Trump 'seriously' considering ending birthright citizenship, as he doubles down on antisemitic comments and Denmark row
The president called himself "the chosen one" today
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Donald Trump had a remarkable day of outbursts. Speaking to reporters on the White House lawn, he doubled down on his antisemitic remarks to claim that Jewish Americans who vote for Democrats are betraying Israel, during an impromptu press conference on the White House lawn in which he also claimed that the victims of mass shootings "love" him. He also referred to himself as "the chosen one," while talking about a trade deal.
The comments came after he lashed out on Twitter that morning against the “LameStream Media”, the Federal Reserve and its chairman Jerome Powell as fears the US is sliding into recession continue and his disapproval rating hits 54 per cent in a new CNN poll.
The president also tweeted lavish praise of himself from an evangelical Fox and Friends pundit insisting Israeli Jews “love him like he is the second coming of God”.
In news away from the president's Internet presence, his administration today moved forward with a new regulation that would allow the government to detain migrant families indefinitely. The rule is expected to be challenged immediately.
He also told reporters that he's "seriously considering" ending birthright citizenship.
Mr Trump has also raised eyebrows by backing out of a trip to Denmark, supposedly because they would not sell him Greenland. Mr Trump called the prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, of that country "nasty" for outright rejecting the notion that the US could buy the country.
He also assured the National Rifle Association that universal background checks are off the table in gun control talks during a phone call with the NRA's president. Students from Parkland, meanwhile, have released a comprehensive plan for gun control in America.
Later, in Kentucky, the president joked that he should award himself the Medal of Honour, while continuing his consistent claims that America was weak before him in a speech honouring US veterans. He also referenced a Johnson & Johnson nasal spray that can prevent suicide. He told the veterans that he believes this new drug should be given to them for free.
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In a similarly extraordinary vein, here's Elizabeth Warren encountering her own doppleganger on the campaign trail in Minnesota yesterday.
This is interesting. Trump's guest list of world leaders paying court to him at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue reveals him to be favouring the heads of smaller countries over the US's traditional allies.
Speaking of foreign policy, another of Trump's pronouncements yesterday was that his government is talking to "various representatives" of Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro, who likewise confirmed that "secret" discussions had been taking place.
In a nationally broadcast appearance hours after Trump spoke, Maduro said that talks had long been underway between high officials in his government and the US administration.
"We've had secret meetings in secret places with secret people that nobody knows," Maduro said, adding that all talks had been carried out under his "direct" authorisation. "Sure there's been contact and we'll continue having contact."
The AP reported over the weekend that the US has made secret contact with socialist party boss Diosdado Cabello as close allies of Maduro's inner circle seek guarantees they won't face prosecution for alleged abuses and crimes if they cede to growing demands to remove him.
The socialist leader said that he's ready to meet with Trump himself to normalise relations, an offer he's made before.
Trump, however, refused to say on Tuesday whether such dialogue is being conducted with Cabello, considered the nation's second most powerful politician after Maduro.
"We're talking to various representatives of Venezuela," Trump responded when a reporter asked him whether the White House is talking to Cabello. "I don't want to say who, but we are talking at a very high level."
The US considers opposition leader Juan Guaido to be the legitimate president of the country.
An administration official told the AP the goal is not to prop up Cabello or pave the way for him to substitute Maduro, but to ratchet up pressure on the regime by contributing to the knife fight the US believes is taking place behind the scenes among competing circles of power within the ruling party.
At a press conference Monday in Caracas, Cabello shied away from discussing any details of the meeting and at one point likened it to "a lie, a manipulation." But he also said he has long stood welcome to talk to anyone, so long as any discussions take place with Maduro's approval.
Talks sponsored by Norway between the opposition and government have been slow moving and were suspended this month by Maduro.
Trump repeated on Tuesday that his government is helping Venezuela "as much as we can" so that the country resolves its political and financial crises, which he attributed to socialism.
"Fifteen years ago it was one of the wealthiest countries. Now it's one of the poorest countries," he said.
The UN estimates that at least four million Venezuelans have left their country because of hyperinflation and severe shortages of food and medicine.
AP
Good grief. Trump is retweeting lavish praise from conservative author Wayne Allyn Root, who told Fox and Friends the Jews of Israel love the US president "like he is the second coming of god... But American Jews don't know him or like him".
Some very quick work here.
He's now offering a quote from the president of the National Border Patrol Council as though it were a pithy epigram from Mark Twain or HL Mencken.
He's now back to bashing Michigan congressman Rashida Tlaib, his new pantomime villain.
More "wisdom" from Fox as he continues to set up Fed chairman Jerome Powell for a fall on the economy.
Trump has reportedly misstated the value and profitability of his Turnberry and Abderdeen golf courses in Scotland by $165m (£136m), possibly violating federal laws punishable by up to five years in jail, according to The Huffington Post.
US financial disclosure statements filed on the president's behalf last year with the US Office of Government Ethics suggested the two sites were each worth in excess of $50m (£41m). At the same time, balance sheets submitted to Companies House in the UK showed the combined debt for the two properties exceeded their assets by £47.9m ($64.8m as of 31 December 2017).
His 2018 US disclosure also claims those two resorts earned him “income” of $23.8m (£19.6m), while his filings with the Companies House office in Edinburgh for the same period showed the clubs had actually lost £4.6m ($6.3m).
The American disclosure statement also fails to mention $199.5m (£164.5m) in loans Trump made to those resorts.
Knowingly providing false or incomplete information on that form is a violation of the Ethics in Government Act, punishable by up to one year in jail. Signing the form attesting to the untrue information constitutes making a false statement, punishable by up to five years in prison.
“The numbers don’t appear to add up,” said Virginia Canter, an ethics law expert with Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.
"The two filings cannot and should not be compared," insists Trump Organization chief legal officer Alan Garten insists.
The House Ways and Means Committee has recieved "credible allegations" from a whistleblower on potentially wrongful interference in the IRS's presidential audit process, lawyers for the panel told a federal court on Tuesday, according to Politico.
The disclosure came in a filing to Judge Carl Nichols asking him to order the Treasury secretary Steve Mnuchin to turn over Trump's tax returns to committee chairman Richard Neal.
Their motion included an 8 August letter by Neal to Mnuchin saying that the Ways and Means Committee had received an “unsolicited communication” on 29 July “from a Federal employee setting forth credible allegations of ‘evidence of possible misconduct’ - specifically, potential ‘inappropriate efforts to influence’ the mandatory audit program.”
A US Health and Human Services directive issued on 5 August warned mental health workers not to post anything on social media relating to gun violence or mass shootings without prior approval for fear of contradicting the president's stance on the fallout from the massacres in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio.
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