Trump news - live: President launches fresh attack on Parasite and Brad Pitt after defending Tulsi Gabbard at MAGA rally
Follow the latest updates
Sign up for the daily Inside Washington email for exclusive US coverage and analysis sent to your inbox
Get our free Inside Washington email
Donald Trump has resumed his attack on Democratic 2020 candidate Michael Bloomberg on Twitter and posted a bizarre all-caps rant about bailing out America's farmers with federal funding.
The president unexpectedly lashed out at this year’s Best Picture Oscar winner, the South Korean thriller Parasite, at his latest campaign rally in Colorado Springs on Thursday night, only for the movie’s US distributor Neon to mock him for not being able to read subtitles.
Trump also laid into Hollywood star Brad Pitt (“a little wise guy”), teen climate activist Greta Thunberg and Fox News - angered by negative coverage about him on Neil Cavuto’s show - otherwise stumbling over his words again and getting his conspiracy theories mixed up.
Please allow a moment for our liveblog to load
Lara Trump posts campaign video from QAnon conspiracy theorist
The president's daughter-in-law has just posted a Trump 2020 video from a YouTuber known as Joe M, who has previously posted at least four QAnon conspiracy films about the mythic deep state operative believed by some ro be working at the heart of government.
This one is much more vanilla, as these things go.
Mick Mulvaney: US 'desperately' needs more immigrants
Trump's acting chief of staff surprised us all with this one, addressing the Oxford Union on Thursday on behalf of an administration behind the US-Mexico border wall, family separation tactics and squalid detenton centres.
Here's Samuel Lovett to explain his remarks to the student body.
Pete Buttigieg says he and Rush Limbaugh differ on 'what makes a man'
The Indiana mayor is rarely off American TV at the moment and, in his latest interview with Ellen DeGeneres, he has continued his feud with conservative commentator Rush Limbaugh over the latter's views on gay marriage and the presidency.
Andrew Naughtie has more.
US intelligence officials warned Congress that Russia plans to interfere in 2020 Democratic elections and challenges in November, but officials in Moscow are dismissing the allegations as "paranoid" while Washington leaders condemn Donald Trump's reported efforts to dismiss the threat.
Following a 13 February briefing to the House Intelligence Committee, the president reportedly berated the national intelligence director for allowing the hearing to take place, which allowed his Democratic impeachment foes to hear testimony about foreign interference similar to the Russian efforts at the centre of an investigation in 2016.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said: "American voters should decide American elections - not Vladimir Putin".
She urged congress to "condemn the president's reported efforts to dismiss threats to the integrity of our democracy [and] to politicize our intel community".
After a 20-minute campaign rally tirade about a Fox News segment that few in his audience had likely even seen, the ratings-obsessed Donald Trump is back to attacking a host and guest who compared the president's poor debate performances to Michael Bloomberg's recent bomb on the Democratic debate stage.
Here's the segment:
Hillary Clinton has brought back the puppet line, following reports that the president dismissed his intelligence chief after he revealed to Trump's enemies in Congress that Russia was prepared to interfere in 2020 elections, similar to the role it played that brought down a federal investigation into 2016 election interference.
When Mr Trump's motorcade traverses the streets of Las Vegas on Friday, ferrying him from his casino-hotel to the Las Vegas Convention Center for his third campaign rally in as many days, he will be throwing something of a Hail Mary.
The president lost the state in 2016 to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton by 2.4 per centage points. But campaign aides have said they intend to do all they can to make the Silver State, and a handful of others he narrowly lost last time, in play as he seeks a second term.
Also on that list are: Colorado (Clinton won by 5 points), where Mr Trump held a rally on Thursday night; Minnesota (he lost it by 1 point), where he held a rally in Minneapolis' Target Center in October; New Hampshire (Clinton won in a photo finish), where he was just last week; and possibly even Virginia (he dropped it by 6 points), though most analysts now forecast it as a blue state -- err, commonwealth.
The Trump-Pence campaign's idea is to try and recreate as much of their victorious 2016 Electoral College map as possible, holding as many of those states as they can. But with polls in states like Michigan and Wisconsin being topsy turvy so far in this cycle, campaign aides and the president want to try flipping a couple states he lost narrowly to Clinton.
This is the insurance policy baked into the president's reelection strategy. How's it going? Polls conducted last month showed him trailing former Vice President Joe Biden by 8 points in both Nevada and New Hampshire, and Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders by 8 points in the Silver State and 5 points in the Granite State. But both surveys were conducted before his national approval numbers jumped up to record highs following his Senate acquittal on two impeachment charges.
Donald Trump's growing support among Hispanic voters could be enough to help him secure reelection in November.
On the eve of the caucus in Nevada, a state where around 30 per cent of the population is Latino, Democratic candidates have been told to sharply raise their game as they court the Hispanic community, which in 2020 will be the second-largest voting group.
Polls suggest support for Mr Trump among Latinos has grown from 28 per cent in the 2016 election to 30 per cent, despite his hardline immigration policies. While that is only a small increase, given Democrats lost the 2016 race by fewer than 100,000 votes, such slim margins could be critical.
What happens in Vegas...ends up on Twitter. Reporters at the Convention Center for Mr Trump's afternoon campaign rally are mingling with attendees. Elvis is in the building, folks.
A look at Michael Bloomberg's big plan to take down Donald Trump:
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