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As it happenedended

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

Chris Riotta
New York
,Clark Mindock,Joe Sommerlad
Thursday 11 July 2019 17:52 EDT
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Donald Trump says 'the kidney has a very special place in the heart'

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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.

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Additional reporting by AP. Please allow a moment for our liveblog to load

As some critics are noting, it appears Donald Trump's social media summit is only about one thing: himself. 

Chris Riotta11 July 2019 21:31

Donald Trump is now claiming his hair is real and the world knows it because of his rainy Independence Day party - 

Chris Riotta11 July 2019 21:34

Donald Trump is now discussing his trade war with China, attacking the US Federal Reserve and touting his stock market numbers, saying he wants them even higher: "I'm a very greedy person," he said.

Chris Riotta11 July 2019 21:34

Donald Trump is now attacking Antifa, saying "They're always around when you have a single guy protesting in front of a school" and not when a "biker's rally" is happening in support of the president.

Chris Riotta11 July 2019 21:37

Donald Trump attacked Silicon Valley executives and the way they speak before Congress, saying "I could do better than that" but adding they are "super genius"  when it comes to technology.

Chris Riotta11 July 2019 21:40

"I don't think that the mainstream media is free speech," Donald Trump said. "To me free speech is not when you see something good and you write something bad. To me, that's very dangerous speech."

Chris Riotta11 July 2019 21:41

Donald Trump admit some of the right-wing extremists and conservative influencers should "probably" receive bans from social media platforms, saying at one point, "I mean, some of you guys deserve to be out."

"I mean it's genius, but it's bad," the president said, referring to content created by some of the attendees at his White House social media summit.

Chris Riotta11 July 2019 21:44

"You have a lot of power, and a lot of strength, and you have to use it wisely," Donald Trump said to social media influencers at the White House.

Chris Riotta11 July 2019 21:44

Donald Trump said he believes he has a "solution" over his 2020 Census demands that he will announce from the White House Rose Garden.

Chris Riotta11 July 2019 21:46

The White House cut its livestream of the social media summit when Donald Trump began answering questions, first starting with one from his former adviser Sebastian Gorka.

Chris Riotta11 July 2019 21:49

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