President snubs Democrats with ‘jaw-dropping’ walk-out

DONALD TRUMP pulled the plug on infrastructure talks with Democrats in spectacular fashion yesterday, storming out a meeting over their refusal to drop “phoney investigations” into his administration.

In what opponents described as jawdropping behaviour, the US president reportedly refused to shake hands at the White House talks, instead delivering a five-minute rebuke.

Mr Trump told the gathering of senior Democratic congressmen that he would not negotiate on new legislation, such as an infrastructure spending bill, unless their inquiries into his presidency were dropped.

The US president is said to have then left without waiting for a response, walking into a press conference in the White House’s Rose Garden which was unexpectedly called to accentuate his message.

Mr Trump said that Democrats could either “go down the investigation track or you can go down the investment track”.

He pinpointed a comment by Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic leader of the House of Representatives, who earlier in the day had accused Mr Trump of overseeing a “cover-up”, as a trigger for his move.

However Democrats pushed back, with Ms Pelosi accusing Mr Trump of “taking a pass” on infrastructure. She said: “He really couldn’t match the greatness of the challenge that we had.”

Chuck Schumer, the most senior Democrat in the Senate, who also attended the meeting, said Mr Trump’s actions were not “spontaneous” but “planned”, noting that the room’s curtains were drawn and that Mr Trump displayed a pre-printed list of facts regarding the Mueller report.