Trump news: President folds over citizenship census question after hosting right-wing extremists and conservative influencers
President backs off Census demands and hosts right-wing extremists at social media summit
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Your support makes all the difference.Donald Trump hosted a White House Social Media Summit on Thursday, where the controversial guest list included alt-right meme creators and a QAnon conspiracy theorist but no representatives from either Facebook or Twitter , after lavishing praise on himself as “great looking and smart”.
In the run-up to the event, the president retweeted a post by far-right columnist Katie Hopkins in praise of “Right Minded” world leaders like probable future British PM Boris Johnson, Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu, Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil and Hungary’s Viktor Orban.
Mr Trump has meanwhile found himself the victim of online ridicule after saying that the kidney “has a very special place in the heart” after signing an executive order directing his administration to develop policies addressing kidney-related health issues among Americans.
The president capped his day off by backing down from his 2020 Census demands, instead pursuing other avenues for collecting citizenship information after the Supreme Court blocked his census efforts.
The American Community Survey, which polls 3.5 million US households every year, already includes questions about respondents’ citizenship, so it is unclear what Mr Trump has in mind.
But Mr Trump appeared to preview his remarks at a White House social media summit, where he complained about being told: ”‘Sir, you can’t ask that question ... because the courts said you can’t.’”
Describing the situation as “the craziest thing,” he went on to contend that surveyors can ask residents how many toilets they have and, “What’s their roof made of? The only thing we can’t ask is, ‘Are you a citizen of the United States?’”
“I think we have a solution that will be very good for a lot of people,” he added.
Mr Trump had said last week that he was “very seriously” considering an executive order to try to force the citizenship question’s inclusion, despite the fact that the government has already begun the lengthy and expensive process of printing the census questionnaire without it.
Additional reporting by AP. Please allow a moment for our liveblog to load
Donald Trump is once again claiming he was "picking up unbelievable amounts of people" on Twitter and even though he's "hotter now" he is unable to gain followers as quickly as he used to, suggesting social media suppression against him without any evidence.
"It'd be like a rocket ship when I put out a beauty. Remember when I said someone was spying on me?" he said, adding, "That was a good one."
Donald Trump is now claiming people who receive massive amounts of retweets are not actually always receiving those totals, and that platforms are skewing numbers towards the left.
“The fingers aren’t as good as the brain,” Donald Trump said, referring to his frequent typos on social media.
Donald Trump is now saying the press turns off their cameras when he begins calling them dishonest — even though we are reporting on these statements right now and there are cameras in the room recording his every word.
Donald Trump has invited popular right-wing YouTube stars Diamond & Silk to the stage, giving them a hug and saying he loves them.
"Free speech is a bedrock of constitutional rights," Donald Trump said. "I want you to know we will always have your back."
The president said he was calling on social media companies to come to the White House in the next week or two for a "big meeting."
Donald Trump just stopped his social media summit because he noticed a fly in the room.
“How did a fly get in the White House?” the president exclaimed. “I don’t like that. I don’t like flies!”
Donald Trump just claimed only "150 people" attended Joe Biden's recent event, despite reports indicating there were over a thousand people at the speech.
Donald Trump complained about using the “Pocahontas” nickname for Elizabeth Warren too early on in his political career, saying “I should have saved it” for the liberal senator’s 2020 campaign.
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