Donald Trump has said he is "very, very disappointed" to hear that North Korea is rebuilding a missile site that Pyongyang has said will be closed amid ongoing denuclearisation negotiations.
Earlier, the president lashed out at a number of old enemies on Twitter, including Hillary Clinton, showing his growing frustration with House Democrats and the investigations surrounding him.
In those tweets, the president accused the Democrats of “playing games” by instigating “McCarthyite” congressional investigations against him rather than getting on with the business of government, refusing to hand over files related to his son-in-law Jared Kushner’s security clearance to the House Oversight Committee and indicating he might not co-operate with the House Judiciary Committee’s abuse of power investigation into his inner circle.
As the investigations into Mr Trump have swirled, a damning new poll has emerged suggesting two-thirds of American voters believe he committed a crime before his election.
On Tuesday, Mr Trump also walked back his decision to pull all US troops out of Syria, saying he now agreed “100 per cent” with keeping a military presence there.
Meanwhile, the president’s former lawyer, Michael Cohen, will return to Capitol Hill for a fourth day of testimony.
Hello and welcome to The Independent's rolling coverage of the Donald Trump administration.
President Trump laid into his Democratic rivals on Twitter last night, mocking both 2016 rival Hillary Clinton and billionaire party donor Tom Steyer for their decisions not to run against him in 2020.
"Aw-shucks, does that mean I won’t get to run against her again? She will be sorely missed!" he sneered at Ms Clinton before applying one of his signature nicknames to the hedge fund philanthropist, branding him "Weirdo Tom Steyer" and saying he lacked the "guts" to run.
He also retweeted attacks on the House Democrats' "fishing expeditions" into his affairs from his press secretary Sarah Sanders and Republican National Committee chairwoman Ronna McDaniel, as well as another plug for Fox News, broadcasting an interview with Republican congressman Jim Jordan on the opposition's "colossally stupid decision to overreach with overbroad subpoenas".
In another tweet, he quoted Hans von Spakovsky, a lawyer who was appointed to the president’s ill-fated commission on election integrity, to support his contention Democrats are “copying Joseph McCarthy” and “don’t have any evidence of wrongdoing.”
Here's Tom Embury-Dennis on the president's latest fever dream.
Trump launches overnight tirade after refusing to hand documents requested by Congress
Billionaire reacts angrily to widening congressional probes into his conduct in officeThe president appears to be digging in his heels on the investigations, the White House refusing to turn over information on his son-in-law Jared Kushner's security clearance, granted in spite of concerns raised by intelligence officials.
Mr Trump branded the decision "a disgrace" before addressing a gathering of military veterans on suicide among former members of the armed forces from the Roosevelt Room.
House Oversight Committee chair Elijah Cummings said he is considering his "next steps".
Here's Clark Mindock.
Trump refuses to hand over ‘Kushner clearance’ documents to Congress: ‘It’s a disgrace’
House Democrats are considering 'next steps' as the White House refused to supply clearance documentsHere's a little more on that, with CNN reporting the president also pressured former chief-of-staff John Kelly and ex-White House counsel to grant the same access to his daughter Ivanka.
Trump 'pressured White House officials' to get security clearance for Ivanka
It follows reports president made similar demands on behalf of Jared KushnerThe president's new line of attack is to accuse House Democrats of wasting the government's time with "hoax" investigations.
“Essentially what they are saying is the campaign begins,” he told reporters on Tuesday. “Instead of doing infrastructure, instead of doing healthcare, instead of doing so many things they should be doing, they want to play games.”
He also hinted he might not necessarily co-operate with Jerrold Nadler's House Judiciary Committee.
Trump suggests he will not cooperate with investigation into abuse of power
President described investigation as 'disgrace to our country'Meanwhile, a damaging poll from Quinnipac University has found that a staggering 45 percent of American voters surveyed believe President Trump committed a crime before he was elected.
Here's Chris Baynes.
Here's Chris Baynes.
Two-thirds of Americans think Trump is a criminal, poll finds
'Michael Cohen, a known liar headed to the big house, has more credibility than the leader of the free world', says pollsterThis was the response from "Crooked Hillary" to the president's taunting tweet by the way.
Absolutely textbook use of a Mean Girls GIF.
Michael Cohen is due back before the House Intelligence Committee today for another private hearing after three days of headline-grabbing testimony on Capitol Hill last week.
The question of whether he discussed presidential pardons with White House attorneys after the FBI raided his home and business premises last April is thought to be on the bill for the latest behind-closed-doors session.
No pardon was ever given and Cohen ultimately wound up pleading guilty and cooperating against the president in separate investigations by the special counsel and by federal prosecutors in New York. He begins a three-year jail sentence in May.
While there is nothing inherently improper about a subject in a criminal investigation seeking a pardon from a president given the president's wide latitude in granting them, representatives have requested information about talks on possible pardons for Cohen and other defendants close to the president who have become entangled in Mueller's investigation.
The House Intelligence Committee's chairman Adam Schiff said after last week's private meeting with Cohen that the committee had "additional document requests" that they were discussing with him. Mr Schiff would not comment on the substance of the interview, but said it helped "to shed light on a lot of issues that are very core to our investigation".
The intelligence panel is investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election and whether Mr Trump's campaign coordinated with the Russians in any way. They are also looking into Trump's foreign financial dealings and whether there was obstruction of justice.
In his dramatic appearance before the House Oversight Committee last week, one of Cohen's revelations was that the president asked him to threaten his old schools in order to ensure they would not release his exam grades to the media.
Here's more on how Mr Trump sought to bury the past.
How Trump managed to bury his high school records
Revelations add fresh details to allegations made by president's former lawyer Michael Cohen last weekThis should not be overlooked.
Just two months after President Trump announced all American troops would be leaving Syria, the commander-in-chief has backpedalled on his decision in a letter to Congress, stating he now agrees “100 per cent” with keeping a military presence in the conflict-struck country.
Here's Sarah Harvard.
Trump flip-flops on Syria, now agrees ‘100%’ with keeping troops
In December the president announced withdrawing all troops from countryA spike in arrests on the US border with Mexico has prompted critics of President Trump to warn his approach to tackling illegal immigration is not only not working but having an encouraging effect.
Around 76,000 people were picked up by border agents in February, a 50 percent increase year-on-year and a 12-year high.
Here's Clark Mindock with more.
Trump administration’s 'chaotic approach' to border security is 'encouraging illegal migration’
Chaotic approach to southern border security is encouraging illegal migration, says criticHere's an unusual aside from Trumpland: Aberdeen and Scotland footballer Scott McKenna has come under fire for accepting a post as ambassador of Donald Trump's nearby golf course.
International footballer criticised after becoming ambassador for Trump's golf course
McKenna is an avid golfer and claims it is a privilege to represent the Aberdeenshire clubMelania Trump joined in with her husband's attack on the media on Tuesday.
On tour in Las Vegas to promote her "Be Best" anti-bullying initiative and discuss the impact of the opioid crisis on children, the first lady said: "I challenge the press to devote as much time to the lives lost and the potential lives that could be saved by dedicating the same amount of coverage that you do to idle gossip or trivial stories."
"When we see breaking news on TV or the front pages of newspapers, it is my hope that it can be about how many lives we were able to save through education and honest dialogue."
The US trade deficit has jumped nearly 19 percent, undermining a key commitment by President Trump.
The US trade imbalance for 2018 widened to a decade-long high of $261bn (£199bn). The gap with China on goods widened to an all-time record of $419.2bn (£319bn).
Mr Trump promised to cut the trade imbalance on the belief it would bring back overseas factory jobs and bolster the broader US economy.
But America's dependence on imports appears to have increased after the tariffs Mr Trump imposed last year on foreign steel, aluminium and Chinese products.
An acceleration in economic growth last year from President Trump's debt-funded tax cuts helped to boost the appetite for foreign goods.
Donald Trump and his son Eric made a surprise phone call to a man dying of cystic fibrosis.
The president told 44-year-old Jay Barrett of West Haven, Connecticut: "I wish you could come to a rally. I wish you could come ... You keep that fight going. We both fight."
The call was made possible by Mr Barrett's sister, West Haven City councilwoman Bridgette Hoskie, who describes herself as "100 per cent Democrat".
President Trump considers the House Judiciary Committee's latest probe evidence of "presidential harassment" and part of the ongoing "witch hunt" against him. The rest of his administration has been towing a similar party line.
Press secretary Sarah Sanders issued this strongly-worded statement yesterday:
...As Eric Trump told Fox News Radio he considered Congress "incompetent" and said: "We're going to fight the hell out of it. And we'll fight where we need and we'll cooperate where we need, but the desperation shows."
President Trump's campaign spokeswoman Kayleigh McEnany has meanwhile accused Democrats of stopping "at nothing, including destroying the lives and reputations of many innocent Americans who only have sought to serve their country honorably, but who hold different political views than their own."
The rhetoric is every bit as consistent and measured as you'd expect.
Speaking of the White House press secretary, she's been on Fox and Friends this morning with some top-drawer sloganeering.
Republican senator Mike Rounds of South Dakota bending over backwards to defend the president's "hush money" payments to Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal here on CNN after The New York Times reported he routinely took time out from his working day to sign cheques reimbursing his then-lawyer turned "rat" Michael Cohen.
He did it to spare his family the pain of finding out about the alleged infidelities, apparently.
Some delightful insights into the Trump inauguration from Bloomberg's Caleb Melby, an event currently being investigated by New York federal prosecutors and the attorneys-general of New Jersey and the District of Columbia over concerns about how its record-breaking $107m (£81m) fundraising was spent and some of the donors making contributions.
Despite Sarah Sanders' insistence to the contrary, the 45th president did personally involve himself in the planning for his swearing-in ceremony in Washington on 20 January 2017, which was famously poorly-attended and struggled to book musical acts because of the divisive nature of the candidate's rhetoric on the campaign trail.
Donald Trump reportedly fretted about securing the services of the New York dance troupe The Rockettes and finding the right tablecloths and hoped to give his friends at Fox News the exclusive broadcast rights as a thank you for their support.
The following extract is particularly glorious:
"In the final days before the inauguration, a contractor called Don’s Johns began lining up portable toilets near event sites. [Rick] Gates instructed staff to cover the company logo with tape, which prompted the chief operating officer of Don’s Johns to promise to rip it off."
Donald Trump’s nominees to become the next US ambassadors to Saudi Arabia and Iraq - John Abizaid and Matthew Tueller respectively - are scheduled to meet with politicians during confirmation hearings on Capitol Hill this week.
The hearings arrive a day after the Senate was provided new details about the murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi during closed-door meetings on Tuesday afternoon.
Here's Chris Riotta.
Trump nominees for Saudi and Iraq ambassadors face grilling as Senators demand more answers on Khashoggi murder
President still refuses to implicate Saudi crown prince in journalist's murder, angering Republican senatorsPlease allow a moment for our liveblog to load
