Trump news: President says US is ‘taking our signature back' from UN Arms Trade Treaty, claiming guns 'make our communities safer'

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

Donald Trump called into his friend Sean Hannity's Fox News show on Thursday evening for a 45-minute soft soap interview in which he berated the Democrats and accused them of orchestrating a "coup" against him, repeating his claim the Obama-era Justice Department spied on him.

He also laid into his former presidential rival Hillary Clinton for carelessly leaking "hundreds of thousands of text messages or emails" through "the [Matthew] Weiner server" (the reference being to the disgraced husband of her former aide Huma Abedin.

Here are some of the highlights.

House committee chairmen Elijah Cummings,  Jerrold Nadler and Bennie Thompson - who head the Oversight, Judiciary and Homeland Security bodies respectively - have together launched yet another investigation into President Trump.

This one concerns the spate of departures from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) earlier this month.

The trio believe the exit of Homeland Security secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, Secret Service director Randolph Alles, undersecretary of management Claire Grady and acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement Ronald Vitiello risked placing US national security in jeopardy.

They have written to Nielsen's acting successor, Kevin McAleenan, demanding all communications related to the "unprecedented firings" be hand over by 9 May.  

“We are deeply concerned that the firing and forced resignation of these officials puts the security of the American people at risk,” the men wrote.

“We are also concerned that the President may have removed DHS officials because they refused his demands to violate federal immigration law and judicial orders.”

“Moreover, we are concerned by reports that, even as he has removed the Department’s leadership, the president has sought to empower a White House aide, Stephen Miller, to ‘be in charge of handling all immigration and border affairs'."

The White House yesterday refused to allow Miller to testify before Congress.

The exodus is believed to have been ordered by Trump at the instigation of Miller as the administration pushes an even tougher stance on stopping illegal immigration than the "zero-tolerance" approach that saw children separated from their parents at the border and detained in cages to the horror of many around the world.

The pair have yet to announce their choice for "border czar" to oversee the situation on the US-Mexico line while Trump's wall is under construction.

President Trump is a busy boy today.

He and veep Mike Pence are jetting out to Indianapolis, Indiana, to address the National Rifle Association (NRA) before returning to the White House for an afternoon grip-and-grin with Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe.

The NRA, the nation's largest gun rights organisation, played a pivotal role in President Trump's victory in 2016. 

Three years later, the lobby group is limping toward the next election divided and diminished, according to the AP's Jill Colvin and Lisa Marie Pane. 

It's a reversal that has stunned longtime observers and that is raising questions about the one-time kingmaker's potential firepower heading into 2020.

"I've never seen the NRA this vulnerable," said John Feinblatt, president of Everytown for Gun Safety, a nonprofit that advocates for gun control measures. 

In the months after Trump's election, the NRA seemed on top of the world. After pouring tens of millions of dollars into the presidential race, their dark horse candidate occupied the desk in the Oval Office. Republicans controlled both branches of Congress. And the emboldened group had ambitious plans afoot for easing state and national gun regulations. 

Instead, much of the legislation the group championed has stalled, due, in part, to a series of mass shootings, including the massacre at a Parkland, Florida, high school that left 17 dead and launched a youth movement against gun violence that has had a powerful impact. 

At the same time, the group is grappling with infighting, bleeding money and facing a series of investigations into its operating practices, including allegations that covert Russian agents seeking to influence the 2016 election courted its officials and funneled money through the group. Indeed, as Trump is speaking on Friday, Maria Butina, the admitted Russian agent, is scheduled to be sentenced in federal court in Washington.

And then there's the simple fact that, with Trump in office, gun owners no longer fear the Second Amendment is under attack. 

"Good times are never good for interest groups because it's much better when Armageddon is at your doorstep," said Harry Wilson, a Roanoke College professor who has written extensively on gun politics. "Fear is a huge motivator in politics." 

The NRA, said Adam Winkler, a UCLA law professor and expert on gun policy, has also dramatically changed its messaging over the last two years, with "NRATV" advocating a panoply of far-right political views that have turned off some members. 

At the same time, public sentiment has shifted. A March AP-NORC poll found that 67 percent of Americans overall think gun laws should be made stricter - up from 61 percent in October 2017. 

And a June 2018 Gallup poll found overall favorable opinions of the NRA down slightly from October 2015, from 58 percent to 53 percent. Unfavorable views have grown, from 35 percent to 42 percent. 

Views of the NRA have also become increasingly partisan over decades of Gallup polling, and in the last few years as well. In 2018, just percent of Democrats had a favorable opinion. Favorable views among Republicans in 2018 were at a record high, Gallup found.

Against that backdrop, Democratic politicians have become more comfortable attacking - and even actively running against - the NRA and pledging action to curb gun violence. And gun control groups like Everytown, which is largely financed by former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg, and a political action committee formed by Gabby Giffords, the former Arizona congresswoman wounded in a shooting, have become better organized and more visible, especially at the state level. 

That reversal was made clear during the 2018 midterm elections, when those groups vastly outspent the NRA. 

During the midterms, the NRA "committed almost a disappearing act," said Everytown's Feinblatt. 

Winkler, the UCLA law professor, allowed that the group had scored some victories under Trump, including the appointment of two Supreme Court justices who may be open to striking down gun laws. 

But overall, he said, "On the legislative front, the NRA has been frustrated," with top priorities like national reciprocity for conceal carry laws and a repeal of the ban on silencers stalled. 

Instead, Trump introduced a new federal regulation: a ban on bump stocks after a man using the device opened fire on a crowd of concertgoers on the Las Vegas strip in Nevada, killing 58 people and wounding hundreds. 

That didn't seem to bother the NRA members who were beginning to arrive at the convention on Thursday and insisted the group remains as influential as ever. 

"Why do you think Trump and Pence are coming here?" said Roger Frasz, a lifetime NRA member and gun shop owner in Prescott, Michigan, who was wearing a red "Trump 2020" hat. 

Alan Jacobson, 24, an airport worker who lives in Downers Grove, Illinois, said he relies on the NRA to inform him about issues and considers them not only relevant, but essential. 

"We're just average people that congressmen won't listen to. The NRA is our voice," he said. 

Still, Mike Cook, who works at a shipyard in Alabama, said he's been disappointed that gun rights haven't seen much movement under Trump. The bump stock ban, in particular, upset him because it was done administratively by Trump officials. 

He's uncertain if the millions spent on Trump's campaign in 2016 were worth it. But, he said, Trump is "better than the alternatives." Now that's damning with faint praise.

Exactly how much influence the group will wield in 2020 remains unclear. But Andrew Arulanandam, the NRA's managing director of public affairs, has said recent reports of turmoil and financial troubles have been exaggerated and are fueled by anti-gun forces. 

Still, the NRA is having financial issues, according to an analysis of tax filings by the Associated Press. The tax-exempt organisation's 2016 and 2017 filings, the most recent years available, show combined losses of nearly $64m (£49.6m). Income from membership dues plunged about $35m ((£27m) in 2017. And revenue from contributions, grants and gifts dropped about $35m (£27m). 

At the same time, NRA insiders and longtime observers have described an organisation at war with itself - a divide that erupted very publicly recently when the NRA sued its longtime public relations firm, Ackerman McQueen, accusing it of refusing to hand over financial records to account for its billings. That could affect the group's messaging heading into 2020. 

But even if the group cuts back from the record $412m (£319m) the NRA's nonprofit wings spent during the 2016 election year (that's in addition to the $30m (£23m) two NRA political action committees invested in electing Trump), the group is expected to be an active spender in the election.

Back to the House investigations.

Attorney-general William Barr will appear before the Senate and House Judiciary Committees next Wednesday and Thursday to explain his handling of the Mueller report and face questions on the finer points of the FBI special counsel's conclusions.

House chairman Jerry Nadler has also set the Justice Department a deadline to release the full, unredacted, 448 pages of the report to Congress by 1 May, one day before Barr testifies to his panel.

Barr's outgoing deputy, Rod Rosenstein, has meanwhile defended Barr's treatment of the Mueller report.

Rosenstein was last seen standing motionless as a shop mannequin alongside Barr at his press conference trailing the dossier's unveiling last week.

Speaking at a gathering of the Armenian Bar Association in New York, Rosenstein said: "I did not promise to report all results to the public, because grand jury investigations are (secret) proceedings.

"It is not our job to render conclusive factual findings. We just decide whether it is appropriate to file criminal charges."

He also said a number of critical decisions about the problem of Russian hacking had already been taken by the Obama administration before he first took office two years ago.

"The previous administration chose not to publicise the full story about Russian computer hackers and social media trolls, and how they relate to a broader strategy to undermine America.

"There was overwhelming evidence that Russian operatives hacked American computers and defrauded American citizens and that is only the tip of the iceberg of a comprehensive Russian strategy to influence elections, promote social discord, and undermine America, just like they do in many other countries," he said.