Trump news: President speaks out about Jeffrey Epstein relationship, after lashing out at 'very stupid' UK ambassador

Follow the latest updates from Washington, as it happened

Donald Trump: 'The ambassador has not served the UK well, I can tell you that'

Donald Trump’s Russian-born business associate Felix Sater testified before the House Intelligence Committee on Tuesday, as the president resumed his row with UK ambassador to the US Sir Kim Darroch, and lashed out at the “mess” Theresa May has made of Brexit.

In one of his latest angry Twitter diatribe, the president called Sir Kim “wacky”, “a very stupid guy” and “a pompous fool” before laying into Ms May for going “her own foolish way” and ignoring his advice on Britain’s departure from the EU. “A disaster!” he concluded.

A meeting between his Commerce secretary, Wilbur Ross, and Liam Fox was later cancelled. It was not immediately clear why, but officials told The Independent that the Brexit-related deal was being rescheduled.

Mr Trump talked up his environmental credentials at the White House on Monday night, during which he was brutally fact-checked by Fox News (and others), before sitting down to dinner with New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, who was caught up in a prostitution scandal earlier this year, just days after his former friend Jeffrey Epstein was arrested and accused of sex crimes involving underage girls.

The US president later said that he and Mr Epstein had a falling out roughly 15 years ago. Mr Epstein is known for having a close relationship with Bill Clinton as well, and managed to get a favourable plea deal on previous charges in Florida, when he was being accused by Alexander Acosta. Mr Acosta is now the secretary of Labour.

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Key Points

• Trump lambasts 'wacky' ambassador, hits out at May over Brexit 'disaster'
• Business associate Felix Sater to testify before Congress
• Trump dines with Robert Kraft days after Jeffrey Epstein arrest
• President brutally fact-checked by Fox after defending environmental credentials
• New York state could give Congress Trump's tax returns under new law

[9 July 2019 08:58 · Joe Sommerlad]

Hello and welcome to The Independent's rolling coverage of the Donald Trump administration.

[9 July 2019 09:00 · Joe Sommerlad]

Donald Trump last night attended a dinner held at the Treasury in honour of the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani. 

Perhaps unsurprisingly, White House officials confirmed an invite initially offered to the UK ambassador Sir Kim Darroch was rescinded, after memos detailing his unflattering views on President Trump were leaked. 

More intriguingly, Trump was pictured sitting just one seat away from American businessman Robert Kraft, owner of the New England Patriots, who has been charged with soliciting prostitution after being caught earlier this year in a sting operation at a spa in Florida called Orchids of Asia. 

[9 July 2019 09:15 · Joe Sommerlad]

The highly questionable decision to invite Kraft follows just two days after the arrest of Jeffrey Epstein, a wealthy financier, friend of the president and convicted sex offender, who is accused of fresh crimes that include molesting underage girls at his homes in New York and Florida. 

This Trump quote from an October 2002 interview with New York magazine circulated online over the weekend, in which the then real estate mogul made light of his pal's interest in vulnerable young women.

Christine Pelosi, a Democratic National Committee staffer and daughter of House speaker Nancy Pelosi, warned over the weekend: "This Epstein case is horrific and the young women deserve justice.

"It is quite likely that some of our faves are implicated but we must follow the facts and let the chips fall where they may - whether on Republicans or Democrats."

Here's 42nd president Bill Clinton distancing himself from Epstein (a step Trump has so far neglected to take)...

...And here's Andrew Buncombe's profile.

[9 July 2019 09:30 · Joe Sommerlad]

President Trump was on form on Twitter last night, evidently still annoyed about Sir Kim's leaked remarks on his "inept " administration, refusing to deal with the ambassador further and lashing out at the “mess” Theresa May has made of Brexit after ignoring his advice. He does still like the Queen though.

Here's Andrew Buncombe and Rob Merrick on the sudden souring of the "special relationship" just weeks after his largely friendly (if heavily protested) state visit.

[9 July 2019 09:45 · Joe Sommerlad]

Before his dinner with Kraft and the Emir of Qatar, Trump spoke in the East Room of the White House yesterday in defence of his administration's environmental record, not an easy task after two-and-a-half years of climate change denial, fossil fuel championing and regulatory rollbacks.

This claim that he invented the concept of forest management is surely among his all-time maddest.

Here he is going after the Democrats' "unthinkable" Green New Deal, which, he says, would "kill millions of jobs, it’ll crush the dreams of the poorest Americans and disproportionately harm minority communities."

[9 July 2019 10:00 · Joe Sommerlad]

Here's Clark Mindock with a timely reminder of his actual record on the subject.

[9 July 2019 10:15 · Joe Sommerlad]

New York governor Andrew Cuomo has meanwhile signed new legislation that opens up the possibility of Congress gaining access to Trump’s state tax returns.

The bill was signed into law on Monday and would allow New York officials to release the historic financial records of public officials should they be requested by "congressional tax-related committees" citing a "specified and legitimate legislative purpose".

“This bill gives Congress the ability to fulfill its Constitutional responsibilities, strengthen our democratic system and ensure that no one is above the law,” Cuomo, a Democrat who has positioned himself as a leading anti-Trump voice, said in a statement.

Nick Langworthy, the chairman of the New York state Republican Party, has attacked the move, saying it represents an overtly partisan attack on the president and won't stand up in court.

[9 July 2019 10:30 · Joe Sommerlad]

Here's an interesting new poll on attitudes in the US as to whether the country has a moral responsibility to accept refugees.

Among those with religious leanings, the study indicates that white Christians are the only demographic in which a majority disagree with the proposition that America must offer sanctuary to the needy, which surely flies in the face of both the teachings of one Jesus of Nazareth and the principles inscribed on the Statue of Liberty: "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free...."

[9 July 2019 10:45 · Joe Sommerlad]

Theresa May has given her "full support" to Sir Kim Darroch over the UK-US diplomatic row.

"We have made clear to the US how unfortunate this leak is. The selective extracts leaked do not reflect the closeness of, and the esteem in which we hold, the relationship," a Downing Street spokesman said this morning.

"At the same time, we have also underlined the importance of ambassadors being able to provide honest, unvarnished assessments of the politics in their country.

"Sir Kim Darroch continues to have the prime minister's full support."

Tory former foreign secretary Lord Hague agreed, telling the BBC: "You can't change an ambassador at the demand of a host country. It is their job to give an honest assessment of what is happening in that country."

Here's Chris Baynes on Sir Kim being frozen out in Washington.

[9 July 2019 11:00 · Joe Sommerlad]

Speaking of infamous British characters, far-right anti-Islam activist Tommy Robinson has appeared on InfoWars - that bastion of reason and measured debate - to make a desperate appeal for political asylum.

"I beg Donald Trump, I beg the American government, to look at my case. I need evacuation from this country because dark forces are at work," he told rabid conspiracy wrangler Alex Jones. "This is a direct appeal on behalf of my family - we love the United States, I have no future here. The country has fallen."

The hypocrisy of this self-styled English patriot turning tail to seek new opportunities overseas need hardly been underlined. 

Here's Lizzie Dearden's report.