Category Archives: Donald Trump

Senate Democrats demand end to rightwing ‘judge shopping’ but move draws immediate attack from Republicans – as it happened

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Why did Russia arrest Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, and what might they want in return for his release? The Guardian’s Julian Borger looks into the question, one year into the American journalist’s detention:

Friday marks the grim first anniversary of the day when masked Russian officers grabbed Evan Gershkovich, an American journalist, at a steakhouse in Yekaterinburg where he was waiting to eat on a reporting trip.

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‘Join us’: Biden campaign urges Haley supporters to turn against Trump

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Campaign ad shows clips of Trump disparaging Republican rival as president courts ‘broad and diverse coalition of voters’

Joe Biden’s presidential campaign released an ad targeting Republicans who supported Nikki Haley in her losing primary against Donald Trump.

“If you voted for Nikki Haley, Donald Trump doesn’t want your vote,” the president’s campaign ad says. “Save America. Join us.”

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RNC asks job applicants if they believe 2020 election was stolen in ‘litmus test’

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Republican National Committee, now run by Trump loyalists, does not deny that staff seeking to be rehired are grilled on ‘big lie’

A spokesperson for the Republican National Committee and Donald Trump did not deny a Washington Post report that said prospective RNC employees are being asked if they believe the 2020 election was stolen, constituting a “litmus test” as the 2024 election approaches.

“Candidates who worked on the frontline in battleground states or are currently in states where fraud allegations have been prevalent were asked about their work experience,” Danielle Alvarez, a spokesperson for the RNC and Trump, said in a statement.

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Trump mocks ex-RNC chair Ronna McDaniel for being fired by NBC

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Ex-president makes remarks after backlash prompted McDaniel’s firing four days after hiring

Donald Trump mocked the former Republican National Committee (RNC) chair Ronna McDaniel, for her firing by NBC days after being hired as a political analyst.

“Wow!” the former president and presumptive Republican nominee, who ejected McDaniel from the RNC in favour of his daughter-in-law Lara Trump, wrote on his Truth Social platform.

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Trump’s Truth Social valued at nearly $8bn as it goes public in New York

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Trump Media & Technology trading on Nasdaq under ‘DJT’ ticker, using Trump’s initials and closing up 15% after first day of trading

The firm behind Donald Trump’s Truth Social went public on Tuesday at a price that values the minnow social network at close to $8bn.

Shares in Digital World Acquisition, the shell company with which Trump’s social media business has merged, have been surging since the turn of the year.

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US election officials face ‘new era’ of violent threats, taskforce chief warns

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John Keller says workers facing onslaught for ‘dutifully and reliably doing their jobs’ as man given 30 months for threats

Election officials across the US are facing an onslaught of unfounded hostility for “dutifully and reliably doing their jobs”, the head of a federal taskforce set up to protect the election community from violent threats said on Monday.

John Keller, who leads the day-to-day efforts of the election threats taskforce, based in Washington, told reporters that the wave of violent threats – unleashed by Donald Trump’s lie that the 2020 presidential election had been stolen – amounted to an attack “on the very foundation of our democracy – our elections”.

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Ex-RNC chair Ronna McDaniel: Biden won 2020 election ‘fair and square’

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New NBC hire, who resigned from committee less than three weeks ago, insisted there were still ‘problems’ in how Biden beat Trump

A little more than two weeks after resigning as the chair of the Republican National Committee, Ronna McDaniel admitted Joe Biden won the 2020 presidential election over her party’s candidate “fair and square”.

But the newly hired NBC News contributor maintained it was acceptable to also say there were “problems” in the manner that the US president defeated Donald Trump – even after the former president’s supporters translated such sentiments into the January 6 Capitol attack in 2021 that has been linked to nine deaths, including law enforcement suicides.

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Liz Cheney: controversial NBC hire Ronna McDaniel enabled Trump ‘depravity’

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McDaniel ‘facilitated Trump’s corrupt fake elector plot’, says ex-congresswoman as NBC hosts and union group protest

The Republican National Committee chair turned NBC politics analyst Ronna McDaniel “enabled criminality and depravity” in her support for Donald Trump’s attempt to overturn the 2020 election, the former congresswoman Liz Cheney said as controversy swirled over McDaniel’s media role.

“Ronna facilitated Trump’s corrupt fake elector plot and his effort to pressure Michigan officials not to certify the legitimate election outcome,” Cheney, a Republican who was vice-chair of the House January 6 committee, wrote on social media.

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‘No one’s ever seen a bond this size’: Eric Trump criticises $454m judgment against his father

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New York attorney general, Letitia James, could begin to seize Donald Trump’s assets as soon as Tuesday morning

Eric Trump has come out railing against the $454m fraudulent property valuations judgment against his father Donald Trump, saying bonds the size of the half-a-billion dollar one the former president is being required to put up “don’t exist in this country”.

As a court-imposed deadline ticks down on the former president’s family and their businesses to come up with almost half-a-billion dollars, the 40-year-old executive vice-president of the Trump Organization told Fox News on Sunday that bond issuers laughed when he approached them for that sum.

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‘It’ll be bedlam’: how Trump is creating conditions for a post-election eruption

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As the ex-president fans the flames of violence, experts and insiders say November will be a brutal test for US democracy

A bloodbath. The end of democracy. Riots in the streets. Bedlam in the country. Donald Trump has made apocalyptic imagery a defining feature of his presidential election campaign, warning supporters that if he does not win – and avoid criminal prosecution – America will enter its death throes.

The prophecies of doom, repeated ad nauseam at rallies and on social media, have raised fears that the former president is making an electoral tinderbox that could explode in November. While there has been much commentary assessing the implications of a Trump win, some experts warn that a Trump defeat could provide an equally severe stress test of American democracy.

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Trump could net $3bn after investors approve Truth Social to go public

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Plan approved by vote of shareholders in Digital World Acquisition, with which Trump’s business sought to combine

Investors approved plans to take Donald Trump’s social media platform public on Friday, netting the former president a paper fortune of $3bn.

Trump Media & Technology, the firm behind his minnow social network Truth Social, has spent years fighting to land on the stock market via a so-called “blank check” merger with a shell company.

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David Cameron says Aukus and Nato must be in ‘best possible shape’ ahead of potential Trump win

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UK’s foreign secretary is in Australia alongside defence secretary Grant Shapps for high-level talks with Richard Marles and Penny Wong

The UK foreign secretary, David Cameron, has suggested the Aukus pact and Nato alliance must get into “the best possible shape” to increase their chances of surviving Donald Trump’s potential return to the White House.

Speaking after high-level talks in Australia, Cameron was careful to avoid criticising the former US president and presumptive Republican nominee for 2024, saying it was “up to America who they choose as their president”.

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The Mar-a-Lago judge is entertaining Trump’s most brazen defenses

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Trump and prosecutors in the classified documents case have been told to draft jury instructions that could result in ensuring acquittal

The federal judge overseeing Donald Trump’s prosecution on charges of retaining classified documents appears to be entertaining his most brazen defenses that could ultimately result in ensuring the acquittal of the former president.

The issue revolves around an order from the US district judge Aileen Cannon on Monday asking Trump and prosecutors in the office of the special counsel Jack Smith to draft jury instructions for two scenarios that gave extraordinary credit to Trump’s defense theories.

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Schumer warns of making Israel support ‘partisan’ amid reports he stopped Netanyahu addressing Senate Democrats – live

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Senate majority leader reportedly rejects request from Israeli prime minister to address Senate Democratic caucus

Since being elected speaker of the House last year, the Republican Mike Johnson has emerged as one of Donald Trump’s most prominent defenders on Capitol Hill, and today is no exception – even when it comes to the former president’s recent comment that Jews who vote for Democrats “hate” Israel and their religion.

Asked about it at a press conference, Johnson said he understands where Trump is coming from:

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Texas woman denied abortion decries ‘cruelty’ of Trump 15-week ban proposal

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Amanda Zurawski, who nearly died waiting for procedure, says Trump will inflict ‘chaos’ in remarks released by Biden camp

After Donald Trump voiced support for a 15-week national abortion ban, Joe Biden’s presidential campaign released an angry response from a Texas woman who nearly died due to that state’s anti-abortion measures, enduring a “nightmare” she said Trump created.

“My family has been forever altered by the nightmare that Donald Trump created by overturning Roe,” Amanda Zurawski said.

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‘I need you back’: Biden visits western states in effort to firm up Latino vote

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The president headed to Nevada, Arizona and Texas to appeal to voters, saying that Donald Trump ‘despises Latinos’

Joe Biden is on a three-day western US election campaign swing through Nevada, Arizona and Texas with a focus on personally appealing to Latino voters, saying they are the reason he defeated Donald Trump in 2020 and urging them to help him do it again in November.

“I need you back,” he told several dozen supporters packed into a local Mexican restaurant in Phoenix, Arizona. And in an interview with the Spanish-language broadcaster Univision he blasted Trump as someone whose hardline policies and biased rhetoric are hostile to Hispanic voters.

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US primary elections: Biden and Trump notch wins with surprises in store down ballot

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Nikki Haley gains votes despite dropping out of Republican race as Trump-backed candidate wins Ohio Republican Senate primary

Donald Trump and Joe Biden swept up more delegates in Tuesday’s primary elections as they set their sights on a rematch in November.

Trump and Biden picked up wins in Arizona, Illinois, Kansas and Ohio. Trump also won the Republican primary in Florida, where the Democrats are not holding a primary.

Biden v Trump: What’s in store for the US and the world?
On Thursday 2 May, 8-9.15pm GMT, join Tania Branigan, David Smith, Mehdi Hasan and Tara Setmayer for the inside track on the people, the ideas and the events that might shape the US election campaign. Book tickets here or at theguardian.live

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US election 2024 primaries: follow live results

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Primaries are being held in Arizona, Florida, Illinois, Kansas and Ohio – get up to speed with all the live results as they happen

Five states – Arizona, Florida, Illinois, Kansas and Ohio – are holding their presidential nominating contests on Tuesday, with Florida holding only a Republican primary. Donald Trump and Joe Biden expect to sail to victory in their respective parties, growing their delegate counts in a march toward this summer’s conventions, where they will officially secure their parties’ nomination.

Here are the live results from the five presidential primaries.

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Jared Kushner says Gaza’s ‘waterfront property could be very valuable’

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Donald Trump’s son-in-law also says Israel should bulldoze an area of the Negev desert and move Palestinians there

Jared Kushner has praised the “very valuable” potential of Gaza’s “waterfront property” and suggested Israel should remove civilians while it “cleans up” the strip.

The former property dealer, married to Donald Trump’s daughter Ivanka, made the comments in an interview at Harvard University on 8 March.

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Trump ally Peter Navarro to begin prison term after contempt conviction

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Navarro, convicted for refusing to cooperate with House January 6 committee, to report to Miami facility with zoo next door

Peter Navarro, a former trade adviser to Donald Trump, was on Tuesday set to become the first former White House official ever jailed for contempt of Congress.

Sentenced to four months in prison for refusing to cooperate with the House January 6 committee, the 74-year-old economist appealed all the way to the US supreme court, claiming he could not testify as his work with Trump on attempts to overturn the 2020 election was covered by executive privilege.

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