Trump news: President disagrees with official CDC warning in rambling coronavirus conference as he puts Pence in charge

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

White House appoints 23-year-old student to top role

Donald Trump’s White House is facing criticism for its “insane and depressing” decision to hire 23-year-old college James Bacon for a post in its powerful Presidential Personnel Office under new director John McEntee.

Bacon is a senior at George Washington University where he is a bachelor’s degree and previously spent time as a policy aide at Elaine Chou's Department of Transportation and Ben Carson's Department of Housing and Urban Development, according to Politico.

Bacon is replacing 70-year-old Katja Bullock and will be "overseeing paperwork and will assist on vetting", says Politico.

US politics expert Brian Klaas was among the first to mock the appointment by McEntee - prioritising loyalty ahead of experience - who is himself just 29 and was the president's former body man until he was sacked by then-chief of staff John Kelly in 2018 when gambling allegations against him prompted security concerns.

McEntee is replacing Sean Doocey, who was recently moved to the State Department.

The whole business reminds me of this glorious scene in Armando Ianucci's satire In The Loop (2009) in which Peter Capaldi's fearsome Downing Street spin doctor Malcolm Tucker visits 1600 Pennsylvannia Avenue and is appalled by the youth and inexperience he encouters.

Here's Rory Sullivan's report.

President leaves India after being shielded from violent anti-Muslim riots

Trump has just returned from his two-day visit to India where he set in place a lucrative $3bn (£2.3bn) arms deal with Narendra Modi and toured the country’s beauty spots while being shielded from the outbreak of anti-Muslim riots, which left at least 20 people dead in New Dehli.

The White House says it has agreed to "promptly" conclude its ongoing talks with the Modi administration, which it hopes will lead to the first phase of a bilateral US-India trade deal.

Ahead of Trump's trip, negotiators from the two sides wrangled for months to narrow differences on farm goods, medical devices, digital trade and new tariffs.

"If the deal happens with India it will be at the end of this year and if it doesn't happen then we will do something else," he said on Tuesday. The president added that the US expects to be treated fairly and given reciprocal access to India's market after criticising the country's high tariffs.

All of which will allow Trump to pronounce the visit a success despite its coinciding with brutal clashes in the capital between Hindu and Muslim groups over a new citizenship law.

"There are 20 people dead and 189 injured," a senior doctor from the Guru Teg Bahadur Hospital told Reuters on Wednesday. Separately, an official at the Al-Hind Hospital in New Delhi said the facility had treated more than 200 injured people since Monday, many with severe injuries.

After some of the worst violence in the capital in decades, police used tear gas, pellets and smoke grenades, but struggled to disperse stone-throwing mobs. On Wednesday, parts of the riot-hit areas were deserted and a witness saw paramilitary and police forces deployed in much greater numbers.

Witnesses told Reuters they saw mobs wielding sticks, pipes and stones walking down streets in parts of northeast Delhi on Tuesday, amid incidents of arson, looting and stone-pelting. Thick clouds of black smoke billowed from a tyre market that was set ablaze, as fire trucks rushed to control the flames. Shots could be heard in the area and many of the wounded had suffered gunshot injuries, hospital officials said.

"The situation is relatively better than yesterday in the violence hit areas," Atul Garg, the director of the Delhi fire department said on Wednesday, adding the fire department had stationed more vehicles and senior officials in the area. "There are no rioters on the streets and our vehicles have been able to reach the area," he said. At least two mosques in northeast Delhi were set on fire in the rioting. 

On Wednesday, the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) said in a tweet that it was alarmed by the violence and it urged the Indian government "to rein in mobs and protect religious minorities and others who have been targeted."

The sectarian violence erupted between thousands demonstrating for and against the new citizenship law introduced by Modi's Hindu nationalist government.

India's capital has been the epicentre of unrest against the Citizenship Amendment Act, which makes it easier for non-Muslims from some neighbouring Muslim-dominated countries to gain Indian citizenship.

Critics say the law is biased against Muslims and undermines India's secular constitution. Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party has denied it has any bias against India's more than 180m Muslims.

India's home minister Amit Shah, who is directly responsible for law and order in the national capital area, held multiple high-level meetings on Tuesday to assess the situation and urged politicians to avoid provocative speeches that could fan tensions. The Home Ministry also appointed a special commissioner of the Delhi Police to help bring the situation under control.

'Great scientist' Trump ridiculed by rivals over coronoavirus

On the debate stage in South Carolina on Tuesday night, Trump came under fire for his handling of the coronavirus from his Democratic challengers.

Bernie and Amy Klobuchar got in the most effective digs at his laissez faire approach to the crisis, with the former especially cutting:

"In the White House today, we have a self-described great genius - self-described - and this great genius has told us that this coronavirus is going to end in two months.

"April is the magical date that this great scientist we have in the White House has determined - I wish I was kidding. That is what he said."

The president responded angrily on Twitter, as you might have expected.

That wasn't enough to stop him becoming a meme though.

Here's Phil Thomas's report on the American response to the situation as San Francisco declares a state of emergency.

Trump hails 'very successful' trip on return to White House - again ignoring deadly riots and downplaying virus

Here's the president sounding glad to be home and again whitewashing the fatal clashes in New Dehli and glossing over the coronavirus threat.

While his administration insists the outbreak is under control (adviser Larry Kudlow: "We have contained this... it's pretty close to airtight"), the Centres for Disease Conrtol and Prevention are warning Americans to prepare for widespread disruption to their daily routines.

Trump's opposition are not the only ones going after him about the epidemic: Republican Mitt Romney - still a pariah within the GOP for voting for breaking ranks to vote for Trump's impeachment - has also been highly critical.

Here's Oliver O'Connell on the latest rebellion of "Pierre Delecto".

Chaotic showdown sees Sanders and Bloomberg face attacks from all sides as Biden reclaims his time

Here's Chris Riotta with an overview of last night's debate, which saw the candidates largely focus their fire on front-runner Bernie Sanders and wealthy newcomer Michael Bloomberg.

Elizabeth Warren again put Bloomberg to the sword over his treatment of women, accusing him of telling a female employee to "kill it" when she revealed she had become pregnant in 1995 - a remark the billionnaire flatly denied ever saying.

Bernie Sanders calls Benjamin Netanyahu 'reactionary racist'

In one of the standout moments of the debate, the Vermont senator spoke about his pride in being Jewish before laying into Israeli prime minister and Trump ally Benjamin Netanyahu in uncompromising fashion.

"You cannot ignore the suffering of the Palestinian people," he told his audience in Charleston.

Rory Sullivan has this one.

Joe Biden campaign admits he did not get arrested for trying to visit Nelson Mandela in prison during apartheid

The former vice-president cut a belligerant and combative figure last night, bickering with the CBS moderators for interrupting his answers and looking straight down the camera to threaten the National Rifle Association.

But, in a further embarrassment for the gaffe-prone veep, his team have been forced to correct an assertion he has repeatedly made on the campaign trail recently about his adventures in South Africa in the 1980s.

Here's Conrad Duncan to explain.

Who won and lost the latest 2020 showdown?

After a bad-tempered and inconclusive evening, the right will certainly tell you that the president was the real victor.

"If we spend the next four months tearing our party apart, we're going to watch Donald Trump spend the next four years tearing our country apart," said Amy Klobuchar, a remark with much more truth to it than most political soundbites.

Here's Phil Thomas to offer his view.

Amy Klobuchar: 'This president just likes to do tweets at 4am in his bathrobe’

Another good line from the Minnesota senator last night and one entirely borne out by his busy tweeting schedule aboard Air Force One overnight, with Trump firing out retweetes from The Daily Caller, Lou Dobbs, Mark Levin and his own national press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, most of which either talking down the coronavirus or the threat posed by Bernie at the polls.

He also took credit for the ratings success of Fox News...

...and posted this odd throwback from January 2017, in which a supporter thanked him for giving up his "wonderful life" to serve the country.

He's just been to the Taj Mahal for free!!!