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 federal judge has blocked an order issued by the Trump administrationthat would have kept thousands of migrants detained for an indefinite period while they waited for a resolution to requests for asylum in the United States.
Judge Marsha Pechman of the US district court in Washington DC, said in her court ruling that the order, which would have seen a significant number of migrants seeking asylum denied a bail hearing, was unconstitutional.
The heat surrounding the 2020 presidential race has been dialled up, after it was revealed Donald Trump’s reelection campaign has raised almost 25 per cent more than money than Barack Obama had at this stage.
Reports detailing the fundraising efforts of various candidates for the second financial quarter, show Mr Trump and the Republicans raised a total of $105m. When Mr Obama ran for reelection in 2011 and 2012, he and the Democrats had collected $85m at this point.
“We’re still over a year from election day and we’re already SHATTERING expectations. We just raised a RECORD BREAKING $105 MILLION last quarter – a massive fundraising achievement that no 2020 Democrat can even try to match,” the president’s 2020 campaign manager, Brad Parscale, said in an email to supporters.
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