America must win' 5G technology race as migrant revenge plan emerges

Follow the latest updates from Washington

Chelsea Ritschel
New York
Friday 12 April 2019 15:40 EDT
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Compilation of Donald Trump mentioning Wikileaks during 2016 election campaign

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Donald Trump said his administration is indeed “giving strong considerations” to placing detained migrants in sanctuary cities, citing unwillingness by Democrats to “change our very dangerous immigration laws,” sparking nationwide backlash.

The president’s response to claims the White House had proposed sending detainees to sanctuary cities twice in the last six months came hours after White House officials said the idea had been proposed but ultimately rejected.

Mr Trump doubled-down on the possibility while speaking at the White House, prompting mayors of “sanctuary cities” to dismiss the president’s claims.

During his White House appearance Friday, the president also discussed the nation’s plans for implementing 5G wireless network.

According to the president and the FCC, the US will have the largest number of 5G networks of any country by the end of the year, a race Mr Trump said America “must win”.

In addition to bringing faster data speeds, the wireless industry’s plans to invest millions into 5G networks would create 3m jobs and add “$500bn to our economy,” according to the president.

Also on Friday, reports emerged that the president told the head of Customs and Border Protection that he would pardon him if he were sent to jail for violating immigration law.

Citing two officials, CNN reported Mr Trump made the comments to CBP commissioner Kevin McAleenan during a visit to the border last week, claims the Department of Homeland Security has denied.

Ivanka Trump was also involved in controversy Friday after the president revealed in an interview with The Atlantic that he had considered nominating her for president of the World Bank because she is “very good with numbers”.

Follow events as they happened.

Also from Fox: here's Lara and Eric Trump.

Really have to disagree with Larahere. Her father-in-law is by no means "always right".

He literally lied about WikiLeaks yesterday!

Joe Sommerlad12 April 2019 14:20

Here's a reminder of this morning's big story: the Trump administration's plan to dump detained asylum seekers on "sanctuary cities" as revenge for Democrats blocking the president's US-Mexico border wall during the shutdown. 

Joe Sommerlad12 April 2019 14:40

And here's news of Illinois's new bill to ensure the release of Donald Trump's tax returns: they'll leave him off 2020 ballot papers if he fails to comply.

Joe Sommerlad12 April 2019 14:45

Here's President Trump raging about the lack of coverage (he says) of the indictment of Obama administration lawyer Greg Craig over his post-White House consultation work in Ukraine in 2012.

Which was carried out with the involvement of Paul Manafort, Trump's own former campaign manager. You sure you want to bang this particular drum Don?

He's going after The New York Times and Washington Post - familiar foes he has regularly called out in the past.

We covered the Craig affair right here yesterday - here's Chris Riotta's full report.

Joe Sommerlad12 April 2019 14:50

He's now back to bashing the Democrats: "They should stop wasting time and money and get back to real legislating, especially on the Border!"

Joe Sommerlad12 April 2019 14:55

He used to angrily yell at newspaper headlines??

Joe Sommerlad12 April 2019 14:57

This is illuminating on Fox's growing obsession with AOC, suggesting a fear of her emergence as an influential Democratic force appealing to the young.

They've called her everything from a "fake revolutionary" to "the Steve Bannon of the left".

Joe Sommerlad12 April 2019 15:13

More from that Atlantic piece on Ivanka.

- Trump sometimes refers to her as "Baby" in meetings. Yuck.

- “If she ever wanted to run for president, I think she’d be very, very hard to beat,” he says.

- He also works overtime to persuade journalist Elaina Plott he is equally fond of all his children, not entirely convincingly: "Barron is young, but he’s got wonderful potential... And Tiffany’s doing extremely well. Don is, uh, he’s enjoying politics; actually, it’s very good. And Eric is running the business along with Don, and also very much into politics. I mean, the children - the children have been very, very good.”

- Even when praising his favourite, he can't resist turning it into a self-congratulatory compliment towards himself: "She’s got a great calmness… I’ve seen her under tremendous stress and pressure. She reacts very well - that’s usually a genetic thing, but it’s one of those things, nevertheless."

- She gets up at 5.30am every morning, eats crackers, cottage cheese and fruit for breakfast and is referred to as "Ivanks" by husband Jared Kushner.

- Michael Jackson came to see her perform in The Nutcracker at school at the invitation of her mother Ivana.

- She dyed her hair blue as a teenager.

- On her fractious relationship with ex-chief of staff John Kelly, Plott quotes a source as saying: “He kind of walked in and looked at Ivanka like, What the fuck is Barbie doing in the West Wing?” He hated Kushner even more and feared a complete takeover by WhatsApp.

- Her office resembles the clean white of an Apple store.

- She owns a copy of Stewart Harvey's book Playa Fire about the Burning Man Festival, hinting at a desire to run away from her life and drop acid in the desert.

Joe Sommerlad12 April 2019 15:30

Not entirely sure which Democrats he is referring to here. Big fan of "BAD (outrageous)" though.

Joe Sommerlad12 April 2019 15:38

Bernie Sanders says he has raised a $1m (£763,000) in grassroots donations for his 2020 campaign.

The editing of this video might make you ill though.

Joe Sommerlad12 April 2019 15:54

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