Donald Trump brags out unemployment figures during African American History Month event
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House Democrats have filed their “resolution of disapproval” challenging Donald Trump‘s decision to call a national emergency in order to build a wall on the US southern border with Mexico.
While the president has claimed there is a "crisis" of illegal immigration in the United States, Democrats have questioned his motives — and noted that Mr Trump himself has suggested that he did not need to declare the emergency.
The president on Thursday touted the contributions of African Americans during an event to honour Black History Month.
Meanwhile Ahmed Ali Muthana, the father of Alabama Isis bride Hoda Muthana, announced he is suing the administration for its “unlawful attempt” to rescind her citizenship and block a return to the US. Lawyers have toldThe Independent that an executive effort to revoke citizenship amounts to the act of an "authoritarian".
In Syria, the US has rowed back on its decision for a full withdrawal of troops following the apparent defeat of the Islamist militants and will now leave around 200 soldiers behind to safeguard the region.
Trump's inner circle: Meet the members of the US president's cabinet
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Mr Trump on Friday weighed in on several issues, including the charges brought against his friend and billionaire owner of the New England Patriots Robert Kraft over prostitution allegations.
He called those charges "shocking", but noted that Mr Kraft had denied the charges against him.
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The president also suggested that he might extend a deadline for trade negotiations with China, saying that the negotiators have been having success.
Next week, Mr Trump is scheduled to travel to Vietnam for a meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, where he and his administration say that they hope he can build on the previous summit with Mr Kim last year in Singapore.
The president, during earlier remarks in the Oval Office, weighed in on the decision in North Carolina to hold a new election amid evidence of vote tampering.
"I condemn any election fraud...whether Democrats or Republicans. I condemn all of it and that includes North Carolina," Mr Trump said, before indicating that he has been upset with recent vote recounts in states like Florida.
Here is Donald Trump discussing the decision by Amazon not to build part of its second headquarters in New York City, where the president grew up.
The deal was cancelled this month after local politicians and activists — including freshman Representative Alexandria Ocasio Cortez — raised concerns that the deal would price out long-term residents of the Queens neighbourhood chosen, damage labour rights in the city, and amount to a big taxpayer giveaway to one of the biggest companies in the world.
Donald Trump says that he is willing to extend a deadline for trade negotiations with China if necessary.
"Well, I set the deadline of March first and, right now, it's at 10 per cent," Mr Trump said during remarks in the Oval Office. "And I think that if — and you could tell this to President Xi [Jinping] — that if I see progress being made, substantial progress being made, it would not be inappropriate to extend that deadline, keep it at 10 per cent instead of raising it to 25 per cent. And I would be inclined to doing that."
"I haven't even spoken to my people about it, most people assume it'll just kick in automatically to 25 per cent, but I'm the one that said it and I think it was a reasonable period of time. But we're covering things that we didn't even know we would be covering. We're going very deep into the trade and covering items that a lot of people wanted to cover and nobody thought we would ever get to," Mr Trump said, adding, "But we have a one time shot at making a great deal for both countries and so we are — we are going to get it. ... It depends on where we are, if we're doing well ... if we're doing very well on the negotiations, I could see extending that."
Here's a bit more from Donald Trump's Oval Office remarks this afternoon.
When asked about Labor Secretary Alex Acosta's handling of the Jeffrey Epstein case while he was an attorney in Florida, Mr Trump demurred a tad.
"I really don't know too much about it," Mr Trump said of the case. "I know he's done a great job as labor secretary and that seems like a long time ago, but I know he's been a fantastic labor secretary. That's all I can really tell you about it. That's all I know."
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