Golden Trump statue turning heads at CPAC was made in … Mexico

Artist Tommy Zegan reveals figure was constructed in country the former president has assailed and demonized

A golden statue of Donald Trump that has caused a stir at the annual US gathering of conservatives was made in Mexico – a country the former president frequently demonized.

Related: Mitch McConnell says he'd 'absolutely' support Trump as 2024 nominee

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Lack of sanctions for crown prince shows weight Riyadh holds

Analysis: decision not to penalise Saudi heir over Jamal Khashoggi shows kingdom still has influence

After two years of blanket cover from Donald Trump, a new US president has officially blamed Mohammed bin Salman for the most savage political slaying of modern times and brought the Saudi heir’s unchecked run with Washington to a humiliating halt.

Joe Biden’s confirmation that Prince Mohammed approved the butchering of Jamal Khashoggi bluntly ends the era of bromance between his predecessor and the kingdom’s de facto leader, and signals a very different relationship with a new administration.

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‘The base is solidly behind him’: Trumpism expected to thrive at CPAC

Lineup at annual gathering features former president’s allies – and Trump himself – suggesting his dominance is undiminished by his election loss

Ronald Solomon spent five days making the 2,300-mile drive from Las Vegas, Nevada, to Orlando, Florida, where he will sell about 75 different hat designs, 15 types of flag, 10 T-shirt designs and a range of eight face masks.

Solomon is the president of the Maga Mall, a retailer of Donald Trump and “Make America great again” merchandise. Undeterred by the former president’s 2020 election defeat and disgrace, he expects to do brisk business when the biggest annual gathering of grassroots conservatives opens on Thursday.

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Ruling on Trump tax records could be costliest defeat of his losing streak

Analysis: The US supreme court has rejected an attempt to block a subpoena from New York where the ex-president’s business affairs are under investigation

Donald Trump used to promise his supporters that they would be winning so much, they would get sick and tired of winning. But the former US president is now on a seemingly endless losing streak.

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Trump to tell CPAC he is Republican ‘presumptive 2024 nominee’ – report

Unnamed source tells news site Axios Trump’s speech to the rightwing event will have the message ‘I’m still in charge’

Donald Trump will reportedly tell the Conservative Political Action Conference in Florida this week he is the man to drain the Washington swamp – as Republicans’ “presumptive 2024 nominee”.

Related: Republicans failing to toe the Trumpist line feel wrath of their state parties

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Donald Trump to address CPAC on future of Republican party

Former president Donald Trump will address the Conservative Political Action Conference, or CPAC, in Florida next week, about the future of the Republican party and the conservative movement, a source familiar with the plan told Reuters on Saturday.

Related: Trump ally Nunes sees CNN Ukraine lawsuit thrown out by New York judge

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Biden assures US allies he will reverse Trump’s policies and legacy

President says US will have to work to earn back the trust of its allies in video remarks to the G7 and Munich Security Conference

Joe Biden has pledged “unshakable” US support for the transatlantic alliance in what he portrayed as an epoch-defining struggle to safeguard democracy.

Biden used his virtual debut on the world stage on Friday, in videoconference remarks first to the G7 and then the Munich Security Conference, to assure America’s allies of his determination to bury the legacy left by his predecessor.

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Sacha Baron Cohen: ‘If you’re protesting against racism, you’re going to upset some racists’

Stopping Trump, reforming Facebook and risking his life to make a Borat sequel. In an exclusive interview, the actor unveils his plans for a revolution – and reveals how it feels to come out as himself

Seven months ago, Sacha Baron Cohen was in the back of a speeding ambulance. It was an escape car, and he was fleeing a gun rally. The Borat producers had chosen the ambulance as it could blend in, accommodate a small film crew and, if necessary, hasten a trip to hospital.

Baron Cohen – dressed as Borat, himself disguised as a country singer – had just led the crowd of far-right conspiracy theorists in a singalong. At first, they happily joined in: “Obama, what we gonna do? / Inject him with the Wuhan flu.” Then one or two smelled a rat. Then they all stormed the stage.

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Steve Bannon believed Trump had early stage dementia, TV producer claims

  • Ira Rosen says Bannon had ‘great frustrations with Trump’
  • Bannon ‘spoke of removing president with 25th amendment’
  • US politics – live coverage

Former White House strategist Steve Bannon thought Donald Trump was suffering from early-stage dementia and campaigned covertly to remove him from office via the 25th amendment, according to a veteran TV producer.

Related: Sounds about right: why podcasting works for Pence, Bannon and Giuliani

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Pelosi announces plans for 9/11-style commission to examine Capitol riot

Calls to investigate attack followed Trump’s acquittal in his second impeachment trial

Nancy Pelosi, the House speaker, said on Monday that the US Congress will move to establish an outside, independent commission to review the “facts and causes” related to the deadly 6 January insurrection at the US Capitol by supporters of Donald Trump in the waning days of his presidency.

Pelosi said in a letter to members of Congress that the commission would be modeled on a similar one convened after the 11 September 2001, terrorist attack on Washington and New York.

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Fauci says he worried about getting Covid at Trump White House

Infectious disease expert tells Axios he had been nervous going there when many were coming down with the virus

Anthony Fauci, America’s top infectious disease expert and chief medical and coronavirus adviser to Joe Biden, revealed on Monday that he had been nervous entering the White House when many there were coming down with Covid-19 late in Donald Trump’s presidency.

Fauci is 80 years old and said that as such he was acutely aware that he was at high risk of suffering a “serious outcome” if he became infected by coronavirus, he told Axios in an interview clip posted online.

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US lawmakers call for 9/11-style commission to investigate Capitol riot

Democrats and Republicans both voice support for panel to ‘make sure it never happens again’

Democratic and Republican lawmakers have issued fresh calls for a bipartisan 9/11-style commission to investigate why government officials and law enforcement failed to stop the attack on the US Capitol in January, following Donald Trump’s acquittal in his impeachment on charges that he incited the insurrection.

The commission would be modeled after a panel created in the aftermath of the 9/11 terror attacks, which reviewed what caused the atrocity and laid out recommendations on how to foresee and prevent any future incursions.

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Democrats defend decision not to call witnesses as tactic under scrutiny

‘We needed more senators with spines,’ said Stacey Plaskett after vote to convict fell short of two-thirds majority needed

Democrats defended their prosecution of Donald Trump’s impeachment trial on Sunday and hinted at the possibility of criminal charges, after failing to convince enough senators the former president was guilty of inciting the deadly Capitol attack.

Related: Boris Johnson calls Trump impeachment over Capitol attack 'kerfuffle'

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Trump triumphant – but senior Republicans still see battles ahead

Former president celebrates second impeachment acquittal as supporters and moderates prepare to contest party direction

Donald Trump emerged from his second impeachment trial almost completely politically intact. But amid widespread laments (or celebrations, depending on the affiliation of the speaker) about the former president’s grip on the Republican party, some prominent voices suggested a changing of the guard may still be due.

Related: Mitch McConnell's impeachment speech was just a hostage video | Lloyd Green

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Mitch McConnell lambasts Donald Trump but votes not guilty in impeachment trial – video

The Senate minority leader, Mitch McConnell, said on Saturday that Donald Trump was 'practically and morally responsible' for the insurrection at the US Capitol on 6 January – minutes after voting to acquit the former president in his impeachment trial for that very same act.

The House majority leader, Nancy Pelosi, criticised McConnell’s remarks in a press conference on Saturday and said the issue of timing 'was not the reason that he voted the way he did; it was the excuse that he used'

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Trump’s acquittal shows paltry punch of impeachment process

Critics say the impeachment process no longer presents a threat or deterrent to bad behavior by the most powerful figure in the land

Former president Donald Trump has repeatedly been called “Teflon Don” during his presidency – a moniker used for the late mob boss John Gotti to describe how consequences for his bad actions apparently don’t stick to him.

Related: Senate Republicans stand by their man and Trump wins his second acquittal | David Smith's sketch

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Trump acquittal: Biden urges vigilance to defend ‘fragile’ democracy after impeachment trial

President says the substance of the charge against Donald Trump over the January attack on US Capitol is not in dispute

US president Joe Biden has urged Americans to defend democracy following the acquittal of Donald Trump at his second impeachment trial, saying: “This sad chapter in our history has reminded us that democracy is fragile.”

In a statement on Saturday night, Biden said the substance of the charge against his predecessor over the Capitol riot on 6 January in which five people died was not in dispute, and noted the seven Republicans who voted guilty.

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Failure to convict Trump in impeachment trial will live as a ‘vote of infamy’, says Schumer – video

The Senate’s top Democrat, Chuck Schumer, decried the decision to acquit Donald Trump of inciting a riot at the US Capitol on 6 January. House Democrats, who voted a month ago to charge Trump with ‘incitement of insurrection’, needed two thirds of the Senate, or 67 votes, to convict him. Only seven Republicans joined all 50 Democrats in voting to convict Trump.

The Democrats argued in the short trial that Trump caused the violent attack by repeating for months the false claims that the election was stolen from him, and then telling his supporters gathered near the White House that morning to ‘fight like hell’ to overturn his defeat. Five people died when they then laid siege to the Capitol.

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Senate Republicans stand by their man and Trump wins his second acquittal | David Smith’s sketch

Calls of ‘guilty’ and ‘not guilty’ pinged back and forth in the chamber but once McConnell said no the die was cast

If the denouement of Donald Trump’s impeachment trial had been a Hollywood film, stirring music would have struck up around the time Congressman Joe Neguse explained why he thinks the floor of the US Senate is “sacred”.

Related: Trump’s acquittal seals his grasp on the Republican party

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