US election 2016: Donald Trump Jr compares Syrian refugees to poisoned Skittles
20 September
Donald Trump's son, Donald Jr, has caused outrage in the US after comparing Syrian refugees to poisoned Skittles in a tweet supporting his father's US presidential campaign.
The tweet has drawn widespread criticism. Jon Favreau, President Barack Obama's former speechwriter, juxtaposed Trump Jr's language with pictures of the plight of Syrian refugees.
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The claim's factual basis was also questioned by ThinkProgress editor Judd Legum, who posted an image showing the number of Syrian refugees in the US since 9/11.
"Apart from being controversial, the tweet is not actually original," reports The Guardian, noting that former congressman Joe Walsh, now a right-wing talk show host, has voiced similar ideas.
Trump Jr's tweet came as his father reiterated his tough stance on immigration in the wake of the arrest of Ahmad Khan Rahami in connection with the recent attacks in New York.
Born in Afghanistan, Rahami moved to the US when he was seven and became a naturalised citizen.
Speaking to followers in Florida, the Republican presidential candidate attacked the process that had allowed Rahami to enter the country as a child.
"This thug today, they think he came through Afghanistan. What kind of screening procedures were performed?" he asked.
He added that his Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton, refused to consider "the worldview" of those who seek to immigrate to the United States and that terrorists "want her so badly to be your president".
"Despite a recycled use of many of his attack lines," says NBC News, "Trump's blows came off more effective and impassioned cast in the new light of these latest attacks."
Trump's decision to double down on immigration may indeed be working. A recent poll found that 51 per cent of intended voters, including 80 per cent of Trump supporters, are "very concerned" or "somewhat concerned" about "allowing immigrants who hold different values into the US".
US election 2016: Donald Trump's policies slated by IMF
14 September
Donald Trump's populist anti-free trade sentiments have been criticised strongly by the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Chief executive Christine Lagarde, who is a former trade minister in the French government, and the fund's chief economist Maurice Obstfeld have both made public remarks denouncing protectionist policies as damaging – even for the country that introduces them.
Obstfeld cited the Republican presidential candidate's comments earlier this year that he would "get tough" with China through punitive trade tariffs in order to prevent the nascent communist superpower from devaluing its currency.
"Those who promote 'getting tough' with foreign trade partners through punitive tariffs should think carefully," Obstfeld said in a blog post.
"It may be emotionally gratifying; it may boost specific industries; the threat may even frighten trade partners into changing their policies; but, ultimately, if carried out, such policies cause wider economic damage at home."
Bloomberg says that while such policies would achieve the intention of boosting domestic demand, they may also have the effect of boosting the country's currency thereby damaging exports.
In a speech in Canada. Lagarde spoke out against anti-free trade agendas, warning that progress made in living standards around the world since the Second World War was largely down to global trade.
Without mentioning Trump by name, Lagarde made it clear she opposes his policies, according to The Guardian. "There is a growing risk of politicians seeking office by promising to 'get tough' with foreign trade partners through punitive tariffs or other restrictions on trade. I am deeply concerned about this," she said.
The IMF boss acknowledged that globalisation – especially the arrival on the world stage of countries like China and India that have cheap labour and manufacturing costs – had resulted in the spread of wealth being uneven. This had, she said, brought "dislocation and hardship".
This, Lagarde claims, is what lies behind the rise of populist politicians such as Trump and the shock vote for Brexit in the UK.
To combat unrest in the electorate, governments should instead embrace globalisation and pursue policies to support at risk groups in society such as boosting minimum wage laws and funding more education and skills training.
It is questionable how influential the IMF's intervention will prove to be, however. It spoke out frequently on the dangers of Brexit, but along with a range of other pro-Remain experts was successfully denounced as merely representing the self-interest of the establishment.
US election 2016: Donald Trump defends controversial sex assault tweet
08 September
Donald Trump has defended a tweet he wrote in 2013, in which he said that sexual assault in the US military was bound to happen when men and women serve alongside each other.
During a national security forum last night, the Republican hopeful was asked about the controversial message.
"Well, it is a correct tweet," he told the audience of veterans. "There are many people that think that that's absolutely correct."
When NBC Host Matt Lauer asked him if the solution was to remove women from the military, Trump dismissed the idea but said: "Something has to happen."
Despite the existence of an established military judicial system, the New York billionaire added: "Right now, part of the problem is nobody gets prosecuted. The best thing we can do is set up a court system within the military. Right now the court system practically doesn't exist."
He continued: "When you have somebody that does something so evil, so bad as that, there has to be consequences for that person. You have to go after that person. Right now, nobody is doing anything."
Pressed to be more specific on what he would do, he said: "We have to come down very hard on that and do something about that."
Democrat candidate Hillary Clinton subsequently tweeted: "Donald Trump has proven over and over again that he's unfit to be our Commander-in-Chief".
US election 2016: Is Donald Trump a hateful demagogue or a Churchillian orator?
1 September
Donald Trump has renewed his pledge to make Mexico pay for a wall along its border with the US – and added that he will expel millions of "illegal aliens" from the US within his first hour in the White House if elected in November.
Addressing a rally in Arizona on Wednesday, the Republican presidential candidate said his wall would be "impenetrable, physical, tall, powerful, beautiful" and insisted Mexico would pay for it "100 per cent".
He also vowed to immediately deport two million undocumented immigrants with alleged criminal records.
"We will begin moving them out, day one. My first hour in office, those people are gone," he said.
His speech was "the kind of red-meat populist stemwinder that powered [Trump] through his successful primary campaign", writes the BBC's Anthony Zurcher.
However, the rhetorical vehemence was in contrast to his more nuanced language during a short visit to Mexico earlier in the day, when he heaped praise on "spectacular, hard-working" Mexican-Americans.
The juxtaposition between the two addresses was "so jarring that his true vision and intentions on immigration were hard to discern", says the New York Times.
Isaac Chotiner at Slate called the Arizona speech "angry and hateful" and concluded it was impossible to view Trump as anything but a demagogue.
Commentators also pointed out how Trump's words were merely repetitions of earlier statements. "What will be remembered," said Xeni Jardin on the Boing Boing blog site, "is how much this garbage sounded like the same old garbage he's been spewing all along."
Not so, says Republican Ann Coulter, who compared Trump to Churchill and said his latest address "is the most magnificent speech ever given".
"The gamble paid off," concluded Fox News analyst Howard Kurtz. Trump had used Arizona to rein back on his policy of mass deportations: "In effect, he kicked the can down the road... while vowing to be more aggressive across the board on the immigration problem."
Donald Trump to visit Mexico after year of mocking it
31 August
Donald Trump will visit Mexico today – after repeatedly mocking the country over the past 12 months.
The White House hopeful will hold a private meeting with President Enrique Pena Nieto at the presidential palace in Mexico City. The President's office said it had sent invitations to both Trump and his Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton.
Trump wrote on Twitter that he looked "very much forward" to visiting to the country, where he is widely reviled.
The Republican candidate caused uproar when he claimed many Mexican immigrants who enter the US illegally are rapists. He also repeatedly insisted Mexico will pay for his proposed wall along the southern US border.
"They are not our friend, believe me," Trump said in a speech last year, during which he accused Mexico of treating the US unfairly. "They are killing us economically."
He added: "When Mexico sends its people, they're not sending their best. They're bringing drugs, they're bringing crime. They're rapists and some I assume are good people."
Pena Nieto returned fire in March, comparing Trump to Hitler and Mussolini. He has since "tried to soften his words without quite taking them back", says the New York Times.
After today's meeting, Trump will give a speech in Phoenix that is expected to clarify his position on immigration, a thorny issue that has dogged his campaign over the past few weeks as he has wavered on key elements of his platform.
Donald Trump 'can beat the polls', declares Nigel Farage
25 August
Former Ukip leader Nigel Farage has appeared on stage with US Republican Party presidential candidate Donald Trump at a rally in Jackson, Mississippi, telling the crowd that a vote for Trump would be a vote for "American independence".
Trump introduced Farage as "the man who 'brilliantly' led the UK Independence Party's campaign" to leave the EU in the historic referendum.
Trump has been a vocal advocate for Britain leaving the EU and recently took to Twitter to re-affirm his support for the controversial move.
Speaking in front of more than 15,000 people, Farage joined Trump on stage to "draw similarities between the UK's vote to leave the European Union and Trump's insurgent campaign", CNN says.
"We reached those people who have never voted in their lives but believed by going out and voting for Brexit they could take back control of their country, take back control of their borders and get back their pride and self-respect," Farage said. "You have a fantastic opportunity here with this campaign, you can beat the pollsters, you can beat the commentators, you can beat Washington."
Farage stopped short of endorsing Trump for the presidency, telling the rally that he believed it was wrong for President Barack Obama to publicly back the Remain campaign earlier this year. "So I could not possibly tell you how you should vote in this election," he said.
However, Farage made his message very clear, declaring: "I will say this, if I was an American citizen, I wouldn't vote for Hillary Clinton if you paid me. In fact I wouldn't vote for Hillary Clinton if she paid me."
There are clear parallels between Trump supporters and proponents of Britain's move to leave the European Union, says Sky News: "Trump supporters have voiced nationalist, anti-globalisation, anti-establishment views, which have been echoed among many who voted for Brexit."
US election 2016: Has Trump really had a change of heart?
22 August
Donald Trump's campaign team has suggested that a radical U-turn in his anti-immigration message could be on the cards, as the presidential hopeful slowly gains ground on his rival Hillary Clinton.
The possible move was revealed by a senior aide to the Republican nominee over the weekend, who said that Trump's long-touted promise to deport millions of illegal immigrants from the US was under review.
The billionaire, who scores appallingly with ethnic minority voters, met with a team of Hispanic advisers on Saturday to discuss a range of possible new policies as the race to the White House enters its final stages.
The Washington Post described the move as "the latest in a series of sometimes-clumsy attempts to win over moderate GOP voters without alienating millions who have flocked to his hard-line views".
However, the paper warns that a change in policy could risk alienating Trump's most loyal supporters, "many of whom adore his willingness to buck 'political correctness' by laying out brash proposals".
It adds: "Trump has thrived in part by staying vague on most of his policy positions, vacillating between extreme rhetoric and assurances of reasonableness."
Controlling immigration has long been at the heart of Trump's campaign, with his stance having been far more extreme than many of his fellow Republican politicians.
The billionaire tycoon caused international outrage when he urged mass deportations, barring all Muslims from entering the US, and suggested building a wall between the US and Mexico.
"It sounds as if he's considering seriously changing his tune - in what would amount to a stunning flip-flop," the Sydney Morning Herald reports. Trump's campaign is playing down events, saying nothing has changed. "But it clearly has," says the paper.
US election 2016: 'Naked Trump' statues erected in US cities
19 August 2016
An anarchist collective has erected naked statues of Donald Trump in five major cities across the United States in an attempt to "humiliate" the Republican candidate.
Indecline, which installed the statues in New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Cleveland and Seattle, called their project "The Emperor Has No Balls".
A spokesperson for the group told the Washington Post the statues represent a number of issues, ranging from attacking Trump's "legendary confidence" by making him appear naked through to making a statement on authoritarian political leaders immortalising themselves with giant statues.
"Like it or not, Trump is a larger-than-life figure in world culture at the moment. Looking back in history, that's how those figures were memorialised and idolised in their time - with statues," the spokesman said.
A statue in New York's Union Square was removed by officials from the Department of Parks and Recreation a few hours after it was unveiled. It was "unattended property and had to be taken down", they said.
A spokesperson offered a cheeky defence, saying: "NYC Parks stands firmly against any unpermitted erection in city parks, no matter how small."
The statues are not the first political artwork Indecline has produced.
"Other aggressive art from the group... includes artwork along the US-Mexico border saying 'Rape Trump' and what they claim to be the 'largest illegal graffiti piece in the world' along an abandoned runway in California," CNN reports.
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