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
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
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
Trump used his time at the podium during the White House social media summit Thursday to attack everything from the US Federal Reserve to Antifa, the militant left-wing group that he said consists of men with “small arms” who only show up when there is “one guy protesting outside of a school” rather than at a “biker’s rally” in support of the president. He appeared to be provoking the group by suggesting its members were afraid of his supporters.
He then went on to claim the Democratic Party wanted to implement communism across the United States — which not a single elected politician in the US House of Representatives has called for — and even that the hair on his head was real. He added that Americans are now sure of that after seeing him rained on at the Independence Day festivities in Washington.
There is so much publicly available data, analysis and other information to prove Trump’s claims are flagrantly false. For starters, while the president said his and other voices on the right are being suppressed on Twitter, reports show conservative content, publications and personalities have flourished on social media over the years.
↵Here is my analysis of Donald Trump's White House social media summit:
This concludes today's live coverage from Washington. Be sure to check back tomorrow as The Independent brings you the latest.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments