Trump news – live: President delivers July Fourth speech as protests and storms threaten to overshadow event
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Donald Trump has delivered a speech at his “Salute to America” event in Washington DC, as the country celebrates Independence Day.
Earlier in the day on Thursday, he pleaded for people to attend his Fourth of July celebration amid fears of a low turnout and concerns that the heavy tanks on display could damage the Lincoln Memorial.
A new Morning Consult poll revealed the president to be losing support in key states he won in 2016, including Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa, Pennsylvania, Arizona, Ohio and Florida, as his Republican opponent Justin Amash announces his resignation from the GOP in opposition to Mr Trump's "dehumanising rhetoric".
Undeterred, the president has been on angry form on Twitter, hitting out at migrants over reports of squalid conditions in US border detention centres and warning Iran against making threats by issuing one of his own: “They can come back to bite you.”
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Trump, of course, couldn't resist kicking out at congressman Justin Amash after he announced his resignation from the Republican Party.
Playing to his base, Trump suggests Amash is leaving to save himself the humiliation of not being re-elected - an attempt to shoot down the damaging reasons the representative himself gave for his departure.
Here's Tom Barnes with more.
In a world where many are preoccupied by what Trump might say next on Twitter, it appears one country at least is not listening.
Officials in Japan are seemingly unperturbed by Trump’s busy programme of social media activity, so much so that they consider his outbursts irrelevant to actual US policy.
"The Japanese government shouldn’t react to a tweet by the president each time. That’s not the right response for us," they say.
Tom Barnes has more.
Fox and Friends was so perturbed by a new Gallup poll concluding that only 45 per cent of Americans were proud of their country that they asked Twitter why that might be.
The answers they received were spicier than Chief Wiggum's chili recipe.
Speaking of Fox, Laura Ingraham says she's boycotting Nike over the Betsy Ross flag affair.
How ever will they cope?
This says it all about Trump's "Salute to America".
Looks more like a set photo from The Dark Knight Rises than a joyous celebration of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
Mike Pence here addressing a naturalisation ceremony at the National Archives in DC this morning and congratulating the new Americans in front of him on "following the law", failing to keep his administration's politics out of what should be a momentous day for his audience.
Pence also recounted his grandfather's arrival at Ellis Island in 1923, apparently not seeing a contradiction in standing as the face of an administration intent on closing borders and denying that same opportunity for a better life to a new generation.
The 2020 candidates are sending their Happy Fourth of July messages and so far, honestly, it's a mixed bag.
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