Trump news: President threatens Iran with 'obliteration' as Melania announces new White House press secretary
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Your support makes all the difference.Donald Trump has threatened Iran with “obliteration” if the country launches any attack on US forces.
“Iran’s very ignorant and insulting statement, put out today, only shows that they do not understand reality”, Mr Trump tweeted Tuesday morning.
His comments came after Iranian president Hassan Rouhani hit out at the “hard-hitting” sanctions introduced by the Donald Trump administration on Monday against the country’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei, calling the action “mentally retarded” in a live TV address.
Speaking at the White House later in the day, Donald Trump said: “We were going to end up in a war if it kept going in the way it was going ... The deal was no good” adding that the US is ready for “whatever” Iran wants to do.
Meanwhile, Melania Trump announced that the new White House press secretary will be her spokesperson, Stephanie Grisham
When questioned about the news in the Oval Office, Mr Trump said: “Stephanie has been with me from the beginning ... I think she’s very talented a lot of people wanted the job ... I asked people who do you like and so many people said Stephanie.”
The president then said Stephanie Grisham accepted this morning and that the first lady “is very happy for her.”
In the latest US-Mexico border developments, the acting chief of US Customs and Border Protection (CBP), John Sanders, is expected to resign from his post. The announcement comes amid public outcry over the squalid conditions migrant children face in Texas shelters.
Speaking about the resignation of John Sanders, Mr Trump said: “I don’t think I’ve ever spoken to him ... I don’t know anything about him” before quickly adding “I hear he’s a very good man.”
In other White House news, the president has continued to deny the historic rape accusation made against him by New York writer E Jean Carroll, insisting he could not have done it because the alleged victim is “not my type”.
Catch up on events as they happened
We are all used to the president's exaggerations by now, but no doubt the White House will issue a release at the end of the month lauding the achievement.
However, it is worth keeping in mind that the stock market numbers for June are unusually high compared to the rest of 2019 and are not truly reflective of what the market is doing.
France has issued another call for de-escalation and dialogue between the US and Iran, as world leaders prepare for the Group of 20 summit.
Government spokeswoman Sibeth Ndiaye said French diplomats had several high-level contacts in the past weeks with Iranian and American officials looking for ways to ease the tensions.
France's President Emmanuel Macron will meet with Mr Trump at the G20 summit in Japan that starts on Friday.
Former US President Jimmy Carter offered rare praise for President Trump while teaching Sunday school at a church in his home state of Georgia.
Speaking at Maranatha Baptist Church in his hometown of Plains, Georgia, Mr Carter praised Trump's response to Tehran, according to NPR.
"I agree with President Trump on his decision not to take military action against Iran,” he said. "I had a lot of problems with Iran when I was in office."
Iranian fishermen have found parts of the US drone shot down by the Islamic Republic last week, the country's ambassador to Britain, Hamid Baeidinejad, said on Tuesday.
He posted his message on Twitter along with a picture of a man standing next to a fishing boat and what appeared to be a piece of metal marked with a US Air Force logo.
Iran has said the drone was shot down in its territorial waters, a claim now endorsed by Russia, while US officials have said the drone was in international waters.
Here's John Bolton's holiday snaps from Israel.
Doesn't really seem like a pool party kind of guy does he?
More from the border, where the FBI is investigating the death of a woman and three infants outside of McAllen, Texas, near the Rio Grande.
Officials said there are, as yet, no signs of foul play and speculated that the four may have died from heat exposure and dehydration, underlining again the risks people are prepared to take to reach sanctuary in the US and the importance of humane treatment in the processing of their asylum applications.
Trump has told The Hill he does not think it is appropriate for USA co-captain Megan Rapinoe to kneel in protest during the "The Star Spangled Banner" at the Women's World Cup, currently underway in France.
Rapinoe's gesture echoes that of NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick, whose "Take a Knee" gesture during the national anthem calls out injustice in America.
"I love watching women's soccer," he said in the Oval Office. "They’re really talented."
He was less emphatic on the question of equal pay for female footballers: "I think a lot of it also has to do with the economics... I mean who draws more, where is the money coming in. I know that when you have the great stars like [Portugal’s Cristiano] Ronaldo and some of these stars … that get paid a lot of money, but they draw hundreds of thousands of people."
"But I haven’t taken a position on that at all," he added. "I’d have to look at it."
Here's Chris Riotta with a preview of tomorrow's Democratic 2020 debates, the first of which takes place tomorrow night.
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