Trump news: President calls out ‘Barack Hussain Obama’ as supporter at Florida rally appears to make ‘white power’ symbol
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Donald Trump returned to the campaign trail on Friday with a rally targeting senior voters at The Villages retirement community in Florida.
Trump made eyebrow-raising claims like Biden taking away seniors' air conditioning and remembering Barack Hussain Obama, as a member of the crowd appeared to make the so-called "white power" dog whistle in the background.
Biden, meanwhile, returned to his home state of Delaware to outline his coronavirus pandemic plan a day after the US hit a record for the number of new Covid-19 cases, announcing a mask mandate on all interstate transportation and in all federal buildings.
The candidates were coming off their final in-person debate, which turned out to be a remarkably civil affair with lower ratings than their previous encounter.
Trump was also back to work in the White House to announce an historic peace deal between Israel and Sudan, with five more - including Saudi Arabia - expected to be announced after the dam broke with United Arab Emirates and Bahrain in recent weeks.
Trump tried to get Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu to attack Biden on a phone call in front of reporters. Bibi did not take the bait, with commentators noting that he is probably keeping a keen eye on the current polling numbers.
Veteran GOP pollster Frank Luntz said that Trump may have won the battle of the last debate, but Biden has won the war. He says it's "impossible" for the president turning around voter sentiment this late in the election cycle.
Trump is also up against a campaign that has broken all records for its spend on television and digital advertising in a presidential election, with still more than a week to go before polls close.
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Pollster says now ‘impossible’ for Trump to defeat Biden
Donald Trump does not have enough time to overcome both Joe Biden’s poll leads, and the small matter that some 50 million ballots have already been cast in the election, following their debate performance on Thursday.
According to Republican pollster Frank Luntz, Mr Trump might have won over some undecided voters on the night, but he has ultimately failed to change the trajectory, making it “virtually impossible" to beat Mr Biden.
Even if the polls are as wrong as they were in 2016, when Mr Trump pulled off an upset victory against Hillary Clinton, added Mr Luntz, in an interview with CNBC.
“You got to give Trump a minor victory because he’ll bring some [undecided] voters home, and it’ll close the race a little bit. But in the end, I think Joe Biden won the war," he said.
Stephen Colbert reacts to debate
Stephen Colbert likened the final debate of the 2020 presidential election to “getting our last wisdom tooth taken out” shortly after Joe Biden and Donald Trump faced off.
Colbert was one of several late-night hosts who devoted part of their monologues do the event. He compared the idea of watching Trump debate to dental surgery, adding: “Tonight was like getting our last wisdom tooth taken out. Yes, it hurt. And yes, we can still taste the blood in our mouths.”
Clemence Michallon reports:
Stephen Colbert likens final presidential debate to ‘getting our last wisdom tooth taken out’
‘Donald Trump is the only president who gets marks for good behaviour,’ Jimmy Kimmel quipped
739 economists sign open letter opposing Trump re-election
Hundreds of economists from major institutions across the US have signed an open letter warning against reelecting Donald Trump.
They wrote that Trump's "selfish and reckless behavior" had weakened the economy.
"He has a poorly-informed, zero-sum view of economics that engenders needless viciousness and cruelty," says the letter signed by 739 prominent economists.
They argued that Trump had carried out a "sustained assault" on democracy, that he had "normalized corruption," and that he had spread "dangerous misinformation."
Among the signatories are are seven Nobel Prize winners, including Paul Milgrom, Oliver Hart, and George Akerlof.
They also pointed out that analysts at both Moody’s Analytics and Goldman Sachs had predicted that Joe Biden’s plans for the economy would lead to faster growth in both employment and GDP.
Latest executive order gives Trump almost unfettered authority to fire career civil servants
"Through this order, President Trump has declared war on the professional civil service by giving himself the authority to fill the government with his political cronies who will pledge their unwavering loyalty to him, not to America," says Everett Kelley, national president of the American Federation of Government Employees , the largest federal employee union.
Andrew Feinberg reports from Washington, DC.
Trump passes executive order that could destroy a future Biden administration
‘Through this order, President Trump has declared war on the professional civil service by giving himself the authority to fill the government with his political cronies who will pledge their unwavering loyalty to him, not to America’
The story of Trump’s obsession with Governor Gretchen Whitmer
Famously deriding her as ‘that woman from Michigan’, the president is now complaining that Ms Whitmer has blamed him for inspiring and inciting right-wing violence. Andrew Naughtie reports.
Trump’s obsession with Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer, explained
Famously deriding her as ‘that woman from Michigan’, the president is now complaining that Ms Whitmer has blamed him for inspiring and inciting right-wing violence
Sudan agrees to normalise relations with Israel
Sudan becomes the third Arab country after the UAE and Bahrain to agree to a peace and normalisation deal with Israel in what Trump describes as a “HUGE win” for the US and world peace.
Trump to formally remove Sudan from list of state sponsors of terror
Donald Trump said on Friday that he has notified Congress of his intent to formally remove Sudan from the US list of state sponsors of terrorism.
The north African nation will transfer $355m into an escrow account for American terror victims and their families.
Trump tells Congress of intent to take Sudan off terror list
President Donald Trump said Friday that he has notified Congress of his intent to formally remove Sudan from the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism
Trump looks for praise and an attack on Biden from Netanyahu
…but Bibi wouldn’t play ball.
There was definite reluctance to endorse Trump’s attack on his opponent.
“Bibi knows how to read a poll as well as anyone,” says Matthew Miller, partner at Vianovo LP and a justice and security analyst for MSNBC.
“Nobody’s done more personally for Netanyahu than Trump. This is the way Bibi repays him,” comments political scientist Ian Bremmer of Eurasia Group, also adding that he might believe the US polls.
Has Trump changed international relations forever?
Our international correspondent Borzou Daragahi looks at how, whether he wins or loses the presidential election, Donald Trump has left a deep foreign policy legacy.
Thinking the unthinkable: How Donald Trump has changed international relations, possibly forever
Win or lose the presidential election, Donald Trump has left a deep foreign policy legacy
Fauci says Trump hasn’t attended a coronavirus task force meeting in months
Speaking to Chuck Todd on MSNBC, Dr Anthony Fauci said that it had been several months since the president had attended a meeting of the Coronavirus Task Force.
He also said that he does not have as much influence on Trump as Scott Atlas.
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