President announces new Turkey sanctions, amid fury over fake video of him killing journalists shown at Mar-a-Lago
Move comes amid outcry over ‘abandoning’ of Kurdish forces
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Donald Trump has announced new sanctions on Turkey, amid a mounting outcry over its assault upon Kurdish fighters as it invaded northern Syria, and the escape from prisons of Isis fighters.
The president last week gave a green light for Ankara to launch its long-planned military operation into northeast Syria after he pulled out a small number of US special forces who had been working with the Kurds, whose soldiers had spearheaded the operation to destroy Isis.
On Monday, the president signed executive orders to sanction Turkey and suspend negotiations on a $100 billion trade deal. He said he will also boost tariffs on Turkish steel to 50 per cent.
In a statement in which he vowed to swiftly destroy the Turkish economy if it continued down “this dangerous and destructive path”, Mr Trump said US troops coming out of Syria will redeploy and remain in the region to monitor the situation.
Later in the day, the White House announced the president was sending Mike Pence to the Middle East, as tensions rose.
Mr Pence said Mr Trump spoke directly to Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
“President Trump communicated to him very clearly that the United States of America wants Turkey to stop the invasion, implement an immediate ceasefire and to begin to negotiate with Kurdish forces in Syria to bring an end to the violence,” he said.
Mr Trump’s decision to abandon the Kurdish-led Syrian Defence Force was criticised at home and abroad as opening the door to a resurgence of Isis, and for betraying a group that had previously worked with the US against Isis.
As Turkish forces and their Syrian Arab proxies advanced, forcing the Kurds to reduce the number of fighters guarding several prisons containing Isis prisoners, a number of detainees are able to flee.
The Kurds also announce they had deceived to strike a deal with the government of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad.
Meanwhile, the president’s have been condemned for screening a meme of the president killing journalists in a church and pistol-whipping the late senator John McCain at the American Priority Conference, hosted at his own Trump National Doral Miami golf resort in Florida.
The president has reportedly called the CEO of Fox News, Suzanne Scott, to complain over the “unfair” coverage his administration has received regarding the House impeachment inquiry. He recently complained the network is “much different than it used to be in the good old days”.
On the Sunday morning talk show circuit, US defence secretary Mark Esper admitted that Turkey “appears to be” committing war crimes against America’s Kurdish allies in the Syrian Democratic Forces, as a retired Marine general says Mr Trump has “blood on his hands” over the crisis unfolding on the northern Syria border.
To see how this story played out please read below
Here's Trump going after Fox again.
I'm really starting to hate it when he gets up early.
Trump repeatedly asked over the weekend: "WHERE'S HUNTER?"
Not on the board of BHR (Shanghai) Equity Investment Fund Management Company any more, is one answer.
The son of his likely 2020 challenger Joe Biden issued a statement through his lawyers, pledging to no longer work for foreign-owned companies, rather than further encourage "the barrage of false charges against both him and his father".
Here's Phil Thomas's report.
Trump also went to bat for his under-fire attorney Rudy Giuliani, who he admitted was "a little rough around the edges".
Here's our report on the men getting their stories straight over lunch.
Here's our breaking story on Trump's latest tweets, in which he implies the Kurds deliberately released those Isis affiliates, a suggestion that has been branded "sheer insanity" by one veteran diplomat.
Another highlight from Trump's weekend tweet spree.
The president branded Democratic congresswoman Rashida Tlaib "a despicable human being", although it looked like he was referring to his own social media director Dan Scavino, to whom the phrase might more aptly be applied.
Here's Phil Thomas again.
Trump tweeted a happy birthday message to the US Navy over the weekend but nothing whatsoever about his seldom-seen daughty Tiffany turning 26, leading many to assume he'd forgotten.
Here's Darren Richman for Indy100.
Joe Biden has released a new government ethics plan this morning that makes explicit reference to Trump in its bid to tackle corruption rein in conflicts of interest, declaring:
We must elect leaders with integrity, for whom the public interest is paramount. But that’s not enough. We also must strengthen our laws to ensure that no future president can ever again use the office for personal gain.
His attacks on Trump have really escalated in recent days and not before time.
Jacob Frey, the Democratic mayor of Minneapolis who opposed Trump's rally in his city last week, wrote an op-ed for The Washington Post yesterday hitting out at the president for never paying his way.
In the last hour, Trump has used his social media bullhorn to wish America a happy Columbus Day, post a few clips of David Cameron's former strategist Steve Hilton pushing Biden smears on Fox and to urge the electorate to vote for his ex-press secretary Sean Spicer on Dancing with the Stars.
Republicans have struggled to defend Trump since the impeachment inquiry began, with more damaging details emerging every day. Many have ducked out of opportunities to do so and this appearance by Ted Cruz on Face the Nation on Sunday shows why.
The Texas senator found himself cornered into admitting "of course" it was not OK for Trump to call on China to investigate the Bidens as he did, live on TV in front of the whole world.
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