President Donald Trump has returned to the US after a nine-day trip to Europe and the Middle East to meet a worsening domestic political crisis amid claims his his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, colluded with Russia.

President Trump declined to speak with media throughout his entire overseas sojourn after leaving the US facing accusations of trying to interfere with investigations into links between his presidential campaign and Russian interference in the 2016 US election.

Mr Kushner, who is married to Mr Trump’s daughter Ivanka and is a special adviser to the President, is facing an investigation into claims he spoke with Russia’s ambassador to the US, Sergey Kislyak, about establishing a secret channel between the presidential transition team and Moscow to discuss the war in Syria and other issues.

The discussion, first reported by the Washington Post, allegedly took place at Trump Tower during a December meeting that also included disgraced national security adviser Michael Flynn.

Mr Flynn was forced to resign when it emerged that he had misled Vice President Mike Pence and others about conversations he had with Mr Kislyak.

Mr Trump’s private legal team was preparing to meet in Washington to face new questions about contacts between Mr Kushner and representatives of Russian President Vladimir Putin, The New York Times reports.

And while Mr Trump has reportedly been told by lawyers to limit his Twitter posts to prevent them being used as evidence in any potential legal case, the President could not resist warning his more than 30-million followers against believing the “fake news” about his administration.

Mr Trump described news reports based on White House leaks as “fabricated lies made up by #FakeNews media”.

He went on to accuse “fake news writers” of making up the leaks to discredit him.

It is my opinion that many of the leaks coming out of the White House are fabricated lies made up by the #FakeNews media.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 28, 2017

….it is very possible that those sources don't exist but are made up by fake news writers. #FakeNews is the enemy!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 28, 2017

The allegations against Mr Kushner dominated an end-of-trip briefing for reporters in Taormina, Italy, where General H R McMaster, the President’s national security adviser, and economic adviser Gary Cohn, declined to comment on Mr Kushner.

“We have back-channel communications with any number of countries,” General McMaster said. “So, generally speaking, about back-channel communications, what that allows you to do is to communicate in a discreet manner. It doesn’t predispose you to any kind of content in that conversation.”

White House war room

The Washington Post reports the White House plans to take more aggressive action to combat the growing scandal surrounding alleged contacts between Trump associates and Russia.

The plan could reportedly include building a ‘war room’ within the White House to combat the scandal and feature the return of some of Mr Trump’s more combative campaign aides.

Corey Lewandowski, who was fired as campaign manager nearly a year ago, and David N. Bossie, who was deputy campaign manager and made his name in politics by investigating Bill and Hillary Clinton for two decades, are among proposed war room staffers, the Post reported.

Trump aides are also reportedly working to create a special communications team within the White House to separate the Russia investigations and related scandals from the administration’s day-to-day operations.

Under the planned shakeup, White House Press secretary Sean Spicer would take a diminished public role, while Mr. Trump would take more opportunities to engage directly with his supporters via campaign rallies, social media appearances such as Facebook Live videos, and interviews with friendly news organisations, the NYT reported.

– With agencies