Trump news: President says 'Afghanistan is safe in comparison' to Chicago as key impeachment witness defies subpoena
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Your support makes all the difference.During a speech in Chicago to police brass from across the US, Donald Trump attacked the city's police chief who is boycotting the visit from the president, who used his address to law enforcement to blame so-called "sanctuary" cities for violent crime rates.
Mr Trump accused Chicago Police Chief Eddie Johnson of "not doing his job" in a city that the president has often ridiculed as a "war zone" for its high murder rate. There have been 425 homicides in Chicago so far this year.
He also said Chief Johnson is putting "criminals and illegal aliens before the city of Chicago" and that "sanctuary" cities are knowingly releasing jailed immigrants accused of violent crime.
His appeal to law enforcement arrived that morning after he was roundly booed during Game 5 of baseball’s World Series in DC on Sunday, with fans of the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros chanting “Lock him up!” as “Veterans for Impeachment” signs were held aloft by spectators, prompting the president to leave the stadium early.
His unwelcome appearance at the game followed what should have been a triumphant moment for his administration in the announcement of the death of Isis leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi during a US-led raid that saw the terror group leader cornered in a dead-end tunnel in Syria. The president assured the world the terrorist had died “crying and screaming”.
In a Monday press conference, the president's Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mick Milley said he doesn't know where Mr Trump got that account of the operation.
The president shared a photo on Twitter of an Army Delta force dog that was critical in the operation, according to Mr Trump. The dog's name is still classified. General Milley said it returned to its military unit.
When leading Democrats Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer demanded to know why Congress had not been briefed on the operation in advance at a time when the White House’s approach to foreign policy is already under intense scrutiny, vice president Mike Pence squirmed and struggled to answer the question on Fox News.
Mr Trump later explained that the administration was going to notify Congress but "we decided not to do that because Washington leaks like I’ve never seen before. There’s no country in the world that leaks like we do, and Washington is a leaking machine."
Follow along as it happened below.
Hello and welcome to The Independent's rolling coverage of the Donald Trump administration.
Donald Trump was roundly booed as he attended Game 5 of baseball’s World Series in DC on Sunday, with fans of the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros chanting “Lock him up!” as “Veterans for Impeachment” signs were held aloft by spectators, prompting the president to leave the stadium early.
Here's Jon Sharman's report on a very public humiliation for the embattled POTUS, who looks pretty fed up here.
On Saturday, Trump had triumphantly announced the death of Isis leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in a US-led raid that saw him cornered in a dead-end tunnel in north western Syria, the president assuring the world the terrorist had died “whimpering and crying and screaming all the way” when he detonated a suicide vest, killing himself and his three children, who he had taken with him.
The thug who tried so hard to intimidate others spent his last moments in utter fear, in total panic and dread, terrified of the American forces bearing down upon him.
He was a sick and depraved man, and now he’s gone. He died like a dog, he died like a coward.
He applauded the "incredible" US forces who carried out their "dangerous and daring" mission "in grand style".
"We obliterated his caliphate 100 per cent," Trump said, deriding al-Baghdadi's followers as "losers", "hardcore killers" and, er, "very frightened puppies".
Richard Hall and Dave Maclean have a full report.
Trump's gloating address was full of extraordinary details.
Here's Conrad Duncan on his claim to have foreseen the 9/11 terror attacks of September 2001 and alerted the world to the threat posed by Osama bin Laden, whom, he said, "Nobody had ever heard of" before his book The America We Deserve was published in 2000.
He singled out the US military dogs who chased down al-Baghdadi for particular praise during his graphic account of the Isis mastermind's final moments.
More bizarrely, Trump went off on a tangent about how "tall and handsome" al-Qaeda terrorist leader Bin Laden and his son Hamza had been. Both men are now very much dead.
Bin Laden Sr was famously taken out in a raid by US Navy SEALs on his compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, in May 2011, which was watched by Barack Obama, then-secretary of state Hillary Clinton and a gathering Pentagon generals from the White House Situation Room, a moment captured in a memorably tense press shot.
The Trump administration released its own cover version over the weekened, which many believed was staged.
Here's Indy100.
Trump provoked further raised eyebrows when he spoke admiringly about Isis's online recruitment strategy.
They use the Internet better than almost anybody in the world, perhaps other than Donald Trump.
But they use the Internet incredibly well, and what they’ve done with the Internet and through recruiting and everything.
Here's Narjas Zatat.
Lastly - and perhaps most troublingly of all - Trump returned to the question of captured Isis fighters, as many as 100 of whom are thought to have escaped into Syria following his brilliant strategic decision to withdraw American troops from the region earlier this month.
He threatened to simply "drop" them back at the doors of their countries of origin like Britain, France and Germany.
They came from France, they came from Germany, they came from the UK. They came from a lot of countries.
And I actually said to them, if you don’t take them, I’m going to drop them right on your border and you can have fun capturing them again.
Here's more from our security correspondent Lizzie Dearden.
Leading Democrats Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer have meanwhile demanded to know why Congress was not briefed on the operation in advance at a time when the White House’s approach to foreign policy is already under intense scrutiny.
The administration cut the likes of Pelosi, Schumer and House Intelligence Committee chairman Adam Schiff out of the loop - a collective known in DC as the Gang of Eight - but did tell the Republican chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Richard Burr, and Trump ally Lindsey Graham, who holds no intelligence post.
Trump also confirmed that he had tipped off the Russians that the raid was coming, which really got up Pelosi's nose.
"The House must be briefed on this raid, which the Russians but not top congressional leadership were notified of in advance, and on the administration’s overall strategy in the region. Our military and allies deserve strong, smart and strategic leadership from Washington," she wrote in a statement.
Schumer was less scornful but reminded America the death of al-Baghdadi was significant but did not mark the end of Isis.
Trump said the reason the Democrats had been snubbed was to avoid "Washington leaks":
We were going to notify them last night, but we decided not to do that because Washington leaks like I’ve never seen before. There’s no country in the world that leaks like we do, and Washington is a leaking machine.
I told my people we will not notify them until our great people are out - not just in but out.
I wanted to make sure this was kept secret. I don't want to have men lost and women. I don’t want to have people lost. A leak could have caused the death of all of them.”
None of which was very helpful to vice president Mike Pence, who squirmed and struggled to answer the question when pressed on it on Fox News Sunday by Chris Wallace.
Texas congressman Mac Thornberry, the ranking Republican on the House Armed Services Committee, told Jake Tapper on CNN's State of the Union yesterday he was left "uncomfortable" by Trump's graphic account of al-Baghdadi's demise and obvious relish for the gory details.
It probably makes me a little uncomfortable to hear a president talking that way, but, again, Baghdadi was the inspirational leader for an Isis network across the world from Africa to South East Asia.
If you can take a little of the glamour off him, if you can make him less inspirational, then there’s a value to that for all of these folks who are on their computers or in these networks looking to attack.
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