US President Donald Trump‘s speech to Congress has set a new Twitter record. Picture: AFP/Brendan Smialowski

The White House counsel’s office handed down the order on Tuesday in a memo to aides, AP reports.

The move comes after Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee asked the White House and law enforcement agencies to keep materials related to Trump associates’ alleged ties to Russia.

Separately, the Senate Intelligence Committee last month asked federal agencies to keep materials that tie into its investigation into Russian cyber hacking and other efforts to disrupt the election.

Democrats have feared that the White House could try to hide the extent of its links to Moscow.

“The downfall does not come from the crime, it comes from the cover-up, and that’s what we’re dealing with now,” Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) told Bloomberg.

President Donald Trump addresses a joint session of Congress on Capitol Hill in Washington. Picture: APSource:AP

Trump has been dogged by allegations of improper ties to Russia during his first weeks in office.

Retired Army Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn resigned as national security adviser last month because he misled Vice President Pence and others about the nature of his conversations with Russia’s ambassador to the U.S. before Trump’s inauguration.

Some Trump campaign advisers are reportedly under federal investigation over their alleged links to Russian intelligence operatives. They have denied any such ties.

The president himself has dismissed the charges.

“Nobody that I know of,” Trump said at a mid-February news conference when asked if anyone who advised his campaign had ties to Russia.

Investigators are reportedly looking into whether anyone tied to Trump colluded with Russia as it hacked emails from Democratic political groups and arranged for them to be published online, an effort U.S. intelligence agencies said was designed to help Trump and hurt Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.

No proof of collusion has been found.

SPEECH BREAKS TWITTER RECORD

DONALD Trump loves Twitter — and Twitter has returned the compliment.

The US president’s speech to a joint session of Congress last night set a new record on the social media site.

Three million tweets were sent about Mr Trump’s maiden speech, making it the most tweeted speech by a president to Congress in the relatively short history of the platform. The previous mark was 2.6 million tweets.

The figures come amid reports his eldest daughter, Ivanka Trump, helped him craft the speech.

The top tweeted moment was the Republican’s call to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. That was followed by Mr Trump’s salute to Carryn Owens, the widow of Senior Chief William “Ryan” Owens, who was killed last month in Yemen.

The top people tweeted about were the president (@POTUS), Speaker Paul Ryan (@SpeakerRyan), and Carryn Owens, who wept as she was given a standing ovation.

The most retweeted tweet, according to Twitter? It was one by President Trump, beginning with the phrase “We are one people, with one destiny.”

Google says the top trending question users asked during the night was “who wrote Donald Trump’s speech?” People alo wanted to know how tall the president is and whether he’s a Democrat or a Republican.

One of the top people tweeted about was Carryn Owens (right) the wife of slain Navy SEAL William ‘Ryan’ Owens. Picture: AFP/Mandel NganSource:AFP

Observers say Mr Trump’s speech to Congress was the most powerful address of his short political career, making him for the first time appear presidential.

Hailing the emergence of a “new national pride”, Mr Trump pushed for tough immigration enforcement as the key to delivering jobs and security, even pointing to Australia’s “merit-based” system.

“A new chapter of American greatness is now beginning,” he declared, after arriving to cheers and wild acclaim from members of the Republican-led House of Representatives and Senate.

IVANKA ‘HELPED DAD CRAFT SPEECH’

Mr Trump’s daughter Ivanka played an influential role in crafting her father’s speech — one that got positive reviews for making him sound presidential and inspiring, according to a report.

“The speech was all [Stephen] Miller, but Ivanka worked hard on it with him on many of the parts, especially affirming that the president’s desire to have an uplifting and aspirational speech was right. … Notice the focus on women’s health,” Axios reported on Wednesday, citing a senior administration official.

FASHION MISSTEP: Ivanka’s $4000 gown rankles viewers

While Mr Trump’s first speech hit all the main themes, such as immigration and national security, it also signalled a more unifying and inclusive administration.

“Ivanka was working with Miller in his office in the afternoon of the speech, including the paragraph on paid family leave … women’s health … clean air and clean water,” the website reported.

Ivanka Trump, pictured with her husband Jared Kushner, reportedly helped her dad craft his first speech to Congress. Picture: AFP/Mandel NganSource:AFP

ALEC BALDWIN FINDS A NEW WAY TO MOCK TRUMP

The actor is teaming with author Kurt Andersen on the satirical book “You Can’t Spell America Without Me: The Really Tremendous Inside Story of My Fantastic First Year as President Donald J. Trump,” Penguin Press announced on Wednesday.

The book is scheduled to come out on November 7, almost exactly a year to the day that Mr Trump stunned the world by being elected president, and ensured many more appearances by Baldwin as Trump on Saturday Night Live.

Alec Baldwin impersonates President Donald Trump on Saturday Night Live. Picture: Will Heath/NBC via APSource:AP

NEW TRAVEL BAN TO DROP IRAQ

President Trump’s new immigration order will remove Iraq from the list of countries whose citizens face a temporary US travel ban, US officials said, citing the latest draft in circulation. Mr Trump is expected to sign the executive order in the coming days.

Four officials told the Associated Press that the decision followed pressure from the Pentagon and State Department, which had urged the White House to reconsider Iraq’s inclusion given its key role in fighting Islamic State.

Citizens of six other predominantly Muslim countries — Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen — will remain on the travel ban list, said the officials. Those bans are effective for 90 days.

The officials said the 12-page document no longer singles out Syrian refugees for an indefinite ban and instead includes them as part of a general, 120-day suspension of new refugee admissions.

The officials also said the order won’t include any explicit exemption for religious minorities in the countries targeted by the travel ban. Critics had accused the administration of adding such language to help Christians get into the United States while excluding Muslims.