US politics live: Trump's wild question: ‘Volodomyr, can you hit Moscow?'
Donald Trump's decision to allow more US weaponry to be sent to Ukraine and his imposition of a 50-day deadline on Russia to come to a ceasefire continues to ricochet around Washington.
Ardent Trump backer but even more enthusiastic isolationist congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene has slammed the support for Ukraine.
'Without a shadow of a doubt, our tax dollars are being used,' she said, despite the US president's insistence other NATO members would pay for weapons systems.
It's now been reported that Mr Trump asked Ukraine's President Volodomyr Zelensky earlier this month if he could 'hit Moscow' to make Russians 'feel the pain'.
'Absolutely. We can if you give us the weapons,' was the reply.
While Ukraine has hit Russia's capital with drones, hitting it with US made weapons would be an escalation.
Disquiet continues within Republicans over the White House's insistence there is nothing more to see from the Jeffrey Epstein files.
Influential Republican and Mr Trump's daughter-in-law Lara Trump has said that the White House needs to show 'more transparency' over its handling of the investigation into Epstein.
Meanwhile, Mr Trump has gone on a missive against one of his most prominent critics.
He said Democratic Senator Adam Schiff was being investigated for 'possible mortgage fraud' and he 'always suspected... he was a scam artist'.
Mr Schiff said it was a 'baseless attempt at political retribution'.
Read on for more updates.
Originally published as US politics live: Trump's wild question: 'Volodomyr, can you hit Moscow?'
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There are nine nuclear-armed countries in the world: the US, UK, France, China, Russia, North Korea, Pakistan, India and Israel, which does not publicly acknowledge possessing nuclear weapons. Asked specifically what Australia, which is not a member of NATO but a partner country, should do in light of China's nuclear build-up, Mr Stokes recommended deepening engagement with NATO and drawing the United States, Australia's top security ally, closer. 'I would say for Australia, while it's good to have dialogue with other Indo-Pacific nations and European nations and other nations from around the world, talk to the United States, continue to cultivate that bilateral relationship there,' he said. 'And if it's a discussion about nuclear issues, that's the power that you should be talking to. 'Engage with the United States and have an understanding about how it is thinking through nuclear strategy and posture, doctrine and capabilities. 'In much the same way, the US has had a more structured dialogue with Japan and also with South Korea in recent years about nuclear issues. 'It's similar in the way that we have consultation mechanisms within NATO about nuclear issues. 'That's one way non-nuclear states can have a better understanding of these things and also some influence or some input into the decision making of nuclear powers by having those relationships and being able to talk about these things, to be able to have their input into, say, policies or any decisions that may be made, and then also be able to better explain it to their own populations.' He also urged engagement with NATO to show combined political will and come up with ways to 'tackle some of these really hard deterrent and defence challenges that we face.' Prime Minister Anthony Albanese skipped NATO this year for the second year in a row, despite being one of only four leaders from the Indo-Pacific invited to the annual leaders' summit. He has taken two international trips since his 94-seat landslide, opting to meet the Pope at the Vatican and last week spending six days in China visiting President Xi Jinping with his fiancée Jodie Haydon, to promote deepening business and tourism ties with Beijing. By contrast, he has not visited the White House or met Donald Trump since his re-election last November and inauguration in January. The opposition's foreign spokeswoman, Senator Michaelia Cash urged the Prime Minister to strengthen, and not diminish, the US Alliance. 'We have known for some time that the world faces myriad strategic challenges,' Senator Cash said. 'Mr Albanese has said we live in the most dangerous strategic circumstances since World War II. 'The Opposition has continually called on Mr Albanese to do two things – lift Australia's spending on defence and focus his international attention on securing the AUKUS alliance. 'At a time of global uncertainty, now is a time to strengthen the US-Australia alliance by building our influence in Washington, not diminishing it.' The Prime Minister's Office declined to comment when asked if Mr Albanese raised China's nuclear build-up with President Xi during last week's marathon trip. Mr Stokes said China remained coy on why it was building such an enormous stockpile in peacetime and that while Beijing claimed to have a 'no first-use' policy of using nuclear weapons, it was to be treated with scepticism. 'That buildup … and the diversity of weapons and the delivery systems and why, what is that really for?' Mr Stokes said. 'They're not going to pull some document off the shelf and say, what did it say, what did Chairman Mao talk about back in the 1960s? 'They tried to use that to promote the fact that their nuclear deterrent is peaceful, but then they're using it to obfuscate the fact that they're also building up. 'Ultimately, I believe that decision-making is made by the Chinese President, and so I don't know that any leader is going to feel beholden to some doctrine that's written somewhere. 'They're going to make decisions perhaps in a crisis situation or even a conflict situation based on the advice that they're given, based on their own beliefs.' He said, unlike Western nuclear powers, the US, UK and France, China had never engaged in bilateral arms control talks, risk reduction measures or hotlines. 'There's a lot more that we could do with China if they had it in their interest, but they've shown they're clearly not willing to do that,' he said. Earlier this month, Foreign Minister Penny Wong told the Institute for Strategic and International Studies on the sidelines of the ASEAN summit in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia that China was projecting its military power further into the region. 'And we have seen the worrying pace of China's nuclear and conventional military buildup without the transparency that the region expects,' Senator Wong said.
