Trump news: Congress files tax return lawsuit as president rages against Robert Mueller and insists military leaders 'thrilled' to take part in 4th of July tank display
Another day of controversy and chaos in Washington
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Donald Trump has hit out at Robert Mueller on Twitter and insisted the US military is “thrilled” to be taking part in his “Salute to America” celebration for the Fourth of July as the House Ways and Means Committee launches a lawsuit to acquire his tax returns.
In an exclusive interview with Tucker Carlson of Fox News broadcast on Monday night, the president criticised homelessness in American cities, spoke of his optimism that his trade war with China would ultimately be won and benefit farmers and accused the social media giants of “possibly illegally” blocking him from gaining new followers before expressing his desire to withdraw US troops from Afghanistan, which he called, “the Harvard of terrorists”.
A delegation of Democratic congressmen and women have meanwhile visited a number of migrant detention centres at the US-Mexico border in Texas, speaking out against the squalid conditions they found there and the behaviour of some Border Patrol agents overseeing the facilities.
Images released Tuesday by US government inspectors who visited facilities in South Texas where migrant adults and children who crossed the nearby border with Mexico are processed and detained showed overcrowding and seemingly unsanitary conditions.
As public outrage grows over the conditions in which thousands of people — some no more than a few months old — are being held by the US government, the report offered new cause for alarm.
It quotes one senior government manager as calling the situation “a ticking time bomb.”
“Specifically, when detainees observed us, they banged on the cell windows, shouted, pressed notes to the window with their time in custody, and gestured to evidence of their time in custody,” the report says.
BuzzFeed first reported on a draft version of the report, which blurs most faces in the photos.
An autopsy report also released Tuesday confirmed that a 2-year-old child who died in April had multiple intestinal and infectious respiratory diseases, including the flu.
Wilmer Josué Ramírez Vásquez is one of five children to die after being detained by border agents since late last year. Two of the other four also had the flu.
Additional reporting by AP. Please allow a moment for our liveblog to load
Back in Washington, the Trump administration is threatening to introduce new tariffs on EU products worth $4bn (£3.16bn) opening up a fresh new battle front in his trade war against the world.
Just days after reaching a truce in his spat with China, the office of the US Trade Representative (USTR) has released a list of products made in the EU that it is considering for additional import duties, including: Scotch whisky, hams and pork, olives, pasta and popular cheeses like gouda, parmigiano reggiano and pecorino romano.
Here's more from Alessio Perrone.
Trump is out of bed and resuming his attack on the Big Apple, saying people are "fleeing New York like never before" as a result of the state's hostility to the National Rifle Association, which is plainly nonsense.
He started on this theme late last night, going after governor Andrew Cuomo and attorney general Letitia James for investigating his financial affairs.
He is also shilling his friend's books again, this time one by Fox pundit Mark Levin...
...making three-year old accusations against the media regarding his (evidently personally traumatic) televised debates with Hillary Clinton in autumn 2016...
...and bragging in block caps about the economy.
Some quick work here from Andrew Griffin.
Some significant but not especially surprising news: Trump's deeply religious director of strategic communications Mercedes Schlapp is leaving her post to work for the Trump camp's re-election team.
US secretary of state Mike Pompeo has been called out by a State Department whistleblower for treating his taxpayer-funded security detail as an "UberEats with guns", according to CNN.
House Democrats will investigate the claim that Diplomatic Security agents were asked to pick up Chinese takeaway and ferry the Pompeo family dog to his grooming appointments.
According to the Code of Federal Regulations, a federal employee "shall not encourage, direct, coerce, or request a subordinate to use official time to perform activities other than those required in the performance of official duties or authorised in accordance with law or regulation."
"Sending subordinates to run personal errands for you is the very definition of misuse of position," comments former government ethics czar Walter Shaub.
Here's the latest polling among the 2020 Democratic presidential contenders.
Elizabeth Warren and Kamala Harris have both seen a surge in support after impressing on the debate stage in Florida last week, eating into Joe Biden's lead and leaving Bernie Sanders languishing in fourth, according to a new survey from CNN/SRR.
The president's son, Eric Trump, attempted to use his father's historic crossing into North Korea on Sunday to bash Barack Obama's comparative "inaction" on Pyongyang.
Eric, who was spat on by a disgusted waitress in a Chicago restaurant last week, now has egg on his face after being royally taken to town by Twitter for his failure to grapple with the basic facts of the matter.
Here's Greg Evans on several inconvenient truths the boy overlooked in his rush to go viral.
Here's an even stranger - and, frankly, rather scary - response to Trump's Kim Jong-un meeting from actor Randy Quaid, star ofIndependence Day.
Here's The Independent's cartoonist Dave Brown with a stout defence of Michael de Adder, whose satirical drawing of Trump playing golf and ignoring a drowned migrant father and daughter cost him his job.
A couple of the president's old tweets have resurfaced to haunt him in light of recent events.
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