Trump news – live: President boasts of 'high marks' despite spiralling coronavirus death toll, as Pence and Harris both take campaign to swing state

Police arrest 15 after Portland protests

Police have arrested another 15 people in Portland after protests last night near a police station in the Oregon city.

Protesters set fire to some mattresses last night during the 100th consecutive night of demonstrations in the city following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

No one was hurt and the blazes were extinguished by firefighters, but 15 people were held on charges including interfering with peace, disorderly conduct, possession of a dangerous device and reckless burning.

It came after Portland police arrested 59 people and used tear gas late on Saturday as protesters threw rocks and fire bombs at officers.

The city has seen nightly protests for over three months and sometimes violent clashes between demonstrators and officers, as well as between right- and left-wing groups.

President Donald Trump signed a memo on Wednesday threatening to cut federal funding to "lawless" cities, including Portland. Joe Biden, his Democratic challenger in the 3 November presidential election, has accused Trump of stoking violence with his rhetoric.

Trump called prayers ‘bulls**t’, claims Cohen

In another claim made by Donald Trump’s disgraced former lawyer Michael Cohen, whose memoir is set to be released on Tuesday,  the US president called praying “bulls**t” following a meeting with religious leaders.  

According to Mr Cohen, the president emerged from a session with  Christian leaders with contempt, saying “Can you believe that bulls**t?” after they prayed over him, and allegedly asking: “Can you believe people believe that bulls**t?”

The White House has dismissed Mr Cohen’s account of the incident, along with the book as a whole and other incidents that it alleges (including watching a urine-themed sex act in Las Vegas and dismissing “black folks” as “stupid”).

Andrew Naughtie reports: 

Unofficial ‘burning man’ crowd condemned as ’reckless’

San Francisco's mayor has condemned a crowd of around 1,000 people who partied on a beach this weekend to mark the cancelled Burning Man festival, 

 Mayor London Breed said the gathering, which ignored social distancing guidelines, had "put people's lives at risk".

“This was absolutely reckless & selfish,” she added in a statement. “You are not celebrating. You are putting our progress at risk. No one is immune from spreading the virus,” 

The Democrat politician’s condemnation came after video and images posted to social media on Saturday showed large groups of party-goers gathered at Ocean Beach to celebrate what would have been the 34th year of Burning Man, a festival usually held in the Nevada desert close to Labor Day.

It comes as the ongoing coronavirus pandemic has so far claimed 189,000 US lives.

Matt Mathers reports: 

Covid-19 rising across 22 states

The number of states reporting increases in the number of coronavirus cases has risen to 22 out of 50, according to Reuters analysis. 

That news comes as Americans are expected to gather on Monday, amid the Labor Day national holiday, in what some experts have warned could lead to further infections.  

As little as three weeks ago, only three states - Hawaii, Illinois and South Dakota - were reporting a rise. 

Still, most infections continue to be concentrated in Midwestern and Southern states.

Trump campaign spreading disinformation

With Donald Trump reported to have issued around 20,000 misleading statements whilst in office, Democrats have compared the US president’s statements and tweets as “to the invention of a totally new reality".

Lily Adams, a senior adviser to the Democratic National Committee's Trump response team, argues: “Because they can't run on the reality that every American is seeing, they're inventing a new one."

That has included a retweet by the president last month, which  contained footage of a black man violently pushing a white woman on a subway platform under the caption “Black Lives Matter/Antifa” - but in reality, the man was not affiliated with either group and the video was shot in October. 

Ashley Parker reports: 

Scientist says drug companies ‘protecting’ public over vaccine

An American scientist has praised drug companies for “protecting” people from what has been dubbed a “premature” vaccine for the coronavirus. 

Following a warning by the US surgeon general, Dr. Jerome Adams, that states should be ready to distribute a possible coronavirus vaccine by 1 November, Dr. Peter Hotez told CNN on Monday that pharmaceutical giants “want this vaccine to work, and they want people to trust [them]”

“What they’re doing is smart business practice,” he added, whilst admitting he had “never seen” drug firms protecting people from the US government. 

It comes after president Donald Trump previously suggested that a coronavirus vaccine would be approved near to the US election, in a move that has been reported to have placed the Food and Drug Administration under pressure to approve a treatment before election day.  

Biden due to make Labor Day visit

The Democratic presidential nominee will head to Pennsylvania on Monday where he is due to mark the federal holiday by meeting with union workers. 

The visit to the swing state follows an outing to Wisconsin last week - another battleground state - as he seeks to persuade voters in the last two months of the 2020  election race.

According to Joe Biden’s campaign, as many as 16 states are up for grabs on 3 November, with voters turned-off by president Donald Trump’s rhetoric on racial tensions and his administration’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic. 

Mr Trump, who has no campaign events on Monday, is due to visit North Carolina, Florida, Michigan and Pennsylvania later in the week. 

Meanwhile, the two candidates' running mates, vice president Mike Pence and Senator Kamala Harris, will mark the Labor Day holiday with events in Wisconsin.

Reuters

Five boats sink in Trump boat parade

There were no injuries following a boat parade in support of president Donald Trump that saw five boats sink in a Texas lake this weekend. 

Officials said calls for help had begun "almost immediately" after the procession for Trump's reelection got underway on Lake Travis, west of Austin on Saturday.

Deputies responded to15 distress calls and received three other reports of boats taking on water, added Kristen Dark of the Travis County Sheriff's Office.

Dramatic footage showed dozens of tightly packed boats creating large waves in areas, as some vessels sank. 

Deputies, however, found no evidence of foul play, and there were no injuries or deaths. 

Twitter users were quick to comment on the images, with American filmmaker and Trump-critic Michael Moore appearing to  suggest that his supporters would be “helped" by an election loss in November. 

Trump campaign criticised for mocking Biden grave visit 

A Trump staffer has been criticised  for mocking Joe Biden after the former vice president visited the grave of late family members in Delaware on Sunday.

Francis Brennan, Mr Trump's campaign director of strategic response, appeared to criticise Mr Biden, 77, for not speaking to the media while walking through the cemetry at Brandywine church in Wilmington, where his late son Beau, first wife Neilia, and daughter Naomi are buried.

Posting a message to Twitter on Sunday evening, Mr Brennan sarcastically wrote: "REPORTER: 'Mr. Vice President come talk to us.' Joe Biden just keeps meandering along," next to a video of Mr Biden walking through the graveyard, in which the Democratic presidential candidate can be seen waving to waiting camera crews.

Beau Biden, an Iraq veteran, and former Delaware attorney general, died from brain cancer in 2015 aged 46. Neilia and Naomi Biden were killed in a car accident 1972.

Among those issuing condemnation were California Democrat Eric Swalwell, who tweeted: "It’s a cemetery. Where his son is buried. Are you human?" 

Matt Matthers reports: 

China delays renewal of press cards for US journalists

China is delaying the renewal of press cards for at least five journalists working at four US media outlets, an organisation of foreign correspondents said on Monday.

The move makes them vulnerable to expulsion in an apparent retribution for Washington's targeting of Chinese reporters working in the United States.

According to CNN, its China correspondent was among those given a letter authorising him to continue reporting for the next two months instead of the usual one-year press card, in what officials described as a response to Trump administration restrictions on Chinese media. 

The disagreement is the latest instalment in the deteriorating  US-China relations, with the US earlier this year capping the number of Chinese citizens who could be employed by Chinese media outlets, and placing them on 90-day visas.

Associated Press