Trump news: President U-turns on intelligence chief, as he announces A$AP Rocky has been released
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Scuffles broke out after protesters waving an “Immigrants Built America” banner disrupted Donald Trump’s latest rally, where he continued his racist attacks on congressman Eljiah Cummings, the City of Baltimore, and "the squad".
The demonstrators held up the US president’s speech for nearly four minutes before they were kicked out of the event in Cincinnati, Ohio. But, the moment was only blip in the president's campaign rally where he offered up a flawed understanding of American immigration policy, trashed the idea of an independent judiciary, and slammed California for having homeless people and poverty.
Mr Trump, who appeared to make an obscene gesture as they left, also promised to cure childhood cancer, mocked FBI investigator Robert Mueller and boasted about the trade war with China – despite warnings from one of his former advisors, Gary Cohn, that it is damaging the US economy.
Follow the latest updates in our liveblog below
Here are an odd couple of moments during last night's rally:
The White House pool says things are relatively quiet at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave this morning, but White House spokesperson Hogan Gidley passed along this message about the president's call with Boris Johnson last night:
President Donald J. Trump spoke with Prime Minister Boris Johnson yesterday to discuss areas of further cooperation, especially relating to trade, 5G, and global security. The President reiterated his strong appreciation for the special relationship between the United States and United Kingdom and noted he is looking forward to meeting with the Prime Minister at the G7 Summit in Biarritz, France later this month.
We have a couple things we're expecting later in the day from the White House, per the daily schedule.
At 1.45pm EST, Mr Trump is expected to make an announcement on EU trade in the Roosevelt Room.
The announcement comes as the president has sought to reimagine trade with European countries, Asia, and the UK as well.
Details are sparse on today's announcement, but trade officials said last month that progress was middling.
At 5.25pm EST, Mr Trump is set to arrive at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey.
Joe Scarborough has some advice for Democrats in the 2020 primary, after they attacked elements of Barack Obama's record (especially on deportations): Focus on Donald Trump.
Have a look:
Donald Trump Jr spends much of his time trolling Democrats when he's not saying he's running the Trump Organisation — and a recent attempt to dunk on the primary debates was rejected pretty forcefully.
Mr Trump Jr tweeted that the comedy network should host the next round of Democratic debates — but the network slammed back.
"Nah, last time there was a joke at a debate it became president," the network replied.
Take a look:
Donald Trump's latest round of tweets.
He has been pushing back on the idea that he has been weak in the face of North Korea's recent missile tests:
The United States has officially pulled out of the Cold War-era Intermediate Nuclear Forces (INF) agreement with Russia, just as it put new sanctions on the country.
The 1987 agreement has kept nukes out of Europe for more than 30 years, and the decision to pull out of the agreement has been decried by United Nations secretary general António Guterres, who said that the world lost "an invaluable brake on nuclear war."
"This will likely heighten, not reduce, the threat posed by ballistic missiles," Mr Guterres told reporters.
Momentum for impeaching Donald Trump is gaining among House Democrats.
Nearly half of Democrats have indicated they want to impeach the president as of last night, including moderates in districts that flipped from Republicans to Democrats in the 2018 midterms.
But, while that represents a significant milestone, Nancy Pelosi has remained hesitant to officially begin the proceedings — especially since even 118 Democrats calling for Mr Trump's impeachment is just one-third of the House.
The US has publicly designated two officials aligned with Venezuela's Nicolas Maduro for "gross violations of human rights".
The officials — Ivan Rafael Hernandez Dala and Rafael Enrique Bastardo Mendoza — "have been implicated for their human rights violations and abuses and the repression of civil society and the democratic opposition", said Mike Pompeo, the US secretary of State, in a statement.
The designation follows after the US placed financial sanctions on the men, in February.
Yesterday, during an interview following the second Democratic debates, the daughter of Eric Garner told CNN that the Trump administration's policies showed that the White House does not believe black people matter.
Emerald Garner made the claim just hours after the issue of her father's death was debated on stage in Detroit, where New York City mayor Bill DeBlasio was attacked over the continued employment of Daniel Pantaleo, the officer who choked Garner to death while selling loose cigarettes in Staten Island.
"As we can see with Trump's track record, and basically his administration is that we don't matter," Ms Garner said.
When asked who the "we" was, Ms Garner replied: "We, us black people."
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