Trump says Republicans would ‘never’ be elected again if it was easier to vote

President dismissed Democratic-led push for voter reforms amid coronavirus pandemic during Fox & Friends appearance

Donald Trump admitted on Monday that making it easier to vote in America would hurt the Republican party.

The president made the comments as he dismissed a Democratic-led push for reforms such as vote-by-mail, same-day registration and early voting as states seek to safely run elections amid the Covid-19 pandemic. Democrats had proposed the measures as part of the coronavirus stimulus. They ultimately were not included in the $2.2tn final package, which included only $400m to states to help them run elections.

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Will sky-high unemployment lead to authoritarianism or progress? | Barry Eichengreen

The fallout from coronavirus could help undermine Reagan-era principles and renew a sense of national interdependence

Does the huge surge in US unemployment claims announced on Thursday mean that we are doomed to endure the 30% unemployment of which the Federal Reserve Bank of St Louis has warned?

The answer is no. How high unemployment rises will depend on how quickly we ramp up testing and the provision of protective equipment, enabling us to determine when and where it is safe to return to work.

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‘Maybe worse than hoarding’: Trump implies hospital staff stealing masks – video

US president Donald Trump insinuates during a news conference that hospital staff in coronavirus hot spots such as New York city are stealing hundreds of thousands of surgical masks. He asked how the numbers of masks requested could shoot up from 10,000 to 300,000 overnight and said: ‘Are they going out the back door?’. Trump also lashed out at reporters who asked questions he did not like about his previous statements, telling, PBS NewsHour's Yamiche Alcindor: 'Don’t be threatening. Be nice'

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Donald Trump refuses to pay security bill for Harry and Meghan

President tweets his intention as Duke and Duchess of Sussex reportedly move to California

Donald Trump has said the United States will not pay for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s security protection after they reportedly moved to California.

Harry and Meghan are said to have left their rented home in Vancouver, Canada after taking a private flight to the US before the border closed between the two countries last week.

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Trump’s salute to Vietnam veterans meets with thanks – and scorn

On national holiday he declared, president who avoided draft salutes those who served

Donald Trump marked National Vietnam War Veterans Day on Sunday, with a tweet praising those who served in a conflict that involved US combat operations in Indochina from 1965 to 1973 .

“You have earned our gratitude and thanks,” he wrote, “by your actions years ago and what you have done since returning home. The nation thanks you and your families for your service and sacrifice. We love you!”

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‘As the president fiddles, people are dying’: Nancy Pelosi slams Trump’s coronavirus delays – video

The House Speaker, Nancy Pelosi, delivered a devastating critique of Donald Trump on Sunday, accusing the president directly of costing American lives through his constant denials and delays in response to the coronavirus outbreak. ‘The president’s denial at the beginning was deadly,’ the House Speaker told CNN’s State of the Union. ‘His delay in getting equipment to where it’s needed is deadly … As the president fiddles, people are dying’

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Donald Trump in ‘near tie’ with Joe Biden, new poll finds

Washington Post-ABC News poll puts former vice-president ahead by 49% to 47% among registered voters

Donald Trump has gained ground on his probable challenger in November’s presidential election and is in a “near tie” with Joe Biden, according to a new poll released on Sunday.

The Washington Post-ABC News poll put the former vice-president ahead by 49% to 47% among registered voters. In February, the same poll put the US president seven points behind.

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‘I don’t know what that means’: Cuomo responds to Trump’s hint at quarantine – video

Donald Trump has said he is considering a mandatory quarantine of some Northeastern states because of the coronavirus outbreak. Responding, New York governor Andrew Cuomo said he had not discussed any potential 'enforceable quarantine', adding 'I don't even know what that means'

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Five of Donald Trump’s most misleading coronavirus claims

As US deaths rise, the president seems unable to grasp the severity of the problem – and he’s made multiple false claims along the way

Political fact-checkers have flourished under Donald Trump, a president who according to one count uttered more than 16,000 misleading or false claims during his first three years in the White House.

Related: The missing six weeks: how Trump failed the biggest test of his life

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#WhereIsJoe: Biden campaign tries to stay relevant amid coronavirus

The Democratic frontrunner faces an unprecedented political challenge as he seeks traction while working from home

Video conferences from a basement, glitchy internet and bouts of restlessness. Joe Biden, like the rest of America, is working from home.

The former vice-president’s confinement began abruptly on 10 March, when he touched down in Cleveland for a primary-night campaign event only to learn that the state’s governor had called for all major indoor events to be canceled as the nation slowly grasped the seriousness of the coronavirus pandemic.

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Donald Trump: the first thing Boris Johnson said to me is ‘we need ventilators’ – video

Donald Trump said on Friday that he had a conversation with Boris Johnson, who has tested positive for coronavirus, and 'the first thing he said to me is: "We need ventilators"'. Trump mentioned Johnson 'asking for ventilators today' twice during the Coronavirus Task Force briefing 

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Coronavirus US live: House passes $2.2tn economic stimulus package

Donald Trump will be signing the stimulus package at 4pm this afternoon.

Will be signing the CARE Act in the Oval Office today at 4:00 P.M. Eastern! https://t.co/0WnTNFZPZD

Donald Trump just released an ad called “Hope” that uses sound bytes from various public figures that make it appear they are praising the president for his efforts combating Covid-19.

Reposting - the president, who has accused Democrats of politicizing the coronavirus, is out with an ad using various public statements in misleading ways to highlight his response https://t.co/QwrG5AivMY

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Trump: ‘You don’t know what the coronavirus numbers are in China’ – video

US president Donald Trump has played down figures that revealed the country now has the highest number of coronavirus cases in the world, insisting 'you don't know what the numbers in China are'. Trump added he is due to speak with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, while explaining why he continues to call Covid-19 the 'China virus' despite his plea earlier this week to protect Asian-Americans from racism. 


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Coronavirus US live: US now has more cases than any other country – as it happened

The Guardian’s Vivian Ho reports:

California’s homeless census was already troubled. Covid-19 is making it impossible.

Related: California's homeless census was already troubled. Covid-19 is making it impossible

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Will the coronavirus crisis spell triumph or disaster for Donald Trump?

The president was slow to address the pandemic that is plunging the US into recession but could an economic bounceback come in time to aid his re-election hopes

On the day of Donald Trump’s election, economists predicted calamity.

Related: Record 3.3m Americans file for unemployment as the US tries to contain Covid-19

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Trump’s deluge of Facebook ads have a curious absence: coronavirus

Campaign ads continue to focus on the southern border even as pandemic has killed hundreds of Americans

As the reality of the coronavirus crisis took hold in the US, Donald Trump’s Facebook campaign remained focused on a different “crisis” – the supposed threat of immigrants entering the US through the southern border.

Related: Facebook to remove misleading Trump 'census' ads

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Kanye West likens backlash over support for Trump to racial profiling

Rapper says anger over his views reminds him of racial assumptions he once faced: ‘You’re black, so you’re a Democrat’

Kanye West has reaffirmed his support for Donald Trump, whom he has previously called “his brother”, in a new interview with the Wall Street Journal.

West says people make assumptions about his political views because of his race, automatically assuming he would disagree with Trump’s views.

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Coronavirus US live: California governor says 1m people filed for unemployment in state

Louisiana governor John Bel Edwards updated reporters on a major spike in the Covid-19 death toll and contraction rate in the state, which remains a major coronavirus hotspot.

There are now 1,975 confirmed cases, a day-on-day increase of 407, and 65 deaths, a day-on-day increase of 19.

California Governor Gavin Newsom said in a briefing on Wednesday that 1 million people have filed for unemployment in the state since March 13th.

Gov @GavinNewsom says 1 million Californians have filed for unemployment since March 13. For context, CA usually gets 2500 claims a day, or about 22,500 in the 9 business days since 3/13. Instead: *one million.*#coronavirus #COVID19

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Coronavirus in America: why the US has struggled to tackle a growing crisis

A lack of preparation, deep-rooted dysfunction and a reckless president – now the US faces being the center of the pandemic

Exactly a month after Donald Trump tweeted that the US had the coronavirus outbreak “very much under control”, the World Health Organization delivered a stark and jarring reality check: America faces being the centre of a pandemic that has paralysed much of the world.

Related: Trump's staff cuts have undermined Covid-19 containment efforts, watchdog finds

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Trump flounders in the pandemic – but goes from Nero to hero in a week | Arwa Mahdawi

The president’s handling of the coronavirus crisis has been feeble. But that’s the beauty of setting an incredibly low bar for yourself – you can fail up

Just a few weeks ago, I was confident that Donald Trump’s days in the White House were numbered. The economy was tanking; coronavirus cases were soaring. And what was the president doing? Calling the coronavirus a “hoax” and mindlessly tweeting. On the same day, the Dow Jones plunged more than 2,000 points and Trump cheerfully retweeted a doctored photo of him playing a violin, remarking: “Who knows what this means, but it sounds good to me!” “Nero” immediately started trending.

Trump may be fiddling while the world burns, but, over the past week, he has sharply changed his tune. The guy who recently assured us that Covid-19 would “like a miracle … disappear” now insists that, actually, he knew it was “a pandemic long before it was called a pandemic”. Having realised he can’t just bluster coronavirus away, Trump has rewritten the past, adopted a newly sombre tone and reinvented himself as a “wartime” president. Last Monday, Trump finally admitted the gravity of the situation and announced a 15-day plan to “slow the spread” of the virus.

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