Trump news - live: President gives out controversial pardons as new report undermines White House rationale for Soleimani killing
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Donald Trump has again lashed out at Barack Obama, accusing the 44th president of “trying to take credit for the Economic Boom taking place under the Trump Administration” in response to his predeccessor’s tweet remembering his signing of the Recovery Act in 2009 at the onset of the Great Recession.
Democratic 2020 front-runner Bernie Sanders has meanwhile hit back at rival Michael Bloomberg following criticism of his supporters by posting a picture on Twitter of the former New York mayor golfing with the president, suggesting there is little real difference between the two men. Mr Sanders is surging ahead in the polls while Mr Bloomberg has just qualified for his first primary debate.
Away from the 2020 race, the president’s ex-national security adviser John Bolton has expressed fears the White House will “suppress” his forthcoming memoir, The Room Where It Happened, telling a university audience in North Carolina the ongoing review process could interfere with his “effort to write history”.
And, Mr Trump signed off on several high-profile and contentious pardons, drawing the ire of former prosecturs who worked on those caes.
Among them was a former NYPD commissioner with ties to Rudy GIuliani, a former Democratic governor of Illinois and the former owner of the San Francisco 49ers NFL team.
Donald Trump celebrity president: A decade in two halves
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Trump quotes frequent Fox critic in latest intervention in Stone case
The president is up and pushing the opinion of Andrew Napolitano - who backed his impeachment on Fox News, a lone contrarian voice on the channel - in his latest attempt to meddle in the sentencing of Roger Stone by judge Amy Berman Jackson.
Candace Owens calls Bernie Sanders 'best racist on the left' in bewildering diatribe on Fox
What's happening on Fox News?
Well, deeply confused alt-right pseudoacademic Candace Owens has been telling Laura Ingraham that Bernie Sanders is the "best racist on the left" because he is "Lyndon Baines Johnson 2.0, who is going to enact policies that will harm Black America for the next 100 years".
The remark naturally provoked the intended level of anger (and widespread bewilderment)...
...so Fox is doubling down on this morning by having Charles Payne go after Michael Bloomberg over stop-and-frisk.
Meanwhile, House minority leader Kevin McCarthy has provoked ridicule by suggesting Trump would rather hang out with the construction workers who build his condos than the super-rich who purchase them.
Samantha Bee sets up fake wedding registry to deride Trump adviser Stephen Miller
On Sunday, Trump flew back from the Daytona Speedway to attend the wedding of his senior adviser and anti-immigration czar Stephen Miller, who married Mike Pence aide Katie Waldman at DC's Trump International Hotel (conflict of interest concerns be damned).
Alex Woodward has this on a fake wedding registry created for Full Frontal with Samantha Bee to satirise the happy couple as the groom faces calls to be ousted from the White House over his ties to the white nationalist movement.
'Cult-like' Trump placard becomes viral emblem of MAGA delusion
This disturbing pro-Trump placard went viral yesterday, for obvious reasons:
James Besanvalle has the reaction for Indy100.
Trump lays into Mueller investigation and says he would sue 'everyone all over the place' if he were a private citizen
In the last hour, Trump has flown off the handle about the "fraudulent" Mueller investigation, saying every part of it "should be thrown out" and threatening to sue "everyone all over the place".
After that bravura performance, he reverted to his new favourite conspiracy theory - that that Democrats are trying to rig their nomination process against Bernie Sanders (despite his roaring lead in the polls).
Taliban says Afghanistan peace deal with US will be signed by end of February
US envoy and chief negotiator Zalmay Khalilzad has said he is "cautiously optimistic" about America reaching a peace deal with the Taliban in Afghanistan after a senior leader of the group, Mullah Abdul Salam Hanafi, said in a video message that after negotiations “both sides have initiated the final draft of the peace agreement. Now talks are concluded”.
The accord is hoped for by the end of the month.
Bloomberg blasted for 2011 comments saying black and latino males 'don't know how to behave in the workplace'
Yikes. Here's Chris Riotta with more of Michael Bloomberg's past comments returning to haunt him.
Hundreds of Indian slum residents evicted from stadium route ahead of Trump’s first visit
Adam Withnall reports from Delhi where (fairly brutal) preparations are underway ahead of the president's visit to meet with Narendra Modi in Ahmedabad next week.
Trump tweeting his own approval once again
What's a morning (afternoon or early evening in the UK) without a spattering of Trump tweets?
In the past hour or so he has touched on a few of his favorite topics.
They include his approval rating (take a look here at why you should probably disregard the polls he shares by this group in particular):
And a new set of tweets correcting some typos:
He has also attacked apparent efforts to establish regulations by Congress:
'An announcement' is imminent from the White House
The Trump administration has summoned the press for "an announcement" outside of the White House, The Independent's Washington DC bureau chief John T Bennett says.
Stay tuned...
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