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On Tuesday, US President Donald Trump has announced he signed an executive order ending Hong Kong‘s favored trading status after a new Chinese law his administration says vastly erodes Hong Kong’s autonomy. He appeared to use the policy announcement as a mechanism to hammer his 2020 general election foe in yet another surreal scene at the White House under the 45^th US President, a former reality television host. He also signed bipartisan legislation slapping sanctions on China over its Hong Kong policy. But, the Hong Kong-China policy news was almost immediately obliterated by what happened next. He also said at one point that his travel ban keeping some from Muslim-majority countries closes America to jihadist regions.

President Trump alleged Biden of proposing to abolish the police and abolish prisons”. He also said the former vice president’s policy platform would demolish the US economy. It has shed tens of millions of jobs during his handling of the Covid-19 outbreak. Trump used most of what was billed as a press conference to hammer Biden, starting early in the event and not letting up. Almost an hour into the event, Trump finally took questions. He was asked if he expected to lose on 3 November. President replied and said, “No, I don’t”. He continued on a few minutes-long- answer and touted some of his counter-coronavirus moves. But, he also plainly acknowledged his campaign is in trouble, as he trails Biden nationally and in key battleground states.

Trump alleged Biden of advocating policies that would allow millions of immigrants to pour into the United States, including getting Welfare benefits. He said if we had listened to Joe Biden millions more US lives would have been lost to coronavirus than the over 135,000 that have died under Trump’s watch. Trump added that Biden did a poor job leading the Obama administration’s Swine Flu response. A former aide for Obama administration, Dan Pfeiffer tweeted and said, “Not for nothing, but Trump using the Rose Garden to give a campaign speech assailing Biden is definitely illegal and his campaign owes the taxpayers a lot of money for this event”.