Trump news: President refuses to deny 'racist' Harris birther claim and claims Biden trying to 'lock people in their basements' with mask rule

Donald Trump claimed a major victory in announcing a peace deal between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, with Job Biden calling it "a historic step to bridge the deep divides of the Middle East" and national security adviser Robert O'Brien saying the president should be nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize.

The president also had good news with the number of workers in the US applying for unemployment falling below one million for the first time since the coronavirus pandemic began. The positive sentiment was short-lived, however, as the Senate adjourned with no deal on a new coronavirus stimulus package.

The president also faced explosive new allegations from "golden showers in a sex club to tax fraud" in the foreword by Michael Cohen in a new book about Trump.

The salacious claims came after Trump used Twitter and an appearance on Fox Business on Thursday to make a series of sexist comments targeting television hosts and Kamala Harris. He labelled the Democratic vice-presidential candidate "a mad woman" less than 48 hours after calling her "nasty", "phony" and "weak".

Trump also admitted that US Postal Service support had held-up negations in Washington DC over the latest coronavirus aid package, after saying on Wednesday that it "[doesn't] have the money to do the universal mail-in voting" because his administration would not accept Congressional Democrat demands to provide the postal service with billions and secure mail-in voting systems prior to November's election amid the pandemic.

Elsewhere in Trump land, Jared Kushner confirmed he met with Kanye West in Colorado but only for a general conversation about policy and not the rapper's presidential campaign.

Speaking of presidential campaigns, Biden proposed a nationwide mask mandate for three months that would end after the November election. Trump said it would grind society to a halt and lock "Americans in their basements for months on end".

The president's day ended by praising the author behind an op-ed that the Trump campaign is using to claim Kamala Harris' eligibility on the Biden ticket is an "open question".