Trump calls off his South America visit

United States President Donald Trump has called off his planned trip this weekend to South America, announced the White House.

"At the president's request, the vice-president will travel in his stead. The president will remain in the United States to oversee the American response to and to monitor developments around the world," the Guardian reported, citing, a statement issued by the White House press secretary, Sarah Sanders.

According to the reports, Trump met with the military officials in the White House on Monday evening to deliberate over the administration's response to an alleged chemical weapons attack carried out by Syrian President Bashar Assad's government against its own people.

US response to a chemical weapons attack in Syria was imminent, the US President said on Monday.

The development also comes a day after the FBI raided the office of Trump's personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, based on information amassed in Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation of Russian meddling in the 2016 election.

He branded the raid as "an attack on our country in a true sense . an attack on what we all stand for" and also called it a it a "political witch hunt".

On that note, Vice-president Mike Pence will represent the United States at the eighth Summit of the Americas at President Trump's request, the report said.