Trump news: President 'crying out' for impeachment as he insists he is 'stable genius' in White House rant
Democrats calling on leadership to launch measure in response to administration's obstruction of probes
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Your support makes all the difference.Pressure is intensifying on Democratic House speaker Nancy Pelosi to launch impeachment proceedings against Donald Trump.
An increasing number of Democrats - and even a Republican congressman - are openly calling for the measure in response to the Mueller report's findings and the Trump administration's refusal to submit documents to congressional investigations.
Mr Trump on Wednesday sabotaged a planned White House meeting with Ms Pelosi on infrastructure, and said he would not work with Democrats until all probes into him were closed.
Meanwhile, the president announced a massive $16bn (£12.6bn) aid package for farmers on Thursday, amid an intensifying confrontation with China on trade. US Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue said that the first of three payments is likely to be made in July or August and suggested that the US and China were unlikely to have settled their differences by then.
“The package we’re announcing today ensures that farmers do not bear the brunt of unfair retaliatory tariffs imposed by China and other trading partners,” Mr Perdue said.
The latest bailout comes atop $11bn (£8.7bn) in aid Mr Trump provided farmers last year.
“We will ensure our farmers get the relief they need and very, very quickly,” Mr Trump said in an unwieldy press conference on Thursday in which he insisted is a "very stable genius."
Seeking to reduce America’s trade deficit with the rest of the world and with China in particular, the president has imposed import taxes on foreign steel, aluminium, solar panels and dishwashers and on thousands of Chinese products.
US trading partners have lashed back with retaliatory tariffs of their own, focusing on U.S. agricultural products in a direct shot at the American heartland, where support for Trump runs high.
Financial markets slumped Thursday on heightened tensions between the US and China. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 286 points, or 1 per cent, to 25,490. It had been down 448 points earlier in the day.
Additional reporting by AP. Check out live updates as the came in below.
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Donald Trump has made an unannounced visit to Arlington National Cemetery ahead of Memorial Day:
Nancy Pelosi has lambasted Donald Trump a day after he stormed out of a bipartisan White House meeting on infrastructure, saying she prays for the president and calling for a family “intervention”.
The leader of the US House of Representatives addressed the conflict during a Thursday press conference in which she urged the White House administration to confront the president about his “temper tantrum” a day prior. “I pray for the President of the United States,” she said, adding, “and the well-being of the United States of America.”
“I wish that his family or his administration or his staff would have an intervention for the good of the country,” she continued.
Donald Trump is scheduled to deliver remarks supporting America’s farmers and ranchers from the White House Roosevelt Room at 3:15pm.
Here's my latest on the feud between Nancy Pelosi and Donald Trump as we wait for the president to deliver his remarks:
Donald Trump has entered the Roosevelt Room and is greeting a group of constituents before delivering his remarks.
Donald Trump is thanking the farmers behind him for their support and says they are “some of the greatest people in the country.”
The president is lambasting Democrats, saying they have done “absolutely nothing” to help farmers. He also called China entering the World Trade Organisation “a disaster.”
Donald Trump is describing his administration confronting China as work to “remedy all the injustice that has been done over the years.”
The president has announced $16bn in aid for farmers hit by the US trade war with China that he says will be paid in part by tariffs his administration has announced against Beijing.
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