Donald Trump has moved to soothe the tensions he inflamed with Iran by assassinating Quds commander Qassem Soleimani, saying the regime is “standing down” after fears a ballistic missile strike on two US military bases in Iraq could escalate into a full blown war.
But the president’s address to the nation on Wednesday, flanked by senior cabinet members and top generals at the White House, was criticised by many for the slurred nature of much of his speech, with commentators again questioning Mr Trump’s fitness for office after he stumbled over simple words.
As House speaker Nancy Pelosi prepared for a Thursday vote on limiting his power to launch the US military into further skirmishes overseas, her impeachment stalemate with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell continues and a new poll forecasts the president losing the 2020 election in November to a “generic Democrat” by a humiliating nine-point margin.
Speaker Pelosi and House Democrats overwhelmingly voted to support a resolution that aims to limit the president's future military actions in Iran, with all but one Democrat supporting a resolution from Democratic Congresswoman Elissa Slotkin. The measure directs Mr Trump to "terminate the use of United States Armed Forces to engage in hostilities in or against Iran or any part of its government or military" without first receiving Congressional approval.
The vote followed the president's announcement of dramatic rollbacks to environmental oversight for large-scale developments, from roads to oil pipelines, that environmental groups are warning will be irreparably dangerous as the country faces the climate crisis.
Meanwhile, the Senate Majority Leader has indicated he expects to receive articles of impeachment from the House on Friday, with a trial to start as early as next week, though Ms Pelosi and House leaders have not received assurance of an impartial trial with witnesses and evidence.
Mr McConnell also supported a resolution from a fellow Senate Republican that will consider dismissing the impeachment entirely.
In response, Speaker Pelosi said: "If Republican Senators move for a quick dismissal of the charges against the President, with no witnesses or documents, it will be because they are afraid of the truth."
As Mr Trump and Vice President Mike Pence head to Ohio for another raucous campaign rally, nearly 400 protests across the US will demand the administration end its conflict with Iran.
Follow along with updates as they happened:
Hello and welcome to The Independent's rolling coverage of the Donald Trump administration.
Trump de-escalates tensions with Iran but slurred speech raises concern
Donald Trump has moved to soothe the tensions he inflamed with Iran by assassinating Quds commander Qassem Soleimani, saying the regime is “standing down” after fears a ballistic missile strike on two US military bases in Iraq could escalate into a full blown war.
But the president’s address to the nation on Wednesday, flanked by senior cabinet members and top generals at the White House, was criticised by many for the slurred nature of much of his speech, with commentators again questioning Mr Trump’s fitness for office after he stumbled over simple words.
Iran's "campaign of terror, murder, mayhem, will not be 'tolerited' any longer", the president appeared to say during the nine-minute scripted address, the latest recurrence of a tick that has seen him make memorable gaffes such as "the oranges of the inquiry" when talking about FBI special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation last year.
The president is well known not to drink alcohol but some speculated the erratic nature of his performance could be attributed to the influence of prescription medication, noting that his emergence was delayed by 20 minutes without explanation and that he declined to take questions from the assembled press corps at the close before making a sharp exit.
Here's Alex Woodward's report on a possible new cause for concern.
Republican senators rage at 'worst briefing in history'
While the president's allies like South Carolina senator Lindsey Graham were quick to spin his speech as a "homerun"...
...not all Republican senators are happy with the administration's communication over the Iran contre temps.
Trump failed to give Congress prior warning, as he is obliged to do under the War Powers Act of 1973, and did not tell his fellow world leaders after agreeing the plan with military top brass at his Florida resort Mar-a-Lago early in the New Year as a response to attacks on the American embassy in Baghdad.
Utah's Mike Lee and Rand Paul of Kentucky yesterday derided secretaries of state and defence Mike Pompeo and Mark Esper for the classified briefings they eventually did give to Congress regarding the government's rationale for launching the airstrike that killed General Soleimani last Friday, saying they had been given little information of substance and been told not to show dissent.
"I find this insulting and demeaning, not personally, but to the office that each of the 100 senators in this building happen to hold. I find it insulting, and I find it demeaning to the Constitution to which we’ve all sworn an oath. It is after all the prerogative of the legislative branch to declare war," commented senator Lee, visibly incensed, during a session with reporters.
"What we were told over and over again was, ‘look, this action is necessary, this was a bad guy, we had to do it and we can’t have division. We can’t have division within our ranks, within our government, otherwise it sends a wrong signal to the Iranians’. And I just, I think that’s completely wrong."
Asked for her thoughts on all of this, House speaker Nancy Pelosi couldn't resist this jibe:
Here's Clark Mindock's report.
'Iran offered Trump an exit ramp and he took it'
Here's Negar Mortazavi's assessment of the president's announcement yesterday.
New poll sees president losing 2020 election to 'generic Democrat'
While the likes of Massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren have accused Trump of igniting tensions with Iran to serve as a distraction from his imminent impeachment trial in the Senate, likening his conduct to the satirical 1997 film Wag the Dog, the tactic does not appear to have done anything to boost his credibility as Leader of the Free World.
A global Pew Research survey yesterday concluded Trump is now regarded as less trustworthy than authoritarian heads of state like Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping.
Worse, a new survey from YouGovUS/Brown University forecasts the president losing the 2020 election in November to a “generic Democrat” by a humiliating nine-point margin.
It's a small survey and one that doesn't give respondents time to reflect on the quickly evolving news on Iran but the idea that it might not matter which Democrat he faces - be it Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders, Warren or Pete Buttigieg - should certainly give the president cause for sleepless nights.
Trump is ‘dangerous and incapacitated’, psychiatrists warn
More on the president's wellbeing, as a group of mental health professionals have warned Congress it must act urgently to demand Trump undergo an evaluation to determine his continued fitness for office after nearly a week of heightened tensions with Iran.
The World Mental Health Coalition made the statement a month after warning Congress that the stress of impeachment could cause Mr Trump's mental state to deteriorate to a dangerous level.
Andrew Feinberg has this.
House to vote on war powers resolution to rein in Oval Office
The House will vote today on a measure limiting Trump's ability to take military action against Iran as Democratic criticism of the US killing of Qassem Soleimnai intensified.
Speaker Pelosi announced the planned vote in a one-page statement that said last week's drone strike was "provocative and disproportionate."
The Democratic war powers resolution seems certain to pass over solid Republican opposition but a similar proposal by Democratic senator Tim Kaine faces an uphill fight in the GOP-run Senate.
Because of a procedural dispute between the two parties, it was unclear whether Thursday's vote would be a step toward binding Trump's hands on Iran or a symbolic gesture of opposition by Democrats. Republicans say the proposal - a special type of resolution that does not get the president's signature - does not have the force of law. Democrats say that under the 1973 War Powers Act, it would be binding if also approved by the Senate. The matter has not been definitively decided by federal courts.
"Members of Congress have serious, urgent concerns about the administration's decision to engage in hostilities against Iran and about its lack of strategy moving forward," Pelosi said in her statement.
"Congress hereby directs the President to terminate the use of United States Armed Forces to engage in hostilities in or against Iran or any part of its government or military" unless Congress declares war on that country or enacts legislation authorising use of force to prevent an attack on the US and its forces, the five-page resolution says.
"I think it's extremely important that we as a country, if we are going to - either intentionally or accidentally - slide into war, that we have a debate about it," said freshman congresswoman Elissa Slotkin of Michigan, the measure's sponsor. Slotkin is a former CIA analyst and Pentagon official who served in Iraq.
"I want to understand... what's your strategy?" she said, referring to the Trump administration. "How do you know you're succeeding and not just escalating us into something more and more dangerous? We are owed concrete, specific details on strategy."
The showdown between the White House and Capitol Hill was the latest example of Trump's willingness to break the norms in Washington. For its part, Congress has allowed its war powers role to erode since the passage of Authorisation for Use of Military Force (AUMF) in 2001 to fight terrorism after the 9/11 attacks and passage of another AUMF for the invasion of Iraq in 2002.
Fallout from those votes deeply divided Congress and the nation, with many lawmakers, particularly Democrats, now saying they were mistakes. Yet Congress has been paralysed on the question of whether to repeal or change those authorities.
Republicans have largely supported Trump's actions on Iran, saying the president was well within his power to take out the architect of proxy operations against Americans in the Middle East. The US considered Soleimani a terrorist.
"How much is enough? How many more Americans did Soleimani need to kill before somebody supports taking him out?" asked Louisiana congressman Steve Scalise, the No. 2 Republican in the House. The world is a safer place without Soleimani in it, he added.
Democrats were unconvinced that the threat posed by Soleimani was imminent or that other alternatives to the killing were pursued in good faith. By not disclosing many details of the threat, Trump was asking the American public to trust the very intelligence reports he has often disparaged, Democrats said.
Pelosi said the House may also consider additional legislation to repeal the 2002 Iraq authorisation of force and a separate bill to prohibit funding for military action against Iran not authorized by Congress.
Pelosi, McConnell still locked in impeachment deadlock but resolution expected this week
The standoff over Trump's impeachment trial has deepened as Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell said there will be "no haggling" with Democrats as Pelosi demands for more details and witnesses.
McConnell's Senate majority has the leverage Republicans need to launch Trump's trial toward swift acquittal of the charges (abuse of power, obstruction of Congress), but the speaker's reluctance to transmit the articles of impeachment leaves the proceedings at a standstill.
What started as a seemingly minor delay over process and procedures is now a high-stakes showdown between two skilled leaders facing off over the rare impeachment trial, only the third in the nation's history.
"There will be no haggling with the House over Senate procedure," McConnell said on Wednesday before meeting with Trump at the White House. "We will not cede our authority to try this impeachment. The House Democrats' turn is over."
Three weeks have passed since the House impeached Trump on the charge that he abused the power of his office by pressuring Ukraine's new leader to investigate Democrats, using as leverage $391m (£302m) in military assistance for the US ally as it counters Russia at its border. Trump insists he did nothing wrong, but his defiance of the House Democrats' investigation led to an additional charge of obstruction of Congress.
Senators from both sides are eager to serve as jurors for Trump's day in court. The trial will be conducted in the Senate, where Republicans have a thin majority.
But even as McConnell spoke from the Senate floor, Pelosi was giving no indication of her willingness to agree to his terms. In a closed-door meeting with the House Democratic caucus, she spoke instead about the crisis in the Middle East, according to several Democrats in the room.
The impeachment timeline is complicating the political calendar, with the weekslong trial now expected to bump into presidential primaries. Several Democratic senators are running for the party nomination.
Returning to Washington from the campaign trail, Elizabeth Warren told reporters she was confident in Pelosi's plan.
"I have no doubt that she will get this right," she said. "Some things are more important than politics, and the impeachment of a president is certainly one of those. No one is above the law, not even the president."
Another 2020 hopeful, New Jersey senator Cory Booker said: "Those articles will come over here for a vote in due time." The showdown is expected to be resolved this week, lawmakers said.
Pelosi wants McConnell to "immediately" make public the details of his trial proposal, according to a letter to colleagues. She wants to know how much time will be devoted to the trial and other details about the "arena" before announcing her choice of House managers to try the case in the Senate, according to Democrats familiar with the situation and granted anonymity to discuss it.
"Sadly, Leader McConnell has made clear that his loyalty is to the president and not the Constitution," Pelosi wrote to colleagues late Tuesday. She said the process he is outlining is "unfair."
The confrontation over a Senate trial had been building for weeks. But McConnell gained ground when he announced Tuesday that he has support from the majority of senators to start a trial structured like the last one, against Bill Clinton in 1999. Those proceedings also began without an agreement on witnesses.
"We have the votes," McConnell told reporters.
It takes 51 votes for agreement on the trial proceedings and with Republicans holding a 53-47 Senate majority McConnell has a slight advantage if he can hold GOP senators together. Democrats are trying to peel off support from a few Republicans to support their demands.
McConnell, who has resisted calling new witnesses, expects a speedy trial that will end with Trump acquitted of the charges. He complained about Pelosi's "endless appetite for these cynical games" and said it will be up to senators to decide if they want more testimony.
On the Senate floor on Wednesday, Democratic leader Chuck Schumer promised he would force votes on witnesses, requiring senators to choose whether they want to hear from Trump former national security adviser John Bolton and others.
"When the Senate has votes on witnesses and documents, my Republican colleagues will have to answer to not just the president," Schumer said. "The American people do not want a cover-up."
Some Senate Democrats have said the time has come for Pelosi to send the articles so the trial can begin. Pelosi has yet to choose House impeachment managers for the trial, a politically sensitive next step with many lawmakers vying to be candidates. But aides downplayed any riff between the leaders, saying senators are simply eager to have their say on Trump's impeachment.
Schumer, who talks daily with Pelosi, said the speaker is doing "a very good job and she is seeking to maximise our ability to get facts and evidence."
Pelosi told House leaders in a private meeting on Tuesday that she believed the decision to delay the articles was working as a strategy to apply pressure on the Senate for a more fulsome trial, according to those in that meeting.
"People are united," said Democratic congressman Mike Thompson of California about the mood in the House caucus.
Republicans countered that Democrats rushed to impeach and then delayed the process. At their own lunch Wednesday, Republican senators were privately split on next steps, with some seeking ways to compel Pelosi to act while others were content to let impeachment slip.
AP
Republicans at odds over 'absolutely insane' Iran briefings
After Mike Lee and Rand Paul's astonishing criticism of the administration's Iran messaging yesterday, the latter was interviewed by Wolf Blitzer on CNN to declare: "I didn't learn anything... that I hadn't already seen in a newspaper."
In the interim, the duo had been dismissed by Lindsey Graham, who commented: "They're libertarians. I think they're overreacting, quite frankly." Incredibly, he went on to accuse them of "empowering the enemy" by questioning Trump.
Asked about this by Blitzer, Paul answered angrily: "I love my country as much as the next guy, but for him to insult and say that somehow we're not as patriotic as he is - he hasn't even read the history of the Constitution.
"He insults the Constitution, our Founding Fathers and what we do stand for in this republic by making light of it and accusing people of lacking patriotism. I think that's a low, gutter type of response."
Here's more on division within the GOP ranks from Harriet Sinclair.
Trump returning to campaign trail in Ohio
Despite coming within an inch of going to war with Iran on the basis of "razor thin" evidence that Qassem Soleimani posed an imminent threat to America, Trump returns to the campaign trail tonight in Toledo, Ohio, a town he accidentally namechecked last August when he confused it with Dayton, scene of a tragic mass shooting he was due to visit.
His supporters are already gathering ahead of his latest round of unhinged ravings at the Huntington Center, with some billing the 2020 election as a contest between "GOOD Versus EVIL" and asking the key key question of modern times: "Who is 'Q'... military intelligence?"
Ivanka Trump attracts angry backlash over CES keynote speech
The president has been busy retweeting praise from the usual suspects just now, including Mike Pence, GOP chairwoman Ronna McDaniel, social media director Dan Scavino, Florida senator Marco Rubio and (urgh) Piers Morgan.
He also retweeted this, promoting daughter Ivanka's keynote speech at the CES tech conference in Las Vegas.
While the first daughter was reportedly politely received in the room when she made her address, according to The Hill, her appearance has attracted a backlash among women in the industry on the grounds that she is not a tech CEO and had no right to be there, with video game developer Brianna Wu calling her invitation "a lazy attempt to emulate diversity".
Rachel Sklar, co-founder of Change the Ratio, called Ivanka's showing "an insult".
Trump says articles of impeachment 'fraudulently produced'
No direct mention of Iran from the president so far this morning but he is back to attacking Pelosi and House Intelligence Committee chair Adam Schiff over impeachment, saying the articles "were fraudulently produced" and "show no crimes and are a joke", none of which is close to true or accurate.
He follows the above with praise for New York Republican Elise Stefanik - who used the public hearings to make a name for herself by attempting to frustrate Schiff's hearings at every turn - and a retweet of this petition, featuring a heavily and unflatteringly PhotoShopped picture of Nancy Pelosi.
The above is being hosted on WinRed, incidentally, a Republican answer to the Democratic small donations platform ActBlue. Trump appears to be a big fan.
Aaaaaand now we're back to this favourite primal scream:
Treasury under pressure to reveal Secret Service cost of Trump's frequent trips
Trump's Treasury secretary Steve Mnuchin is hoping to wait until next year (i.e. after the presidential election) to disclose the Secret Service costs of the president's travel arrangements but is facing pressure to conform to a much closer timeline, according to The Washington Post.
Mnuchin wants to bring the Secret Service back under Treasury control from Homeland Security and has been negotiating legislation with the Senate to that end, but Democrats like veteran California senator Dianne Feinstein are attempting to corner him into agreeing to a 120 deadline to reveal precisely how much the president's frequent travel is costing the taxpayer, a number that is unlikely to make for pleasant reading or good press for the White House.
MSNBC's Chris Hayes gave this handy introduction to the matter on his show All In last night:
Trump can use $3.6bn in military funds for Mexico border wall, appeals court rules
A US federal appeals court has put on hold a lower court ruling that blocked Trump from using $3.6bn (£2.7bn) in military construction funds to build the president's signature Mexico border wall.
The New Orleans-based 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals granted a stay pending the administration’s appeal of a decision made on 10 December by a federal judge that barred the funding transfer.
Senior Iranian commander threatens 'harsher revenge soon' against US
Iran may not be "standing down" after all...
Conrad Duncan has the latest.
'Iran doesn't want Trump's so-called deal of the century'
For Indy Voices, Faisal Bodi of the Islamic Human Rights Commission says the president's belief he can get Tehran back around the negotiating table is as bold as it is naive.
Trump urges Republicans to unite against war powers resolution
In the last hour, Trump has advised/ordered House Republicans to stand united against Pelosi's war powers resolution...
...and declared some "breaking news" of his own:
It is, of course, nothing of the sort - we covered this ages ago.
Anti-Trump Republican group launches attack video going after president's religious hypocrisy
The Lincoln Project, an organisation of conservatives opposed to Trump (including one George Conway), has just released a new promo attacking the president for posing as a devout Christian and cosying up to "prosperity gospel" charlatans like Paula White and inflammatory evangelist Robert Jeffress in search of much-needed votes.
This is, you will recall, a man who claims to love the Bible but can't name a single passage to call his favourite.
If you enjoyed that, I can also heartily recommended this Samantha Bee takedown of White, who really is utterly reprehensible.
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Mike Pence insists US 'safer' after Soleimani killing but refuses to divulge any evidence of threat on national security grounds
Vice president Mike Pence has been on a media blitz since Trump's address to the nation yesterday, telling CBS last night that America is "safer today" as a result of Qassem Soleimani's assassination.
This morning he's been on NBC's Today and on Fox and Friends insisting the general posed "a threat of an imminent attack" but declining to divulge any evidence whatsoever, citing national security concerns as the reason for protecting "sources and methods".
Here's Conrad Duncan's report.
President takes credit for stock market, low cancer death rates
Trump is back to taking credit for the stock market (without making much sense) and low cancer death rates and making bloated promises about the border wall.
Order has been restored.
