Republicans explore challenging Trump in 2020 primaries – live | US news

A new Trump administration regulation would allow the government to detain families crossing the border indefinitely.

The new rule would abolish the current 20-day limit on how long families can be held in custody. It would effectively replace the decades old Flores agreement, which provided oversight on immigrant children being detained by the government.

The rule is expected to be challenged in court, but adds to the raft of anti-immigration measures Trump is attempting to enforce.

So what do people in Denmark think about Trump’s decision to call off his trip to the country?

Not much, it seems – with one former Danish foreign minister comparing Trump to “a clown in a circus”.

“There are already many good reasons to think that the man is a fool, and now he has given another good reason,” Eva Flyvholm, the foreign policy chair for Denmark’s Red-Green Alliance, told Danish media.

The Guardian’s Sean Walker reported that former Denmark foreign minister Villy Søvndal said the decision “confirms that Donald Trump is a narcissistic fool”.

“If he had been a clown in a circus, you could probably say that there is considerable entertainment value. The problem is that he is the president of the most powerful nation in the world,” Søvndal said.

Trump’s cancellation came, of course, after Denmark refused to sell Greenland to the US.

Donald Trump here, quoting right-wing conspiracy theorist Wayne Allen Root’s comments describing Trump as the “King of Israel” and “the second coming of god”.

Root is a far right crank who has a radio show. He was an early proponent of the racist Obama ‘birther’ campaign – which Trump jumped onto. Root also believed Obama was Muslim, and insisted the president was gay, and claimed 2017 Las Vegas shooting was a “muslim terror attack”.

Good morning and welcome to live coverage of the day’s political news.

•A number of prominent Republicans are preparing to challenge Donald Trump for the presidency. Former Ohio governor John Kasich, former Arizona senator Jeff Flake, former South Carolina governor Mark Sanford and former congressman Joe Walsh are each in various stages of weighing a run against Trump in the GOP primaries, according to the Washington Post.

•Flake and Kasich told the Post they had received a number of approaches from GOP donors encouraging them to run. The hastily convened surge for a non-Trump candidate has been prompted in part by fears over the economy. But despite the excitement over Trump being potentially ousted by a member of his own party, most of the mooted candidates acknowledge they are very unlikely to win.

•Jewish leaders have responded furiously to Donald Trump using an antisemitic trope to describe Jewish people who vote for Democrats. Halie Soifer, executive director of the Jewish Democratic Council of America, said the comments were “yet another example of Donald Trump continuing to weaponize and politicize antisemitism”, CNN reported, while the Jewish organization J Street called Trump’s remarks “dangerous and shameful”. On Tuesday Trump said Jewish Americans who for Democrats were guilty of “great disloyalty”, apparently suggesting Jewish Americans have dual loyalty to the US and Israel – a perception widely considered antisemitic.

•A Politico/Morning Consult poll has found Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders as the only candidates beating Trump in 2020. Biden leads Trump by 7% in the survey, with Sanders 5% ahead. Elizabeth Warren was tied with Trump, with most other Democrats trailing. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 2%.