Trump news – live: President threatens to 'obliterate' Turkey economy after damning Syria condemnation, amid reports of White House impeachment panic
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Your support makes all the difference.Donald Trump has been accused of endangering America’s Kurdish allies in Syria by his own former envoy, an ex-ambassador and a key DC attack dog after announcing a plan to withdraw US troops from the country’s northern border, therein abandoning the Syrian Democratic Forces to an onslaught from the Turkish military.
The president has meanwhile been ordered to turn over eight years of tax returns to New York prosecutors after a US district judge ruled his financial affairs are not immune from investigation in spite of his high office.
As the Ukraine scandal rumbles on, Mr Trump has conceded impeachment is a “bad thing to have on your resume” during a phone call with House Republicans, a rare confession that he fears for his legacy as a second whistleblower emerges to support the first’s account of the damning 25 July call with Volodymyr Zelensky during which the president appeared to push for the Eastern European leader to investigate allegations against his 2020 rival Joe Biden.
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Acting Homeland Security secretary Kevin McAleenan has been hounded off stage at Georgetown University in DC as protesters drowned out his speech in protest at the treatment of migrants in border detention centres.
Let's take a moment to stand back and marvel at the sheer sass of California congressman Ted Lieu's Twitter game.
Underrated IMHO.
This bit from Donald Trump's latest tweet is certainly seeming to get the attention of the internet -
Meanwhile, as Donald Trump is launching incendiary tweets against his naysayers and political rivals amid an increasingly tense impeachment inquiry, the oldest living US president is performing charity volunteer work that he has done throughout his entire life -
Breaking news: The Pentagon has been issued subpoenas by House committees investigating Donald Trump over his alleged abuse of power surrounding the Ukraine scandal currently enveloping his White House -
The backlash over Donald Trump's latest tweets continues to pour in as Twitter users and others mock the president's use of "in my great and unmatched wisdom" -
Here's The Independent's Clark Mindock with more on Donald Trump threatening to "obliterate" Turkey's economy:
Donald Trump has threatened to "totally destroy and obliterate" Turkey's economy if the country does anything that he does not like in Syria, amid criticism from Republicans over new US policy allowing the Turkish military to take over in the war-torn country.
The statement follows after Mr Trump announced he had decided to pull back US troops from northern Syria, allowing Turkey to go through with a military offensive in the region, a move that even strong backers of the president have blasted as "shortsighted and irresponsible". The decision appears to leave US-backed Kurdish forces there in jeopardy, which Turkey has labelled as a terrorist organisation.
In apparent response to that criticism, Mr Trump pledged to destroy Turkey's economy if it steps over the line, and cited what he called his "great and unmatched wisdom" for knowing just where that line is.
"As I have stated strongly before, and just to reiterate, if Turkey does anything that I, in my great and unmatched wisdom, consider to be off limits, I will totally destroy and obliterate the Economy of Turkey (I've done before!)," Mr Trump wrote on Twitter Monday morning.
Senator Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican who has closely aligned himself with Donald Trump on foreign policy issues, blasted the president on Twitter over his decision pull the US military out of Syria.
The senator slammed Mr Trump over the move, saying it would lead to the revival of the Islamic State, hamper US-Turkish relations and serve as “a stain” on America’s honour.
In a follow up tweet shortly after, Mr Graham said he would “introduce bipartisan sanctions against Turkey if they invade Syria” and said he would also “call for their suspension from NATO if they attack Kurdish forces who assisted the US in the destruction of the ISIS Caliphate”.
“I don’t know all the details regarding President Trump’s decision in northern Syria,” Mr Graham initially wrote after news broke of the president's decision to remove troops from northeast Syria. “If press reports are accurate this is a disaster in the making.”
He added: “Also, if this plan goes forward will introduce Senate resolution opposing and asking for reversal of this decision.”
Story to come...
My latest on the Republican backlash to Donald Trump's decision to pull US troops out of Syria:
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