Category Archives: Donald Trump

Will rule of law succeed where Congress failed and hold Trump accountable?

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If the grand jury goes against him, Trump would be the first former US president charged with a crime

Standing in court, the former president pleaded not guilty to -harges of financial crimes that he insists are part of a politically motivated witch hunt. Jacob Zuma, once the populist leader of South Africa, cut a humbled figure on Wednesday – and offered a potential glimpse of America’s future.

A similar fate for Donald Trump became significantly more likely with reports that New York prosecutors have convened a grand jury to decide whether to indict him on criminal charges.

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Did Jordan’s closest allies plot to unseat its king?

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Alleged sedition and a royal family feud may have been driven by a broader plan to reshape the Middle East

The phone call that shook the Jordanian government came in the second week of March this year. On the line to the General Intelligence Directorate (GID) in Amman was the US Embassy, seeking an urgent meeting about a matter of national importance. The kingdom’s spies were startled. Danger was brewing on the home front, they were told, and could soon pose a threat to the throne.

Within hours, the GID had turned its full array of resources towards one of the country’s most senior royals, Prince Hamzah bin Hussein, a former crown prince and half-brother of the king, whom the Americans suspected was sowing dissent and had begun rallying supporters. By early April, officials had placed Hamzah under house arrest and publicly accused the former heir and two close aides of plotting to unseat King Abdullah.

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New York district attorney convenes grand jury in Trump criminal inquiry

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Investigation includes matters such as hush-money payments to women on Trump’s behalf, property valuations and employee pay

New York prosecutors have convened a special grand jury to consider evidence in a criminal investigation into Donald Trump’s business dealings, a person familiar with the matter told the Associated Press on Tuesday.

The development signals that the Manhattan district attorney’s office was moving toward seeking charges as a result of its two-year investigation, which included a lengthy legal battle to obtain Trump’s tax records.

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Trump bills Secret Service $40,000 at Mar-a-Lago since leaving office

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Records obtained by Washington Post show agency paid $396.15 every night since 20 January until at least 30 April

Donald Trump has billed the Secret Service more than $40,000 for a room for his own security detail, which has been guarding him at his Mar-a-Lago resort since he left office in January.

Related: Trump family members got ‘inappropriately close’ to Secret Service agents, book claims

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‘Madman … racist, sexist pig’: new book details Obama’s real thoughts on Trump

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The Democratic ex-president was candid in remarks to donors and advisers, according to Battle for the Soul by Edward-Isaac Dovere

For much of Donald Trump’s presidency, Barack Obama largely abided by the convention that former presidents do not publicly criticize or attack their successors.

Related: Trump family members got ‘inappropriately close’ to Secret Service agents, book claims

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Liz Cheney defiant over Trump as Republican civil war heats up

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Liz Cheney has become the figurehead of the conservative Never Trumpers – but the Wyoming congresswoman was for the former president in the last election.

Related: Can ‘Never Trump’ Republicans gain party control – or is it a lost cause?

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Ignore the hype of Republicans threatening to ‘break away’ over Trump | Cas Mudde

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Anti-Trump Republicans get lots of media attention. That doesn’t mean they are relevant within the Republican party

“Over 100 Republicans, including former officials, threaten to split” from the Republican party, the New York Times declared on Tuesday. The next day the Washington Post upped the ante, headlining that the 100 Republicans were vowing “civil war”; the columnist Jennifer Rubin proclaimed the beginning of “the stampede away from the GOP”.

Sounds exciting, but what has really happened?

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Can ‘Never Trump’ Republicans gain party control – or is it a lost cause?

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As Liz Cheney’s defiance turns her into one of the movement’s leaders some insist the party was their home long before Trump while others say it’s time to move on

Sixteen minutes and out. The purging of Liz Cheney from Republican leadership in the House of Representatives did not even go to a secret ballot. Instead a voice vote was all it took to confirm the party’s capitulation to Donald Trump and his “big lie” about a stolen election.

But Cheney went down swinging, vowing to reporters on Capitol Hill: “I will do everything I can to ensure that the former president never again gets anywhere near the Oval Office,” then using a high-profile TV interview to say of would-be challengers for her seat in Wyoming: “Bring it on.”

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House Democrats and Republicans strike deal to investigate deadly Capitol insurrection – live

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  • Members of Congress agree to establish 10-person commission
  • Pro-Trump Elise Stefanik replaces Cheney as GOP conference chair

Here’s a quick summary of what’s happened so far today:

A new New York Times story points out just how influential Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s logo, with its bold, slanted text, was to future progressive candidates who emulated her poster’s style. It’s now seen all over the country in races big and small and was even used by a communist candidate in France.

Gavan Fitzsimons, a business professor at Duke University, told the Times that copycat posters are likely trying to get potential voters to subconsciously associate the candidate with Ocasio-Cortez.

NEW: The iconography of @AOC — my dive into how Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s logo has formed a new graphical language for progressivism.

From KY to VA to NYC and even France, imitators abound.https://t.co/eakjRoSEZn pic.twitter.com/sw9Z6oM0hz

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Liz Cheney refuses to rule out run for president in bid to thwart Trump

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  • Leading Republican vows to do ‘whatever it takes’ to stop Trump
  • Cheney: ‘It’s an ongoing threat. Silence is not an option’

Liz Cheney has refused to rule out running for US president if it would prevent Donald Trump from ever taking charge of the White House again, saying she will do “whatever it takes” to stop her fellow Republican.

Cheney, who on Wednesday was ousted as House Republican conference chair by her colleagues, in a voice vote behind closed doors, was asked three times on NBC’s Today show in an interview aired on Thursday whether she would run to stymie a comeback by the former president.

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Liz Cheney vows to work to keep Trump from return to power – video

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After being voted out from her role as House Republican conference chair, Liz Cheney said she planned to ‘lead the fight’ to create a stronger party in the future. The congresswoman said: ‘I will do everything I can to ensure that the former president never again gets anywhere near the Oval Office.’ Cheney was one of 10 Republicans in the House who voted to impeach Trump over the US Capitol breach

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Liz Cheney’s ousting proves the ‘big lie’ is the Republican party’s religion

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The ousting of Cheney snuffs out all doubt – Republicans don’t think they can win next year’s midterm elections without Trump

Lafayette Square, outside the White House, reopened this week to strolling couples, tourists and scampering children. After nearly a year sealed off by eight-foot metal fencing, it was one more sign of life in America getting back to normal.

Then there’s the danger. For more than three months it’s been tempting for many to assume that, with Joe Biden in the White House and Donald Trump off Twitter, democracy survived its near-death experience, recovered and checked out of hospital. But the ousting of Liz Cheney by the Republican party shows that the potential for a relapse is all too real.

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Liz Cheney castigates Republican colleagues for backing Trump – video

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The US representative Liz Cheney, speaking in the House a day before her expected ouster from a Republican leadership post, chastised her party colleagues for not standing up to the former president Donald Trump and his false claim that the November election was stolen. ’Remaining silent and ignoring the lie emboldens the liar. I will not participate in that,’ she said. 

Cheney, the No 3 Republican in the House of Representatives, was one of 10 Republicans in the House who voted to impeach Trump in January after he delivered a fiery 6 January speech to supporters, many of whom then stormed the US Capitol in an attempt to block certification of his election loss to Joe Biden

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Trump family members got ‘inappropriately close’ to Secret Service agents, book claims

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Concerns over bonds involving Trump’s then daughter in-law Vanessa and daughter Tiffany revealed in Carol Leonnig’s Zero Fail

Two Trump family members got “inappropriately – and perhaps dangerously – close” to agents protecting them while Donald Trump was president, according to a new book on the US Secret Service.

Related: A Very Stable Genius review: dysfunction and disaster at the court of King Donald

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Trump’s grip over Republicans hardens as party cleaves to election ‘big lie’

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Far from losing influence over the party, critics say, Trump has in fact burrowed far into its DNA so that the two are now all but inseparable

Ron DeSantis was exultant. “The way Florida did it I think inspires confidence; I think that’s how elections should be run,” the state governor told reporters last November. “Rather than us be at the centre of a Bush v Gore in 2020, we’re now being looked at as the state that did it right.”

This boast of a smoothly run election just six months ago makes DeSantis’s actions this week all the more curious. The governor suddenly found it necessary to impose sweeping reforms that limit mail-in voting and ballot drop boxes – and signed the new law live on the Fox News network on Thursday with no other media allowed.

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Secret Service extension for Trump’s adult children cost $140,000 in a month

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  • Trump extended post-presidency protections by six months
  • Secret Service detailing four siblings and two of their spouses

Donald Trump’s adult children reportedly cost taxpayers $140,000 in Secret Service security in the month after the clan’s patriarch left the White House in January.

Related: The sleazy, sordid Matt Gaetz scandal: are the walls now closing in on him?

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Janet Yellen says US ‘will reach full employment next year’ despite poor jobs report – live

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  • Treasury secretary says US has made ‘remarkable progress’
  • Biden insists country is ‘moving in the direction’ on economy
  • Republicans look to oust Cheney as Trump allies push election lie

Hello everyone, this is Julia Carrie Wong picking up the blog from the San Francisco bay area, where we’re bracing for unusually early fire weather amid another climate crisis-fueled drought.

Suffice it to say that it's very unusual that NorCal has seen Red Flag Warnings straight through calendar this year. Vegetation is very rarely dry enough to trigger in spring, even with strong winds, but vegetation remains at/near record dry levels in many places. #CAwx #CAfire https://t.co/97rlEVhytM

That’s it from me today. My west coast colleague, Julia Carrie Wong, will take over the blog for the next few hours.

Here’s where the day stands so far:

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Florida ‘moving in wrong direction’ with voting restrictions, White House says – as it happened

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Mike Jordan reports for the Guardian:

Idaho’s governor, Brad Little, has a bill signed into law that aims to restrict critical race theory from being taught as a subject in schools and universities.

The bill, H377, prevents teachers from “indoctrinating” students into belief systems that claim that members of any race, sex, religion, ethnicity or national origin are inferior or superior to other groups. Signed into law last week, H377 also makes it illegal to make students “affirm, adopt or adhere to” beliefs that members of these groups are today responsible for past actions of the groups to which they claim to belong.

Related: Idaho governor signs bill to ban critical race theory from being taught in schools

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Facebook fudge potentially lets Trump live to lie another day

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Analysis: Trump will try to have it both ways over the verdict – decrying censorship but also eyeing an eventual return

It was not so much “Release the Kraken!” as “please tell the Kraken to pace around the room a few more times while we think about it”.

Facebook’s oversight board ruled that Donald Trump should remain banned from the platform for incendiary posts on the day of the deadly insurrection at the US Capitol. But it also told the company that its “vague, standardless penalty” should be reviewed within six months.

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Trump’s Facebook ban should not be lifted, network’s oversight board rules

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  • Trump’s account suspended in wake of Capitol attack
  • Board says Facebook should make final decision in six months

Donald Trump’s Facebook account should not be reinstated, the social media giant’s oversight board said on Wednesday, barring an imminent return to the platform.

However, the board has punted the final decision over Trump’s account back to Facebook itself, suggesting the platform make a decision in six months regarding what to do with Trump’s account and whether it will be permanently deleted.

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