Trump news: President U-turns on intelligence chief, as he announces A$AP Rocky has been released
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Your support makes all the difference.Scuffles broke out after protesters waving an “Immigrants Built America” banner disrupted Donald Trump’s latest rally, where he continued his racist attacks on congressman Eljiah Cummings, the City of Baltimore, and "the squad".
The demonstrators held up the US president’s speech for nearly four minutes before they were kicked out of the event in Cincinnati, Ohio. But, the moment was only blip in the president's campaign rally where he offered up a flawed understanding of American immigration policy, trashed the idea of an independent judiciary, and slammed California for having homeless people and poverty.
Mr Trump, who appeared to make an obscene gesture as they left, also promised to cure childhood cancer, mocked FBI investigator Robert Mueller and boasted about the trade war with China – despite warnings from one of his former advisors, Gary Cohn, that it is damaging the US economy.
Follow the latest updates in our liveblog below
After the Justice Department decided not to charge former FBI director James Comey over his memos detailing his meetings with Donald Trump, the former top intelligence official slammed a critic of his on Twitter.
Congressman Mark Meadows had challenged Mr Comey for his "silence" on the matter in a Tweet that did not tag him.
“As the [inspector general] report on Comey approaches, we’re getting the sound of silence. No Comey tweets. No softball interviews,” Mr Meadows wrote then. “Must be tougher when you get questioned by a DOJ Inspector General. The truth is coming. His actions will come to light. And the verdict won’t be pretty.”
Mr Comey's response, after the Justice Department's review of that report: "I love transparency. I just wait for facts before I talk about them. I’m confident the results of all IG reports will show honest public servants worked hard to protect this country from a threat this president and his enablers won’t acknowledge. And @ me next time, bruh."
The 2020 Democratic primary race is likely all filled up, but filmmaker Michael Moore says he thinks one more candidate should join: Michelle Obama.
Ms Obama is well loved in the Democratic Party, just like her husband. And, apparently, Mr Moore thinks it would be enough to help her get to the White House.
Or, rather, he said she is the only candidate who could "crush" Mr Trump in 2020.
"In fact, it is Obama — Michelle Obama. Everybody watching this right know knows she is a beloved American, and she would go in there and she would beat him," Mr Moore said during an appearance on MSNBC.
"She would beat him in the debates, he wouldn’t be able to bully her, he wouldn’t be able to nickname her."
Yesterday, Donald Trump signed an executive order to impose further sanctions on Russia in response to a nerve-agent attack carried out last year on a former Russian spy in the UK.
The sanctions are the second round of financial stresses used in response to that attack.
Donald Trump has cheered news that rapper A$AP Rocky has been released from jail in Sweden, with a cheeky tweet.
Donald Trump has signed a spending bill that establishes a congressional budget for the years 2020 and 2021, and temporarily suspends the US debt limit.
The deal was sent to his desk on Thursday, and increases spending on defence, as well as many domestic programmes. And, the budget deal adds significantly to a skyrocketing US government debt load.
All told, the budget authorises $2.75 trillion in new defence and non-defence spending through the end of the 2021 fiscal year.
The statutory limit for the Treasury Department was also suspended until 31 July 2021 — an attempt by the president to avoid a potential default on debt through the next US election.
The deal "ensures our federal government will not approach any kind of debt crisis in the coming weeks or months," Mitch McConnell, the Senate majority leader, said.
Donald Trump has pulled his nomination of John Ratcliffe to becomes his director of national security.
Mr Trump is now speaking from the Roosevelt Room, where he has promised an announcement on EU trade.
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