Donald Trump lashes out at Nancy Pelosi over cover-up comments, claiming to be 'most transparent president in US history'
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Pressure is intensifying on Democratic House speaker Nancy Pelosi to launch impeachment proceedings against Donald Trump.
An increasing number of Democrats - and even a Republican congressman - are openly calling for the measure in response to the Mueller report's findings and the Trump administration's refusal to submit documents to congressional investigations.
Mr Trump on Wednesday sabotaged a planned White House meeting with Ms Pelosi on infrastructure, and said he would not work with Democrats until all probes into him were closed.
Meanwhile, the president announced a massive $16bn (£12.6bn) aid package for farmers on Thursday, amid an intensifying confrontation with China on trade. US Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue said that the first of three payments is likely to be made in July or August and suggested that the US and China were unlikely to have settled their differences by then.
“The package we’re announcing today ensures that farmers do not bear the brunt of unfair retaliatory tariffs imposed by China and other trading partners,” Mr Perdue said.
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The latest bailout comes atop $11bn (£8.7bn) in aid Mr Trump provided farmers last year.
“We will ensure our farmers get the relief they need and very, very quickly,” Mr Trump said in an unwieldy press conference on Thursday in which he insisted is a "very stable genius."
Seeking to reduce America’s trade deficit with the rest of the world and with China in particular, the president has imposed import taxes on foreign steel, aluminium, solar panels and dishwashers and on thousands of Chinese products.
US trading partners have lashed back with retaliatory tariffs of their own, focusing on U.S. agricultural products in a direct shot at the American heartland, where support for Trump runs high.
Financial markets slumped Thursday on heightened tensions between the US and China. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 286 points, or 1 per cent, to 25,490. It had been down 448 points earlier in the day.
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Additional reporting by AP. Check out live updates as the came in below.
Good morning and welcome to The Independent's coverage of all the latest from the Trump administration and the increasing pressure on Congress to launch impeachment proceedings against the US president.
Discussions of impeachment appear to be occupying ever more the attentions of both Democrats and Donald Trump himself, who yesterday conducted an impromptu press conference in part to rail against what he described as 'the big I word".
Here are details of yesterday's five-minute meeting between Mr Trump and the Democratic leadership, as well as the president's extraordinary 10-minute press conference in which he railed against the prospect of impeachment, among many other things.
House speaker Nancy Pelosi is feeling the heat from a small but growing number of House Democrats calling for impeachment proceedings against Donald Trump.
Mr Trump's latest defiance of congressional investigation of his administration and his own actions came on Tuesday when he ordered his former counsel, Don McGahn, to refuse to appear at a House hearing despite a subpoena.
Some Democratic leaders are backing Ms Pelosi's cautious approach, but signaling that a march to impeachment may at some point become inevitable.
The Democratic majority leader, Maryland's Steny Hoyer, has said lawmakers might be confronting the largest cover-up in American history and that if a House inquiry leads to impeachment, "so be it".
Here from a few days ago, may be one of the most significant developments in recent months as to Mr Trump's prospects over impeachment.
Justin Amash became the first Republican in Congress to call for the president's impeachment.
The Michigan representative set out the case with a lengthy Twitter thread, arguing Mr Trump had “engaged in specific actions and a pattern of behaviour that meet the threshold" for such a measure.
Donald Trump himself appears increasingly distracted by the prospect of impeachment. A quick-thinking photographer for The Washington Post yesterday snapped the president's handwritten notes for his Rose Garden press conference.
Featured in it was the line, "They want to impeach me over acts that they did".
Here's Ted Lieu, a Democratic congressman and frequent Trump critic, addressing impeachment proceedings against the president.
Asked if Mr Trump's refusal to work with Democrats could move the party towards exploring charges against him, Mr Lieu said "it could".
He also said obliquely that "the caucus had a good discussion today" when asked if he was attempting to persuade collegues to support impeachment inquiries.
Donald Trump has just tweeted for the first time today. In the posts include a number of false and misleading claims.
Democrats in fact attended a meeting yesterday to negotiate over an infrastructure spending package - Mr Trump stormed out after about three minutes.
The president's description of a "fishing expedition" by House committees also falls wide of the mark; the Mueller report uncovered dozens of instances of behaviour by the president and his associates which could potentially constitute either crimes or misdeeds.
The US attorney general, accused by critics and experts of attempting to protect Mr Trump during his response to the Mueller report, has been photographed dining at Trump Tower.
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