The president has long been a defender of the powerful NRA

Donald Trump has failed to inspire confidence in his handling of Hurricane Dorian, returning to his Virginia golf course on Labor Day after wrongly warning the storm could come as far inland as Alabama and claiming never to have previously heard of a Category 5 natural disaster, despite this being the fourth of his presidency.

With Dorian causing devastation in the Bahamas and bringing mass evacuations to Florida, Georgia and South Carolina, Mr Trump has been branded “the global poster-boy for white nationalism” by London mayor Sadiq Khan and is under renewed pressure to take meaningful steps on gun control following the latest mass shooting in Texas.

The president had also spent his Saturday playing 18 holes after ducking out of Second World War commemorations in Poland and on Sunday resumed old Twitter beefs with ex-FBI director James Comey and the Federal Reserve and started a new one by attacking Will & Grace star Debra Messing.