Trump news: President calls defeat in census citizenship demand 'fake' as he is accused of 'hijacking July 4 parade to promote Trumpian cult'
Another day of chaos ahead of the patriotic holidays
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Donald Trump is facing renewed criticism over his “Salute to America” for the Fourth of July, accused of “hijacking the celebration and twisting it into a taxpayer-funded, partisan political rally that’s more about promoting a Trumpian cult of personality” by Democratic congresswoman Betty McCollum.
The president has meanwhile been busy promoting his fireworks suppliers from his official account in an apparent abuse of power as Abrams tanks were spotted arriving in Washington, DC.
He has also hit out at the US Supreme Court on Twitter over its decision to block a controversial citizenship question being added to the 2020 census, calling on his Commerce and Justice departments to do “whatever is necessary” to get the amendment passed, adding: “USA! USA! USA!”
Monday was the deadline to start printing the 600 million documents that will be mailed to 130 million households for next April’s census count.
For months, the Trump administration had argued that the courts needed to decide quickly whether the citizenship question could be added to the 2020 census because of the looming deadline.
“I think it’s very important to find out if somebody is a citizen as opposed to an illegal,” Mr Trump told reporters Monday.
“There’s a big difference to me between being a citizen of the United States and being an illegal," he added.
The US Supreme Court ruled last week that the question couldn’t be added for now.
Mr Trump tweeted that he had asked lawyers if the count can be delayed until the court can reevaluate the matter.
Also on social media, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has entered a war of words with White House counsellor Kellyanne Conway after the latter accused her of lying about the condition of migrant detention centres in Texas.
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Acting Homeland Security secretary Kevin McAleenan has threatened action against Border Patrol members found to have been involved with the secret Facebook group in which offensive and sexually explicit posts were shared targeting the Democratic delegation visiting its detention centres on Monday.
2020 candidate Julian Castro continuing to bring the battle to President Trump after his strange remark about homelessness in American cities.
He said the problem only really began "two years ago" in conversation with Tucker Carlson of Fox on Monday night.
Another 2020 contender, the delightfully eccentric Marianne Williamson, has responded graciously to being left off the cover of Vogue celebrating the women running for president.
She told CNN no one approached her and rubbished the magazine's excuse they only intended to foreground female lawmakers, not ruling out working with the glossy in future.
As the National Rifle Association remains riddled with infighting, its chief executive Wayne LaPierre is facing a threat to his leadership after a major donor, David Dell’Aquila, called for an end to the "daily soap opera" and pledged to back a rebellion.
An interesting moment for a crucial right-wing lobbying force ahead of 2020.
Donald Trump’s 2020 campaign has used video clips of stock models from France, Brazil and Turkey in a series of advertisements purporting to show various Americans supporting the president’s re-election, according to a new report.
The videos, released in recent weeks by Mr Trump’s campaign, claim to show a woman identified as “Tracey From Florida,” “AJ from Texas” and “Thomas from Washington,” all seemingly expressing their support for the president.
Story to come...
The president is now claiming his administration has not conceded defeat in its battle to include a citizenship question in the 2020 US Census, after the government reportedly confirmed yesterday it was going ahead with printing the forms without the question -
Here's The Independent's Clark Mindock with more on that bizarre tweet Donald Trump just launched about the 2020 US Census -
Donald Trump's contradictory tweet about his refusal to back down from the 2020 US Census controversy is even more bizarre when you remember his own Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross confirmed yesterday the forms were being printed without the citizenship question...
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