Trump news – live: President threatens ‘wise guy’ statue activists as another 1.5m Americans apply for unemployment benefits and coronavirus surges
Donald Trump has continued his attack on peaceful Black Lives Matter protesters, labelling them “roving gangs of wise guys, anarchists & looters” on Twitter as statue-toppling continues across the nation and the country reckons with its dark history in the aftermath of the killing of George Floyd by police in Minneapolis a month ago today.
The president also disparaged the anti-racism activists as he met with Polish president Andrzej Duda in the White House Rose Garden on Wednesday, accusing them of tearing down America’s cultural heritage and history and insisting he would not allow it to happen on his watch.
The US is meanwhile seeing a fresh spike in coronavirus cases, with 26 states reporting new highs after emerging from lockdown and Texas governor Greg Abbott forced to admit the Lone Star State is suffering a “massive” hike in infections, at the same time as the nation’s jobless rate rises by 1.5m in a week to 47.2m.
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