Trump news - live:‘Can you believe this?’ President rages at ‘garbage’ Democrat impeachment investigation
Nancy Pelosi announces that Democrats are starting proceedings to try to force Donald Trump from office
Sign up for the daily Inside Washington email for exclusive US coverage and analysis sent to your inbox
Get our free Inside Washington email
After having the threat hanging over him for what has felt like almost the whole of his presidency, Donald Trump now finally faces a formal impeachment investigation.
Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic speaker of the House of Representatives, announced that she was beginning the inquiry in response to allegations that the president was trying to recruit a foreign head of state to fabricate dirt on Joe Biden, the frontrunner to face Mr Trump in next year’s election.
In a statement she said: “The actions of the Trump presidency have revealed the dishonourable fact of the president’s betrayal of his oath of office, betrayal of our national security and betrayal of the integrity of our elections.”
It was a dramatic change of tack by Ms Pelosi, who has opposed efforts by her party colleagues to impeach the president.
But the controversy over Mr Trump’s mysterious July phone call to Volodymyr Zelensky, the efforts to keep a whistleblower’s complaint from Congress, and the suspicion that the president was trying to subvert American democracy - perhaps for a second time - served to change her mind.
The president himself punched back in characteristic fashion, unleashing a broadside of tweets that were by turn angry, insulting and boastful.
He reverted to some of his favourite catchphrases - “witch hunt”, “presidential harassment”; implied that efforts to hold him to account were tantamount to an attack on America - “so bad for our country”; and tweeted a re-election campaign video that featured him claiming that impeachment would help his poll numbers.
The impeachment process itself is likely to pass the lower chamber of Congress, the Democrat-controlled House of Representatives, where it needs a simple majority. But the Republican-controlled Senate, where a two-thirds majority is required for a conviction, looks virtually unattainable.
The Democrats will therefore hope that their dramatic gamble, 14 months before the presidential elections, pays off.
Please allow the live blog time to load...
Hello and welcome to The Independent's rolling coverage of the Donald Trump administration.
Although Donald Trump has repeatedly shrugged off talk of impeachment, there is a sense that this could be the week that Democrats finally turn towards backing an inquiry into the president.
Last night, NBC News reported that House speaker Nancy Pelosi is close to dropping her opposition to an impeachment inquiry, removing one of the major obstacles to an investigation.
The report came shortly after seven freshman Democrats with national security experience put their names to an op-ed in the Washington Post that said the Ukraine allegations against Mr Trump were “a threat to all we have sworn to protect”.
In other news, Mr Trump has been accused of mocking climate activist Greta Thunberg by describing her as a “very happy young girl” after she gave an emotional speech condemning world leaders’ failure to tackle climate change.
And an op-ed by the publisher of The New York Times yesterday claimed that the Trump administration failed to help one of their journalists when they faced arrest in Egypt two years ago.
The alleged failure forced the newspaper to ask Ireland to help with rescuing the reporter.
As for his "electric chair" comment about Joe Biden, it came as the former vice president called on Mr Trump to release the transcript of his controversial conversation with Ukraine.
The controversy stems from his request to Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate Mr Biden and his son.
Mr Biden is currently the front-runner in the race to select the Democratic 2020 presidential candidate.
Another major Trump story today is his bizarre claim that he would get a Nobel prize for “a lot of things, if they gave it fairly”.
Mr Trump’s main issue appears to be with Barack Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize, which he received during his first term in 2009.
Mr Trump is not alone in mocking Greta Thunberg, as Fox News also got in trouble yesterday when a conservative pundit referred to her as a “mentally ill Swedish child” on one of its programmes.
Michael Knowles, who hosts a podcast for Ben Shapiro’s Daily Wire website, dismissed the latest wave of climate activism as “hysteria”.
Greta, who is a 16-year-old, was diagnosed with Asperger’s – a form of autism – in 2015.
Our reporter Vincent Wood has more on that story below:
Regarding the allegations against Mr Trump and his conversation with Ukraine, this is what those seven Democratic members of Congress wrote in the Washington Post last night:
“The president of the United States may have used his position to pressure a foreign country into investigating a political opponent, and he sought to use US taxpayer dollars as leverage to do it.
"He allegedly sought to use the very security assistance dollars appropriated by Congress to create stability in the world, to help root out corruption and to protect our national security interests, for his own personal gain.
"These allegations are stunning, both in the national security threat they pose and the potential corruption they represent.”
The freshman representatives, who are notable due to their background in national security, concluded their article with the following statement:
“These new allegations are a threat to all we have sworn to protect.
“We must preserve the checks and balances envisioned by the Founders and restore the trust of the American people in our government. And that is what we intend to do."
Fox & Friends is up and running this morning and their top story is not the revelation that Mr Trump allegedly withheld military aid from Ukraine days before he called the country’s president.
Instead, they are downplaying the whisteblower’s complaints that Mr Trump behaved improperly.
As Fox & Friends is one of the president’s favourite programmes, it will be interesting to see if he comments on the show's account later today.
On the topic of impeachment, Al Weaver from The Hill has reported that one House Democrat told him you can “Take it to the bank” that Ms Pelosi will support a move against the president this week.
The unnamed Democrat added that a number of “frontline members” will be publicly supporting impeachment this afternoon.
In 2020 news, Bernie Sanders is apparently planning to unveil a wealth tax that is “even more aggressive” than Elizabeth Warren’s “ultra-millionaire tax”, according to Axios.
Ms Warren’s plan would tax the wealth of households with a net worth of $50m or more – roughly the wealthiest 75,000 households, according to her campaign website.
Those households would pay an annual 2 per cent tax on every dollar of net worth above $50m and 3 per cent on every dollar of net worth above $1bn.
The apparent move by Mr Sanders comes as the senator has fallen behind Ms Warren in the 2020 Democratic field.
Subscribe to Independent Premium to bookmark this article
Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? Start your Independent Premium subscription today.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies