Trump news: President speaks out about Jeffrey Epstein relationship, after lashing out at 'very stupid' UK ambassador
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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.
Jeffrey Epstein: Controversies surrounding paedophile billionaire
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The victorious US Women's World Cup team will visit Congress at the invitation of Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer after winning the tournament in France on Sunday.
“We don’t want to go to the White House, so I figure that’s why the invitation hasn’t come,” said star winger Megan Rapinoe, who has made her opinions on the prospect of a visit to the Trumps at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue abundantly clear.
Here's more from Jon Sharman.
Legendary Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger has been having some fun at the president's expense, specifically over his Independence Day gaffe about the events of 1775.
"The president made a very good point in his speech the other night. If only the British had held on to the airports, the whole thing might have gone differently for us," Sir Mick told his audience in Massachusetts.
Here's Jacob Stolworthy's report.
Someone else with a stinging remark for President Trump yesterday was House speaker Nancy Pelosi, who accused of wanting to "make America white again" over his insistence on defying the Supreme Court to get a controversial citizenship question added to the 2020 census.
"You know his hat? 'Making America white again.' They want to make sure that people, certain people, are counted,” Pelosi said at a press conference on election security.
“It’s really disgraceful and it’s not what our founders had in mind.”
Trump posted a series of tweets attacking his beloved Fox News over the weekend and one of the president's least favourite anchors on the network, Shep Smith, has had his revenge by pointing out the numerous errors and untruths in his speech on the environment last night.
Sirena Bergman has more for Indy100.
Texas senator Ted Cruz was particularly exercised on the subject of Trump's (usually) very friendly ties to Fox when the pair were both running for the Republican presidential nomination back in 2016.
According to the new book American Carnage by Tim Alberta - an advanced copy of which was seen by The Guardian - Cruz is quoted expressing his fury about late Fox boss Roger Ailes, who died in May 2017, about his throwing the weight of the network behind Trump.
Ted Cruz (Michael Wyke/EPA)
"I think it was Roger’s dying wish to elect Donald Trump president," Cruz reportedly vented to friends.
"I didn’t anticipate that Trump would receive over three billion dollars in free media,” the senator is quoted as saying. "There is no precedent for that in the history of the United States of America."
Fox big beasts Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham have, incidentally, also been reminiscing over happier times.
Russian-born real estate developer Felix Sater, who worked on the proposed Trump Tower project in Moscow, is scheduled to testify before the House Intelligence Committee behind closed doors on Tuesday morning.
Sater has rescheduled his appearance several times since he was first slated to appear in March.
Let's see if he remembers to put his alarm clock on this time.
Trump and Sater pictured together in September 2005 (Cyrus McCrimmon/AP)
Nancy Pelosi is calling on Trump's labour secretary Alex Acosta to resign over his handling of the allegations against Jeffrey Epstein while serving as a US attorney for Florida's Southern District in 2008.
Acosta is understood to have negotiated a secret "non-prosecution" agreement with Epstein's legal team at the time, suspending a federal grand jury investigation into the accusations against him regarding the sex trafficking of underage girls, silencing 36 witnesses who would have spoken out against him in exchange for a guilty plea on two state prostitution charges. It was "the deal of a lifetime", according to The Miami Herald.
According to CNN, citing the White House, an internal review of Acosta's standing is under way. Attorney general William Barr has recused himself from the matter having previously worked with a law firm that represented Epstein.
Here's more on Barr from Tom Embury-Dennis.
Now that's more like it!
Trump has called Sir Kim Darroch "wacky", "a very stupid guy" and "a pompous fool" before laying angrily into Theresa May for going "her own foolish way" on Brexit. "A disaster!"
I suppose even a stopped clock is right twice a day.
Here's more on the ranter-in-chief.
Trump said on Monday that Sir Kimwas "not well liked" in Washington but, as Politico points out, he was actually well known for hosting Trump administration elders at his receptions.
You might recall some of the names on this list, all of whom attended at least one bash laid on by Sir Kim over the last two years.
White House counsellor Kellyanne Conway
Trump's personal attorney Rudy Giuliani
Treasury secretary Steve Mnuchin
Commerce secretary Wilbur Ross
Former chief of staff Reince Priebus
Ex-press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders
Ex-press secretary Sean Spicer
Former acting attorney general Matt Whitaker
Ex-New Jersey governor Chris Christie
Ex-Team Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski
Former deputy assistant to the president Sebastian Gorka
Vice presidential aide Marty Obst
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