Trump news: Impeachment calls grow as top Democrat endorses removal, while Planned Parenthood rejects funding over abortion restrictions

Hello and welcome to The Independent's rolling coverage of the Donald Trump administration.

Donald Trump is facing further ridicule after confirming his interest in buying Greenland - despite Denmark rejecting the idea as “absurd” - telling reporters in New Jersey: “The concept came up and... strategically it’s interesting and we’d be interested... It’s not number one on the burner, I can tell you that.”

The president said the idea originated in conversations between members of his administration and was essentially “a large real estate deal.” Greenland, a semi-autonomous territory administered from Copenhagen, is thought to be represent an attractive asset to the former real estate magnate because of its natural resources.

But the country's premier, Kim Nielsen, is having none of it. “Greenland is not for sale, but Greenland is open for trade and cooperation with other countries, including the USA,” he said in a statement.

Zamira Rahim has more.

The president moved over the weekend to reassure Americans on the economy, with Trump insisting as he jetted back to DC from his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey: “I don’t see a recession.”

”We’re doing tremendously well. Our consumers are rich. I gave a tremendous tax cut and they’re loaded up with money," he told the press.

He was busy spreading the same message on Twitter over the weekend - given that a strong economy is integral to his re-election prospects and consumer confidence dropped 6.4 per cent in July - tweeting: “Our economy is the best in the world, by far. Lowest unemployment ever within almost all categories. Poised for big growth after trade deals are completed.”

The president - clearly rattled - has upped the ante in his attacks on the media in recent days, apparently in response to reporting on the early economic warning signs that have begun to flash, despite US unemployment being near historic lows and relatively high marks by voters on Trump’s economic stewardship.

For one, global growth has been slowing. Last week, stock markets plunged as the yield on the 10-year Treasury note briefly fell below that of the two-year Treasury note, an unusual situation known as an inversion of the yield curve - considered one of the most reliable leading indicators of recession in the US.

Meanwhile, the consequences of Trump’s trade war with China have begun to be felt. His anxiety that the anti-democracy demonstrations in Hong Kong might delay a truce being agreed with Beijing has been particularly telling.

"I’d love to see it worked out in a humane fashion," Trump told reporters on Sunday. "It does put pressure on the trade deal."

He did at least acknowledge a potential impact on consumers from the tarriff war when he paused a planned 10 per cent tariff hike for many items coming from China, such as cellphones, laptops, video game consoles, some toys, computer monitors, shoes and clothing. 

"We're doing [it] just for Christmas season, just in case some of the tariffs could have an impact," he said yesterday.

The White House yesterday sent its top trade advisers out to push the same line.

On CNN's State of the Union, Peter Navarro dismissed a study from researchers at Harvard, the University of Chicago, the International Monetary Fund and the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston that showed the cost of Trump’s tariffs had "fallen largely on the US".

"There’s no evidence whatsoever that American consumers are bearing any of this,” he said, despite abundant data to the contrary. "They’re not hurting anybody here."

Navarro also joined in Trump's recurrent attacks on Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell: "[He] should look in the mirror and say, 'I raised rates too far, too fast, and I cost this economy a full percentage point of growth.'"

Last month, the Fed reduced its benchmark rate, which affects many loans for households and businesses, by a quarter-point to a range of 2 per cent to 2.25 per cent. It's the first rate cut since December 2008 during the depths of the Great Recession. Powell stressed that the central bank was worried about the consequences of Trump's trade war and sluggish economies overseas. 

On Fox News Sunday, economic adviser Larry Kudlow said the US economy "is kind of a miracle, because we face severe monetary restraint from the Fed."

"We're doing pretty darn well in my judgement. Let's not be afraid of optimism."

An appearance on Meet the Press inspired some to recall the same man's famous dismissal of the prospect of a recession in late 2007 (the US economic answer to Michael Fish and the hurricane).

Dave Maclean has more on Kudlow, whose slurred delivery inspired some on the internet to suggest he'd either had a late one on Saturday night or started drinking early doors.

Back to Twitter, where Trump has been busy predicting the demise of The New York Times, attacking the Democrats over Israel and branding Fox News pundit Juan Williams “always nasty and wrong”, having already complained about the broadcaster running polls unfavourable to him.

The Williams line followed this attack on the channel at Morrisown Municipal Airport:

Perhaps most bizarrely, he has also retweeted an old clip of Barack Obama - then an Illinois senator - speaking out against illegal immigration and a video montage of himself being nice to African-Americans set to the song "Donald Trump (Black Version)" thought to have been written by Prince for The Time in 1990. It appeared on their album Pandemonium.

As Rolling Stone points out, the track is satirical: "The song’s narrator attempts to woo a money-hungry lover by promising her a '$100 dinner at Adriano’s' and a 'brand-new coat or a brand-new hat'. The chorus goes: 'Donald Trump (black version), maybe that’s what you need. A man that fulfills your every wish, your every dream. Donald Trump (black version), come on take a chance. A 1990s love affair, the real romance.'”

Chris Baynes has more 280-character fire and fury for you.

Trump said he had spoken with Tim Apple... sorry, Apple CEO Tim Cook... on Sunday about the impact of US tariffs on Chinese imports as well as competition from South Korean company Samsung.

Trump said Cook "made a good case" that tariffs could hurt Apple, given that Samsung's products would not be subject to those same tariffs. Tariffs on an additional $300bn (£247bn) worth of Chinese goods, including consumer electronics, are scheduled to go into effect in two stages on 1 September and 15 December.

By contrast, the United States and South Korea struck a trade agreement last September.

"I thought he made a very compelling argument, so I'm thinking about it," Trump said of Cook.

US stock futures rose upon opening on Sunday after Trump's comments. In addition to his comments on Apple, Trump said on Twitter earlier in the day that his administration was "doing very well with China."

Apple's MacBook laptops and iPhones would not face the additional tariffs until 15 December, but some of the company's other products, including its AirPods, Apple Watch and HomePod, would be subject to the levies 1 on September.

Clark Mindock has this on Trump testing the loyalties of heartland farmers, who concede they are hurting from his China trade war but are not yet ready to abandon the president.

Former vice president Dick Cheney is to appear at a Trump fundraising lunch in Jackson, Wyoming, news that is being interpreted as a sign of the Republican establishment getting behind their man despite private disapproval over his methods.

Cheney has been critical of the president administration's foreign policy stances, particularly towards its Nato allies, and once said that Trump’s 2015 call for a “a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States” went “against everything [America] stands for and believes in.”

Conrad Duncan has more.

Ivanka Trump went camping with her young family over the weekend, posting scenes from her delightful life on social media.

Such posts, of course, attracted a storm of derision from hostile commentators - quick to point out her hypocrisy given the administration's appalling treatment of children in border detention centres and utterly regressive environmental record. 

Marianne Eloise has more for Indy100.

Trump's beef with Anthony Scaramucci, White House communications director for all of 11 days, rumbles on.

El Mooch tells Vanity Fair he thinks he knows the precise month Trump will drop out of the 2020 presidential race, which is surely fanciful in the extreme.

Darren Richman has more.