Former Democratic nominee trolls president by mocking missive sent to Turkish president over Syria invasion
Donald Trump is known to many opponents as the troll in the Oval Office, but the woman he beat for the most powerful seat in the world seems to have learned something from his willingness to tweet provocative pictures and memes.
Related: Mick Mulvaney seeks Trump damage control over impeachment and more
Continue reading...Senior Trump administration officials were on Sunday scrambling to defend the president from escalating domestic and foreign policy scandals, ranging from impeachment proceedings in Washington to the US troop withdrawal in northern Syria.
Related: 'Meltdown': Donald Trump's week of intense political peril
Continue reading...US president says media and Democrats forced him to scrap plan to award himself the opportunity to host summit
Donald Trump has been forced into a humiliating climbdown over plans to host the G7 meeting at his own luxury resort following a political outcry.
The US president announced in a Saturday night tweet that he had reversed his decision and would seek an alternative venue to host world leaders next June.
Continue reading...I doubt there’s any woman who hasn’t had her strength rebranded as ‘aggression’ – calling us ‘crazy’ is a tired old trick
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Continue reading...Charlotte Charles and Tim Dunn talk about their whirlwind White House trip, with Anne Sacoolas, the woman who killed their son, in the next room
When the grieving parents of British teenager Harry Dunn arrived in New York earlier this week, their fight for justice for their dead son quickly became a whirlwind of interviews. Their press tour took a strange turn on Tuesday, however, when family adviser Radd Seiger received an unexpected invitation to Washington DC.
“Radd, who’s been looking after us, has a phone call from the White House saying: ‘Could you please come to the White House as soon as possible?’” Tim Dunn, Harry’s father, said.
Continue reading...Trump once based his cabinet around retired generals but his Syria policy lurch has brought unprecedented military scorn on his head
Four-star US generals and admirals are a taciturn bunch: they measure their words, qualify their statements and guard their silence out of loyalty to the armed forces and to their country.
Related: Mattis resignation triggered by phone call between Trump and Erdoğan
Continue reading...Turkish president said he would respond to Trump’s letter telling him not to be a ‘tough guy’ or fool ‘when the time comes’
Jane Fonda is holding another protest in Washington as part of her “Fire Drill Fridays” campaign, which is meant to bring more attention to the climate crisis. Watch the Guardian’s live feed below.
Today is a quieter day in the impeachment inquiry, with no closed-door interviews scheduled on Capitol Hill.
The schedule will pick up again starting Tuesday, with acting US ambassador to Ukraine Bill Taylor speaking to the House committees leading the investigation.
Next week’s impeachment depositions, per official working on inquiry:
Tuesday: Amb William Taylor
Wednesday: Amb Philip Reeker + OMB Associate Director for Nat’l Security Michael Duffey
Thursday: Deputy Assistant Sec of Defense Laura Cooper + Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman
The ex-defence secretary is laughing off an insult hurled at him by the US president. Speaking at a New York charity event a day after Trump demeaned him as ‘the world’s most overrated general’, Mattis joked that he took it as a compliment. ‘I’m honoured to be considered that by Donald Trump because he also called Meryl Streep an overrated actress,’ he said. ‘So I guess I’m the Meryl Streep of generals’
Continue reading...Donald Trump said the US had to let Kurdish allies and Turkey 'fight a little while' before agreeing to a five-day ceasefire with Ankara. In a rally held in Texas, he said: 'Sometimes you have to let them fight like two kids in a lot, you gotta let them fight, and then you pull them apart.'
Turkey launched its cross-border offensive in northern Syria on 9 October following Trump's decision to withdraw US troops from the region
Trump hails ceasefire and ‘safe zone’ on Turkey-Syria border as ‘great day for civilisation’ but few believe it
The deal agreed between the US and Turkey immediately achieved the priority objective of vice-president Mike Pence’s peace mission to Ankara: Donald Trump was able to claim victory on Twitter.
The president had unwittingly alienated most of his own party over his acceptance of the Turkish invasion of north-eastern Syria, and was already in the midst of an impeachment battle.
Continue reading...Trump confirmed Perry is resigning, and said that his replacement will be announced ‘very shortly’
The mayor of Doral, Florida, a small town outside of Miami, was taken by surprise by the White House’s announcement that the G7 summit would be held at one of Trump’s own resorts there, the Washington Post reports.
The announcement, a clear example of using the power of the presidency to benefit Trump’s private interests, has sparked anger and widespread criticism.
I just talked to the mayor of Doral — who now needs to plan to host 8 world leaders and thousands of diplomats.
He learned this when we did, by watching Mulvaney on TV. He still hasn’t gotten a call from the White House. https://t.co/7A9AekUhoy
In his final hours, Elijah Cummings, the son of sharecroppers who became an influential Democratic congressman from Baltimore, was still working to help immigrants with chronic medical conditions.
That’s what members of his staff told Massachusetts congresswoman Ayanna Pressley, she tweeted today.
As I was paying my respects to our forever Chairman, his staff told me that in his final hours he signed subpoenas to USCIS and ICE, pursuing justice for immigrants in my district & across the country with chronic medical conditions. A man of his word every moment of his life. pic.twitter.com/igzUPl1yPF
Continue reading...The Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has agreed with the US vice-president, Mike Pence, to suspend Ankara’s operation on Kurdish-led forces in north-east Syria for the next five days in order to allow Kurdish troops to withdraw, potentially halting the latest bloodshed in Syria’s long war.
Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) fighters would pull back from Turkey’s proposed 20-mile (32km) deep “safe zone” on its border, Pence told reporters in Ankara on Thursday evening after hours of meetings with Turkish officials.
Continue reading...US president’s letter to his Turkish counterpart is ‘the product of an amateur’, say critics
We now know – not that there was ever much doubt – that Donald Trump writes presidential letters like he talks – with a blustery mix of flattery and threats. His letter to the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has all the charm and elegance of an eviction notice from a slumlord, but on White House stationery.
Those who have observed him the longest say this is how he has always expressed himself. The most remarkable aspect of the Erdoğan letter is arguably that it shows the extent to which the distinctions between Trump’s personality and the remaining formal trappings of the presidency have crumbled away.
Continue reading...The White House says it has chosen Donald Trump’s golf resort near Miami as the site for next year’s Group of Seven summit.
The announcement on Thursday comes at the same that the president has accused Joe Biden’s family of profiting from public office because of Hunter Biden’s business activities in Ukraine when his father was vice-president.
Continue reading...Meanwhile, White House chief of staff undercuts Trump’s denials of quid pro quo: ‘We do that all the time. Get over it’
Donald Trump instructed US diplomats to go through his personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, to make the Ukrainian president’s access to the White House dependent on launching investigations into Trump’s political opponents, the US ambassador to the EU has testified.
In his opening statement to Congress on Thursday, Gordon Sondland, a wealthy hotelier and Trump donor, sought to distance himself from the president, saying he had been “disappointed” Trump had chosen to conduct an important strategic relationship through his lawyer.
Continue reading...Things are getting serious for Donald Trump. The swiftly unrolling Ukraine scandal could cause him to become only the third president to be impeached.But what is impeachment? How does it work? And how likely is it to happen? Adam Gabbatt has the answers
Continue reading...President vows to destroy Turkish economy if Syria invasion is not resolved humanely, but brash language and diplomatic missteps draw confusion
Donald Trump warned his counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdoğan “don’t be a fool” and said history risked branding him a “devil” in an extraordinary letter sent the day Turkey launched its incursion into north-eastern Syria.
The letter, first obtained by a Fox Business reporter, was shorn of diplomatic niceties and began with an outright threat.
Continue reading...Prosecutors allege David Correia, 44, made outsized political donations to Republican candidates to advance business interests
A Florida man wanted in a campaign finance case involving associates of Rudy Giuliani is in federal custody after flying Wednesday to Kennedy airport in New York City to turn himself in, federal authorities said.
Related: Third Rudy Giuliani associate arrested at JFK airport – live
Continue reading...Donald Trump on Wednesday played down the crisis in Syria touched off by Turkey’s incursion against US-allied Kurdish forces, saying the conflict was between Turkey and Syria and that it was okay for Russia to help Damascus. The US president, speaking to reporters at the White House, said the Kurds were ‘no angels’
Continue reading...US president Donald Trump said on Wednesday that his meeting with the Dunn family, whose son Harry died in a road collision with a US intelligence officer's wife, was 'beautiful in a certain way', but sad. He added that Anne Sacoolas said she was driving on the wrong side of the road before the crash
Continue reading...