Trump news: President rages over impeachment hearing, escalates Iran tensions on Twitter and names ASAP Rocky 'hostage negotiator' as national security chief

Follow the latest updates from Washington, as it happened

Donald Trump accused of lying after claiming that Latinos also want the wall

Donald Trump — visiting California for fundraisers and a trip to his US-Mexico border wall – has lashed out at the House Judiciary Committee's impeachment hearings against him, calling them “the greatest political scam in US history!” at the start of a chaotic day on Twitter.

The president also announced he would be increasing sanctions on Iran and named Robert O’Brien as his new national security adviser to replace John Bolton, the State Department diplomat last heard from attempting to intervene as a “hostage negotiator” when US rapper A$AP Rocky was detained in Sweden and charged with assault.

Mr Trump’s ex-campaign manager Corey Lewandowski could meanwhile be held in contempt of Congress over his stonewalling before the Judiciary panel on Tuesday, a tense hearing in which he refused to answer questions, appeared to admit lying to the media, promoted his website during a bathroom break and was told his behaviour was “completely unacceptable”.

Meanwhile, the US Federal Reserve once again slashed interest rates, the second time since July.

The slash caused Mr Trump to lash out at Jerome Powell, the Fed's chairman, on Twitter.

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Key Points

• Trump names Robert O'Brien as new national security adviser
• US increases sanctions on Iran in response to Saudi oil refinery attack
• Trump retweets Katie Hopkins and lashes out over impeachment hearing
• Corey Lewandowski could be held in contempt of Congress over stonewalling
• Trump in California for fundraising, border wall tour

[18 September 2019 12:35 · Joe Sommerlad]

Today though, Trump is up and watching morning TV as per usual.

His first of the day endorses Lewandowski's extraordinary performance yesterday, the second retweets cringeworthy toadying from the vile Katie Hopkins, the third proclaims himself the victim of "the greatest politcal scame in US history".

Yawn. 

[18 September 2019 12:50 · Joe Sommerlad]

We've since seen a slew of right-wing retweets from the president, from Republican congressmen Jim Jordan and Mark Meadows, Fox hosts Laura Ingraham and Maria Bartiromo, Federalist editor Mollie Hemingway, GOP chairwoman Ronna McDaniel, his own press secretary Stephanie Grisham and the disgraced Bill O'Reilly, followed by more love for Corey and his campaign manager Brad Parscale's latest claims of Latino support.

[18 September 2019 13:00 · Joe Sommerlad]

He's now bashing Beto O'Rourke, blaming the 2020 candidate and El Paso native for "making it harder to make a deal" on gun control by pushing an uncompromising anti-assault weapon stance. Where do you start with that?

Oh and now there's more from Ivanka and Jeffrey Epstein-conspiracy theorist Terrence K Williams. He seems extremely unfocused this morning, even by his own wayward standards.

[18 September 2019 13:15 · Joe Sommerlad]

Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has backed her first Democratic insurgent candidate seeking to unseat a party elder, the first real test of the tolerance for her brand of progressive politics among the establishment left.

AOC famously beat the entrenched, deeply complacent Joe Crowley in a New York City primary last year and is hoping Marie Newman can now do the same to Daniel Lipinski in Chicago.

"Marie Newman is a textbook example of one of the ways that we could be better as a party - to come from a deep blue seat and to be championing all the issues we need to be championing," Ocasio-Cortez told the aforementioned NYT.

Here's Clark Mindock's report.

[18 September 2019 13:35 · Joe Sommerlad]

Former president Jimmy Carter, 94, says their should be an age limit on the presidency.

“I hope there’s an age limit. If I were just 80 years old, if I was 15 years younger, I don’t believe I could undertake the duties I experienced when I was president,” the veteran told The AP at the Carter Center in Atlanta, Georgia.

“You have to be able to go from one subject to another and concentrate on each one adequately and then put them together in a comprehensive way, like I did between Begin and Sadat with the peace agreement,” Carter said, stressing that a president has to “be very flexible with your mind,” particularly on foreign affairs. 

Trump is 73 years old while two of his leading Democratic challengers - Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders - will be 73 and 79 respectively on Inauguration Day 2021.  

(John Bazemore/AP)

[18 September 2019 13:55 · Joe Sommerlad]

Republican senator Mike Folmer of Pennsylvannia has been arrested and charged with possession of images of child sexual abuse after police received a tip-off from the social media site Tumblr.

“I will continue to say it - no one is above the law, no matter what position of power they hold,” Josh Shapiro, the state's attorney general, commented in a statement.

Here's Zamira Rahim's report.

[18 September 2019 14:15 · Joe Sommerlad]

In the last hour Trump has announced that the US will increase sanctions on Iran in response to its alleged part in the bombing of Saudi oil refineries over the weekend, an attack that cut oil production by five per cent and triggered a global price increase.

Here's our breaking story.

[18 September 2019 14:30 · Joe Sommerlad]

Prior to this, Trump continued his growing obsession with Terrence K Williams and tweeted a load of bluster about the rude health of US energy, the military and the economy.

"MAG = KAG!" just sounds like abstract algebra or an album track by an art school punk band.

[18 September 2019 14:45 · Joe Sommerlad]

It's a good thing Trump is visiting the border wall today as an internal National Park Service report obtained by The Washington Post has revealed construction work on the project threatens to damage or destroy up to 22 archaeological sites at the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument in Arizona.

He'll surely address that, won't he?

I mean, it would be the right thing to do.

[18 September 2019 14:56 · Joe Sommerlad]

In the president's second big Twitter announcement of the day, he has just declared that he will nominate Robert O'Brien, a special envoy for hostage negotiations at the State Department, to be the nation's new national security adviser in place of John Bolton.

O'Brien was last heard from attempting to intervene in the A$AP Rocky case in Sweden.

Here's Clark Mindock with the latest.