Trump news – live: 'Asked to leave for telling the truth': Expert who testified in impeachment escorted from White House
President declares trial victory as crucial witness fired from administration
Sign up for the daily Inside Washington email for exclusive US coverage and analysis sent to your inbox
Get our free Inside Washington email
Donald Trump launched into another rally-like White House event, this time ostensibly supporting job opportunities for formerly incarcerated people and lower-income communities, during his remarks at an economic summit in Charlotte, North Carolina, hours after declaring that Nancy Pelosi broke the law when she ripped up a copy of his speech and ominously predicting the ousting of an impeachment witness.
The president hit out at Democrats from the White House lawn, calling them "crazy" and "evil" as he celebrated his administration's win in a federal appeals court case that dismissed a lawsuit by congressional Democrats trying to access his financial records to determine violations of the Constitution's emoluments clause.
Lt Col Alexander Vindman, a key impeachment witness as a member of the National Security Council, was escorted from the White House on Friday afternoon, apparent relation for his testimony.
Addressing rumours about staff departures, Mr Trump told reporters: "Well, I'm not happy with him. Do you think I'm supposed to be happy with him? I'm not."
All the president's lawyers: The team fighting Trump's impeachment
Show all 6On Thursday, the president launched into a blistering, score-settling diatribe against the House Democrats following his impeachment acquittal by the Senate, calling the likes of the House Speaker and Adam Schiff “vicious” and “corrupt”, ex-FBI director James Comey “a sleazebag” and the bureau’s top brass “scum” from the East Room of the White House.
The president labelled his trial “bulls***” and also singled out lone rebel Republican senator Mitt Romney for using “religion as a crutch” in voting for his conviction, although arguably his most menacing proclamation came when he adopted a Mafia-style euphemism to say: “We’re going to take care of things because we can never allow this to happen again.”
His speech was met with widespread alarm, with 2020 candidate Pete Buttigieg branding the attack on Mr Romney “disgraceful” and ex-White House ethics chief Walter Shaub warning: “We’re in the heads-on-pikes phase of burgeoning authoritarianism.”
On Friday, following his razor-thin lead in the Iowa caucus, Mr Trump mocked Mr Buttigieg, saying "whoever the hell that is" while attacking Democrats for the drawn-out results.
Follow the news as it happened:
Fox guests says Trump presidency 'probably three of the greatest years since Jesus walked the earth'
Who says MAGA is a cult? Oh wait, Joe Walsh did earlier.
Other Fox guests this morning have included antisemitic, Islamophobic pastor Robert Jeffress - helping Trump shore up that all-important Christian vote and Dr Nicole Saphier to blame Obamacare for American deaths from preventable diseases and blather about "Making America Healthy Again".
Trump accused of 'shameless misogyny'
Here's our women's correspondent Maya Oppenheim on the president - already accused of multiple instances of sexual misconduct - being accused of sexism in response to several lines in his impeachment address yesterday.
In addition to zeroing in on Speaker Pelosi, he launched into a weird tirade about wives not loving their husbands and held up Jennifer Scalise as an example of how they ought to behave after saying she was "devastated" when her congressman spouse Steve was shot in 2017 by a sniper during a baseball game.
“A lot of wives wouldn’t give a damn,” Trump claimed, before offering up some leery comments about congresswomen Debbie Lesko and Elise Stefanik.
President jets out for North Carolina with parting Iowa jab at Democrats
Trump is heading off to Charlotte to speak at an Opportunity Now summit (as you can see)...
En route, he told reporters that the Mulvaney sacking rumour was "a false report" and says it's up to the National Security Council to make a decision on Vindman. "You'll be hearing," he adds.
He also found time for one last tweet, ridiculing the Democrats over Iowa. "Looks like it all got computer 'fried'," he says, nonsensically.
'They've gone crazy': Trump hits out at Democrats as Iowa caucus results come under scrutiny
The president is back to his quick pre-flight Q&As on the White House lawn, telling reporters that Nancy Pelosi tearing up a copy of his State of the Union speech is "very illegal" (it wasn't) and that "there's a lot of evil" in the Democratic party.
"They've gone crazy", he said.
He celebrated his appeals court win that says Democrats can't sue the president over his violations of the constitution's emoluments clause, accusing the president of profiting from foreign government spending at his Washington hotel and other properties.
The president said the House Speaker's gesture signalling her disgust with what she called his "manifesto of untruths" was "so disrespectful to our country, and actually, very illegal."
Asked whether his allies should "expunge" his impeachment, Mr Trump said "they should because it was a hoax".
With Bernie Sanders and Pete Buttigieg in a dead heat in the final Iowa caucus results, the president didn't answer whether he sees one or the other as a "threat" to his presidency. "Everyone's a threat", he said.
"The votes are fried ... and they're telling you how to run the country and run healthcare", he said. "They have no idea who won. I'll tell you who won on the Republican side ... Trump won."
Here's Donald Trump telling reporters that Nancy Pelosi "broke the law" (she didn't) by ripping up a copy of his State of the Union speech.
Boris Johnson's decision to give Chinese tech giant Huawei a role in the UK's 5G telecoms network could block the way to a post-Brexit trade deal with the US, vice-president Mike Pence has said.
Asked if the Huawei decision — taken in the face of loudly-voiced opposition from Donald Trump's White House — could be a "deal-breaker" for a UK/US trade agreement, the vice-president replied: "We'll see."
His comment comes amid reports that president Trump was "apoplectic" when told of the decision by Mr Johnson last week and slammed down the phone on their conversation
↵The president told reporters that reports of a potential White House shakeup are "false" and is leaving the fate of Lt Col Alexander Vindman up to national security leaders. Vindman was a key witness in the president's impeachment.
Trump said: "They'll make that decision ... You'll be hearing."
The Independent's John T Bennett has more:
Here's the always-animated Democratic strategist "Ragin' Cajun" James Carville on what he sees is the Democrats' inability to "get their s*** together and win in November", taking swipes at Bernie Sanders, theorising that Russians entered Jill Stein into the 2016 election, and telling Pete Buttigieg to do more to lure African-American voters, who are a "a hell of a lot more important than a bunch of 25-year-olds shouting everyone down on Twitter":
"For f***’s sake, we’ve got Trump at Davos talking about cutting Medicare and no one in the party has the sense to plaster a picture of him up there sucking up to the global elites, talking about cutting taxes for them while he’s talking about cutting Medicare back home. Jesus, this is so obvious and so easy and I don’t see any of the candidates taking advantage of it.
"The Republicans have destroyed their party and turned it into a personality cult, but if anyone thinks they can’t win, they’re out of their damn minds."
Donald Trump just arrived in North Carolina, still on a high from another "win" for his administration:
A federal appeals court ruling this morning dismissed a lawsuit by congressional Democrats that charged the president with violating the emoluments clause of the Constitution by refusing Democrats the ability to look into his financial records.
It's among three challenges to his financial affairs relative to his emoluments violations.
House Minority Whip Steve Scalise says Nancy Pelosi's speech-tearing "violated the rules of decorum."
During a White House address the day after the president's State of the Union, the president called his impeachment "bulls***" and spoke for 10 minutes about the shooting of Congressman Scalise, who was shot during a congressional baseball warmup.
He said Scalise "got whacked" then detailed his wife's devastation, saying she was a "total mess" and that other wives wouldn't have cared, then recounted the shooting ("boom boom boom") and compared Scalise's "limited range" in recovery to former Yankee Bobby Richardson, "who had great range".
Subscribe to Independent Premium to bookmark this article
Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? Start your Independent Premium subscription today.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments