Donald Trump promises tanks for Fourth of July parade
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Donald Trump is facing renewed criticism over his “Salute to America” for the Fourth of July, accused of “hijacking the celebration and twisting it into a taxpayer-funded, partisan political rally that’s more about promoting a Trumpian cult of personality” by Democratic congresswoman Betty McCollum.
The president has meanwhile been busy promoting his fireworks suppliers from his official account in an apparent abuse of power as Abrams tanks were spotted arriving in Washington, DC.
He has also hit out at the US Supreme Court on Twitter over its decision to block a controversial citizenship question being added to the 2020 census, calling on his Commerce and Justice departments to do “whatever is necessary” to get the amendment passed, adding: “USA! USA! USA!”
Monday was the deadline to start printing the 600 million documents that will be mailed to 130 million households for next April’s census count.
For months, the Trump administration had argued that the courts needed to decide quickly whether the citizenship question could be added to the 2020 census because of the looming deadline.
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“I think it’s very important to find out if somebody is a citizen as opposed to an illegal,” Mr Trump told reporters Monday.
“There’s a big difference to me between being a citizen of the United States and being an illegal," he added.
The US Supreme Court ruled last week that the question couldn’t be added for now.
Mr Trump tweeted that he had asked lawyers if the count can be delayed until the court can reevaluate the matter.
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Also on social media, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has entered a war of words with White House counsellor Kellyanne Conway after the latter accused her of lying about the condition of migrant detention centres in Texas.
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A part-time professor at the University of California, Los Angeles has been found guilty in a smuggling scheme involving computer chips with radar and electronic warfare applications.
Yi-Chi Shih, a 64-year-old electrical engineer based in California, was found guilty of all 18 charges filed against him after the FBI arrested him in January 2018 for illegally sending the microchips to China.
Federal prosecutors said he and his associate Kiet Ahn conspired to have a US company make special high-speed computer chips that were illegally exported to a Chinese company connected to Shih.
Top Democrats are now calling on major reforms at US Customs and Border Protection, demanding the ousting of Acting CBP Commissioner Morgan and others in order to "begin reining in toxic culture at border patrol agency" -
Nobody seems absolutely sure of what may come next after the president vowed to push forward with his Census citizenship demands, but it seems Republican leadership may have to make a collective decision sooner rather than later on the issue -
Donald Trump has lambasted Democrats in a series of tweets that sought to contradict statements released by a Congressional delegation that toured migrant detention centres earlier this week -
Kamala Harris has hit Donald Trump where it hurts during a campaign event in Iowa, calling the president a "predator" and saying she's "prepared to prosecute the case" against him -
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