President says he fears Bernie Sanders, as Indians label him ‘warmonger, imperialist, gangster’ during lavish Taj Mahal visit
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Donald Trump has told reporters Vermont senator Bernie Sanders is the 2020 rival he fears the most during his tour of India, which began with the president receiving a bear hug from Narendra Modi and a lavish welcome from the locals.
Prior to visiting the Taj Mahal, the president addressed a “Namaste Trump” rally before a 100,000-strong crowd at the Motera Stadium in Ahmedabad and praised the country’s economic progress, thriving Bollywood film industry and “very tough” prime minister - only to mangle the pronounciation of several key names, including that of legendary cricketer Sachin Tendulkar.
Back in DC, the president has reportedly assembled a network of allies to help him remove anti-Trump “deep state” operatives he believes are working against him in the US government as his post-acquittal vengeance push continues.
US and other stock markets tumbled sharply on Monday amid worries about the Coronavirus, with the president firing off a 3 a.m. tweet from India claiming this: "The Coronavirus is very much under control in the USA. We are in contact with everyone and all relevant countries. CDC & World Health have been working hard and very smart. Stock Market starting to look very good to me!" At the White House, his aides are bracing from a new book by his second national security adviser, HR McMaster. (He fired the retired Army three-star general.)
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Bernie Sanders called ‘un-American’ for defending Fidel Castro's literacy programme
Back among the 2020 crowd, the Pete Buttigieg campaign is complaining of "irregularities" in the weekend's Nevada vote count and Joe Biden is busy explaining that Tom Steyer's big spending is responsible for his failing to tie up the African-American vote.
It's the front-runner though who remains the focal point for criticism after everyone got bored of beating on Bloomberg.
The ex-New York mayor has led the attack on the democratic socialist with this new ad accusing him of being in the pocket of the NRA:
Bernie has also been branded "un-American" (uh oh) for saying on 60 Minutes last night the Cuban Revolution wasn't all bad and praising Fidel Castro's literacy programme. Well, neither nuance nor books are fashionable at the present moment so the veteran senator was always going to get sandbagged on this one.
Floridians Marco Rubio and Debbie Mucarsel-Powell have both been in on him on that one.
Chris Riotta has more on this.
Officials scramble to feed fussy eater Trump in vegetarian India
The president lives on steaks, hamburgers and KFC so this visit to the Asian superpower is proving a challenge for the caterers, Andrew Naughtie reports.
Renowned Indian film director slams Trump visit and suggests poverty has been edited out of tour
Ram Gopal Varma has added his voice to the protests against the president's trip, pointing out the discrepancy between what the American leader is being shown and daily realities of life on the country's streets.
Clemence Michallon has more on this.
The Independent's Graig Graziosi has more on that viral photo of Donald Trump Jr flying in coach, which the first son has seemingly used to claim he's an ordinary guy and not the son of a New York millionaire real estate mogul:
Donald Trump Jr has once again boasted about flying coach to assure his fans that, despite growing up in a tower with his name on it, he is actually a man of the people and in touch with the common folk.
In a post he made to Instagram, Mr Trump Jr is seen smiling in a photograph with a pair of passengers onboard a Southwest Airlines flight from Las Vegas, Nevada to Phoenix, Arizona.
“I am not an elitist. Never have been, never wanted to be and certainly never tried to get on the BS rubber chicken dinner circuit,” Mr Trump Jr said in the Instagram post. “I like fishing, hunting, red meat, trucks and guns. And yes, I usually fly coach, but preferably not int’l middle seat!”
Donald Trump has posted a tweet thanking India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the warm welcome he received after the two joined a massive rally in the country:
Donald Trump celebrated India and its people in a message to a packed stadium on Monday, telling the crowd: "America loves India. America respects India, and America will always be faithful and loyal friends to the Indian people.”
Will HR McMaster seek revenge on Trump in new book? He has reasons to.
Donald Trump wanted Michael Flynn as his national security adviser, but was forced to settle for HR McMaster, a decorated three-star Army general, when Mr Flynn's relationship with Russians forced his ouster.
Now retired from the military, Mr McMaster is doing what former – especially fired ones – Trump White House officials do: He's writing a book. He would have plenty of reasons to slam Mr Trump, but one also-retired Army officer who served under him in the Persian Gulf War says that just isn't Mr McMaster's style. Still, he will be under pressure to sell books. And as former professional wrestling promoter Eric Bischoff says: "Controversy creates cash."
Yours truly takes a look at what Mr McMaster might write -- and why. Read more here:
Ignoring Lincoln and LBJ, Trump dropped a whopper of a claim about African Americans
There are Trump false statements. Then there are the whoppers.
As Europe slept Sunday night and Americans were winding down their weekends, the conservative populist president who repeatedly tries to assuage his mostly white base wrote this in a tweet: "I have done far more for the African American community than any President."
It's difficult to even fathom the metric used to produce that claim.
Independent analysts have judged some of Trump's claims about an improved economic situation for African-Americans as accurate. But, as your correspondent noted Sunday evening in his own tweet, this Trump post falls into the whopper category. After all, President Abraham Linclon signed the Emancipation Proclamation that made all slaves free people. And President Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act.
Both were landmark moments in American history.
As always, the 45th president was thinking about his own re-election campaign. Former White House Press Secretary Joe Lockhart, who manned the podium for Bill Clinton, weighed in, saying the tweet shows Mr Trump thinks African-Americans are "stupid." And here's some irony: Mr Trump on Friday made the odd claim during a campaign rally in Las Vegas that Mr Lincoln has been forgotten. Two days later, he appeared to have done just that.
Markets tumble as White House poised to seek millions more to fight Coronavirus
With the Dow Jones Industrial Average and global stock markets taking a tumble on Monday amid worries about the Coronavirus, the Trump White House is poised to throw more money at the problem.
After proposing sizable cuts to the federal agencies that fight such diseases in their 2020 budget request, the White House as soon as this week could ask Congress for millions more for work on, among other things, a Coronavirus vaccine. The Associated Press first reported the emergency request could go to Capitol Hill this week. It's no surprise the story appeared in the midst of a stock slide. Mr Trump regularly talks about the markets' collective value as a sign the US economy is booming under his watch – and perhaps the biggest reason he deserves a second term.
"You know, I'll never get rid of MAGA because I'm superstitious," he said at a campaign rally in Las Vegas. "But you know we just hit an all-time high with the stock market."
Democratic Congressman Ted Lieu called the proposed cuts "dumb" in a tweet, and White House counselor Kellyanne Conway appeared to defend them during a TV hit. So, just another day in the capital city.
The details are still in the works, but here's our update as the Dow fell by 1,032 points as trading closed for the day.
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