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On Monday, the U.S President Donald Trump kicked off an important week of domestic and international developments. He attacked a film director’s Oscars speech as “racist” and becoming the subject of another sexual assault lawsuit. Trump went after Spike Lee, who used his Oscar acceptance speech to urge mobilization for the 2020 election in a tweet. He claimed the filmmaker did a “racist hit on your President.”

Trump then claimed that he had done more for African Americans than almost any other U.S President. It is noteworthy that Lee didn’t directly name Trump. He spoke regarding black history and his family history. He said his grandmother’s mother was a slave, before stressing the presidential election next year. Lee said on Sunday night’s awards show, “Let’s all be on the right side of history. Make the moral choice between love and hate”. The controversial tweets arrived the same day Trump faced a lawsuit alleging he abruptly grabbed a former campaign staffer’s hand and planted an unwanted kiss on her face during a Florida meeting with staff and volunteers.

Alva Johnson said in the federal lawsuit that Trump made the nonconsensual advance in August 2016 in Tampa, Florida. She said he grasped her hand and did not let go, and kissed her on the corner of her mouth as she turned slightly away. The lawsuit said, “The forced and unwanted kiss was deeply offensive to Alva Johnson”. It was also said that she suffered emotional distress, psychological trauma, humiliation, embarrassment, loss of dignity, invasion of privacy and other damages.

The lawsuit was first reported by The Washington Post. The White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders called Johnson’s allegations fabricated and said other people who were there say it didn’t take place. Sanders said, “This accusation is absurd on its face. This never happened and is directly contradicted by multiple highly credible eye witness accounts”. Trump departed on Air Force One on Monday afternoon for his upcoming second summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.