Donald Trump has taken to Twitter to threaten Iran and harangue Republican congressman Justin Amash for suggesting he had engaged in “impeachable conduct” while also criticising Fox News for “wasting airtime” by covering his 2020 Democratic challengers.
“If Iran wants to fight, that will be the official end of Iran. Never threaten the United States again!” the president wrote in response to heated rhetoric from Tehran and the firing of a rocket close to the US embassy in Iraq as tensions over sanctions and the US military presence in the Gulf continue.
Mr Trump was annoyed by a Twitter thread written by Representative Amash in response to his reading of the Mueller report and Fox for broadcasting a town hall event with Indiana mayor Pete Buttigieg, rare examples of him turning on his allies.
Mr Buttigieg has mounted a surprisingly strong candidacy, but would still need to beat Joe Biden if he hopes to take Mr Trump on during the 2020 election.
Meanwhile in the 2020 election, Mr Biden saw some troubling polls in Iowa, where Bernie Sanders tied up with him in the state.
Elizabeth Warren followed behind those two men, but posted the best favourability ratings in the poll that was released.
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Donald Trump has warned Iran it faces being destroyed in a war with the US, amid escalating tensions between the two countries.
Trump spoke out shortly after it was reported that a rocket had landed less than a mile from the US embassy in Iraq. The Katyusha missile crashed into Baghdad’s Green Zone without causing any casualties.
Relations between the US and Iran have deteriorated rapidly since Trump pulled out of the nuclear deal with Iran almost a year ago.
Trump spoke out shortly after it was reported that a rocket had landed less than a mile from the US embassy in Iraq. The Katyusha missile crashed into Baghdad’s Green Zone without causing any casualties.
Relations between the US and Iran have deteriorated rapidly since Trump pulled out of the nuclear deal with Iran almost a year ago.
Here's Peter Stubley with more.
The president had another busy weekend on Twitter, also taking to task Republican congressman Justin Amash after the Michigan representative became the first member of the GOP to accuse Trump of engaging in "impeachable conduct".
Amash, branded a "total lightweight" and a "loser" by the commander-in-chief, had made the comment in a long Twitter thread on Saturday.
Speaking on CNN's State of the Union yesterday, former Republican presidential contender Mitt Romney said Amash had made a "courageous statement" but declined to back him up.
Here's Adam Forrest on Amash.
Trump also attacked his allies at Fox News over their decision to host a town hall event with 2020 candidate Pete Buttigieg in Claremont, New Hampshire.
The president appeared to be dictating what the powerful right-wing network should and should not broadcast, accusing them of "wasting airtime" and repeating his insulting comparison of Mayor Pete to Mad magazine mascot Alfred E Neuman, albeit misspelling the name in his tweet.
Buttigieg's performance on the show, in which he daringly criticised Fox hosts Laura Ingraham and Tucker Carlson, saw him receive a standing ovation.
Trump wasn't done there, also accusing Fox of "false reporting" on the immigration crisis.
He didn't seem to mind when they demonised the migrant caravan during the 2018 midterms.
Here's Victoria Gagliardo-Silver on Mayor Pete.
The timing of this vitriol was odd given the president had just given an exclusive interview to the channel with Steve Hilton, former adviser to our own dear prime minister David Cameron pre-Brexit.
Trump boasted about his capacity for "changing laws" and his Twitter following, was vague about his overhaul of immigration and rowed back on the support for universal healthcare he espoused in 2016.
He also said his tariffs on Chinese goods are causing companies to move production out of China to Vietnam and other countries in Asia, and added that any agreement with China cannot be a "50-50" deal. No further trade talks between top Chinese and US trade negotiators have been scheduled since the last round ended on 10 May - the same day Trump raised the tariff rate on $200bn (£157bn) worth of Chinese products from 10 percent to 25 percent.
Here's a recap of the president's weekend on Twitter from Clark Mindock.
The New York Times reports today that anti-money laundering specialists at Deutsche Bank once recommended transactions involving entities controlled by President Trump and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, should be investigated by the Treasury Department's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network.
Executives at Deutsche Bank rejected the advice of their specialists, according to The Times, which came between 2016 and 2017.
The nature of the suspect transactions "was not clear," said the newspaper, although it added that at least some of them involved "money flowing back and forth with overseas entities or individuals, which bank employees considered suspicious".
Deutsche became one of the few big lenders willing to hand money to the Trump Organization in recent years. Trump businesses borrowed more than $300m (£235m) from the bank to finance a golf course in Florida and hotels in Chicago and Washington, according to financial disclosures and public filings from 2012 to 2015.
Here's Ben Chapman's report.
Elizabeth Warren - who last week refused to follow Mayor Pete onto Fox - has impressed many with her clear-eyed focus on policy since declaring her 2020 candidacy, particularly with regard to education.
Depressingly, her performance has done little to sway the opinion polls in her favour so far.
Here she is doing well on Twitter.
Clark Mindock has this special report on her campaign.
Saudi Arabia has joined in with President Trump's chastisement of Iran, warning its near-neighbour it will fight with "all force and determination" and "defend itself, its citizens and its interests".
Here's some background from CNN's New Day.
And here's Jane Dalton's report on the reaction from Riyadh.
Trump has come out against Alabama’s abortion ban, suggesting the issue risked dividing Republicans ahead of the 2020 election.
The southern state’s Republican government last week passed America’s most restrictive abortion law, banning procedures in all instances other than when the mother’s health is at risk.
The bill, which does not include exceptions in cases of rape and incest, passed 26-6 in the senate and was later signed into law by governor Kay Ivey.
Tom Embury-Dennis has more.
Ahead of Memorial Day, Trump is reportedly considering issuing pardons for several US military members accused or convicted of war crimes, including high-profile cases of murder, attempted murder and desecration of a corpse.
One request is for special operations chief Edward Gallagher of the Navy SEALs, who is scheduled to stand trial in the coming weeks on charges of shooting unarmed civilians and killing an enemy captive with a knife while deployed in Iraq.
The others are believed to include the case of a former Blackwater security contractor recently found guilty in the deadly 2007 shooting of dozens of unarmed Iraqis; the case of Major Mathew Golsteyn, the Army Green Beret accused of killing an unarmed Afghan in 2010; and the case of a group of Marine Corps snipers charged with urinating on the corpses of dead Taliban fighters.
Trump is out of bed and predicting the imminent demise of The New York Times. He clearly didn't like that Deutsche Bank story.
Very shouty, even for him. Accuses The NYT of inventing quotes and sources and claims he doesn't "need or want money", which would be a laughable claim from anyone, let alone Donald J Trump.
Trump has just posted and deleted a follow-up tweet blaming Twitter for screwing up his thread.
"No time for a redo! Only the Dems get redos!" he jested, alluding to the ongoing congressional investigations into his affairs in the wake of the Mueller report.
Here's the latest from Joe Biden on the campaign trail.
"Will we be the ones to let the government of, by, and for the people perish from the face of the earth?" he asked his audience in Philadelphia on Saturday, quoting Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg address.
"Dare we let that happen? Dare we let that happen? Absolutely not. We will not."
The Democratic 2020 hopefuls are reportedly studying Jimmy Carter's triumphant 1976 run for the White House in search of inspiration ahead of next year's race.
Carter, 94 and still going strong, defeated Gerald Ford that year but later admitted he made a better ex-president than he had a president, having devoted his subsequent work to humanitarian endeavors and peace projects.
Mayor Pete, Cory Booker and Amy Klobuchar have all visited Carter at home in Plains, Georgia, for words of advice.
Hopefully Carter persuaded Booker against posting lame tweets like this.
Some handy context from Morning Joe on Justin Amash, whom Trump "was never a fan of".
This "total loser" is actually well-liked by Republicans but has often broken ranks with the president.
Alec Baldwin's Trump was singing Queen on Saturday Night Live over the weekend.
You probably already know whether or not that's something you want to see.
Trump has a suggestion for the Democrats on how to claw back their credibility. The gall of the man.
Trump is today off to a MAGA rally in Montoursville, Pennsylvania.
The Trump blimp could fly again when the president visits Britain next month, says Chris Baynes.
