Trump news: President folds over citizenship census question after hosting right-wing extremists and conservative influencers
President backs off Census demands and hosts right-wing extremists at social media summit
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Donald Trump hosted a White House Social Media Summit on Thursday, where the controversial guest list included alt-right meme creators and a QAnon conspiracy theorist but no representatives from either Facebook or Twitter , after lavishing praise on himself as “great looking and smart”.
In the run-up to the event, the president retweeted a post by far-right columnist Katie Hopkins in praise of “Right Minded” world leaders like probable future British PM Boris Johnson, Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu, Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil and Hungary’s Viktor Orban.
Mr Trump has meanwhile found himself the victim of online ridicule after saying that the kidney “has a very special place in the heart” after signing an executive order directing his administration to develop policies addressing kidney-related health issues among Americans.
The president capped his day off by backing down from his 2020 Census demands, instead pursuing other avenues for collecting citizenship information after the Supreme Court blocked his census efforts.
The American Community Survey, which polls 3.5 million US households every year, already includes questions about respondents’ citizenship, so it is unclear what Mr Trump has in mind.
Trump 2020 launch: Fascist Proud Boys, baby blimps and Uncle Sam
Show all 30But Mr Trump appeared to preview his remarks at a White House social media summit, where he complained about being told: ”‘Sir, you can’t ask that question ... because the courts said you can’t.’”
Describing the situation as “the craziest thing,” he went on to contend that surveyors can ask residents how many toilets they have and, “What’s their roof made of? The only thing we can’t ask is, ‘Are you a citizen of the United States?’”
“I think we have a solution that will be very good for a lot of people,” he added.
Mr Trump had said last week that he was “very seriously” considering an executive order to try to force the citizenship question’s inclusion, despite the fact that the government has already begun the lengthy and expensive process of printing the census questionnaire without it.
Additional reporting by AP. Please allow a moment for our liveblog to load
Speaking of AOC, the star congresswoman is increasingly finding herself a focal point for Democratic infighting.
House speaker Nancy Pelosi used a weekend interview with The New York Times to question the growing influence of four young freshman progressives she dubbed "the squad" - AOC, Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib and Ayanna Pressley - all of whom are prominent on social media.
"All these people have their public whatever and their Twitter world," she said, addressing concerns about cracks in party unity. "But they didn’t have any following. They’re four people and that’s how many votes they got."
AOC has since fought back with some thoughts of her own in The Washington Post.
"When these comments first started, I kind of thought that she was keeping the progressive flank at more of an arm’s distance in order to protect more moderate members, which I understood,” Ocasio-Cortez told the newspaper. "But the persistent singling out… it got to a point where it was just outright disrespectful… the explicit singling out of newly elected women of colour.
"The third and fourth time [Pelosi insulted her], it was like, 'This is unnecessary, but I'm not going to pick a fight over it. Whatever, I’ll be the punching bag if that’s what they want me to be,'" Ocasio-Cortez said.
The president of the United States is currently raving on social media about how handsome he is.
This is basically a Greatest Hits package of his favourite kid nicknames, once more mocking "Sleepy Joe" Biden and Elizabeth Warren over claim to Native American heritage.
Copying in the Mad Magazine mascot Alfred E Neuman to stand in for Pete Buttigieg is a nice touch.
The needless capping up of "Stable Genius", somewhat less so.
Some more recent highlights from the Twitter reel of Donald J Trump.
In amongst the usual self-congratulation and Fox offerings, there was praise for the CEO of Lockheed Martin, Marilyn Hewson (whom he has previously called "Marilyn Lockheed"), for her decision to keep open the Sikorsky Helicopter Plant in Pennsylvania and this gripe about his not being paid for his time.
And here is reposting praise from actor Jon Voight, who continues to trash the memory of the magnificent Midnight Cowboy.
The president really is on sassy form this morning isn't he?
Here is taking the "Fake News Media" to task again, this time on the question of banking.
USA World Cup star Megan Rapinoe says she's "too busy" to run for president despite her enormous popularity and impressive attack on Trump during her appearance on Anderson Cooper's CNN show on Tuesday night, when she argued his message is alienating millions of people.
A survey by Public Policy Polling has since found that she would beat him if she did decide to shoot for the White House but, she insists: "There’s no other place I would rather be. Even in a presidential race. I’m busy, I’m sorry."
One of the few people likely to regard this as good news is Fox host Howard Kurtz, who says her liberal politics has "spoiled" what might have been a "wonderful unifying moment" for the nation.
Here's Mark Critchley's report.
Sad news folks: the Trump Organization has cancelled its strip club sponsored golf tournament this weekend.
Florida's Shadow Cabaret had hoped to stage its "Shadow All Star Tournament" at the president's Miami Doral resort, with its dancers available at auction to serve as "caddy girls", until a Washington Post story on the event inspired widespread ridicule on Wednesday.
"The event was originally booked with the understanding that it would be raising money to support a local charity benefiting underprivileged children," a spokesperson for the Trump Organization said in a statement.
"Now that the charity has removed its affiliation, the event will no longer be taking place at our property and all amounts paid will be refunded."
Here's my gift to you for the day: former Trump aide Sebastian Gorka being brutally pranked on radio by a phone-in caller.
Trust me, it's a peach.
Greg Evans has the full story.
Here's Tom Embury-Dennis on Trump's "joke" about serving 14 more years as president.
Trump’s administration has threatened to hit French goods with extra tariffs in retaliation for a new tax which the US says unfairly targets American tech giants like Google and Amazon.
On Thursday, lawmakers in Paris approved a levy of three per cent on the revenues of large digital companies, a group likely to include US firms like Facebook and Microsoft, but Trump pre-empted the move by directing his trade representative to open up a probe into the tax on Wednesday.
“The United States is very concerned that the digital services tax… unfairly targets American companies,” said trade representative Robert Lighthizer.
Here's Ben Chapman's report.
Trump has been gloating over the last hour about the Democrat-led House Oversight Committee having to delete a tweet about the border crisis because the picture used dated back to the Obama era.
While this is embarrassing for the opposition and provides a timely reminder of their part in the current crisis, it hardly changes the fact that the reality on the ground for many detainees being held right now in US custody is grave indeed and needs addressing with urgency.
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