Donald Trump has lashed out at the press after MSNBC host Lawrence O'Donnell was forced to apologise for claiming Deutsche Bank's financial records on the Trump family included loan documents co-signed by Russian billionaires close to Vladimir Putin.
The president has defended his China trade war and pledged to reduce troop numbers in Afghanistan in an interview with Fox News Radio and been busy on Twitter proclaiming “the Age of Trump”, deriding New York senator Kirsten Gillibrand after she dropped out of the 2020 race and touting construction progress on his US-Mexico border wall, only for his own officials to contradict him.
During that Fox News Radio interview, Mr Trump said that he wanted to cut the troop levels in Afghanistan to 8,500, and said he would then consider next steps as more information becomes available.
Mr Trump also lashed out at the media during that call, saying that he thinks it would be "disloyal" to his supporters if he did an interview with CNN, and suggested that he has dirt on the network's president, Jeff Zucker.
With Hurricane Dorian raging towards the Florida coast after grazing Puerto Rico, Mr Trump also finds himself facing renewed scrutiny from the House Judiciary Committee - already examining the case for potential impeachment proceedings - over his offer to host the next G7 summit at his own Trump National Doral Miami resort, which they believe amounts to an abuse of his powers of office.
The hurricane is expected to hit Florida as a Category 4 storm, somewhere in the middle of the state's eastern side.
In response, Floridians are clearing off shelves in stores, and lining up to fill their tanks with petrol.
The storm might hit the Floridian coast as early as Sunday.
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Donald Trump has invited fresh mockery online by using the megalomaniacal phrase “the Age of Trump” in a tweet, writing: “When the ‘Age of Trump’ is looked back on many years from now, I only hope that a big part of my legacy will be the exposing of massive dishonesty in the Fake News!”
With the phrase trending on social media this morning, a thousand memes were born.
The president has also been busy on Twitter deriding New York senator Kirsten Gillibrand after she dropped out of the running for the Democratic 2020 presidential nomination, jeering sarcastically: "I’m glad they never found out that she was the one I was really afraid of!"
He also responded angrily to The Washington Post's story yesterday saying he had offered to pardon aides who broke the law in order to get his US-Mexico border wall raised in time for next year's election.
Attempting to counter the idea that such a step might be necessary to realise his signature white elephant project, Trump touted construction progress in Texas...
...only for his own officials to dispute his claims.
With Hurricane Dorian still raging off the Florida coast after grazing Puerto Rico, Trump finds himself facing renewed scrutiny from the House Judiciary Committee - already examining the case for impeachment - over his offer to host the next G7 summit at his own Trump National Doral Miami resort, which they believe amounts to an abuse of his powers of office.
At the G7 meeting of major industrial nations in Biarritz, France, on Monday, Trump said his administration was studying the possibility of hosting next year's summit at the Florida golf resort but insisted he would not personally profit from the resort's selection. Trump said a final decision had not been made.
"The president's personal financial interests are clearly shaping decisions about official US government activities," House of Representatives Judiciary Committee chairman Jerrold Nadler and another senior Democrat on the panel said in a statement on Wednesday.
Constitutional clauses prohibit government officials from receiving emoluments such as salaries, fees and profits from foreign and domestic governments without congressional approval.
Democrats, who control the House, would be unlikely to give Republican Trump such approval.
Nadler and congressman Steve Cohen, chair of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Constitution, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, said hosting the G7 at the Trump resort would represent "perhaps the first publicly known instance in which foreign governments would be required to pay President Trump's private businesses in order to conduct business with the United States."
The House Judiciary Committee is still considering whether to recommend Trump's impeachment to the full House and has cited violations of the emoluments clauses as potentially impeachable offenses. House Democrats are also investigating possible violations from Trump's hotel near the White House in Washington.
"The committee will broaden its ongoing investigation to include these latest revelations and will take further investigative steps, including scheduling hearings and requesting additional documents from the White House," the statement said.
Trump's suggestion the resort be used has also attracted criticism 2020 candidates and the White House press corps and raised revived concerns reported locally that the venue is infested with bedbugs.
G7 countries take turns hosting the annual summit, often choosing relatively remote locations that show off areas of natural beauty.
Trump complained in France about having to be shuttled from airports large enough to accommodate his Air Force One plane and G7 venues. He said his Florida resort was ideal because of its size and proximity to Miami airport.
The two Democrats also pointed to news reports that an official meeting between Trump and Irish prime minister Leo Varadkar was cancelled after Trump asked that the meeting be held at his golf resort in Doonbeg, Ireland.
Children born to US government employees and military servicemen and women overseas will no longer automatically be granted American citizenship, according to a policy alert from the US Citizenship and Immigration Services.
The new rule change is the latest in a string of amendments meant to redefine citizenship from the Trump administration and is expected to provoke significant anger among the diplomatic community and armed forces.
Here's Lily Puckett's report.
Trump’s repeated use of the nickname “Pocahontas” as part of an attack on Massachusetts senator and 2020 challenger Elizabeth Warren has been condemned as “an insult for political gain” by the country’s largest indigenous rights groups.
The president started using the name in a way many find offensive, even before he was elected to the Oval Office. He has continued to do so since becoming president, despite claims it is racist.
On Wednesday, the National Congress of American Indians, which describes itself as the oldest and largest indigenous rights organisation in the US, formally criticised Trump, saying his actions were part of a long tradition of insults endured by Native Americans and other indigenous groups.
Here's Andrew Buncombe with more.
It's five years since 44th president Barack Obama created a major political scandal by opting to wear a tan suit.
Chelsea Ritschel looks back fondly on simpler times.
New York congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has hit back at Trump after he decided yesterday was a good time to criticise Puerto Rico, just as a powerful tropical storm was bearing down on the island.
Having already joked about trading the territory for Greenland, lied about the amount of US aid given to it after Hurricane Maria hit in September 2017 and branded the outspoken mayor of San Juan Carmen Yulin Cruz "incompetent", the president labelled the embattled Caribbean isle "one of the most corrupt places on earth".
Fortunately, AOC was on hand to offer some perspective.
And she was not alone in doing so.
This heated debate between CNN anchor Chris Cuomo and Trump's national press secretary for the 2020 campaign Kayleigh McEnany - coming across like she's in a cult by insisting the president "doesn't lie" - is not to be missed.
“I think you should take a look in the mirror, Chris,” McEnany says.
“I do. And I don’t like these lines,” Cuomo responds, “but I do like that I don’t lie to my audience every damn chance I get.”
Trump is up early and moving to reassure the public on Hurricane Dorian but failing miserably by frightening the hell out of the good folk of Florida.
Remember also he cut funding to FEMA only yesterday to shunt towards his border wall.
Here's the latest on Dorian from Adam Forrest as it approaches the Sunshine State, where an emergency has been declared.
A decidedly unflattering statue of Trump has been erected in Melania's native Slovenia in protest at his policies and rhetoric.
The president is now hitting out at MSNBC host Lawrence O'Donnell, who suggested yesterday that Deutsche Bank's financial records on the Trump family included loan documents co-signed by Russian billionaires close to Vladimir Putin before rowing back on the claim and apologising. Trump is mad.
Eric Trump had already threatened to sue.
Another day, another poll.
This one, from Quinnipiac, indicates suggests any one of the top five Democrats would beat Trump in a head-to-head contest, including Indiana mayor Pete Buttigieg.
It also shows Joe Biden to be the runaway leader of the pack with a 13 point lead.
Here's more on Kirsten Gillibrand's exit from the 2020 race.
You can follow the latest on Hurricane Dorian below incidentally as Florida locals batten down the hatches in preparation for the weekend.
The aforementioned AOC has greeted climate change activist Greta Thunberg after she dropped anchor in New York following her heroic journey across the Atlantic to visit the UN.
Asked about whether she wanted to meet with Trump while in the US, Thunberg memorably answered that it would be a waste of time as he wouldn't listen to her.
Sirena Bergman has more.
A very welcome and rare gesture towards greater transparency from the administration.
For Indy Voices, Robert Fisk says Trump is now the "crazed" rogue leader in the Iran contretemps.
Trump is back to making vague reassurances on the economy and has also made a particular appeal to farmers in the Midwest anxious after the administration granted waivers this month to 31 oil refineries so they don't have to blend ethanol into their gasoline.
Since roughly 40 per cent of the US corn crop is turned into ethanol, the move represented a fresh blow to corn producers already struggling with five years of low commodity prices and the threat of mediocre harvests this fall after some of the worst weather in years.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) last month kept its annual target for the level of corn ethanol that must be blended into the nation's gasoline supply under the Renewable Fuel Standard at 15bn gallons (56.78bn litres) for 2020. That was a deep disappointment to an ethanol industry that wanted a higher target to offset exemptions granted to smaller refiners. Those waivers have cut demand by an estimated 2.6bn gallons (9.84bn litres) since Trump took office.
At least 15 ethanol plants already have been shut down or idled since the EPA increased waivers under Trump, and a 16th casualty came Wednesday at the Corn Plus ethanol plant in the south-central Minnesota town of Winnebago. The Renewable Fuels Association says the closures have affected more than 2,500 jobs.
The 31 new waivers issued came on top of 54 granted since early 2018, according to the association. While the waivers are intended to reduce hardships on small oil refiners, some beneficiaries include smaller refineries owned by big oil companies.
The administration knows it has a problem. US agriculture secretary Sonny Perdue said at a farm policy summit in Decatur, Illinois, on Wednesday that Trump will take action to soften the effects. He would not say what the president might do or when, but said Trump believes the waivers by his EPA were "way overdone."
