Trump news: President demands media outlets 'all apologise' as G7 fallout prompts Congress to step up impeachment inquiry
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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.
Trump protests: President visits Texas and Ohio after mass shootings
Show all 31The 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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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.
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."
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