Trump news – live: President says he would have done ‘nothing’ differently to stop pandemic as death toll nears 94,000 and will soon stop taking hydroxychloroquine
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Your support makes all the difference.Donald Trump travelled to Michigan to tour a Ford factory making ventilators for the coronavirus pandemic. He said he wore a mask in the back room, but didn't want to give the press the pleasure of seeing him wear it, even though it looked very nice on him. Even better than without a mask.
Michigan's attorney general Dana Nessel says Trump is not welcome back to the state after refusing to wear the mask, and she threatened Ford with legal action for allowing him to do so.
Trump may hold back federal funding from the state, which has suffered catastrophic flooding after two dams broke. He has tied unspecified funding to mail-in voting, which he says leads to mass voter fraud.
Trump has said he would have done "nothing" differently to stop the spread of the coronavirus - even as a new Columbia University model indicates that going into lockdown two weeks earlier would have saved 36,000 American lives. The country's death toll is currently approaching 94,000.
Internationally and interplanetary, Trump confirmed that the US has pulled out of the Open Skies weapons treaty with Russia while saying he might attend the NASA SpaceX launch of two Americans to the International Space Station next week.
He also revealed that he will stop taking the controversial anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine "in two days", which he has been heavily criticised for by his usual cheerleaders over at Fox News.
The president's day ended with a Twitter rant lamenting that Fox News was littered with garbage because they were doing nothing to help him get re-elected in November, while his former fixer Michael Cohen was released from prison early with the ominous comment that "there is so much I want to say".
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Mark Zuckerberg ‘pretty confident’ Facebook can protect integrity of 2020 election
Well that's all right then.
Andrew Naughtie has this report on the social media giant's plans for preventinga repeat of 2016, which saw widespread disinformation and Russian bots running amok.
Nancy Pelosi says Trump and his aides are children with 'doggy doo' on their shoes, doubling down on obesity comments
In case you missed this extraordinary turn of phrase from the House speaker yesterday, Pelosi has been at it again.
Having called the president "morbidly obese" earlier this week and then rather wryly claimed that she "didn't know he was so sensitive" when he reacted angrily to it, she has since explained that she's just "giving him a dose of his own medicine".
What, Clorox?
Trump's disgraced former lawyer Michael Cohen to be released from prison
The president's ex-attorney -currently serving a three-year prison stretch for lying to Congress and campaign finance violations involving the paying out of hush money to Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal over their claims to have had affairs with Trump - will serve the remainder of his sentence at home during the coronavirus pandemic.
He is among the non-violent offenders being released by federal corrections agencies as prisons become vulnerable to the spread of the virus and is expected to be allowed home today.
Oh what tales he could tell...
Here's Alex Woodward on his early release.
President’s campaign funding steps up in April
Trump raised $16.9m (£14m) in April for his re-election campaign, ending the month with $107.7m (£88m) in cash, according to a disclosure filed on Wednesday with the Federal Election Commission.
The funds gathered in April marked an increase from March when Trump's campaign committee raised $13.6m (£11m).
Both Trump and Joe Biden appear to be stepping up their fundraising despite the coronavirus pandemic, which has hammered the US economy and disrupted election campaigns.
Biden said earlier this month that, when combined with his party, he raised $60.5m (£49.5m) in April, slightly below the $61.7m (£50.4m) that Trump and his Republican Party raised.
US unemployment rises by further 2.4m in one week
Good grief.
That takes the nine-week total since the US entered its coronavirus lockdown to a almost 39m.
And this is what happened the last time someone attempted to ask Trump what he intended to do about it.
Here's Chris Riotta's report.
Dr Fauci to take over Julia Roberts' Instagram to spread awareness of coronavirus
The A-lister is one of a gaggle of celebrities - also including Millie Bobby Brown, Penelope Cruz, Sarah Jessica Parker, James McEvoy, Hugh Jackman, Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson - who are handing over their social media platforms to the popular director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases to get the word out about Covid-19.
Gino Spocchia has this report on the #PassTheMic project.
Democrats send letter to Trump demanding flags fly at half mast when US coronavirus death toll passes 100,000
Here's Andrew Naughtie on Pelosi and Chuck Schumer's request that the president honour the dead on upcoming Memorial Day.
Senate to vote on Trump's controversial pick for top US intelligence post
Texas congressman and MAGA loyalist John Ratcliffe has already had his nomination for national intelligence director pulled once and was given a fair old grilling at his confirmation hearing recently, as reports emerged he followed QAnon conspiracy accounts on Twitter.
Here's Andrew Naughtie on his prospects in Mitch McConnell's Republican-dominated chamber.
White House butler Wilson Jermain, who served 11 presidents, dies of coronavirus aged 91
Gino Spocchia has this report on the sad passing of an extraordinary servant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, a man who really saw it all.
Some perspective on Trump's attack on postal ballots
I'm just going to leave this here in light of the president's thoughts on mail voting being "ripe for fraud".
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