Donald Trump appears to have targeted Australia with his latest threat from America to the rest of the world.

Welcome to our coverage of US politics.

Donald Trump claimed on Monday that “a lot of people” have said “maybe we’d like a dictator”.

He has insisted he isn’t one. But the bizarre comments will be chilling to those who claim Mr Trump has autocratic tendencies.

Mr Trump hosted the president of South Korea, Lee Jae-myung, on Monday in the White House.

There he took the opportunity to gush over North Korean dictator Kim-Jong Un calling him “very friendly”.

France has called the US ambassador in for a dressing down.

The US envoy wrote a letter to French President Emmanuel Macron accusing France of not taking “sufficient action” on anti-Semitism. France’s foreign minister said the ambassador’s criticism was “unacceptable”.

Meanwhile, the face of Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown has been taken into custody by immigration agents just days after he was set free.

Kilmar Abrego Garcia had been sent in error to El Salvador’s notorious CECOT jail for alleged gang members.

The US, which alleges Mr Garcia is indeed a gang member and people smuggler, eventually brought him back. He was released on Friday and reunited with his family near Washington DC.

But at a Monday meeting with immigration officials he was placed behind bars once again with the White House seemingly determined to deport Mr Garcia.