Trump news - live: President gives out controversial pardons as new report undermines White House rationale for Soleimani killing

Donald Trump has again lashed out at Barack Obama, accusing the 44th president of “trying to take credit for the Economic Boom taking place under the Trump Administration” in response to his predeccessor’s tweet remembering his signing of the Recovery Act in 2009 at the onset of the Great Recession.

Democratic 2020 front-runner Bernie Sanders has meanwhile hit back at rival Michael Bloomberg following criticism of his supporters by posting a picture on Twitter of the former New York mayor golfing with the president, suggesting there is little real difference between the two men. Mr Sanders is surging ahead in the polls while Mr Bloomberg has just qualified for his first primary debate.

Away from the 2020 race, the president’s ex-national security adviser John Bolton has expressed fears the White House will “suppress” his forthcoming memoir, The Room Where It Happened, telling a university audience in North Carolina the ongoing review process could interfere with his “effort to write history”.

And, Mr Trump signed off on several high-profile and contentious pardons, drawing the ire of former prosecturs who worked on those caes.

Among them was a former NYPD commissioner with ties to Rudy GIuliani, a former Democratic governor of Illinois and the former owner of the San Francisco 49ers NFL team.

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