During a White House press briefing on Friday night, Mr Trump said former White House Chief of Staff John Kelly “could have been” a source for the damning report, published in The Atlantic earlier this week.
Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden has slammed Donald Trump as “unfit” for presidency following a report that the president allegedly mocked American veterans as “losers” and “suckers”.
Mr Biden told reporters on Friday that Mr Trump’s comments, if true, are “deplorable”. The Trump administration has dismissed the report as false.
“I’ve just never been as disappointed, in my whole career, with a leader that I’ve worked with, president of otherwise,” said Mr Biden.
“If the article is true – and it appears to be, based on other things he’s said – it’s absolutely damning. It’s a disgrace.”
When asked if the source could be Mr Kelly, who served in the Marines for over 40 years, the president said: “It could have been a guy like John Kelly. You look at some of his news conferences at the White House, what happened to him, he got eaten alive.
“He was unable to handle the pressure of this job,” he added.
US ready to help in China-India border dispute, says Trump
The president has said the US is happy to help resolve the dispute between India and China over the border that runs through the western Himalayas.
Donald Trump said the situation was “very nasty”, adding that India and China were “going at it much more strongly than a lot of people even understand”.
In June, a clash between both sides of the border resulted in 20 Indian soldiers being killed in hand-to-hand fighting. Since then, both sides have deployed additional forces along the frontier.
India and China’s defence ministers held talks in Moscow on Friday, the highest level face-to-face political contact since tensions flared along the disputed border in May.
Mr Trump told reporters: “We stand ready to help with respect to China and India. If we can do anything, we would love to get involved and help.”
However, China previously said there was no need for a third party to mediate the dispute and India has also appeared cool to the idea.
Boris Johnson ‘fascinated’ by Donald Trump, says ex-diplomat
A former British Ambassador to the US has said Boris Johnson is fascinated by US president Donald Trump and has probably been inspired by his US counterpart.
Lord Darroch wrote in a new book serialised in The Times that the UK prime minister is intrigued by Mr Trump’s patchy relationship “with facts and the truth”.
Lord Darroch wrote that Mr Johnson had been “fascinated” by Mr Trump on visits to Washington as foreign secretary, before he became prime minister, and was particularly focused on the president’s use of language.
This includes “the limited vocabulary, the simplicity of the messaging, the disdain for political correctness, the sometimes incendiary imagery, and the at best intermittent relationship with facts and the truth”.
Speaking in an interview that accompanied the excerpts, the former ambassador also said that Mr Trump considered Mr Johnson “a kindred spirit”.
Lord Darroch resigned following the leaking of a cable in which he said Mr Trump was “inept” as president.
Trump claims unemployment rate ‘better than expected’
The US unemployment rate fell to 8.4 per cent in August, dipping below 10 per cent for the first time since the coronavirus pandemic hit.
Unemployment is still significantly higher than pre-pandemic levels of 3.5 per cent in February, while only half of the 22 million jobs lost during the crisis have been recovered.
Donald Trump said the latest unemployment rate is “much better than expected”, and said on Twitter the figures were “Great Jobs Numbers”.
Trump repeats suggestions his supporters should try to vote twice
President Donald Trump suggested again to his supporters that they should attempt to vote in person even if they have already voted by mail as a way to check that their vote is counted — even though voting twice in the same election is a federal crime, reported CNN.
During a virtual rally in North Carolina on Friday night, which was posted on Facebook, Mr Trump went into detail about how he wanted his supporters to vote.
He said if they vote by mail, they should also go to their polling place to “see whether of not your mail-in vote has been tabulated or counted, noting that they will not be able to vote if it’s been counted.
“If it has not been counted, vote — which is every citizen’s right to do — you go and vote,” he said.
“You press the lever and vote. So if it hasn’t been counted, if it doesn’t show up, go and vote and then, if your mail-in ballot arrives after you vote, which is shouldn’t but possibly it could perhaps, that ballot will not be used or counted in that your vote has already been cast and tabulated, so this way you’re guaranteed to have your vote count.
“So send it in. And then see and then vote and let’s see what happens.”
Donald Trump Jr renews attack on TikTok, claims it could ‘weaponise your kids’ data’
Donald Trump Jr has just joined TikTok competitor Triller and is using the new platform to criticise the wildly popular TikTok while touting Triller as an “American company”.
In a seven-minute video posted to Triller, the president’s eldest son claimed TikTok, which has until 15 September to sell off its US business over concerns that its ties to China pose a threat to national security, was nefarious.
Speaking directly to parents, Mr Trump Jr claimed: “When you have an app like TikTok where the Chinese government could be turning on your kid’s camera, turning on your kid’s video, listening in, turning on their mic at any random time not just when they’re using the app.
“This goes so much further. Having access to all your photos and contacts and emails and the spyware that’s there. I mean this is something that could haunt your kids forever.”
TikTok said its app has been downloaded by 100 million users in the US alone and and has made efforts to sue the president’s executive order.
US has seen no proof yet of ‘tragic’ Navalny poisoning, says Trump
Donald Trump has said the US must look “very seriously” into the suspected poisoning of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, but that his administration has not yet seen any proof.
Speaking at a news conference, he also told journalists they should be focusing on China, not Russia.
“It’s tragic. It’s terrible, it shouldn’t happen. We haven’t had any proof yet, but I will take a look,” said the president.
His stand on the issue was not as strong as the State Department, which earlier on Friday expressed grave concern about the finding that Mr Navalny was poisoned.
Department spokesperson Morgan Ortagus said in a statement the Deputy Secretary of State, Stephen Biegun, “urged Russia to cooperate fully with the international community’s investigation into this attack”.
Mr Biegun met Russian ambassador Anatoliy Antonov in Washington earlier on Friday, and told him that Moscow’s use of the this chemical weapon would be a clear violation of its obligations under the Chemical Weapons Convention.
Mr Navalny has been hospitalised in Germany, who said he was poisoned with a Soviety-style Novichok nerve agent. Russia has not opened a criminal investigation and said there is no evidence yet of a crime.
