Defiant Trump says impeachment delivers him an 'angry majority'

A combative US President Donald Trump told supporters in his electoral stronghold of Mississippi on Friday that a push to impeach him is driving an "angry" Republican surge ahead of 2020.

"We've never had greater support than we have right now," Trump claimed in front of thousands of cheering supporters in a packed arena in Tupelo.

The latest average of polls shows only 40.9% of Americans approve of Trump, but the fired-up president clearly sees his core base as essential to his political survival - and reelection next year.

He called impeachment proceedings against him in the Democratic-led House of Representatives "an attack on democracy itself."

"But I tell you the Republicans are really strong," he said, touting the emergence of "an angry majority."

The rally in Tupelo was Trump's first since the House voted overwhelmingly - but along sharply divided party lines - to put the impeachment probe on a formal track.

That vote Thursday set in motion a likely unstoppable drive toward Trump becoming only the third American president to be impeached.

He is accused of abusing his office by withholding military aid to pressure Ukraine into opening a corruption probe against one of his...