Impeachment is ‘lynching’

US President Donald Trump yesterday likened the impeachment investigation against him to a "lynching," a racially charged word from the darkest days of America's slavery legacy.

There was an immediate backlash to Trump's tweet in which he claimed that impeachment was unfair and stripping him of his legal rights.

"All Republicans must remember what they are witnessing here -- a lynching. But we will WIN!," Trump tweeted.

Kristen Clarke, president of the National Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, said she was "sickened to see Trump's gross misappropriation of this term today."

Clarke said that 4,743 people were lynched in the United States between 1882 and 1968, of which 3,446 were African Americans.

Trump is being investigated for possible impeachment in the Democratic-led House of Representatives over his alleged abuse of office. He is counting on the Republican-dominated Senate to acquit him if the House does vote to impeach.

Trump on Monday said his much-criticized attempt to stage the G7 at one of his golf courses was not intended to promote his business brand, arguing he's too famous to "need promotion."

"They say, 'Oh, you get promotion.' You don't think I get enough promotion? I get more promotion than any human being that's ever lived," Trump said at a meeting of his cabinet in the White House. "I don't need promotion."

His critcs accuse him of corruption over his proposal to arrange the summit at his resort. But Trump lashed out at accusations of corruption.

He noted that he gives away his presidential salary of about $450,000 and insisted that being president has personally cost him between $2-$5 billion in lost business revenues -- a calculation that has not been independently tested.

"I don't care. If you're rich, it doesn't matter," Trump said. "I'm doing this for the country."