Trump’s latest tweetstorm covers a host of issues

A LAWYER for US President Trump said that two additions to the legal team representing him in special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation have changed their minds — just hours after Mr Trump tweeted that reports of lawyers not wanting to represent him are “Fake News.”

“The president is disappointed that conflicts prevent Joe diGenova and Victoria Toensing from joining the president’s special counsel legal team,” Jay Sekulow, said in a statement on

Sunday morning of the husband and wife team. “However, those conflicts do not prevent them from assisting the president in other legal matters. The president looks forward to working with them.”

Mr Sekulow’s statement came just days after the resignation of John Dowd, the lawyer who had been leading the group advising Trump in Mueller’s probe into Russian meddling in the 2016 election and any collusion on Trump’s part.

Trump met with Toensing and diGenova, who has floated the accusations that the Department of Justice and FBI hatched a “brazen plot” to frame Trump in case Hillary Clinton lost the election, but felt like they had no chemistry, the New York Times reported on Sunday.

Just hours before Trump went on Twitter to boast that he has no problem recruiting lawyers to his team.

“Many lawyers and top law firms want to represent me in the Russia case … don’t believe the Fake News narrative that it is hard to find a lawyer who wants to take this on. Fame & fortune will NEVER be turned down by a lawyer, though some are conflicted,” Trump posted on Twitter.

“Problem is that a new lawyer or law firm will take months to get up to speed (if for no other reason than they can bill more), which is unfair to our great country — and I am very happy with my existing team. Besides, there was NO COLLUSION with Russia, except by Crooked Hillary and the Dems!”

Mr Trump also turned his attention to the $1.3 trillion spending bill that passed the House and Senate last week and averted a government shutdown.

While the measure allocated $1.6 billion in funding for the wall — which Mr Trump during his presidential campaign promised he would build and Mexico would pay for — but far less than the $25 billion the president had sought.

“Much can be done with the $1.6 Billion given to building and fixing the border wall. It is just a down payment. Work will start immediately. The rest of the money will come — and remember DACA, the Democrats abandoned you (but we will not)!,” Mr Trump wrote.

The reference was to the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals that got caught up in negotiations over funding for the wall and was left out of the bill.

DACA protected nearly 800,000 immigrants who were brought to the country illegally as children from deportation — known as “Dreamers.”

Mr Trump called for winding down the program last September and gave politicians six months to fix it. That deadline passed on March 5.

But the spending bill — which Mr Trump signed on Friday — did include increased funding for the military.

“Because of the $700 & $716 Billion Dollars gotten to rebuild our Military, many jobs are created and our Military is again rich. Building a great Border Wall, with drugs (poison) and enemy combatants pouring into our Country, is all about National Defense. Build WALL through M!” Mr Trump tweeted.

The tweetstorm began shortly Sunday morning (US time) with a posting about Lt. Colonel Arnaud Beltrame, who traded places with a female hostage being held by a gunman who stormed a supermarket.

Beltrame was shot in the neck during the incident on Friday and died of his wounds on Saturday.

The gunman, with ties to the Islamic State, was gunned down by police.

“France honours a great hero. Officer died after bravely swapping places with hostage in ISIS related terror attack. So much bravery around the world constantly fighting radical Islamic terrorism. Even stronger measures needed, especially at borders!” Mr Trump wrote.

But in that string of Trump tweets, he failed to write one word about the millions of protesters who took to the streets across the country and in cities across the world to bring attention to gun violence after the massacre of 17 students and staff members at a high school in Parkland, Fla., on Valentine’s Day.

The White House on Saturday in a statement said, “We applaud the many courageous Americans expressing their First Amendment Rights.”