Trump news: President says Bahamas full of 'bad gang members', as official threatens to fire NOAA employees over Hurricane Dorian claims
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Donald Trump is campaigning in North Carolina on Monday in support of Republican Mark Harris, who faces a strong challenge in a special election in a district that the president carried overwhelmingly in 2016.
During an impromptu press conference before boarding his plane to that state, Mr Trump shocked reports by telling them that he is hesitant to allow Bahamians to enter the US after Hurricane Dorian because the island is full of "bad gang members". Also during that press conference, the president repeatedly said that Barack Obama had given him a present by leaving judicial vacancies, and repeatedly insisted that pundits had misanalysed the 2018 election results — in which Republicans lost control of the House — because his party had retained control of the Senate in an election year that favoured the GOP.
Speaking of Hurricane Dorian, Mr Trump's use of a sharpie to modify a hurricane projection map has kept in the news, with reports indicating that employees of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration had been threatened by the Commerce Department if they contradicted the commander-in-chief when he claimed that the storm was set to smash into Alabama.
As Mr Trump returns to campaign mode once again, the president has also faced a burgeoning field of Republican challengers to him in 2020, prompting him to declare that he would not join a debate stage with any of them.
Mr Trump also engaged in a fight with Chrissy Teigen and her husband, John Legend, who called the president a "p**** a** b****".
Trump protests: President visits Texas and Ohio after mass shootings
Show all 31And, Mr Trump has also been accused of treating foreign policy "like a gameshow", after talks with the Taliban broke down before they even started at Camp David.
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The US Air Force (USAF) is conducting a review of its overnight accommodation practices after it emerged aircrews had been billeted at Donald Trump’s golf resorts in Scotland.
The matter raises fresh conflict of interest concerns a week after vice president Mike Pence was criticised for doing the same on his diplomatic mission to Ireland and after Trump was attacked for proposing holding the next G7 summit of world leaders at his Doral hotel in Miami, Florida.
Politico reported on Friday that a C-17 crew stayed at Trump's Turnberry course earlier this month during a refuelling stop, just as the veep was being roundly mocked for staying at his boss's property in Doonbeg, flying back and forth to Dublin at considerable personal inconvenience.
Air Force brigadier general Ed Thomas told Politico that “initial reviews indicate that aircrew transiting through Scotland adhered to all guidance and procedures."
He agreed that “lodging at higher-end accommodations, even if within government rates, might be allowable but not advisable. Therefore, we are reviewing all associated guidance."
“Even when USAF aircrews follow all directives and guidance, we must still be considerate of perceptions of not being good stewards of taxpayer funds that might be created through the appearance of aircrew staying at such locations," he added.
Lieutenant general Jon Thomas, deputy commander of the Air Mobility Command, responsible for transportation logistics, commented: "What the chief is getting at is just because you can, we should also be asking ourselves the question about should."
"And the question there is, as our crews are following all guidance and directives we also have to be sensitive to the possible perceptions that might be created on where they may stay."
The president capped a memorable weekend on Twitter by attacking “boring musician” John Legend and his “filthy mouthed wife” Chrissy Teigen over criminal justice reform.
Having already praised right-wing columnist Katie Hopkins and slammed CNN, The New York Times and two “nasty lightweight reporters” from The Washington Post - and boasted of cancelling planned talks with the Taliban at Camp David - the president launched into an extraordinary diatribe against the R&B star and his model spouse.
Teigen's response was everything you dared hope it might be.
Beat that, Debra Messing.
Tom Embury-Dennis reports.
In addition to repeatedly attacking the free press by dangerously singling out specific journalists...
...Trump tweeted several eccentric memes in an attempt to draw a line (with a big black Sharpie) under the Alabama controversy of last week, in which he raged and raged for days at press mockery of his claim Hurricane Dorian might come as far inland as the aforementioned southern state.
There was CNN crashing and burning...
...and this, my personal favourite, involving a cat, a lazer pen and the Benny Hill theme (AKA "Yakety Sax" by Boots Randolph).
This man is the Leader of the Free World, you will recall.
Regarding the Taliban, the president made the astonishing announcement on Saturday that he had intended to host the Islamist terror group behind 9/11 (the 18th anniversary of which takes place on Wednesday) at his country retreat in Maryland but cancelled when he learned the extremists had taken credit for the killing of 12 people in Kabul, one of whom was a US soldier.
Among those condemning the secret meeting was Republican congressman Adam Kinzinger and 2020 Democratic presidential contender Amy Klobuchar, who accused Trump of running foreign policy "like a game show".
Secretary of state Mike Pompeo was duly hauled over the coals when he appeared on the Sunday talk shows to front up for his boss.
A Taliban spokesman has since said the decision to abandon the peace talks "will harm America more than anyone else".
Vincent Wood has the latest - it now appears Trump's plan to take credit and use the negotiations as the centrepiece for his re-election campaign was really to blame for their falling apart.
This vintage Trump tweet from 2012 has not aged well, incidentally.
Greg Evans has more for Indy100.
A couple of other curious titbits from Trump's weekend Twitter blast.
Here he is shamelessly plugging Fox News anchor Jeanine Piro's new book in thanks for her attack on ex-FBI director James Comey:
Here's a video he retweeted of first daughter Ivanka Trump dancing in Paraguay:
And here he is trailing his latest "Keep America Great" rally in Fayetteville, North Carolina, this evening:
As the Bahamas struggles to come to terms with the aftermath of the devastation wrought by Hurricane Dorian, Miami reporter Brian Entin says the administration is turning back refugees heading to Florida from the stricken Caribbean island.
On Saturday, Trump humblebragged about his intervention in the tragedy, saying that, without him, the death toll - 43 at last count, with hundreds more still missing - would have been much higher.
Dorian was last heard from battering eastern Canada with 80mph winds.
Here's Colin Drury's report.
Republican ex-South Carolina governor Mark Sanford has finally made up his mind and confirmed his intention to run against Trump in 2020.
“I am here to tell you now that I am going to get in,” Sanford said in an interview on Fox News Sunday. “I think we need to have a conversation on what it means to be a Republican... I think that as the Republican Party, we have lost our way.”
Here's Lily Puckett's report.
Trump's campaign manager Brad Parscale says the president's family will prove itself "a dynasty that lasts for decades".
What an absolutely stomach-churning thought.
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