Trump news: President defends gun rights and ICE raids, amid controversy over thumbs-up photo with El Paso baby
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Your support makes all the difference.Donald Trump is facing criticism after new video footage emerged of him bragging about the size of the crowd at his El Paso rally earlier this year as he visited people recovering in hospital having been injured in last Saturday’s Walmart mass shooting, in which 22 people died.
The president is seen comparing his audience favourably to that summoned by “crazy” Beto O’Rourke, the local politician and 2020 Democratic presidential candidate who has led the community – and the condemnation of President Trump – since the tragedy.
Mr Trump heads off on his summer golfing holiday on Friday with new gun control legislation no closer to realisation, his trade war with China still raging and the opposition-led House Judiciary Committee plotting an impeachment inquiry.
Speaking with reporters before departing the White House for the weekend, Mr Trump said that he received a “beautiful” three-page letter from Kim Jong Un and predicted that the two leaders would have more talks to try resolving the standoff over North Korea’s nuclear weapons program.
Mr Trump has said he’s not bothered by the flurry of missiles that Mr Kim has launched in recent days, rattling US allies in the region.
The president said they were all short-range missiles and reiterated that North Korea has never broken its pledge to pause nuclear tests.
Mr Trump said Mr Kim told him in the letter that he was upset about recent US-South Korea military exercises, which North Korea sees as a threat.
The two leaders have met three times — in Singapore, Hanoi and the Korean Demilitarized Zone late last month — but no new talks have been scheduled.
At their second meeting in Vietnam in February, Mr Trump rejected Mr Kim’s demand for widespread sanctions relief in return for dismantling the North’s main nuclear complex, a partial disarmament step.
Mr Trump said he’d received the letter on Thursday. “It was hand-delivered. It wasn’t touched by anybody,” Mr Trump told reporters on Friday at the White House.
“It was a very positive letter. I think we’ll have another meeting. He really wrote a beautiful, three-page letter ... a really beautiful letter," he said.
Additional reporting by AP. Please allow a moment for our liveblog to load
Mr Trump says Mitch McConnell, the most senior Republican in the Senate, is "totally on board" with gun reform.
Joe Biden is a predictable target of Mr Trump's ire, following the Democrat's comment that poor kids "are as talented as white kids". The president says: "Joe Biden is not playing with a full deck. This is not somebody you can have as your president. But if he got the nomination I would be thrilled."
Mr Trump also defended controversial raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers, which saw 680 people arrested.
He said: "I want people to know that if they come into the US illegally, they’re getting out, they’re going to be brought out. And this serves as a very good deterrent."
The president added: "We have bad laws. They may get in - although we're being very tough but they may get in - but it doesn't matter because they're going out. And when people see what they saw yesterday, and like they will see for a long time, they know that they're not staying."
Meanwhile, an armed Trump supporter sparked a security alert at an immigrant community centre in El Paso, scene of a mass shooting apparently targeting Hispanic people last weekend.
Thomas Bartram, who was legally carrying a gun, was questioned by police before being released.
The immigration raids targeted mainly Latino workers in food processing plants in Mississippi and left children waiting to be picked up from school, not knowing where they would eat or spend the night.
Looks like Donald Trump's companies are still absolutely employing undocumented immigrants -
Meanwhile in Iowa, our reporter Clark Mindock is having a grand ol' time. Here he is listening to Andrew Yang speak about US economics:
Donald Trump has now suggested Hollywood is racist, a statement drawing swift controversy online -
Donald Trump says he’s received a three-page personal letter from North Korean leader Kim Jong Un (gihm jung oon).
Mr Trump says he expects there will be more talks aimed at resolving the standoff over North Korea’s nuclear weapons program.
The president on Friday described the letter as “great” and said it was hand-delivered to him Thursday.
North Korea has conducted a series of missile tests recently, which Trump said were all short-range missiles. Mr Trump said Kim wrote that he was upset about ongoing US-South Korea military exercises, which North Korea sees as a threat.
AP
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