Trump news – live: Drug taken by president linked to increased risk of death, as poll shows 60 per cent of Americans disapprove of coronavirus response

Flashback Friday - Trump trolls Fox News pollsters after they show Biden ahead

Trump is trolling Fox pollsters after their latest survey showed Biden 8 points ahead in a national match-up.

The president tweeted out a screenshot of a Fox poll showing Clinton ahead by 10 points back in 2016, saying their "Fake Pollster" should be fired.

He then wondered why Fox News doesn't use a CNBC or CNN poll. I'd hazard a guess it's the same reason the CNN or CNBC don't use Fox polls. 

Nursing home in Michigan lockdown unaware of elderly patient beating until viral video surfaced on Twitter, Trump responds

A nursing home under strict Michigan coronavirus lockdown measures was unaware of an attack on an elderly patient until a viral video surfaced on Twitter, which prompted a response from Donald Trump.

"Is this even possible to believe? Can this be real?" the president wrote. "Where is this nursing home, how is the victim doing?"

The 75-year-old man from the Westwood Rehabilitation Nursing Centre in Detroit is being treated in a local hospital after being repeatedly punched in the face by another patient, who appeared to film the attack in two clips posted to Twitter.

The woman who first noticed the video and alerted police said that if the Detroit nursing home had been receiving visitors, action might have been taken sooner.

Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer has implemented some of the US's strictest coronavirus lockdown measures, which forbid elderly nursing home patients from having family visit.

This story is simply terrible. More at this report.

Man in boxer shorts jumps barricade, arrested on Pennsylvania Ave

While we're all waiting for Trump's impromptu press conference to begin, the AP's White House correspondent is reporting a man was arrested jumping a barricade on Pennsylvania Ave. 

No word if it is behind the delay.

BREAKING: Trump declares churches, synagogues and mosques as "essential". Urges to open right now.

"Today I'm identifying houses of worship, churches, synagogues, and mosques, as essential places that provide essential services," he said.

"Some governors have deemed liquor stores and abortion clinics as essential but have left out churches and other houses of worship. That's not right. So I'm correcting this injustice."

Church challenging coronavirus restrictions burnt to ground

A Mississipi church that challenged coronavirus restrictions has burnt down in a fire that police are investigating as arson.

First Pentecostal Church in Holly Springs was burnt to the ground on Wednesday, only a month after it filed a lawsuit against the city over coronavirus social distancing measures.

According to a number of reports, investigators found a note written in graffiti in the church parking lot that read: "Bet you stay home now you hypokrites."

Louise Hall has this report:

Go outside and enjoy the beach, hike, golf, tennis on Memorial Day, White House Coronavirus Task Force says

The White House Task Force coordinator Dr Deborah Birx today said Americans should go outside and enjoy the Memorial Day weekend but to keep social distancing.

"We're asking continuously for you all to be outside, to enjoy your Memorial Day weekend, to play golf, to hike as Dr [Anthony] Fauci said, to play tennis with marked balls, and to be out with your families that you have been in the household with, and to even consider sharing social distance space, as long as you have utensils that belong to individuals that can be thrown out immediately, there's a lot of things to think through," she said.

"As you go out this weekend understand you can go out, you can go outside, you can play golf, you can play tennis with marked balls, you can go to the beaches if you stay six feet apart, but remember that that is your space and it's a space you need to protect and ensure that you're social distancing for others."

Trump considering Obama presidential pardon?

In what appeared to be a clear set up for a PowerPoint slide presentation, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany was asked today if Trump was considering a presidential pardon for Obama's role in #Obamagate.

While that hadn't been discussed specifically, she said, she has been waiting for the White House press correspondents to challenge Obama's spokespeople.

She then went into her grand troll and loaded up her deck, which should give all of us working from home our fix of corporate office communications software until the country reopens.

"Perhaps if I write them out in a slide format maybe we're visual learners and you guys will follow up with journalistic curiosity," she said.

What was on her five-slide deck?

1. Why did the Obama Admin use opposition research funded by a political organization and filled with foreign dirt to spy on members of the trump campaign?
2. Why was Lt Gen Michael Flynn unmasked by Obama's chief of staff, Joe Biden, Susan Rice and others?
3. Why was Flynn's identity leaked -- a criminal act -- to the press?
4. Whey did the DOJ learn about the FBI's interest in Flynn's conversations with the Russian Ambassador from a conversation with Obama in the oval office?
5. Why did James Clapper, John Brennan Samantha, Power and Susan Rice privately admit under oath that they had no evidence of collusion, while saying the opposite publicly?

"It's a long weekend, you guys have three days to follow-up on those questions, and I certainly hope the next time I ask some hands go up, because Obama's spokesperson should be asked those questions because president trump's spokespeople certainly would be," she said before leaving without taking questions.

No word on whether Kayleigh had New York governor Andrew Cuomo help out with making this deck. He's a Power Point master user.

New York cases at lowest level since outbreak began, Cuomo says

Speaking of Cuomo, the governor said earlier today that number of new coronavirus cases per day in New York state is at the lowest they have been since the outbreak began.

"The number of new cases per day is down. This is a level now that is lower than when we first began, so that's good" Gov Cuomo said in his daily coronavirus briefing on Friday.

A daily case tracker by The New York Times recorded 2,078 new cases of the coronavirus in the state on Thursday.

Louise Hall has more.

Antimalarial drug taken by Trump-linked to 34 per cent increase in risk of death, study finds

On the day Trump was expected to end his two-week course of hydroxychloroquine, new research has linked the drug to an increased risk of death.

The president called hydroxychloroquine a "game changer" in the fight against the virus in March, and has promoted its use ever since, despite no evidence that it had any positive effect for patients infected with Covid-19.

Earlier this week he claimed that he had been taking the drug himself. "I get a lot of tremendously positive news on the hydroxy," Mr Trump said, adding: "What do you have to lose?"

Richard Hall has this report.

'Built Trump tough'

From The Independent's John T Bennett: There is nothing Donald Trump cannot and will not make all about Donald Trump -- especially when he is speaking in a key swing state. It turns out, not even the slogan of an iconic American automobile manufacturer is safe when that state's oh-so-coveted 16 Electoral College votes are up for grabs. There was little doubt on Thursday that the president was back in Michigan with his re-election bid very much at the front of his mind. He delivered a meandering speech that mostly focused on the state's Covid-19 pandemic response and that of his own administration. But, at times, it morphed into a dialed-down version of one of the campaign rallies he clearly can't wait to revive. Come Friday, he was making a major -- though legally baseless and largely symbolic -- play for religious voters in swing states.