Trump news – live: President contradicts government meteorologists over hurricane as he slumps to double-digit poll deficits against all four major 2020 rivals

Donald Trump has attacked the media for reporting on his incorrect warning that Alabama could be hit by Hurricane Dorian, despite his message forcing the US government's own National Weather Service to issue a denial to avert mass panic.

A new Quinnipiac University poll has meanwhile found Mr Trump lagging behind the leading Democratic 2020 contenders Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and Kamala Harris by 16 percent, 14 per cent, 12 per cent and 11 per cent respectively.


The president will also face further investigation from the House Judiciary Committee over his role in the hush-money payments made on his behalf to porn star Stormy Daniels and Playboy model Karen McDougal over their alleged affairs with the president before he took office.


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KEY POINTS

Trump contradicts his own meteorologists over hurricane
President lags behind four leading Democrats in new 2020 poll
House Judiciary Committee planning hush-money hearings
Biden says Trump has 'no intestinal fortitude' to deal with gun violenceShow latest update
7 minutes ago
Trump has been on Twitter attacking both China and the EU over trade, accusing them of "ripping off" the US in the past and warning of a return to such practices should anyone else win the White House in 2020.

Joe Sommerlad
3 September 2019 14:44
22 minutes ago
Attorney general William Barr's Justice Department has drafted new legislation to expedite the death penalty for mass shooters.

The provision will be included in a larger White House package designed to address recent incidents of gun violence, according to Marc Short, chief of staff to veep Mike Pence, who is travelling with his boss in Ireland today.

The move comes in the wake of the Odessa killings in Texas over the weekend, which followed the brace of devastating shooting sprees in El Paso and in Dayton, Ohio, on 3 August, with the White House facing pressure to act on gun control amid suspicion the president has lost his appetite for the inevitable fight with the all-powerful National Rifle Association.

On Sunday, Trump said his administration would seek “to identify severely disturbed individuals and disrupt their plans before they strike.”

“This includes strong measures to keep weapons out of the hands of dangerous and deranged individuals, and substantial reforms to our nation’s broken mental health system,” Trump said.

Joe Sommerlad
3 September 2019 13:28
42 minutes ago
The Trump administration announced on Monday it would reconsider its controversial decision to force immigrants facing life-threatening health crises to return to their home countries, an abrupt move last month that generated public outrage and was roundly condemned by the medical establishment.

On 7 August, the US Citizenship and Immigration Services, without public notice, eliminated a “deferred action” program that had allowed immigrants to avoid deportation while they or their relatives were undergoing lifesaving medical treatment.

The agency, part of the Department of Homeland Security, had sent letters informing those who had asked for a renewal, which the immigrants must make every two years, that it was no longer entertaining such requests. The letters said the immigrants must leave the country within 33 days or face deportation.



Trump administration U-turns on decision to deport migrants with life-threatening health issues

Joe Sommerlad
3 September 2019 13:20
1 hour ago
Here's the latest on Dorian.


You can follow live updates as the storm approaches the Eastern Seaboard via our liveblog below with Chris Riotta.



Mass evacuations underway in Florida and Georgia as Hurricane Dorian approaches US coast - follow live

Joe Sommerlad
3 September 2019 13:21
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1 hour ago
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has posted an old endorsement from Trump on his Instagram today ahead of the upcoming legislative election in two weeks.

It's from 2013 - couldn't the Donald be bothered to record a new message for his dear friend?


Joe Sommerlad
3 September 2019 13:22
1 hour ago
Here's more on Trump's griping last night about the media coverage of his Alabama gaffe, which saw him contradict his own government meterologists.

Tom Embury-Dennis reports.



Trump insists meteorologists are wrong and he is right about Hurricane Dorian

Joe Sommerlad
3 September 2019 13:12
2 hours ago
CNN's New Day has compiled a helpful montage of the number of times Trump has criticised others for taking time out to play golf. It speaks for itself.


Joe Sommerlad
3 September 2019 11:59
2 hours ago
Trump was due to be in Denmark yesterday and today for the state visit he cancelled after falling out with the Danes over their refusal to consider selling him Greenland.

Undeterred, protesters turned out anyway in Copenhagen to mock him and stand against the rhetoric of his administration.


(Niels Christian Vilmann/EPA)

Joe Sommerlad
3 September 2019 11:55
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2 hours ago
One man with a much more impassioned response to the weekend's tragedy in Odessa was Texan 2020 contender Beto O'Rourke.


His remark that the problem of gun violence in America is "f***ed up" has already been turned into an emotive new campaign T-shirt.


Joe Sommerlad
3 September 2019 11:20
3 hours ago
Democratic presidential front-runner Joe Biden said on Monday that Trump has “no intestinal fortitude” to deal with gun violence in the aftermath of the latest vicious mass shooting in Odessa, Texas, over the weekend, which saw seven people killed and 22 injured.

“I’ve seen nothing. The president has no intestinal fortitude to deal with this,” Biden told reporters while attending Labor Day picnic in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. “He knows better. His instinct was to say, 'Yeah, we're going to do something on background checks.' What’s he doing? Come on. This is disgraceful. This is disgraceful what’s happening.”

Biden added that he sees "no compromise” with Republicans on the issue in DC and “no possible solution to the gun issue until next fall."

“None on this,” he added. "This is one we have to just push, push and push. And the fact of the matter is I think it's going to result in seeing some of them defeated.”

Joe Sommerlad
3 September 2019 11:20
3 hours ago
China has insisted it is not the source of the fentanyl that is killing Americans, contrary to Trump's recent tweets blaming China for the drug deaths.

At a briefing for the National Narcotics Control Commission, China reiterated that it is making extensive efforts toward controlling the synthetic opioid and should not be labelled the main origin of the US's fentanyl.

The drug often comes through the mail or across the Mexico border. It can be stronger and more lethal than heroin and is responsible for tens of thousands of American drugs deaths each year.

Amid the latest round of tariff increases between the two countries last month, Trump blasted China in a Twitter thread in which he vowed to order all postal carriers to "SEARCH FOR & REFUSE all deliveries of fentanyl from China (or anywhere else!)."

"President Xi said this would stop - it didn't," Trump added, referring to Chinese leader Xi Jinping.



"What Trump said is completely groundless and untrue," Liu Yuejin, the narcotics commission's vice commissioner, told reporters on Tuesday.

In a sweeping change in May, China began regulating all fentanyl-related drugs as a class of controlled substances with the aim of curbing illegal drug trafficking. No fentanyl smuggling cases have been discovered between the US and China since the new measures were implemented, Liu said.

Nevertheless, law enforcement officials in Virginia said last week that China was linked to a seizure of enough cheap fentanyl to kill 14 million people. One of the 39 people charged in the multi-state drug ring is accused of ordering fentanyl from a vendor in Shanghai.

"The illicit fentanyl that's coming in, the vast majority is from China and a lot of it is coming in through the mails," G Zachary Terwilliger, the US attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, said at a news conference.

Liu noted on Tuesday that US fentanyl deaths continue to rise despite increasingly strict controls on the Chinese side, which he said was an indication that the drugs were not coming from China.

He also accused "a few politicians" in the US of misleading the American public on China's work to help the US with its opioid crisis.
Chinese and US authorities are working together to handle drug crimes, he said, adding that co-operation on fentanyl has no bearing on ongoing trade negotiations between the two countries.

Trump complained about China's alleged inaction on fentanyl as part of a four-tweet thread last month accusing China of stealing US intellectual property and ordering American companies to "immediately start looking for an alternative to China".

AP

Joe Sommerlad
3 September 2019 11:13
3 hours ago
Trump is facing mounting criticism from US intelligence officials for his refusal to take seriously North Korea's persistent missile tests.



North Korea tests 18 ballistic missiles. Trump says it's 'very standard'

Joe Sommerlad
3 September 2019 10:56
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4 hours ago
Trump of course ducked out of a trip to Poland to observe Second World War commemorations over the weekend, sending vice president Mike Pence in his stead while he golfed and checked his phone monitored the hurricane relief effort.

Pence has since moved on to Ireland, where he will meet with taoiseach Leo Varadkar and president Michael D Higgins on Tuesday and "reconnect with his Irish roots".

This will involve attending meetings in Dublin while staying at Trump's golf resort in Doonbeg on the Atlantic coast, shuttling back and forth across the country via Shannon Airport, all in order to please his boss.


The trip has also sparked a spat between White House spokesman Judd Deereand Chasten Buttigieg, husband of 2020 Democratic candidate Pete Buttigieg, over Pence's opposition to gay marriage as a Christian, with Deere suggesting that Pence lunching with Varadkar and his partner Matthew Barrettis sufficient proof he is not homophobic.


Here's Tom Embury-Dennis's report.



Mike Pence staying at Trump golf resort in Ireland despite all meetings happening on other side of country

Joe Sommerlad
3 September 2019 10:21
4 hours ago
Andrew Buncombe has the latest on Dorian below.



Five killed in Bahamas by Dorian as Donald Trump plays golf

Joe Sommerlad
3 September 2019 10:04
4 hours ago
Having already called Trump "the global poster-boy for white nationalism" in an Observer comment piece over the weekend, London mayor Sadiq Khan has poured more fuel on the flames of his feud with the president by laughing at him for “dealing with a hurricane out on the golf course” in conversation with Politico.

Trump did precisely that yesterday, setting out for his golf resort in Virginia on Labor Day (the 227th day he has done so since his inauguration), as Hurricane Dorian battered the Bahamas with wind, rain and pounding waves, leaving at least five dead.

The persident did take time out to attack ABC News for reporting on his incorrect warning that Alabama could also be hit by the storm, despite the story being covered by pretty much everyone else too and his message forcing the National Weather Service to issue a denial in order to avert mass panic.



Trump did send out more than 122 tweets about Dorian over the weekend, primarily retweets from the Miami-based National Hurricane Center, which certainly helped get the word out but is that really the same as leadership?



Trump fires off 122 Hurricane Dorian tweets after hours of silence on a golf course

Joe Sommerlad
3 September 2019 10:02
4 hours ago
A new Quinnipiac University poll has meanwhile found Trump lagging behind the leading Democratic 2020 contenders Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and Kamala Harris by 16 percent, 14 per cent, 12 per cent and 11 per cent respectively.

Bad news for the "chosen one".


Joe Sommerlad
3 September 2019 09:48
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5 hours ago
Donald Trump is to face further investigation from the House Judiciary Committee over his role in the hush-money payments made on his behalf to porn star Stormy Daniels and Playboy model Karen McDougal over their alleged affairs with the president before he took office.

As Congress returns from its summer recess this week, the Democratic-led panel will begin calling witnesses to testify who have knowledge, The Washington Post reports.


While a federal investigation carried out into the campaign finance violations committed by Trump’s now-jailed former personal attorney Michael Cohen is over, the House committee believes there is still merit in pursuing the exact nature of the president's role in the payments.

The hearings could be held as early as October, The Post states.

“The fingerprints are all over this one - it’s not like a big mystery,” said Democratic congressman and committee member Jamie Raskin.

“As with the evidence of presidential obstruction of justice [compiled in the Mueller report], the conclusion seems inescapable: that [Trump] would have been tried had he been anybody else. And now it’s left to Congress again to figure out what to do with the lawbreaking and apparent impunity of the president.”

As part of the congressional inquiry, Democrats are reportedly considering calling the chairman and CEO of American Media David Pecker as a potential witness. His title, The National Inquirer, admitted making a payment to McDougal to keep her silent about her alleged affair with Trump.

The president's new personal attorney, Jay Sekulow, inists Trump was not involved in committing any campaign violations.



Democrats plan inquiry into Trump's alleged plot to silence two women with hush money

Joe Sommerlad
3 September 2019 13:03
5 hours ago
Hello and welcome to The Independent's rolling coverage of the Donald Trump administration.