18:19

President Trump told Leo Varadkar that he was confident the Irish border situation would be fine after Brexit because some “good minds” were working on it. He also said that in Britain he had met some “very good people” who were heavily involved in Brexit. (See 5.55pm.) He did not say who these very good minds were, or what their solution to the border problem was.

But we do know that yesterday afternoon, at the US ambassador’s residence in London, he met the Brexit party leader Nigel Farage and the Tory Brexiters Iain Duncan Smith and Owen Paterson. All three claim that there is no reason why the Irish border should be a problem after Brexit, even in the event of no-deal. And Duncan Smith and Paterson have been heavily promoting the “alternative arrangements” border plan promoted by the Tory European Research Group, a new version of which was published by Steve Baker earlier today. (See 3.37pm.)

So it is possible that Farage, Duncan Smith and Paterson were the “good minds” whose plan for the Irish border has impressed Trump.

But what do other experts think? Since the new ERG paper was published by Baker today, various experts have been commenting. And they have been damning.

David Henig, director of the UK Trade Policy Project, has written a Twitter thread about it starting here. He concludes by saying the plan amounts to a “total refusal to face up to the real world”.

David Henig (@DavidHenigUK) From Trump back to Brexit, and we have the treat of another paper from no-deal Brexiteers - "A Clean Managed Brexit" to be launched tomorrow.



Have they finally found the way forward?



Spoiler alert: No... 1/ pic.twitter.com/Pqf44tNVOg

And here is a Twitter thread from Steve Peers, a law professor. He says “anyone producing such dishonest [crap] in any other line of work would lose their professional reputation.”

Steve Peers (@StevePeers) This latest no deal Brexit paper is full of false or misleading statements. Surprise! I will supplement David's excellent comments with some comments of my own. https://t.co/TB46IjjQo3

And here is a Twitter threat from Peter Foster, the Telegraph’s Europe editor.

Peter Foster (@pmdfoster) So @SteveBakerHW has produced a 10-page 'no deal' manifesto - here's my report with analysis from @jdportes @SamuelMarcLowe @DavidHenigUK @MichaelAodhan



The plan is completely ludicrous - as others have attested - so what's the game? 1/threadhttps://t.co/rX6kcJsQVa

That is all from me for tonight.

My colleague Mattha Busby is now taking over.