Donald Trump was planning to hold a press conference yesterday at the Mexican border, a flashpoint in the Republican presidential primary contest ever since the billionaire businessman and TV personality declared that immigrants from Mexico are rapists and drug dealers.
He was to travel to Laredo, Texas, to meet members of the union that represents border control agents and speak to law enforcement officers, his campaign said.
The plan signaled no backing down — indeed, a possible further escalation — in a feud with presidential rivals and other top Republicans. The fight was sparked by his comments about immigrants last month, but accelerated when he mocked US Senator John McCain’s experience as a tortured prisoner in the Vietnam War, then slammed the Arizona senator’s record on veterans issues.
Trump had shot to the top of recent polls of the crowded Republican field, but these were taken before the flare-up over his comments about McCain.
The celebrity known as “The Donald” is still seen as a longshot for the Republican nomination, but his incendiary remarks have shaken up the early stages of the race, drawing attention away from other top-tier candidates like former Florida governor Jeb Bush, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker and US Senator Marco Rubio. The latest Trump flare-up overshadowed Tuesday’s campaign launch by Ohio Governor John Kasich.
Meanwhile, federal regulators on Wednesday made public information about Trump’s wealth and financial holdings, showing he holds leadership positions in more than 500 business entities, has assets of at least US$1.4 billion and debt of at least US$240 million. The forms do not pinpoint his fortune, which he has said is more than US$10 billion, because they report figures only in broad ranges.
However, the disclosure, required of all candidates, underscores his unparalleled potential financial staying power in a longshot campaign that is roiling the GOP field.
Trump’s taste for payback against those who criticize him was demonstrated on Tuesday when he announced the mobile phone number of rival Republican candidate, US Senator Lindsey Graham, to a crowd and TV audience, resulting in jammed voice mail for the senator. This was after Graham, defending McCain, called Trump “the world’s biggest jackass.”
In a speech on Tuesday to hundreds of supporters in South Carolina, Trump kept on McCain, accusing him of being soft on illegal immigration.
“He’s totally about open borders and all this stuff,” he said.
He also went after others who have criticized him in recent weeks, implying that former Texas governor Rick Perry was unintelligent and Bush was weak.
McCain sparked Trump’s temper last week when the senator said the businessman’s inflammatory remarks about Mexican immigrants had brought out the “crazies.” McCain said on Tuesday he would no longer respond to Trump’s comments.
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol on Tuesday declared martial law in an unannounced late night address broadcast live on YTN television. Yoon said he had no choice but to resort to such a measure in order to safeguard free and constitutional order, saying opposition parties have taken hostage of the parliamentary process to throw the country into a crisis. "I declare martial law to protect the free Republic of Korea from the threat of North Korean communist forces, to eradicate the despicable pro-North Korean anti-state forces that are plundering the freedom and happiness of our people, and to protect the free
The US deployed a reconnaissance aircraft while Japan and the Philippines sent navy ships in a joint patrol in the disputed South China Sea yesterday, two days after the allied forces condemned actions by China Coast Guard vessels against Philippine patrol ships. The US Indo-Pacific Command said the joint patrol was conducted in the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone by allies and partners to “uphold the right to freedom of navigation and overflight “ and “other lawful uses of the sea and international airspace.” Those phrases are used by the US, Japan and the Philippines to oppose China’s increasingly aggressive actions in the
A string of rape and assault allegations against the son of Norway’s future queen have plunged the royal family into its “biggest scandal” ever, wrapping up an annus horribilis for the monarchy. The legal troubles surrounding Marius Borg Hoiby, the 27-year-old son born of a relationship before Norwegian Crown Princess Mette-Marit’s marriage to Norwegian Crown Prince Haakon, have dominated the Scandinavian country’s headlines since August. The tall strapping blond with a “bad boy” look — often photographed in tuxedos, slicked back hair, earrings and tattoos — was arrested in Oslo on Aug. 4 suspected of assaulting his girlfriend the previous night. A photograph
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