"And by the way, you know all of the rhetoric, 'Thousands points of light', What the hell was that?" Trump asked his audience. "What does that mean?" "I know one thing: 'Make America Great Again' we understand. 'Putting America First' we understand. 'Thousand points of light?' I never got that one. What the hell is that? Has anyone figured that out? It was put out by a Republican." President Donald Trump gave a freewheeling speech at a rally in Montana. Credit:AP In his inaugural speech in January 1989, George H. W. Bush promoted the virtues of volunteerism, saying: "I have spoken of a thousand points of light, of all the community organisations that are spread like stars throughout the nation, doing good." He used the "thousand points of light" phrase frequently after that.

Bush and former first lady Barbara Bush, who died in April, created the Points of Light Foundation for volunteerism in 1990. Trump also lobbed personal and derogatory attacks at two Democratic senators and vouched for President Vladimir Putin of Russia during the raucous rally ostensibly intended to solidify support for Montana's Republican Senate candidate. George H.W. Bush (in wheelchair) used the "thousand points of light" slogan to encourage volunteerism. Credit:AP Taunting Warren with a refusal to apologise for calling her "Pocahontas", Trump imagined a debate during which he would gently throw an ancestry testing kit at Warren to make her prove the Native American heritage she has controversially claimed. "We are going to do it gently because we're the #MeToo generation, so we have to be very careful," Trump said to scattered laughter, adding that he would donate $US1 million to charity if Warren followed through.

Trump, who has faced accusations of sexual assault and harassment, announced earlier in the day that Bill Shine, who was ousted from Fox News over his handling of the network's harassment scandals, would take a position on his administration's communications staff. Loading Trump was in Montana, he unabashedly told the crowd, to settle a political score with Senator Jon Tester, a Democrat who is tangled in a tough re-election campaign with Matt Rosendale, the state auditor. The President blamed Tester for the failed nomination of Dr Ronny L. Jackson as head of the Veterans Affairs Department because he raised concerns about Jackson's professional conduct. "Jon Tester said things that were horrible and that weren't true," Trump said, even as he conceded that he had pushed a reluctant Jackson to accept the nomination and endure the confirmation process. "That's probably why I'm here. I won Montana by so many points, I don't have to come here."

Trump eventually broadened his verbal assault to include a number of familiar Washington opponents: the news media ("75 per cent of those people are downright dishonest"), his own Justice Department (Hillary Clinton "gets special treatment") and Maxine Waters (a "low IQ individual"). "Democrats want anarchy, they really do," Trump said. "And they don't know who they're playing with, folks." Loading As the crowd cheered and pounded on the bleachers during the roughly 70-minute speech, Trump embellished on his favourite exaggerations and falsehoods, including his margin of victory in the Electoral College, the country's trade deficits and crowd size. He teased the announcement of his Supreme Court pick and a possible slogan for his 2020 campaign. He complained about negative coverage of his relationship with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, claiming that President Barack Obama "would have loved" to have had a meeting with Kim. And he slammed critics who suggested that he was not prepared for his coming meeting with Putin in Finland, dismissing Putin's background as a head of Russia's intelligence service.

"Putin's fine," Trump said. "He's fine. We're all fine. We're people. Will I be prepared? Totally prepared. I've been preparing for this stuff my whole life." "Getting along with Russia, and getting along with China and getting along with other countries, is a good thing," he added, "not a bad thing." Washington Post, New York Times