Trump news: President rages over impeachment hearing, escalates Iran tensions on Twitter and names ASAP Rocky 'hostage negotiator' as national security chief

Follow the latest updates from Washington, as it happened

Donald Trump accused of lying after claiming that Latinos also want the wall

Donald Trump — visiting California for fundraisers and a trip to his US-Mexico border wall – has lashed out at the House Judiciary Committee's impeachment hearings against him, calling them “the greatest political scam in US history!” at the start of a chaotic day on Twitter.

The president also announced he would be increasing sanctions on Iran and named Robert O’Brien as his new national security adviser to replace John Bolton, the State Department diplomat last heard from attempting to intervene as a “hostage negotiator” when US rapper A$AP Rocky was detained in Sweden and charged with assault.

Mr Trump’s ex-campaign manager Corey Lewandowski could meanwhile be held in contempt of Congress over his stonewalling before the Judiciary panel on Tuesday, a tense hearing in which he refused to answer questions, appeared to admit lying to the media, promoted his website during a bathroom break and was told his behaviour was “completely unacceptable”.

Meanwhile, the US Federal Reserve once again slashed interest rates, the second time since July.

The slash caused Mr Trump to lash out at Jerome Powell, the Fed's chairman, on Twitter.

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Key Points

• Trump names Robert O'Brien as new national security adviser
• US increases sanctions on Iran in response to Saudi oil refinery attack
• Trump retweets Katie Hopkins and lashes out over impeachment hearing
• Corey Lewandowski could be held in contempt of Congress over stonewalling
• Trump in California for fundraising, border wall tour

[18 September 2019 15:10 · Joe Sommerlad]

A few introductory lines on O'Brien for starters.

[18 September 2019 15:25 · Joe Sommerlad]

The White House appears to have booted BuzzFeed's immigration reporter Hamed Aleaziz off its media tour of the US-Mexico border wall construction site, the administration's latest attempt to crackdown on unfavourable coverage.

[18 September 2019 15:45 · Joe Sommerlad]

Corey Lewandowski has been on CNN defending himself against his own admission yesterday that he feels no compulsion to be honest with the media. Not much was achieved.

Here's Chris Riotta's assessment.

[18 September 2019 16:00 · Joe Sommerlad]

This Trump quote from yesterday's Air Force One session about his administration's loyalty to Saudi Arabia is doing the rounds on Twitter, with good reason.

[18 September 2019 16:15 · Joe Sommerlad]

Trump's acting director of national intelligence (DNI) Joseph Maguire has refused to apply with a House Intelligence Committee subpoena asking him to provide "urgent" information to Congress on a secret whistleblower complaint, according to the panel's chairman Adam Schiff.

"The Intelligence Community Inspector General determined that the complaint is both credible and urgent, which is why the committee must move quickly. The committee's position is clear - the acting DNI can either provide the complaint as required under the law, or he will be required to come before the committee to tell the public why he is not following the clear letter of the law, including whether the White House or the attorney general are directing him to do so," Schiff said in a statement.

"He has yet to provide the complaint in response to the committee's subpoena, so I expect him to appear on Thursday - under subpoena if necessary,” he added.

Maguire's camp is disputing the definition of "urgent" and saying the man himself has no intention of making an appearance on Thursday.

Maguire, according to Schiff, diverted the complaint in question to the Justice Department and told the committee he could not share it because it involved someone outside the intelligence community and potentially matters of confidentiality and privilege.

"The California Democrat warned the agency might be acting to conceal high-level wrongdoing by President Donald Trump or his immediate advisers," writes Kyle Cheney of Politico.

All very murky.

[18 September 2019 16:30 · Joe Sommerlad]

Here's Trump confirming his plan mentioned earlier to end California's freedom to set its own auto emissions standards, the administration's latest petty rollback of Obama-era environmental protections in pursuit of "JOBS, JOBS, JOBS!".

[18 September 2019 16:40 · Joe Sommerlad]

It's just been pointed out to me that Trump has at least one $20 bill sticking out of his back pocket in this windswept press shot of him climbing the stairs to Air Force One at Moffett Federal Airfield in Mountain View yesterday.

He's the Leader of the Free World. Why does he need ready cash on him? And what on earth is he hoping to spend it on - McNuggets? Gold signage? Greenland?

(Tom Brenner/Reuters)

[18 September 2019 16:50 · Joe Sommerlad]

Here's Bernie Sanders sticking up for Democratic congresswoman Ilhan Omar after she debunked yet another racist Trump tweet from earlier, this one piggybacking off one from Terrence K Williams that was so obnoxious he has since deleted it.

[18 September 2019 17:00 · Joe Sommerlad]

Elizabeth Warren appeared on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert last night and had some strong words for Trump, describing him as "truly a terrible president. Not just bad, terrible."

Conceding that we are living in "scary times", she also took the president to task for his sabre-rattling on Iran: "No president gets to declare war on their own… He wants to talk about bombing somebody, you’ve got to come to Congress and get an authorisation to use military force."

[18 September 2019 17:20 · Clark Mindock]