Trump news: President claims he fired John Bolton, as former security adviser texts Fox News hosts live to say this isn't true
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Donald Trump claimed he fired John Bolton in a tweet on Tuesday as polls showed his approval rating falling 38 per cent, down six points on his July career-best according to a new ABC News/Washington Post, as concerns over the fate of the American economy linger.
The president's abrupt announcement created a flurry of dramatic TV news, with Mr Bolton apparently texting Fox News hosts a simple message: "Let's be clear," he reportedly texted the network's Brian Kilmeade. "I resigned."
The president meanwhile held his latest “Keep America Great” rally in Fayetteville, North Carolina, on Monday night, attacking the “America-hating left”, scaremongering about the release of “horrible, hardened criminals” in sanctuary cities and saying he rolled back energy efficiency standards for lightbulbs because: “I look better under incandescent light”. On another wild evening before a crowd of his most feverish supporters, Mr Trump also made a false claim about voter fraud in California and took sole credit for the US being awarded the 2026 FIFA World Cup and joked about serving a third term in order to be in office when the tournament gets underway.
During his year and a half at the White House, Mr Bolton had particular success in shaping the administration’s policies toward the United Nations and other international organizations, such as the International Criminal Court, as well as advocating for hardline measures on Venezuela and Cuba.
Mr Bolton had launched a broadside campaign against the International Criminal Court that resulted in the US revoking the visa of the court’s chief prosecutor after she sought permission to open an investigation into alleged war crimes committed by American troops and others in Afghanistan.
The Democrat challengers to Trump in 2020
Show all 25With the national security adviser on his team, Mr Trump announced the US was withdrawing from the 2015 Iranian nuclear deal, a position advocated by Mr Bolton.
The deal had been negotiated by the Obama administration to limit Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for easing sanctions, and some in the administration favoured staying in the agreement.
His tenure in the White House was not without its many controversies, of course.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey refused to meet with Mr Bolton during his visit to Turkey to discuss US plans to withdraw troops from Syria in January.
The Turkish president was angered after Mr Bolton called for Turkish security assurances for the US-backed Kurdish forces as a condition for the withdrawal.
The president himself also appeared to undercut Mr Bolton’s public condemnation of missile tests by North Korea.
“North Korea fired off some small weapons, which disturbed some of my people, and others, but not me,” Mr Trump tweeted. “Some” of his “people” appeared to include Mr Bolton, who had told reporters just hours earlier that North Korean missile tests violated UN Security Council resolutions.
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With Trump already engaged in feuds with celebrities Debra Messing, John Legend and Chrissy Teigen (not to mention Bette Midler, Spike Lee, Meryl Streep etc.), his old Apprentice foe Arnold Schwarzenegger has called him "un-American" for his steady rollback rollback of environmental regulations.
Chris Riotta has the full story.
On top of that, horror novelist Stephen King has called him "an incompetent dumbbell".
Three House committees are investigating whether Trump and his personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, sought to pressure the Ukrainian government to pursue probes into 2020 rival Joe Biden earlier this year as part of an effort to benefit the former's campaign.
"This is not legitimate. It is harassment - a political operation by the Democratic National Committee, not by Congress," Giuliani told The Hill. "They need three committees to do this, and there is only one of me."
"I'm going to use this as an opportunity to highlight what phonies they are, trying to intimidate and harass me," he said, describing the Democratic investigation as a "little pimple" compared to the "major massive scandal" involving Biden and Ukraine.
"I just stumbled on this. Joe got himself in trouble," Giuliani insisted. "He's so stupid. I didn't know his family was cashing in as much as he did."
The affair in question saw the ex-veep allegedly attempting to intervene on behalf of his son, Hunter Biden, who had been a board member of local gas company Burisma, which was under investigation in 2016 by the country's prosecutor general Viktor Shokin. Biden Sr allegedly sought to have Shokin removed from office on corruption grounds and threatened to withhold $1bn (£811bn) in US loan guarantees if he was not fired.
Adam Schiff, Democratic-chair of the House Intelligence Committee, denounced the former mayor of New York City's "arrogance" and "immorality" over his insolent reaction to the news.
Trump's approval rating has fallen further, according to a new ABC News/Washington Post poll, dropping to 38 per cent from July's career-high of 44 per cent in response to growing concerns over the economy and the prospect of a coming recession.
Fifty-six per cent of citizens now actively disapprove of the job he's doing.
The survey further found that 46 per cent of Americans approve of Trump's handling of the economy and only 35 per cent approve of his performance in trade negotiations with China. As many as 43 per cent of Americans now believe Trump's aggressive tariff escalations are increasing the chance of recession.
American optimism about the economy generally is meanwhile down nine points on July, from 65 per cent to 56 per cent.
Among Republicans, his approval rating is 82 per cent - still a long way shy of the 94 per cent the man himself is claiming.
Secretary of state Mike Pompeo says American forces have killed “over 1,000 Taliban” in the last 10 days, coinciding with the cancellation of Trump's would-be meeting with the terror group's leaders at Camp David.
“We have been fighting and talking in a way that America often doesn’t do,” Pompeo told ABC’s This Week, after claiming the thousand killed. “It’s what’s driven us to be able to have the success at the negotiating table.”
Lily Puckett has more.
Over the weekend, Democratic presidential contender Amy Klobuchar hit out at Trump for running foreign policy "like a game show".
For Indy Voices, our international correspondent Borzou Daraghi says the method behind his madness would be entertaining if it didn't mean so many lives lost.
Fresh from touring South America, Ivanka Trump is visiting Alabama today. Yes, you read that right. Alabama. The hurricane state.
The memes write themselves.
Yeesh. Don Jr was being creepy on stage in Fayetteville last night.
Donald Trump has posted an all-caps message of support for Dan Bishop in North Carolina as the state heads to the polls for a special election:
Don't let this fall through the cracks: In a wild and at times chaotic campaign speech, Donald Trump pushed unfounded allegations about voter fraud, launched a false attack on a Democratic congressional candidate and mused about serving more than two terms as president.
Speaking to supporters in Fayetteville, North Carolina, ahead of a special election Republicans are desperate to win, Mr Trump urged people to turn out and vote for Dan Bishop, who he claimed would be tough on immigration and strong on creating jobs.
By contrast, he claimed Dan McCready, a moderate Democrat, supported sanctuary cities and open borders – claims that local media says were not borne out by the evidence.
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