Trump news – live: President lashes out amid growing anger over racist use of 'infested', amid renewed push for impeachment and tax returns release
Twitter tirade comes after backlash over president’s attack on congressman’s ‘filthy’ district
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Donald Trump has doubled down on his vicious tweets attacking black congressman Elijah Cummings by retweeting far-right commentator Katie Hopkins and calling Mr Cummings "racist".
The US president described Mr Cummings' Baltimore district as a “filthy” and “rat and rodent infested mess” where “no human being would want to live”.
It comes after the US House judiciary committee asked a judge to force the release of grand jury evidence from the Mueller investigation, as four Washington members of Congress called for Mr Trump’s impeachment.
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The request, filed on Friday, explicitly referenced congress’ impeachment powers and is a major step forward in the Democrats' legal fight against Mr Trump.
California Governor Gavin Newsom is also reportedly on the verge of a move that could force Mr Trump to release his tax returns if he wants to appear on the state’s ballot in the 2020 elections.
Meanwhile, political commentators have noted that Mr Trump has used the word "infested" six times on his Twitter account - and each time it has been in reference to areas populated predominantly by people of colour.
His attacks directed at Mr Cummings also appeared to have been inspired by a Fox & Friends report that aired minutes before the president’s outburst, which criticised living conditions in the Democratic congressman's Baltimore district.
Nancy Pelosi led Democratic representatives in defending Mr Cummings, accusing the US president of “racist attacks”.
The creator of The Wire has now joined the backlash against Donald Trump after he described his hometown of Baltimore as a “rat and rodent infested mess”.
David Simon said the US president would “wet himself” if he visited the city which he insulted in a tweet directed at congressman Elijah Cummings.
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The Baltimore Sun has issued a stinging response to Mr Trump’s attack on the city, comparing the US president to a trained dog.
“Slamming Baltimore must have been irresistible in a Pavlovian way,” the paper wrote. “Fox News rang the bell, the president salivated and his thumbs moved across his cellphone into action.”
The op-ed was titled “Better to have a few rats than be one”.
“If there are problems here, rodents included, they are as much his responsibility as anyone’s, perhaps more because he holds the most powerful office in the land,” the paper wrote.
Presidential hopeful Elizabeth Warren has also condemned Mr Trump in the wake of his remarks describing Baltimore as “rat-infested”.
A top White House aide has defended Donald Trump's provocative tweets about Elijah Cummings.
Mick Mulvaney, the acting White House chief of staff, claimed that the president's comments about Baltimore and Mr Cummings were not racist in an interview on CBS.
Mr Mulvaney suggested that the president was upset over Elijah Cummings' criticism about conditions in which children are being held at the US-Mexico border.
"When the president hears lies like that, he's going to fight back," he said.
Later in the interview, he added: "I understand that everything that Donald Trump says is offensive to some people."
Michelle Obama has paid tribute to a Balitmore dance team, in an apparent rebuke of Donald Trump’s attack on the city’s congressman Elijah Cummings.
Ms Obama did not mention the US president in her tweet – but it came just hours after Mr Trump described Baltimore as “filthy” and “rat infested”.
Some commentators have pointed out that Donald Trump previously blamed Barack Obama for allowing Baltimore to remain “a total mess”.
Now Mr Trump is president, he appears to think that the city's alleged problems are no longer the result of presidential ineptitude –instead they are Congressman Elijah Cummings' responsibility.
“President Obama, you have a big job to do,” he tweeted in 2015. “Go to Baltimore and bring both sides together.”
He added: “Billions of dollars spent on Baltimore and it’s still a total mess.”
Amid the backlash over Donald Trump’s attack on Elijah Cummings, Jerry Nadler has said the US president “richly deserves impeachment”.
It’s an explosive statement from the US House judiciary committee chairman, who has the power to launch proceedings to remove the president from office.
And it comes days after the committee asked a judge to force the release of grand jury evidence from the Mueller investigation. The move is widely seen as a major step forward in the Democrats' legal fight against the US president.
2020 Democratic presidential candidate Julian Castro has called Donald Trump the “biggest identity politician” of the last 50 years in the wake of his “rat-infested” attack on Elijah Cummings.
Mr Castro said Mr Trump engages in “racial priming” and gets people to “move into their camps by racial and ethnic identity”.
“That's how he thinks he won in 2016 and that's how he thinks he's going to win in 2020,” he added. I don't think it's a coincidence that just a few weeks ago he kicked off his 2020 campaign, and here we are with the same playbook that he used in 2016."
Republican senator Rick Scott has chosen to criticise Elijah Cummings rather than Donald Trump when asked about the president’s series of aggressive tweets yesterday.
When asked by NBC’s Chuck Todd if Mr Trump’s tweets showed presidential leadership, Mr Scott replied: “Look, I didn’t do the tweets, Chuck. I can’t talk about why he did what he did, but I’m very disappointed in the people like congressman Cummings, who is attacking Border Patrol agents…”
The Florida senator then went on to criticise the Democrats over border policy…
You can watch the clip below:
Earlier today, Democratic senator Chris Murphy announced he was going to unfollow the president’s Twitter account.
The reason? Because, in his opinion, Mr Trump’s feed is “the most hate-filled, racist, and demeaning” of all the accounts he follows and it “regularly ruins [his] day to read it”.
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