Trump news - live: Backlash over president’s attack on congressman’s ‘rat-infested’ district, amid new bid for impeachment
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 has been widely-criticised for a series of vicious tweets attacking Democratic congressman Elijah Cummings and the city of Baltimore.
In a series of tweets on Saturday, Mr Trump also lashed out again at Robert Mueller and Democrats calling for his impeachment, and announced that he is considering declaring the antifascist movement Antifa a terrorist organisation.
The outbursts followed Mr Trump’s threat to investigate former president Barack Obama and “subpoena all of his records”.
Please allow a moment for the liveblog to load:
In statements given in the Oval Office, the US president suggested the attention given to his ties to Russia and possible obstruction of justice could apply to other presidents.
Mr Trump also hit out at French president Emmanuel Macron, accusing him of “foolishness” after Paris announced a tax aimed at US technology companies.
He also hinted that he would tax French wine in retaliation, adding that he preferred American wine despite being a know teetotaller.
Meanwhile, the US Supreme Court gave his administration the green light to spend $2.5bn from a military budget on building a border wall.
A trial court had previously said the money could not be switched from the Pentagon towards construction of a wall on the US-Mexico border. But on Friday the nation’s highest court permitted constriction to continue while litigation over the issue played out.
Donald Trump is back on Twitter – this time he’s announced that Antifa, the left wing antifascist movement, could be declared a “major Organization of Terror”.
It’s unclear what exactly Mr Trump means by “consideration” but he sounds supportive of the idea, saying it would “make it easier for police to do their job.”
Earlier this month, Ted Cruz introduced a resolution to the Senate with fellow senator Bill Cassidy condemning the group and calling for their designation as a domestic terrorist organisation.
Mr Trump has also been venting his anger at the Democrats once again over Robert Mueller’s congressional testimony this week.
He’s claiming Robert Mueller put on “the greatest display of ineptitude and incompetence that the Halls of Congress have ever seen” and he's accusing the Democrats of being “sick and disgusting”.
There’s still no word yet on the backlash against his attacks on Elijah Cummings though…
The president has finally broken his silence on those tweets slamming Elijah Cummings and he’s doubling down on the attack, despite the backlash against his comments.
After calling Mr Cummings a “brutal bully” and his Baltimore district “rat-infested”, Mr Trump has shared a video which allegedly shows the front of a West Baltimore house covered in rubbish.
Alongside the video, he repeated his criticism of Mr Cummings - accusing him of doing “nothing” for the district.
Meanwhile, Mr Trump’s 2020 campaign manager Brad Parscale has been making light of the violent crime rate in Baltimore.
Unsurprisingly, it doesn’t look like the Trump team are planning on apologising anytime soon.
While the president is refusing to apologise for his comments, the mayor of Baltimore and other elected officials have held a press conference this afternoon to denounce his attack and defend their city.
That's all for today.
Despite the furore around his tweets about Elijah Cummings, the president doesn't appear to be interested in backing down yet.
He ended his latest run of tweets on Saturday still obsessed with the Mueller investigation.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments