Trump news: President shrugs off White House shooting mid-briefing as he doubles down on wild Covid claims and attacks Biden's faith
Secret Service reportedly shoots suspect as president repeats false claim about children and coronavirus
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Donald Trump was whisked out of his daily weekday press briefing by a Secret Service officer following a shooting outside the White House on Monday.
The US Secret Service confirmed that law enforcement had shot a person blocks away from the White House, prompting the president to abruptly end a press briefing as he was escorted to the Oval Office.
He returned several minutes later announcing that a person had been shot and sent to a nearby hospital
The president continued to falsely claim that children are nearly immune from coronavirus, despite a new report that found nearly 100,000 young people were infected within the last two weeks of July alone, as schools prepare to open across the US.
Last week, Facebook and Twitter removed videos shared by the president in which he claimed that children are "virtually immune" from Covid-19, though Centres for Disease Control and Prevention reports show that children are as vulnerable to being able to transmit the virus as adults.
As lawmakers debate additional emergency relief legislation for millions of Americans during a looming eviction crisis and mass unemployment, the president has faced intense scrutiny from Democrats challenging the constitutionality of a series of executive orders that undermine congressional efforts.
Treasury Secretary told reporters that states can access extended unemployment relief "in the next week or two" despite governors signalling that the federal government, not the states, should be responsible for the additional funds.
Secretary Mnuchin also said he has not met with Democrats to repair the stalled emergency relief funding talks, despite House Democrats authoring and passing legislation to do so and meeting Republican resistance, including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's accusation that Democrats are "obstructing" relief efforts.
"If they want to meet and want to negotiate and have a new proposal, we'll be happy to meet," Mr Mnuchin said.
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Bill Gates says Trump attack on TikTok 'bizarre'
“This may sound self-serving, but I think that the game being more competitive is probably a good thing," said Microsoft founder Bill Gates on TikTok, who Mr Trump has ordered to sell its US operations before 15 September, or face being banned.
"But having Trump kill off the only competitor, it’s pretty bizarre,” said Mr Gates in an interview with Wired.
“Who knows what’s going to happen with that deal," added Mr gates. "But yes, it’s a poison chalice. Being big in the social media business is no simple game, like the encryption issue.”
Mr Trump said last week that the US treasury should retain a cut if TikTok, the Chinese video app, is sold to Microsoft.
Adam Smith reports:
Coronavirus aid: What is Trump planning?
He's been criticised and praised over his proposals for coronavirus relief, but what exactly has he set out?
Donald Trump signed multiple executive orders on Saturday for coronavirus relief, seeking to bypass Congress after negotiations stalled in Washington — setting the stage for a legal battle with Democratic leaders on Capitol Hill.
The orders would provide $400 in additional relief to unemployed Americans each week, as well as a payroll tax holiday for taxpayers who earn less than $100,000 annually, beginning in August through the end of 2020. He also promised to forgive the taxes if he wins re-election in 2020.
Other measures include bans on eviction, and waiving student debt for the rest of the year.
Chris Riotta reports:
Mike Pence is Trump's 'submissive wife', say supporters
In an apparent attempt at praising vice president Mike Pence, one Christian conservative told The New York Times in an interview that the 61-year-old was “like the very supportive, submissive wife to Trump."
"He does the hard work, and the husband gets the glory," said Caryn Schouten, an evangelical Christian from Sioux Falls, Iowa.
Those comments come after Mr Trump claimed his Democratic opponent, Joe Biden, was "against God", in an appeal to traditional Republican voters last week.
Chris Christie will play Biden in Trump's debate prep
Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie will likely reprise his role as Donald Trump's mock presidential debate opponent ahead of next month's televised head-to-head, reports Axios.
Mr Christie, who role-played Hillary Clinton for Trump's 2016 debate prep sessions, will act as Joe Biden as the president and his closest aides prepare to face the Democrat.
The group includes Mr Christie and Mr Trump, his son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner, campaign manager Bill Stepien, and senior adviser Jason Miller.
They are reported to be meeting every 10 days until the first scheduled debate on 29 September, and intend on keeping the gatherings tight knit.
The Trump campaign will likely see the televised clashes as a way of closing the gap with Mr Biden, who leads the incumbent in national polls.
Why Trump will be worried about the latest jobs figures
By now, America should be in the thick of the “rocking and rolling” economy that Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and at times seemingly his only aide with any real power, had predicted the economy would be “really rocking again” by July.
So where is it?
The latest bad news for Mr Trump’s re-election campaign came in Friday’s jobs report, which showed the unemployment rate staying in double digits at 10.2 per cent, even as the economy created 1.8 million new jobs, in line with forecasts for 1.7 million.
Unemployment is still higher than any time since the Great Depression, except for the last four months. The jobs market, to borrow a rocker phrase, is not ready to start us up.
But could an economic bounce in October prove to be the turning point in Mr Trump's campaign?
Tim Mullaney has more, here:
Biden has his eyes on Texas
When Joe Biden's campaign aired television ads aimed at Texans last week, Democrats said it was the first time their presidential candidate had done so in almost 25 years.
Texas is among the states targeted by a $280 million fall advertising blitz the campaign says is part of a broader strategy aimed at putting Republican-leaning states, including Georgia, Iowa and Ohio, in play ahead of the 3 November election against president Trump.
With polls showing Mr Biden holding a national lead over Mr Trump and effectively tied in Texas, Democrats say a concerted effort in the state could expand his viable paths to the White House.
Mr Trump's campaign, who carried Texas by nine percentage points in 2016, described Democrat thinking this time around as "delusional".
"We welcome the Biden campaign to light their money on fire by investing in the Lone Star State," said Trump campaign spokeswoman Samantha Cotten.
Democrats, meanwhile, believe a win in Texas this November is possible - with many pointing to the achievements of Democratic Senate candidate Beto O'Rourke, who made an unexpectedly strong finish in 2018's midterm elections.
Reuters
Trump says Scaramucci a 'loser'
Donald Trump hit-back at his former White House communications director, Anthony Scaramucci, for suggesting that the president had made Republicans "a minority party for a generation".
In a Twitter post on Sunday night, Mr Trump called Mr Scaramucci "a loser who begged to come back" - in reference to the fact that he held the communications director position for only 10 days in 2017.
Mr Scaramucci had told Fox News host Steve Hilton that the American economy had been turned "upside down" amid the coronavirus pandemic, before attacking president Trump.
“The current demographic base of the Republican Party under President Trump’s control will become a minority party for a generation if we don’t broaden that tent and start including people that don’t look like you and me,” said Mr Scaramucci.
Mr Trump appeared to be watching the show, when he fired his tweet late last night.
The former White House communications director, who backed the president before turning against him in public, had words of his own.
He said in a Tweet that Mr Trump was the "real loser", thanks to the coronavirus death toll.
"162,000 dead, 40 million American jobs lost on your watch. We are tired of all of the losing. We wanted you to succeed but you are an abject failure. Thankfully it will be over on 11/3. America will heal and rebuild," wrote Mr Scaramucci.
Almost 100,000 children Covid-19 positive in two weeks
Some 97,000 American children tested positive with Covid-19 in the last two weeks of July, according to a new study and The New York Times.
The American Academy of Pediatrics and the Children’s Hospital Association, who conducted the research, said at least 338,000 children have tested positive since the pandemic began.
It means that more than a quarter tested positive in the last two weeks of July, alone.
That comes after Donald Trump claimed last week that "Children are almost, and I would almost say definitely, but almost immune from this disease".
Those comments - which he posted on Facebook and Twitter - were later labelled as "Covid misinformation".
Puerto Rico primaries suspended
Puerto Rico on Sunday was forced to partially suspend voting for primaries marred by a lack of ballots as officials called on the president of the US territory's elections commission to resign.
The primaries for voting centres that had not received ballots by early afternoon are expected to be rescheduled, while voting would continue elsewhere, the commission said.
"I have never seen on American soil something like what has just been done here in Puerto Rico. It's an embarrassment to our government and our people," said Pedro Pierluisi, who is running against Gov. Wanda Vazquez, to become the nominee for the pro-statehood New Progressive Party.
Meanwhile, Vazquez called the situation "a disaster" and demanded the resignation of the president of the elections commission.
A federal control board that oversees Puerto Rico's finances issued a statement saying the "dysfunctional" voting process was unacceptable and blamed it on what it said was inefficiency by the elections commission.
The unprecedented situation comes as voters ventured out amid a spike in COVID-19 cases across Puerto Rico, an island of 3.2 million people that has reported more than 12,800 probable cases, more than 8,500 confirmed cases and at least 274 deaths.
Associated Press
Trump's words on executive orders turned against him in attack ad
After he announced executive orders on Saturday that would extend additional unemployment payments and ban evictions for many Americans, Democrats were appalled at the president's attempt to bypass Congress, where talks on coronavirus aid stalled last week.
As the Republican campaign group against Trump, The Lincoln Project, points out in their latest attack ad, Mr Trump had previously been vocal about his previous distaste for executive action.
In one tweet in 2012, he wrote: “Why Is @BarackObama constantly issuing executive orders that are major power grabs of authority?”
You can hear similar claims in the ad, here:
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