President Donald Trump says his planned Mexican border wall will be cheaper than anticipated.
PRESIDENT Donald Trump says his daughter Ivanka Trump has been abused and treated so badly in the wake of her clothing line being dropped.
The First Daughters self-titled fashion collection was dumped by influential department stores including Nordstrom and Neimen Marcus after sales fell sharply since Trump was elected to the White House last year.
In a further blow to the Trump familys retail businesses, homewares line Trump Home was cut from Kmart and Siers.
President Trump, however, suggested Ivanka had been targeted by the media, saying she was treated so badly and had been abused.
He made the accusations via a tweet posted today.
US President Donald Trump and his daughter Ivanka. Picture: AFPSource:AFP
Meantime, Trump has confessed that the cost of his border wall has already blown out to a reported $28 billion but he has pledged to make it affordable.
Trump made his comments in two Twitter posts but did not say how he would bring down the cost of the wall.
An internal report by the Department of Homeland Security estimated the price of a wall along the entire border at $US21.6 billion ($28.1 billion). During his presidential campaign Trump had cited a $US12 billion figure.
I am reading that the great border WALL will cost more than the government originally thought, but I have not gotten involved in the ... design or negotiations yet, Trump tweeted from his Florida resort, where he is hosting Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
When I do, just like with the F-35 FighterJet or the air force One Program, price will come WAY DOWN!
Trump has vowed to make Mexico reimburse the United States for its cost but Mexico has repeatedly said it will not do so.
Trump also tweeted on Saturday about another aspect of his immigration policy the legal battle over the presidential order banning entry to the United States by refugees and citizens of seven Muslim-majority countries.
Our legal system is broken! 77 per cent of refugees allowed into US since travel reprieve hail from seven suspect countries. (WT) SO DANGEROUS! he said.
The tweet was in apparent reaction to a Washington Times story saying 77 per cent of the 1100 refugees who have entered the United States since February 3 are from the countries covered by Trumps ban.
A federal judge in Seattle blocked Trumps executive order on February 3, lifting the ban while litigation proceeds. Trump has been steadily critical of the ruling from Seattle and a subsequent appeals court ruling upholding it.
US First Lady Melania Trump and Akie Abe, wife of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, in Florida. Picture: AFPSource:AFP
SNOWDEN MIGHT BUT PUTINS GIFT TO TRUMP
Russia is considering sending Edward Snowden back to the US as a gift to President Donald Trump, a report says.
A senior US official with knowledge of sensitive Russian intelligence information told NBC News on Friday that they would be handing over the NSA whistleblower in the attempt to curry favour with Trump.
Edward Snowden has been living in Moscow since 2013 after being accused of giving the top-secret NSA information to the press. Picture: SuppliedSource:Supplied
A second intelligence source confirmed that the Russians had been deliberating with US officials since the inauguration, reports the New York Post.
While the White House had no comment, Snowdens ACLU lawyer, Ben Wizner, claimed he was unaware of such plans.
Team Snowden has received no such signals and has no new reason for concern, he said.
Snowden who stole scores of top-secret documents during his time as an NSA contractor responded to the report on Twitter Friday night.
Finally: irrefutable evidence that I never co-operated with Russian intel, the 33-year-old tweeted, along with a link to the NBC News article.
No country trades away spies, as the rest would fear theyre next, he said.
Former deputy national security adviser Juan Zarate told NBC that Trump should ultimately be wary of the move.
A spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin called reports of Snowdens return nonsense. Picture: AP/Alexander ZemlianichenkoSource:AP
For Russia, this would be a win-win, Mr Zarate explained. It would signal warmer relations and some desire for greater co-operation with the new administration, but it would also no doubt stoke controversies and cases in the US around the role of surveillance, the role of the US intelligence community, and the future of privacy and civil liberties in an American context. All of that would perhaps be music to the ears of Putin.
Justice Department officials, on the other-hand, told NBC they would ultimately welcome Snowden back with open arms.
A spokesman for President Putin simply called the return nonsense, NBC reports.
Back in July, the president blasted Snowden as a spy and a traitor saying he would deal with him harshly if he were to ever return.
If I were president, Putin would give him over, Trump tweeted.
In 2013, he even went so far as to suggest giving him a death sentence.
Snowden is a spy who should be executed, Trump tweeted.
President Donald Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, accompanied by their wives, Melania Trump and Akie Abe. Trump is hosting Abe at his estate in Florida. Picture: AP/Jose Luis MaganaSource:AP
The North Carolina native has been living in Moscow since 2013 after being accused of giving the top-secret NSA information to the press, most of which contained details of US domestic surveillance programs.
After being charged with violating the Espionage Act, Snowden fled to Russia and was granted a residency permit. His stay had been recently extended until 2020.
HUNDREDS OF IMMIGRANTS ARRESTED IN ENFORCEMENT SURGE
IT comes as federal immigration agents arrested hundreds of undocumented immigrants in at least four US states this week in what officials on Friday called routine enforcement actions.
Reports of immigration sweeps this week sparked concern among immigration advocates and families, coming on the heels of Mr Trumps executive order barring refugees and immigrants from seven majority-Muslim nations, reports the New York Post. That order is currently on hold.
The fear coursing through immigrant homes and the native-born Americans who love immigrants as friends and family is palpable, Ali Noorani, executive director of the National Immigration Forum, said in a statement. Reports of raids in immigrant communities are a grave concern.
Police presence at US airports has increased since Donald Trumps election win. Picture: David McNew/Getty Images/AFPSource:AFP
The enforcement actions took place in Atlanta, New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and surrounding areas, said David Marin, director of enforcement and removal for the Los Angeles field office of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Only five of 161 people arrested in Southern California would not have been enforcement priorities under the Obama administration, he said.
The agency did not release a total number of detainees. The Atlanta office, which covers three states, arrested 200 people, Bryan Cox, a spokesman for the office, said. The 161 arrests in the Los Angeles area were made in a region that included seven highly populated counties, Marin said.
Mr Marin called the five-day operation an enforcement surge.
In a conference call with reporters, he said that such actions were routine, pointing to one last summer in Los Angeles under former President Barack Obama.
US officials said that such actions were routine during the Obama administration. Picture: APSource:AP
The rash of these recent reports about ICE checkpoints and random sweeps, thats all false and thats dangerous and irresponsible, Mr Marin said. Reports like that create a panic.
He said that of the people arrested in Southern California, only 10 did not have criminal records. Of those, five had prior deportation orders.
Michael Kagan, a professor of immigration law at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas, said immigration advocates are concerned that the arrests could signal the beginning of more aggressive enforcement and increased deportations under Trump.
It sounds as if the majority are people who would have been priorities under Obama as well, Mr Kagan said in a telephone interview. But the others may indicate the first edge of a new wave of arrests and deportations.
Trump recently broadened the categories of people who could be targeted for immigration enforcement to anyone who had been charged with a crime, removing an Obama-era exception for people convicted of traffic misdemeanours, Mr Kagan said.
TRUMP ATTACKS POCAHONTAS ELIZABETH WARREN
DONALD Trumps contentious relationship with US Senator Elizabeth Warren continued as he again attacked her Native American ancestry, reportedly calling her Pocahontas during a private meeting with US senators.
The president, who previously used the term on the campaign trail, told Democrat politicians that: Pocahontas is now the face of your party, CNN reported.
He then reportedly said that the only reason she said she had Native American origins was due to her high cheekbones, a source told the network.
A scene from the classic Disney film Pocahontas. Picture: SuppliedSource:News Limited
Donald Trump has often mocked Senator Elizabeth Warrens Native American heritage. Picture: AP/J. Scott ApplewhiteSource:AP
The president reportedly used the Pocahontas reference several times during the closed-door meeting with senators, making it equal parts bizarre and completely awkward, a source told CNN.
Mr Trumps comment came a day after Republican senators silenced Senator Warren on the Senate floor by invoking a rarely used rule as she spoke out against Jeff Sessions during his confirmation hearing to become attorney general.
The rebuke has prompted a wave of support for Warren among Democrats and the public.
Throughout the campaign, Mr Trump repeatedly referred to Warren as Pocahontas and attacked her over her heritage.
Women support of Elizabeth Warren after she was silenced after speaking out against Jeff Sessions during his confirmation hearing to become US attorney general. Picture: Mario Tama/Getty Images/AFPSource:AFP
Pocahontas is not happy. Shes not happy. Shes the worst, he said in June at a rally in Richmond, Virginia. Im doing such a disservice to Pocahontas, its so unfair to Pocahontas. But this Elizabeth Warren, I call her goofy Elizabeth Warren, shes one of the worst senators in the entire United States Senate.
Ms Warren referred to her Native American origins during her run for the US Senate in 2012, when she became the first woman to hold the office in Massachusetts.
Warren had at one point referred to her grandfathers high cheekbones to support her comments.
STORES ABANDON TRUMP LINES
DAYS after Ivanka Trumps clothing line was dropped by US department store, Nordstrom (and prompted an angry rebuke via Twitter from the President), comes news that Sears and Kmart will no longer sell products from the Trump Home line on their websites.
Ivanka Trump, with husband Jared Kushner. Trumps clothing line was dropped from US department store, Nordstrom. Picture: AFP/Mandel NganSource:AFP
As part of the companys initiative to optimise its online product assortment, we constantly refine that assortment to focus on our most profitable items, a Sears Holdings spokesman told Business Insider. Amid that streamlining effort, 31 Trump Home items were among the items removed online this week. Products from the line are still offered online via third-party Marketplace vendors.
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Donald Trump: 'Price will come way down' on Mexican border wall plan - NEWS.com.au
