Trump news: President faces new sexual misconduct lawsuit and attacks Spike Lee as ‘racist’
Live updates from the kickoff to a consequential week for Donald Trump's White House
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Donald Trump kicked off a consequential week of domestic and international developments on Monday by attacking a film director’s Oscars speech as “racist” and becoming the subject of another sexual assault lawsuit.
The president went after Spike Lee — who used his Oscar acceptance speech to urge mobilisation for the 2020 election — in a tweet, claiming the filmmaker did a “racist hit on your President.” Mr Trump then claimed that he had “done more for African Americans” than “almost” any other president.
Mr Lee did not directly name Trump. He spoke about black history and his family history, saying his grandmother’s mother was a slave, before stressing the presidential election next year.
“Let’s all be on the right side of history,” Mr Lee said on Sunday night’s awards show. “Make the moral choice between love versus hate.”
The controversial tweets arrived the same day Mr Trump faced a lawsuit alleging he abruptly grabbed a former campaign staffer’s hand and planted an unwanted kiss on her face during a Florida meeting with staff and volunteers.
Who could be running against Trump in 2020?
Show all 23Alva Johnson wrote in the federal lawsuit that Mr Trump made the nonconsensual advance in August 2016 in Tampa, Florida. She said he “grasped her hand and did not let go” and kissed her on the corner of her mouth as she turned slightly away.
“The forced and unwanted kiss was deeply offensive to Ms Johnson,” the lawsuit says, adding that she suffered “emotional distress, psychological trauma, humiliation, embarrassment, loss of dignity, invasion of privacy and other damages.”
The lawsuit, first reported by Washington Post, seeks unspecified money damages and an order preventing the president from “grabbing, kissing or otherwise assaulting or harassing women without prior express consent.”
White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders called Johnson’s allegations fabricated and said other people who were there say it did not take place. “This accusation is absurd on its face. This never happened and is directly contradicted by multiple highly credible eye witness accounts,” Sanders said.
The president departed on Air Force One by Monday afternoon for his upcoming second summit with North Korean regime leader Kim Jong Un. Meanwhile, Vice President Mike Pence visited Colombia to discuss the Venezuela crisis with the president of Colombia and Venezuela’s opposition leader, Juan Guaido. Both Mr Trump and his vice president will be outside of the US this week — a rarity in American politics for national security reasons.
The Associated Press contributed to this report. See The Independent’s live coverage below.
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MAGA supporters are sharing this old image of Spike Lee posing with Melania and Donald Trump as evidence of his "hypocrisy" last night in calling for voters to "make the moral choice between love versus hate" at the ballot box in 2020.
Philip Bump of The Washington Post argues that Donald Trump's use of the phrase "your president" in his tweet about Spike Lee reveals it to be a direct address to his support-base.
He also points out that he has only ever accused one white person of being "racist" over the course of his political career: Senator Elizabeth Warren, potentially his Democratic rival for the presidency in 2020.
Mr Trump suggested she had capitalised on her Native American heritage to further her career and then referred to her as "Pocahontas", which... well, you see where I'm going with this.
Hilariously, Mr Bump points out the president said this on the campaign trail in August 2016: “When Democratic policies fail, they are left with only this one tired argument: You’re racist, you’re racist, you’re racist. They keep saying it.”
"It's the last refuge of the discredited Democrat politician. They keep going back to the same well."
And finally, he has a few statistics on the African-American view of Donald Trump: just six percent approve of the president and 80 percent consider him racist, according to a January Gallup poll.
“This is like assembling a panel of gravity sceptics who insist it’s safe to jump off tall buildings, except in this case they want to take us all with them.”
This magnificent quote comes from Nasa climate scientist Kate Marvel, addressing the Trump administration's new body to reconsider and perhaps alter the US government's stance on climate change.
The committee, working under the National Security Council, will feature physics professor William Happer, who once compared the "demonisation" of CO2 to the Holocaust.
Here's Adam Forrest again.
Here's more on the latest accusations of sexual misconduct against Donald Trump:
A former campaign staffer who worked on Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign has sued the president, alleging he kissed her without consent.
Alva Johnson said she turned her head as he went in for a kiss outside of a rally in Tampa, Florida in August 2016, causing the future-president to place his lips on the side of her mouth.
“I immediately felt violated because I wasn’t expecting it or wanting it,” she told the Washington Post. “I can still see his lips coming straight for my face.”
The allegations are the most recent claims of sexual harassment levelled against the president, after scores of women came forward during the 2016 election with credible claims of assault by Mr Trump. Ms Johnson’s suit is the first to accuse the president of sexual misconduct along the campaign trail, however.
Donald Trump’s company says it has donated nearly $200,000 to the US Treasury to make good on its promise to hand over profits from foreign governments using its properties.
The Trump Organization says the check for $191,538 (£146,568) represents profits from embassy parties, hotel stays and other foreign government spending at the Washington, D.C., hotel and other properties last year. The voluntary donation is up from $151,470 (£115,907) to cover his first year in office.
The donations have not allayed critics who say Trump is violating the emoluments clauses of the Constitution prohibiting presidents from accepting gifts or payments from foreign or domestic governments.
AP
Controversy continues to arise out of the Trump Organization’s donations to the US treasury after vowing to pay back profits made from foreign governments:
Air Force One is waiting to take Donald Trump to Hanoi for his upcoming summit with North Korean regime leader Kim Jong UN. Here’s the president’s plane pictured at the Andrews Air Force base:
Mark Green, the administrator of USAID, described his meeting on the Venezuela crisis with Colombian leader Juan Guaido, Vice President Mike Pence and Colombian President Ivan Duque "productive" in a tweet on Monday:
A real question remains to what the White House administration hopes to accomplish as Donald Trump meets with North Korean regime leader Kim Jong Un.
On Sunday, the president provided obscure remarks to reporters about the upcoming summit, saying, "We have a special feeling and I think it's going to lead to something very good, and maybe now."
"I think ultimately it will, but maybe not, and I'm not pushing for speed," he added, "but we're not removing the sanctions."
Donald Trump has congratulated PGA winner Dustin Johnson, saying he is “a truly great golfer” and “a wonderful guy.”
“Big year ahead for Dustin!” the president added.
The tweet arrived just before Mr Trump was set to depart for Hanoi to meet with North Korean regime leader Kim Jong Un.
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