Category Archives: Donald Trump

Trump threatens to prosecute Bidens if he’s re-elected unless he gets immunity

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Time magazine called the ex-president’s plans ‘an imperial presidency that would reshape America and its role in the world’

Donald Trump has warned that Joe Biden and his family could face multiple criminal prosecutions once he leaves office unless the US supreme court awards Trump immunity in his own legal battles with the criminal justice system.

In a sweeping interview with Time magazine, Trump painted a startling picture of his second term, from how he would wield the justice department to hinting he may let states monitor pregnant women to enforce abortion laws.

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Michael Cohen said ‘I’ll just do it myself’ after delay of Stormy Daniels payment, her ex-lawyer tells court – as it happened

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This live blog is now closed. You can read our latest reports from the trial here:

Right now, prosecutor Rebecca Mangold is continuing to question banker Gary Farro about documents associated with Michael Cohen’s LLC, Essential Consultants, for which he opened a bank account.

Remember: prosecutors said that Cohen used Essential Consultants to funnel money to Stormy Daniels’ lawyer, to bury her account for an extramarital sexual encounter with Donald Trump.

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House Democratic leaders announce opposition to attempt to remove Johnson as speaker – live

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The top House Democrats, including minority leader Hakeem Jeffries, say they will oppose any attempt from far-right Republican to vacate Mike Johnson as speaker

Deputy White House press secretary Andrew Bates has condemned protesters’ usage of the word “intifada” and their takeover of a building on Columbia University’s campus, saying the action was “not peaceful”:

President Biden has stood against repugnant, Antisemitic smears and violent rhetoric his entire life. He condemns the use of the term ‘intifada,’ as he has the other tragic and dangerous hate speech displayed in recent days. President Biden respects the right to free expression, but protests must be peaceful and lawful. Forcibly taking over buildings is not peaceful – it is wrong. And hate speech and hate symbols have no place in America.

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Trump trial enters third week with Michael Cohen’s ex-banker testifying

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Ex-president held in contempt of court while private banker Gary Farro to resume testimony

Donald Trump’s New York criminal trial enters its third week on Tuesday morning with additional testimony from a private banker, Gary Farro, who last week described financial maneuvering related to the ex-president’s alleged catch-and-kill scheme.

First, however, the ex-president was held in contempt of court and fined $9,000 for violating a gag order. Judge Juan Merchan wrote in an order released moments after he announced the fine that Trump was found “in criminal contempt for willfully disobeying a lawful mandate of this court … on nine separate occasions”.

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Miami Grand Prix organizers stop plans for Trump fundraiser in luxury suite

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Trump associate Steven Witkoff allegedly planned to host a $250,000-a-head soiree at an upcoming Formula One race

Officials with the Miami Grand Prix recently halted a Donald Trump presidential campaign fundraiser being planned for the upcoming Formula One race, sending a cease-and-desist letter to its organizer.

A Miami Grand Prix representative notified Steven Witkoff, a close friend of Trump, that Witkoff would not be allowed to use a suite at the race to fundraise for the former president, the Washington Post first reported.

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Kristi Noem defends killing dog: ‘Cricket had shown aggressive behavior’

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South Dakota governor says she ‘understands why some people are upset’ about story of shooting family puppy but points to state law

Kristi Noem, the South Dakota governor and Republican vice-presidential hopeful, on Sunday again defended killing a family dog and goat on her farm, two days after the Guardian revealed how she describes those actions in a forthcoming book.

“I can understand why some people are upset about a 20-year-old story of Cricket, one of the working dogs at our ranch, in my upcoming book – No Going Back,” Noem wrote on Twitter/X.

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Conservatives condemn Kristi Noem for ‘twisted’ admission of killing dog

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Revelation in new book that possible Trump running mate killed ‘untrainable’ hunting dog prompts widespread revulsion

Conservative pundits have condemned the South Dakota governor and possible Trump running mate Kristi Noem, amid widespread horror over her admission in a new book that she killed both an “untrainable” dog and an unruly goat during a single day in hunting season.

Alyssa Farah Griffin, a Trump White House staffer turned critic, said: “I’m a dog lover and I am honestly horrified by the Kristi Noem excerpt. I wish I hadn’t even read it. A 14-month-old dog is still a puppy and can be trained. A large part of bad behaviour in dogs is not having proper training from humans.

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Hush-money trial live: Trump appears to repeat call for lifting of gag order after Pecker testimony ends

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Ex-president rails against ban on attacking key people connected to the trial; longtime Trump assistant asked whether boss distracted while signing checks

Trump defense attorney Emil Bove has resumed his cross-examination of Pecker.

“We were talking about Hope Hicks, right?” Bove asked, referring to the former campaign and White House aide to Trump. Pecker answered in the affirmative.

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David Pecker testifies Michael Cohen said Trump ‘furious’ over refusal to pay Stormy Daniels – as it happened

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This live blog is now closed. You can read our latest stories here:

“He said she was a 12 out of 10,” David Pecker says the former editor in chief of the National Enquirer, Dylan Howard, told him about Karen McDougal after meeting with her.

Pecker says McDougal told Howard she didn’t want her story about Trump to be published. He says:

She said she didn’t want to be the next Monica Lewinsky … She wanted to restart her career.

Dylan came to me in early June of 2016 and said that he received a call from one of his major sources, in California, that there’s a Playboy model who is trying to sell a story about a relationship that she had with Donald Trump for a year.

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David Pecker, Trump’s ‘eyes and ears’, to resume testimony in hush-money trial

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Former National Enquirer publisher says he helped Trump to suppress negative stories that threatened 2016 election campaign

The former tabloid publisher David Pecker will continue testimony at Donald Trump’s New York criminal trial on Thursday, following his testimony earlier in the week.

Pecker, the former chief executive of American Media, which publishes the National Enquirer, testified that he used his position to help Trump kill negative stories that threatened his campaign.

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‘Waiting for Trump’: Viktor Orbán hopes US election will change his political fortunes

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Exclusive: Hungary’s PM and EU’s most isolated leader says he is pursuing ‘friendship with everybody’ – particularly the former US president

Europe’s most isolated leader was beaming.

Standing in a hallway in Brussels, Viktor Orbán, the Hungarian prime minister, spoke excitedly about the politician he hopes will change his political fortunes – Donald Trump.

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Billionaire Jeff Yass linked to $16m in donations to anti-Muslim and pro-Israel groups

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The TikTok investor is also linked to funding challenges to progressive politicians and against Obama’s Iran nuclear deal

Top Republican donor and TikTok investor Jeff Yass is connected to over $16m in funding to anti-Muslim and pro-Israel groups that have advocated for a US war with Iran and other militaristic policies in the Middle East, according to an investigation by the Guardian and Responsible Statecraft.

Media reports on Yass, the billionaire co-founder of Susquehanna International Group, a trading and technology firm, have focused on his outsized role in the Republican party, to which he is now the largest political donor in the 2024 election cycle, contributing more than $46m thus far.

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Trump hush-money trial live: judge to hold hearing over gag order before first witness David Pecker returns to stand

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Trump to fight court order preventing him from abusing wide range of people connected to trial; former CEO of National Enquirer returns

Then it was the defense’s turn for opening statements.

Trump’s attorney Todd Blanche started by making an effort to humanize Trump, while also repeatedly calling him “President Trump”. “He’s, in some ways, larger than life. But he’s also here in this courtroom doing what any of us would do – defending himself,” Blanche said.

Donald Trump was a very frugal businessman. He believed in pinching pennies … He believed in negotiating every bill.

… Donald Trump’s willingness to [overpay] here shows just how important it was to hide the true nature of Cohen’s [payment] to Ms Daniels and the overall election conspiracy they had launched in August of 2015.

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Biden and Trump clinch Pennsylvania primaries shortly after polls close

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State’s voters still had options in presidential contests, with tallies to provide window into how state will swing in November

Joe Biden and Donald Trump both won their primaries in Pennsylvania shortly after polls closed.

Pennsylvanians had gone to the polls on Tuesday to cast ballots in the state’s primary races – the results provide a window into where voters in the crucial battleground stand roughly six months out from the general election.

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Tulsi Gabbard repeats false Hillary Clinton ‘grooming’ claim in new book

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Ex-Democrat, reported contender for Trump running mate, sued Clinton for Russia remark but dropped case

Tulsi Gabbard, the former Democratic congresswoman, has repeated a discredited claim about Hillary Clinton that previously saw Gabbard lodge then drop a $50m defamation suit in a new book published as she seeks to be named Donald Trump’s running mate for US president.

Accusing Democrats of making up “a conspiracy theory that [Trump] was ‘colluding’ with the Russians to win the election” in 2016, Gabbard claims: “Hillary Clinton used a similar tactic against me when I ran for president in 2020, accusing me of being ‘groomed by the Russians’.”

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Trump fangirl Liz Truss channels Maga menace at US conservative thinktank

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The former British PM went all Trumpy at the Heritage, with an audience hanging on her every word as she promoted her book

Was that Donald Truss? Or Liz Trump? A former British prime minister turned up in Washington on Monday channeling the Maga menace who once lorded it in the Oval Office and now spends his days in a dingy courtroom.

Liz Truss was at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative thinktank in Washington, within sight of the US Capitol dome, to promote her grandly titled book Ten Years to Save the West. Why does she keep coming back to America? It was not hard to figure out.

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Historic Trump hush money trial to hear opening statements – live updates

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Former president accused of falsifying business records to cover up an attempt to influence 2016 election

Well, after all the appeals and bombast and tears, it’s finally here: opening statements in the first criminal trial of a US president.

Jury selection in the case of the People of the State of New York versus Donald Trump wrapped up last week, though not without some difficulty. Hundreds of prospective jurors were dismissed, several cried, and a couple of them quit after they were chosen.

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Residents push for renaming of Trump Plaza to disassociate from ex-president

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Tenants of the high-rise in New Rochelle, New York, want to abandon the name which has at times affected real estate value

While Donald Trump endures the ignominy of being the first former US president to face criminal trial, there is further humiliation brewing, with a movement to strip the Trump name from a building in his home state.

Residents at Trump Plaza, a 40-story high-rise in the suburban New York city of New Rochelle, are pushing for the building to be renamed and to escape a near-two decade association with the legally-troubled ex-president and real estate mogul.

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Trump cancels North Carolina rally due to storm in first public address since New York trial

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Former president told thousands of supporters gathered at Wilmington airport the event would be rescheduled ‘bigger and better’

Donald Trump called for debates with Joe Biden before cancelling his own appearance at a planned rally in Wilmington, North Carolina as a rain storm approached the airport where it was staged on Saturday.

Trump called as he was approaching the international airport to tell rally goers that the event would be rescheduled “bigger and better”. This would have been the first time he addressed supporters in public after a week of relative silence in a New York courtroom.

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Melania Trump to hit campaign trail for husband after early absence

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The enigmatic former first lady to appear at fundraiser on Saturday, marking a return to her husband’s side as he seeks re-election

Her biggest fashion statement as first lady was a green jacket emblazoned with the words “I really don’t care, do u?” More recently, Melania Trump has given the impression that she doesn’t care whether her husband, Donald, returns to the White House. That is about to change.

On Saturday Melania, 53, will appear at a fundraiser at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, for the Log Cabin Republicans, the biggest Republican organisation dedicated to representing LGBT conservatives. It will be her first appearance at a political event since Trump, 77, launched his bid to regain the presidency.

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