Trump team makes formal complaint about Biden-Harris campaign funds; Sanders denounces Netanyahu visit – live

Ex-president’s campaign claims money going to Harris is ‘$91.5m heist’; senator makes impassioned speech on eve of Israeli leader’s visit

Harris will not preside over the chamber when when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses a joint meeting of Congress on Wednesday.

According to an aide, she will meet with Netanyahu at the White House at some point this week. On Wednesday, Harris is scheduled to be in Indianapolis to moderate a conversation with the Zeta Phi Beta sorority, Inc, one of the nation’s oldest Black sororities.

Continue reading...

Ukraine targets bipartisan support to avoid being dragged into US election

Kyiv indicates it will keep reaching out to Republicans and Democrats, as Zelenskiy pays tribute to Biden

Ukraine will continue to reach out to Republicans and Democrats and avoid being sucked into US internal politics, and a bruising probable contest between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris, officials in Kyiv indicated on Monday.

Its president, Volodymyr Zelenksiy, paid a warm tribute to the departing Joe Biden on Sunday, thanking him for his “unwavering support”. He praised the US president’s “bold steps” taken in response to “challenging times” and Russia’s 2022 invasion.

Continue reading...

Trump leads Republican taunts of Biden after president drops out of 2024 race

Former president and other Republicans say Biden is ‘not fit to serve’, with some saying he should resign immediately

Donald Trump’s vicious attack on Joe Biden and his legacy led the Republican party’s reaction to the president’s decision to withdraw from the 2024 race.

“Crooked Joe Biden was not fit to run for president, and is certainly not fit to serve – and never was!” Trump, the Republican nominee, said in a post to Truth Social, repeating his favored insult for the man who beat him in the 2020 election, and rehashing a familiar litany of unsubstantiated grievances.

Continue reading...

Trump attacks Biden and Harris in first rally since assassination attempt

In first rally with running mate JD Vance, ex-president jibes at leadership chaos within Democratic party

Donald Trump launched a full-throated attack on Democratic rivals Joe Biden and Kamala Harris in Grand Rapids, Michigan, on Saturday as he returned to the campaign trail a week after surviving an assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania.

In his first rally since the shocking shooting, and his first with new running mate Ohio senator JD Vance, Trump appeared on stage with the conspicuous white ear bandage he wore during the Republican national convention replaced by a smaller covering. He referred to the assassination attempt as a “horrific event” and said he stood before supporters “by the grace of God. I shouldn’t be here, but let’s face it, something very special happened.”

Continue reading...

Trump to hold first public campaign event since assassination attempt

The former president and his running mate, JD Vance, will hold a joint rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan

Republican nominee Donald Trump will hold his first public campaign rally since a shocking assassination attempt a week ago by appearing in a crucial rust belt battleground state alongside his new running mate, Ohio senator JD Vance.

The return to the campaign trail by Trump comes after the attempted killing of the former US president at a Pennsylvania rally last Saturday when a 20-year-old gunman opened fire, injuring Trump and others and killing one rally-goer.

Continue reading...

European divisions risk incoherent response to any second Trump term

Optimists say administration would be open to persuasion while sceptics say it is beyond time to Trump-proof Europe

To be a foreign diplomat serving in the US, charged with interpreting the country’s politics so it appears predictable and explicable to your political masters in Europe, is currently no easy job.

In a week where Donald Trump purported to address the nation as a self-aware, reflective and thoughtful Christian, before reverting to type with a slew of diatribes, and where he announced a vice-presidential pick who has openly stated he does not care about the future of Ukraine one way or the other, events have moved at a pace that even the most tapped-in of ambassadors and their staff would struggle to keep up with.

Continue reading...

Republican convention featured felons despite party’s ‘law and order’ pledge

Trump and Peter Navarro – fresh out of Florida jail – both addressed convention with Paul Manafort in attendance

The Republican party that promised in its 2024 policy platform to restore “law and order” as a “pillar” of “American civilisation” packed up and left Milwaukee on Friday after a convention featuring numerous felons.

The most prominent was the keynote speaker: Donald Trump, the former president turned nominee who in May was convicted in New York on 34 criminal charges of falsifying business records arising from hush-money payments to an adult film star.

Continue reading...

More Democrats call for Biden to exit 2024 race as president vows to return to campaign trail – as it happened

This live blog is now closed. For the latest on Biden’s campaign, you can read:

The report is consequential because Biden relies heavily on his family to make major political decisions. They are his inner circle and his brain trust and include his wife, Jill Biden, his only living son, Hunter Biden, and his sister, Valerie Biden.

Behind the scenes, those close to Biden, his family and top allies, are reportedly seething over the way he is being treated. They believe the effort to dislodge him from the campaign has been “backhanded and disrespectful” according to the NBC report, which says the family is “distraught and moving through the stages of anger and grief over how people they perceived to be friends have treated the president”.

Continue reading...

When is Trump’s RNC speech? How to watch and what’s at stake

The former president will speak from the Republican national convention in Milwaukee on Thursday night

The biggest event of the Republican convention kicks off Thursday night, with Donald Trump’s address to thousands of party loyalists in attendance.

Trump appeared at the opening night of the Republican national convention on Monday, when he was greeted with thunderous applause, marking his first public appearance since surviving an assassination attempt at his campaign rally. Earlier in the day, Trump announced JD Vance, the Ohio senator and once vocal critic of Trump, as his running mate.

Continue reading...

Donald Trump to give RNC speech as Joe Biden faces ongoing pressure to stand aside – US politics live

Former president to address RNC after his running mate JD Vance gave populist-tinged speech on Wednesday

Sidney Blumenthal, former senior adviser to President Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton, has written a column for the Guardian, arguing that Trump’s near assassination transformed his theology, giving the decidedly earthly ex-president a powerful spiritual sheen.

The attempted assassination of Donald Trump has transformed the theology of Trump. He has long portrayed himself as an innocent lamb falsely accused, the target of slings and arrows to bear the suffering of believers. Now the bullet and the blood of Butler, Pennsylvania, have sanctified him for the faithful and brought forth a new gospel.

Continue reading...

Lammy says Christianity and class give him common ground with JD Vance

UK foreign secretary says he has talked to Trump running mate as he seeks to build bridges with senior Republicans

UK politics live – latest updates

David Lammy has said he is already engaging with Donald Trump’s controversial running mate, JD Vance, and can identify with him because of their common working class and Christian backgrounds.

The British foreign secretary was speaking just hours after the possible future US vice-president reiterated his “America first” views, pledging to the Republican national convention (RNC) that he would not send US soldiers to war abroad unnecessarily.

Continue reading...

Trump expected to call for national unity in first speech since assassination attempt

Strategists view Republican convention address as time to ‘pivot’ ex-president’s image, while critics remain skeptical

With political winds at his back, Donald Trump on Thursday is expected to use his first speech since surviving an assassination attempt to plead for national unity.

Strategists view the Republican national convention address, likely to be watched by tens of millions of Americans on primetime television, as a unique opportunity to redefine the former US president as more palatable to moderate voters.

Continue reading...

JD Vance tells Republican convention ‘people who govern this country have failed and failed again’ – as it happened

This live blog is now closed. You can read some of our latest stories on the RNC below:

In his speech to the Republican convention, Greg Abbott gave a strenuous and well-received defense of his state’s forays into immigration enforcement, and vowed to keep up his controversial practice of bussing migrants from the state to cities nationwide.

“When Biden took 50 acres of Texas border property to illegally process up to 5,000 illegal immigrants a day, I directed the Texas National Guard to take back our land and wire it shut,” Abbott said, in an apparent reference to a legal clash between the state government and the Biden administration earlier this year.

Joe Biden and Kamala Harris refused to even come to Texas and to see the border crisis that they created. I took the border to them. I began bussing illegal immigrants to Washington DC, and we have continued bussing migrants to sanctuary cities across the entire country, and those busses will continue to roll until we finally secure our border.

Continue reading...

Biden hasn’t done enough to ease age concerns, former top Obama adviser says – live

David Axelrod, former top Obama adviser, says the question of whether Biden can survive is ‘entirely in his hands’

Today’s theme at the Republican national convention will be “Make America Strong Once Again,” and many of the speeches are expected to focus on foreign policy.

“Each one of these has a theme, like last night was ‘bend the knee and grovel’ apparently,” Tim Walz, the governor of Minnesota, said at a Democratic press conference in Milwaukee. “And today is ‘celebrate Russia day,’ I guess.”

Continue reading...

Man who tried to assassinate Reagan says ‘violence is not the way to go’

John Hinckley Jr tweets ‘give peace a chance’ in wake of Trump assassination attempt – drawing bemused responses

John Hinckley Jr, who attempted to assassinate Ronald Reagan in 1981, has waded into the discourse around the recent attempted assassination of Donald Trump in a social media post seemingly disavowing his own past actions.

“Violence is not the way to go. Give peace a chance,” Hinckley wrote on X on Wednesday, sentiments that drew a welter of bemused and often ironic responses.

Continue reading...

Republican convention speakers ramp up anti-Democratic rhetoric despite campaign promise of unity

Kari Lake attacks media as ‘fake news’ as Elise Stefanik calls Biden ‘feckless and failed’ and says he’s caused ‘chaos’

Speakers at the Republican national convention ramped up their rhetorical attacks on Democrats on Tuesday night despite Donald Trump’s presidential campaign signalling that the party would adopt a serious tone and message of unity in the face of political violence.

Kari Lake, a Trump ally and Republican candidate for senate in Arizona, used her speech time to launch an attack on the media, which she called “fake news”, and said more Americans were no longer tuning in to mainstream media.

Continue reading...

Labour rejects JD Vance ‘first Islamist country with nuclear weapons’ remarks

Deputy PM Angela Rayner says she does not recognise Donald Trump running mate’s ‘characterisation’ of Britain

Senior Labour figures have rejected comments by Donald Trump’s vice-presidential pick, JD Vance, that the UK could become the first “truly Islamist country that will get a nuclear weapon” under the party.

They were reacting to comments that were made by Vance, a junior senator for the state of Ohio who has been announced as Trump’s running mate, at a conference for US conservatives.

Continue reading...

‘Not welcome in our city’: protesters march on Republican convention

Coalition of progressive groups wave Palestinian flags and anti-Trump banners on protest in downtown Milwaukee

As the Republican national convention kicked off in Milwaukee on Monday, about a thousand people led a spirited demonstration against Donald Trump and his party on the streets outside.

The March on the RNC gathered in a park a couple of blocks from the Fiserv Forum, where Trump was formally nominated at the Republican candidate for president.

Continue reading...

Who is JD Vance, Trump’s vice-presidential pick?

Once an outspoken Trump critic, the senator believes the former US president is the ‘best president’ of his ‘lifetime’

Donald Trump has selected JD Vance, the junior senator of Ohio and author of the bestselling memoir Hillbilly Elegy, as his running mate in the presidential race.

The announcement, made on Monday during the first day of the Republican national convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, marked the culmination of Vance’s stunning political evolution over the past several years.

Continue reading...

Trump picks JD Vance as his running mate – live

Donald Trump has announced that Ohio senator JD Vance will be his running mate

President Joe Biden has postponed a planned trip to Texas today, where he was to speak on the 60th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act at the Lyndon B Johnson presidential library.

An NBC News interview between Biden and anchor Lester Holt will now occur at the White House, instead of in Texas, as initially planned, Associated Press reports.

There is no place in America for this kind of violence or for any violence for that matter.

An assassination attempt is contrary to everything we stand for as a nation. Everything. It’s not who we are as a nation. It’s not America, and we cannot allow this to happen.

Continue reading...