Trump news: President sides with 'great one' Boris Johnson, after attacking Puerto Rico mayor as Storm Dorian approaches

Despite Trump's lobbying efforts on behalf of Vladimir Putin at the G7, where he pressed for Russia to be allowed back into the collective, relations between the Washington and Moscow remain strained.

Two US senators - Republican Ron Johnson of Wisconsin and Democrat Chris Murphy of Connecticut - have been denied visas to visit the country as part of a congressional trip, according to CNN. The move comes shortly after Israel stopped Muslim Democratic congresswomen Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib from entering, apparently after Trump leant on prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu to embarrass them.

"Unfortunately, the Russian government is further isolating their country by blocking our visit and several others in recent months." Murphy said in a statement.

"With the collapse of recent arms control agreements and significant domestic opposition to Vladimir Putin's authoritarian rule, this is potentially a perilous moment for our two nations' fragile relationship, and it's a shame that Russia isn't interested in dialogue."

Johnson was also annoyed.

"Working with [outgoing] Ambassador [Jon] Huntsman, I had hoped direct dialogue with Russian parliamentarians could help set the stage for better future relations between our two nations. Unfortunately, Russian officials continue to play diplomatic games with this sincere effort and have denied me entrance to Russia," he said.

Johnson called it a "petty affront" but vowed to "continue to advocate a strong and resolute response to Russian aggression - and frank dialogue when possible."

A third senator, Republican Mike Lee of Utah, was not denied a visa and will press ahead with the trip. Murphy will instead fly to Germany where he will meet up with Johnson for trips to Kosovo, Serbia and Ukraine.

The president's suggestion that next year's G7 meeting take place at his Trump National Doral Miami resort in Florida (bedbugs permitting) has reawakened interest in the question of his profiteering from his stint in the Oval Office.

That tweet last night about Fox anchor Jeanine Pirro's new book was unquestionably another example of the president abusing his position to do a favour for a Republican pal.

But that's nothing compared to the news attorney general William Barr is planning a Christmas party at the Trump International Hotel in downtown DC.

The festive bash is not an official Justice Department celebration and the $30,000 (£24,570) cost will come from Barr's own pocket, his office told The Washington Post, stressing that the AG had checked ethics guidelines before relocating there from the Willard Hotel after the resort double-booked in error.

"On the letter of the law, this isn't a violation, however it doesn't look good. That's not nothing when we're talking about the chief law enforcement officer of the country and his private activity," Liz Hempowicz, the director of public policy watchdog the Project on Government Oversight, told CNN.

"It contributes to this idea that you have to be putting money into an entity that will benefit the president - if not today, then down the road - personally to stay in his good graces." 

It's worth noting that the president has an extremely light schedule for the second day in a row.

Lunch with veep Mike Pence was all he had on the books yesterday and today he's dining with secretary of the interior David Bernhardt and sitting through an intelligence briefing, which could well just mean a nap.

There will be tweets.

Here's the president with more Bret Stephens bashing over Bedbuggate.

A timely question from CNN's John Berman.

Chris Baynes reports.

Democratic congresswoman Ilhan Omar has hit back at the Alabama Republican Party after it attempted to have her booted off Capitol Hill.

The Alabama GOP were supporting a resolution calling for the outspoken Minnesota representative to be ousted and urged the state's congressional delegation to expel her for what they deemed to be "antisemitic" language after she criticised the influence of Israeli lobbyists in DC, a stance that has seen her viciously attacked by Trump and his alt-right fanbase and banned from entering Israel by the country's prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.

Responding to The Hill's story about the campaign, Omar detailed precisely how she was elected to Congress before criticising them for choosing alleged child molester Roy Moore as nominee for state senator in 2017, a battle he ultimately lost to Democrat Doug Jones.

Here's Greg Evans with the full story.

Democratic 2020 contender Joe Biden said on the campaign trail yesterday that racism in America is an institutional "white man's problem visited on people of colour," arguing that the way to attack the issue is to defeat Trump and hold him responsible for deepening the nation's racial divide. 

Taking aim at incendiary racial appeals by Trump, Biden said in an interview with a small group of reporters on Tuesday that a president's words can "appeal to the worst damn instincts of human nature," just as they can move markets or take a nation into war. 

Biden is leading his Democratic challengers for the presidential nomination in almost all polls, largely because of the support of black voters. He has made appealing to them central to his candidacy and vowed to make maximising black and Latino turnout an "overwhelming focus" of his effort. The interview, more than an hour long, focused largely on racial issues. 

"White folks are the reason we have institutional racism," Biden said. "There has always been racism in America. White supremacists have always existed, they still exist." He added later that in his administration, it would "not be tolerated." 

By highlighting the nation's racial tensions and placing blame on Trump, Biden is showing that he, too, is willing to make race a core campaign issue, but from the opposite perspective of the Republican president. Turnout and enthusiasm among black voters will be critical for the Democratic nominee, notably to try to reclaim states like Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin. He also emphasised a crossover appeal to both black voters and non-college-educated white voters. 

To accentuate his appeal to black voters, Biden said that he will advertise in black publications and engage with cultural institutions like the black church, black fraternities and sororities and historically black colleges. 

"The bad news is I have a long record. The good news is I have a long record," Biden said when asked about his enduring support among black voters. "People know me - at least they think they know me. I think after all this time, I think they have a sense of what my character is, who I am." 

"I've never, ever, ever in my entire life been in a circumstance where I've ever felt uncomfortable being in the black community," he added, suggesting that his familiarity was not matched by many of his competitors for the 2020 nomination. 

While he did not specify to whom he was referring, Biden said he believes there are "assertions and assumptions" made about black voters that he believes are inaccurate, and he said that "a lot of people haven't spent much time in the community." 

Without mentioning her by name, Biden also referenced California senator Kamala Harris's attack on him during the first presidential debate on the issue of busing as a solution to school desegregation. 

"All I know is I don't think anybody in the community thinks I am - what's the phrase?" Biden asked, paraphrasing Harris' comment that "I know you're not a racist, Joe." 

"I don't think anyone thinks that about me," Biden said. 

Biden was also asked whether he would select a woman or person of colour as his running mate should he become the nominee. He said that while he would "preferably" do so, he is ultimately seeking a partner on the ticket who is "simpatico with what I stand for and what I want to get done." 

"Whomever I pick would be preferably someone who was of color and who was of a different gender, but I'm not making that commitment until I know that the person I'm dealing with I can completely, thoroughly trust, is authentic, and is on the same page." 

Looking ahead to the next Democratic debate in Houston in September, he said that he understands why he has a target on his back but cautioned that Democrats "shouldn't be forming a circular firing squad and shooting" because it only helps Trump. 

Trump's re-election campaign dismissed Biden's accusation that Trump had inflamed racial tensions in the country. 

"Having moved on from the Russia Hoax, Democrats are now employing the oldest play in the Democrat playbook: falsely accusing their opponent of racism, extending it even to the President's supporters. Calling half the country racist is not a winning strategy," said Tim Murtaugh, the Trump campaign's communications director. 

Biden also said that the Democratic field would narrow and allow for more meaningful exchanges. In the current crowded field, he said it's difficult to have any meaningful debate at all, calling it a "non-debate debate." 

Biden, who has been attacked most forcefully by Harris, said that he believed "those who made the most direct attacks on one another haven't really benefited much by it at the end of the day." 

AP

Trump may insist he's on friendly terms with North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un (and imagines Melania is too) and regularly expresses faith that Washington and Pyongyang will resume nuclear talks soon but the lad himself appears to be comprehensively reneging on his promises to the president.

Adam Withnall has the latest.

Trump's former secretary of defence Jim Mattis has been speaking up in the pages of The Wall Street Journal, offering a thinly veiled rebuke to the foreign policy shambles his old boss has orchestrated.

In the last hour, Trump has gotten mighty sarcastic about the backseat driving he's been subjected to by economists over his trade war...

...and attempted to reassure the public on Storm Dorian while simulatenously having another dig at Puerto Rico's "incompetent" San Juan mayor Carmen Yulin Cruz.

It would be easier to take him at his word on the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) if he hadn't just carved a fat slice out of their budget to pay for his "zero tolerance" border policies.

This video of Trump apparently summoning the first lady by tapping his thigh is doing the rounds on Twitter.

The clip is taken from the president's visit to Dayton, Ohio, three weeks ago to pay his respects to the community after nine people were killed in a mass shooting.

Whether that's quite what happened is open to question but it's not a good look for the man who landed the world with the phrase: "Grab 'em by the p****."

Greg Evans digs down into it.