Trump news: President shrugs off White House shooting mid-briefing as he doubles down on wild Covid claims and attacks Biden's faith

Reddit hacked to back Trump

Hundreds of Reddit communities have been targeted by supporters of Donald Trump, with numerous posts and images flooding subreddits on the social media to site to promote the president’s re-election campaign.

A number of non-political groups, according to a support post on Reddit.

“There is an ongoing incident with moderator accounts being compromised and used to vandalise subreddits,” the post reads.

“We’re working on locking down the bad actors and reverting the changes”, the post continues.

Since the attack took place, Reddit has said it is “letting owners back into their accounts”.

“An investigation is underway related to a series of vandalised communities. It appears the source of the attacks were compromised moderator accounts. We are working to lock down those accounts and restore impacted communities,” Reddit said in a statement.

Adam Smith reports:

More on Trump's Mount Rushmore comments

Donald Trump on Sunday night suggested that his face should be carved into Mount Rushmore, following reports that his office contacted the governor of South Dakota to discuss the idea.

“Based on all of the many things accomplished during the first 3 1/2 years, perhaps more than any other Presidency, sounds like a good idea to me!” Mr Trump tweeted.

The president had been responding to a report by The New York Times claiming that one of his aides contacted Kristi Noem, the Republican governor of South Dakota, about having his face added to the sculpture.

According to the NYT report, White House officials contacted the governor’s office in 2019, asking about how the process of adding presidents to the monument worked.

Matt Mathers reports:

Biden’s VP decision 

The Democrat’s long-awaited decision on who will be his vice presidential candidate could  — at least temporarily — turn attention towards his campaign.

According to the Associated Press (AP), that's not a place many Democrats are comfortable with, given Joe Biden's proclivity for gaffes and the persistent lack of excitement behind his candidacy.

That included one moment last week, when he appeared to walk-back on the suggestion that Black Americans were less diverse than Latinos. 

Still, Mr Biden’s choice is an unusual opportunity to unify a party still reeling from Mr Trump's 2016 win and solidify its future, and he’s already committed to selecting a woman - several of whom are Black. 

And since the 77-year-old Mr Biden has not committed to seeking a second term, his running mate could be strongly positioned to become the Democratic Party's presidential nominee in 2024 and shape national politics for the next decade.

Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia, who served as Hillary Clinton's vice presidential nominee in 2016, said Biden's decision "may be the most closely held and personally driven vice presidential pick ever."

"Nobody knows this job better than Joe Biden and nobody did the job better than Biden, so he's gonna really control this one on his own," Mr Kaine said in an interview.

While Biden has said a top priority is selecting someone who could step into the presidency on Day One, he could become the first presidential nominee of a major party to select a woman of colour. 

While promised months ago to pick a woman, the nation's reckoning with systemic racism has added pressure to pick a Black woman.

But it's not certain that he will do so. Last weekend, he met privately with Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, who is white. 

Mr Biden has said publicly she remains on his short list. Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who is white, has also been a leading contender.

That announcement is now expected to come within the next week, after he appeared to suggest on Sunday that he had made his decision, when questioned by Fox News. 

AP

Trump campaigning dubbed 'stealing' from taxpayers 

Donald Trump has been accused of stealing from American taxpayers with his use of the presidential office for campaigning, with one former government advisor describing Mr Trump's plans to stage his Republican renomination speech at the White House as "a form of stealing".

In an interview with NBC News, Norm Eisen, who was president Barack Obama's special counsel and special assistant for ethics and government reform, said Mr Trump's presidency had increasingly blurred the lines between governing and campaigning.

"The taxpayer entrusts funds to the government to do the official business of the government. If they want to support a political candidate, they make a political contribution," said Mr Eisen.

"For Trump to effectively be reaching into all of our pockets to subsidise his proposed activity on the South Lawn...no, the taxpayer should not have to pay for that."

Those comments come after the president suggested last week that he would hold his Republican renomination speech on the White House lawn, with traditional conventions for both the main parties cancelled amid the coronavirus pandemic. 

Mr Trump has previously used daily coronavirus briefings to play campaign-style videos, taken multiple official presidential trips since March to make public speeches, and previously advocated for the US to host a G7 summit as his Doral resort in Florida. 

Chinese sanctions on Cruz, Rubio and others

Here's more on the earlier announcement by China's foreign ministry, who said on Monday morning that it would impose retaliatory sanctions against 11 American politicians and civil society leaders, including US senators Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio, starting the same day.

It follows the Trump administration’s decision on Friday to impose sanctions on 11 top Hong Kong and Chinese officials whom it accused of curtailing political freedoms in the city, and is the latest in escalating tension between the world's largest economies.

Adam Forrest has the latest:

'America first' for potential Covid-19 vaccine

Trump administration health secretary Alex Azar declared today that any US-developed coronavirus vaccine would be shared with the rest of the world – but only after Americans’s needs have been served.

Speaking to reporters on a visit to Taiwan, Mr Azar made clear that the the US government’s vaccine development programme – christened “Operation Warp Speed” – is principally aimed at tackling the domestic outbreak.

“Our first priority of course is to develop and produce enough quantity of safe and effective FDA-approved vaccines and therapeutics for use in the United States,” the secretary said.

Andrew Naughtie reports: 

Trump criticises Democrats over covid-19 bill

"They know my phone number!", wrote Donald Trump on Monday after Democrats condemned Mr Trump's plan to bypass Congress with four executive orders addressing the fallout from the coronavirus pandemic.

In a Twitter post aimed at Democrats Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer, president Trump claimed the pair had stalled negotiations with demands.

In a joint statement on Saturday night, Ms Pelosi and Mr Schumer had said they were "disappointed that instead of putting in the work to solve Americans’ problems, the president instead chose to stay on his luxury golf course to announce unworkable, weak and narrow policy announcements".

Mnuchin says Congress deal possible

...and as Donald Trump sent that Twitter post on Monday, his treasury secretary, Steven Mnuchin, suggested that an agreement between the Trump administration and Congressional Democrats on further economic relief could come as soon as this week if Democrats are "reasonable."

In an interview on CNBC, Mr Mnuchin said there was room for compromise on a deal for more aid and that legislation should get passed, but he declined to say when talks could resume.

Reuters 

More on Mnuchin's comments to CNBC

Donald Trump's treasury secretary, Steven Mnuchin, described Democrat demands for a trillion dollars in state and local coronavirus funding as "unreasonable", as he suggested that negotiations between Trump officials and Democrats would continue on the latest stimulus package.  

"There is still a lot of things we need to do, and that we've agreed on," said Mr Mnuchin. 

It comes after the president announced executive orders bypassing stalled Congress talks, on Saturday. 

Schumer denies Trump's claims over Democrat calls

Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer has denied president Trump’s claim that Democrats called him to resume negotiations, after he announced executive orders bypassing Congress negotiations for the next coronavirus relief bill.

“Fables from Donald Trump,” said Mr Schumer in an interview on MSNBC this morning, reports CNN. “I didn’t call him, Speaker Pelosi didn’t call him, no we didn’t call him.”

He continued: “I’ve seen zero evidence that he’s involved at all, he just makes things up,”

Those comments come as president Trump named the top two Democrats in Congress in a Monday morning tweet, saying "they know my phone number!"

The night before, he told reporters “The Democrats have called. They’d like to get together.”

Mr Schumer, who denied those claims, meanwhile called the president’s executive actions "laughable", whilst suggesting that talks could still move forward.  

“It may well be that the Republicans are willing to now sit down with us because they see what they were hanging their hat on, these executive orders, are just being more or less regarded at best as ineffective,” Mr Schumer said.