US Politics

Donald Trump is an “idiot” for not paying legal expenses incurred by his attorney the former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani in the Georgia election subversion case, Trump’s former lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen said.“Donald’s an idiot,” Cohen told CNN of the former president. “Let me just be very clear when it comes to paying money, he is truly an idiot.“He has not learned yet that [there are] three people you don’t want to throw under the bus like that: your lawyer, your doctor and your mechanic. Because one way or the other, you’re going to go down the hill and there’ll be no brakes.”Trump faces 13 charges in Georgia, including racketeering and conspiracy. With bond set at $200,000, he has said he would turn himself in at an Atlanta jail on Thursday.Eighteen Trump allies were also charged. Giuliani faces 13 counts including racketeering, an irony widely noted given his past as a crusading US attorney in New York, cracking down on organised crime.CNN reported last week that Giuliani in April went to Trump’s Florida home, Mar-a-Lago, to ask for help paying mounting bills also concerning other work while Trump was in the White House. Giuliani was largely rebuffed, CNN said.Cohen was long close to Trump, his work including making the hush-money payments to the porn star Stormy Daniels that are now the subject of 34 criminal charges against Trump in New York state.Trump also faces charges regarding federal election subversion and retention of classified documents, for a total of 91 counts. Such unprecedented legal jeopardy, also including civil cases concerning his business affairs and defamation arising from an allegation of rape, have not stopped him dominating the race for the Republican presidential nomination.Cohen turned on Trump after he was sentenced to three years in prison for offenses including tax fraud and lying to Congress. Becoming a leading Trump critic, he has testified against Trump in court. Last month, Cohen reached an undisclosed settlement with the Trump Organization over his own unpaid fees.Regarding Trump’s bond in Georgia, Cohen told CNN: “At the end of the day, $200,000, he’ll have no problem with raising the money. Worse comes to worse, he’ll go to his stupid supporters to do it and they’ll just pony up to one of his various” fundraising committees.“But I find it ironic or comical that I had to post a $500,000 bond for another man having an affair and [me] receiving back the money … and his is $200,000 for trying to overturn a free and fair election. I just don’t see the correlation, but it is what it is.”skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionCohen suggested Giuliani would be wise to “flip” on Trump.“Allegedly from Rudy’s own mouth, he claims that he has a smoking gun, information about Donald,” Cohen said. “Well, if that’s true … I don’t have to suggest anything to Rudy. He’s the one that basically came up with this concept of strong-arming when he was head of the southern district of New York. He’s going to need to speak and he’s going to need to speak before everybody else does.”Giuliani’s work for Trump also included digging for political dirt in Ukraine, efforts which contributed to Trump’s first impeachment.Cohen said: “The job that Rudy did for Donald, I don’t know if I would pay either. But at the end of the day, when your life is basically hanging on the line once again, you just don’t really want to throw another lawyer under the bus.” More

Republicans vying for the 2024 party nomination are set to take the stage in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on Wednesday night for the first debate of the primary season.The candidates will certainly throw punches at each other and at Donald Trump, who has a significant lead in polls but is skipping the debate. But it’s also a chance for each candidate to present their policy agenda and voice their stance on key voter issues such as abortion and aid to Ukraine.Here’s where each candidate in Wednesday’s debate stands on issues such as abortion, immigration, the economy and continued aid to Ukraine.Ron DeSantisAbortion: DeSantis has supported bills restricting access to abortion – including a six-week ban in his own state of Florida – but has stopped short of saying he would support a federal ban.Economy: In a recently released economic plan, DeSantis said he would cut individual taxes and slash government spending. He also pushed for “American energy independence” and a rollback of electric vehicles.Immigration: As governor, DeSantis has enacted some of the country’s strictest laws against undocumented immigrants, including asking hospital patients to prove their legal status. He also made the controversial move to use public funds to send newly arrived migrants to Martha’s Vineyard in a political stunt. As president, he said he would eliminate the visa lottery and limit “unskilled immigration”.Foreign policy: He opposes additional US involvement in Ukraine and has pledged to reduce economic ties with “communist China” and said the US would no longer “kowtow to Wall Street”.January 6: DeSantis said it was “unfortunate” but “not an insurrection”.More: The current governor of Florida and a former congressman was widely expected to be Trump’s main primary challenger. But his favorability among Republicans has taken many hits, starting with a glitchy Twitter Spaces event hosted by Elon Musk. He has frequently touted his opposition to gender-affirming care for trans people and other public health measures such as mask mandates.Vivek RamaswamyAbortion: Ramaswamy told a crowd at the Iowa State Fair he is “unapologetically pro-life”. But his campaign earlier confirmed he would not back a national abortion ban.Economy: The biotech entrepreneur wants to “unshackle” the energy sector, saying the US should abandon its climate goals to drive down energy costs and boost its GDP. He is also in favor of some corporate and individual tax cuts.Immigration: Ramaswamy said he wants to deport “universally” and end birthright citizenship for children of undocumented immigrants, who would then be required to apply to become a citizen.Foreign policy: Ramaswamy has criticized US aid to Ukraine, saying it is strengthening Russia’s alliance with China.January 6: Ramaswamy condemned Trump the week after the January 6 attack but has walked back his criticism since then. Responding to a question for an Atlantic profile about what truly happened that day, Ramaswamy said: “I don’t know.” He has defended ex-president Trump across his four indictments.More: Time magazine labeled Ramaswamy a “breakout candidate”. The political outsider has steadily climbed the polls since launching his long-shot bid as an “anti-woke” patriot.Tim ScottAbortion: Scott, an evangelical Christian, is staunchly anti-abortion and said he would support a national 15-week ban.Economy: Scott supports tax cuts and stronger economic competition with China. As a senator, Scott championed legislation establishing “opportunity zones”, which are meant to increase economic development in low-income areas by incentivizing private investment, though critics say residents may not benefit from gentrification.Immigration: He is in favor of a wall along the US southern border to curb illegal migration and drug trafficking.Foreign policy: He broadly supports continued US aid to Ukraine and said Biden has not done enough. But some conservatives think he’s soft on China.January 6: Scott said he doesn’t believe the 2020 election was stolen and does not blame Trump for the violence at the Capitol.More: The South Carolina senator, who is the only Black Republican in the Senate, is an outspoken critic when it comes to teaching kids about race and gender in schools and has said: “America is not a racist country.”Nikki HaleyAbortion: The only woman on the debate stage, Haley is anti-abortion but has also called a federal abortion ban “unrealistic”.Economy: Haley wrote in an op-ed that she opposes raising the national debt limit and would “veto spending bills that don’t put America on track to reach pre-pandemic spending levels”.Foreign policy: The former US ambassador to the United Nations under Trump, Haley has labeled the Chinese Communist party an “enemy” and criticized Trump for trying to befriend the Chinese president, Xi Jinping.Immigration: Haley has vowed to tighten security at the US-Mexico border and add 25,000 patrol agents, as well as require companies to verify employees’ status online – which she signed into law in South Carolina as governor.January 6: Haley has called January 6 a “terrible day” and said Trump “went down a path that he shouldn’t have” in an interview with Politico.Chris ChristieAbortion: He has said he would not support a federal abortion ban.Economy: The former New Jersey governor has targeted “excessive government spending” as the reason for inflation and floated cuts to social security, including Medicare.Foreign policy: Christie, who has aligned himself with the hawkish, tough-on-China-and-Russia camp, visited the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, in a surprise trip earlier this month to affirm his support for continued US aid.Immigration: Christie said “immigrants are pouring over the border” in an attack against Trump’s campaign promise to build a border wall.January 6: Christie, who was in the running to be Trump’s VP after dropping out of the 2016 presidential race, is now Trump’s loudest critic. He broke with Trump over the January 6 Capitol attack, calling Trump a “coward” for not joining rioters.Mike PenceAbortion: The former vice-president, an evangelical Christian, is the loudest anti-abortion candidate and has condemned his opponents for refusing to back a six-week abortion ban.Economy: Pence has said his top priority is boosting the US economy and has called on the Fed to ditch its dual mandate – keeping employment high and inflation low – to focus solely on reducing inflation. He has also advocated for cutting social security benefits.Foreign policy: Pence has advocated for continued US aid to Ukraine and met with Volodymyr Zelenskiy during a surprise visit in June.Immigration: He has blasted the Biden administration’s immigration policy, describing a “stampede” from Central and South America, and has vowed to finish the border wall that began under Trump.January 6: Pence has campaigned heavily on his refusal to aid Trump in his effort to stop the certification of electoral results and has repeatedly condemned his ex-boss for his role in the Capitol attack.Doug BurgumAbortion: Burgum signed a law banning nearly all abortions in North Dakota but said he would not support a national ban.Economy: The governor of North Dakota, who is also a wealthy businessman, has touted North Dakota’s record as an energy-producing state and said he would prioritize growing the country’s tech and energy sectors.Foreign policy: Winning the “cold war with China” is a key pillar of Burgum’s message to voters.Immigration: Burgum said Biden hasn’t done enough to secure the US-southern border and supports stricter restrictions on migration.January 6: Burgum called for a stop to the violence at the Capitol on January 6 but said he thinks it’s time to “move on”.Asa HutchinsonAbortion: As governor of Arkansas, Hutchinson signed a near-total abortion ban and said he would support a national ban.Economy: He has floated extreme measures to balance the federal budget and reduce debt including cutting the federal non-military workforce by 10%.Immigration: Hutchinson supports harsh restrictions on immigration.Foreign policy: He said he would not cut economic ties with China but has advocated for more aggressive action to counter China’s threat against Taiwan. Politico describes Hutchinson’s foreign policy as a “compassionate internationalism” of the past.January 6: He said January 6 “disqualifies” Trump from running for president. More

Could there be such a thing as Trump indictment fatigue? Every week seems to bring a new set of charges; one might be forgiven for losing any sense of what’s what in the four major cases the former president now faces. (Of course, Trump himself has long perfected the art of sowing confusion through falsehoods in response to any criticisms, impeachments and now indictments – or, in the words of Steve Bannon, “flooding the zone with shit”.) What mitigates this risk, though, is that the different indictments illuminate very different aspects of Trumpism – and the way Trump operated as president, and now continues to operate in his campaign to regain the White House.The Georgia indictment is particularly important: what many have long suspected – that Trump operates like a mafia boss – is confirmed by the ample evidence of Trump and his (increasingly bizarre and brutal) associates forming a criminal conspiracy to defraud the United States. Unlike mobsters, Trump used the power of the state itself to try to get his way, even if his making offers one couldn’t refuse ultimately failed. If Trump were brought back to power in 2024, there is every reason to believe that he would not only engage in all-out retribution for alleged wrongs against his political clan, but also erect what some observers describe as a mafia state.Unlike Jack Smith and Alvin Bragg, Fulton county district attorney Fani Willis is employing what a Republican member of the House judiciary committee has described as a legal “nuclear weapon”: charges under the Georgia Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, or Rico for short. The federal Rico law was passed by Congress in 1970 to make it easier to take down mafia organizations; dozens of states followed suit with their own statues.Movies and novels have long educated us on how fiendishly difficult it can be to touch the bosses who, after all, try not to get their own hands dirty; the point of Rico was to go after a whole organization, from the top down to the hitmen and enforcers in protection rackets on the streets. Whether the decline in organized crime can be attributed mainly to Rico is open to debate; what’s clear is that a certain Rudy Giuliani, as district attorney, used it to brilliantly to dismantle various New York crime families. Giuliani also deployed it against Wall Street. More recently, a New York sex cult leader was convicted of racketeering.It should have long been obvious that Trump operates with methods familiar from the mob: He tried to make James Comey kiss the ring. He demanded that Volodymyr Zelenskiy do him a favor. He threatens those who try to hold him to account for illegal behavior (“If you go after me, I will come after you”). This pattern is not unique to Trump; rather, it can be found among autocrats, or aspiring autocrats globally, who also happen to be kleptocrats. The Hungarian sociologist Bálint Magyar has coined the term “mafia state” to describe the creation of “political families” (which can include a ruler’s actual family, as in the examples of Trump’s, Orbán’s, Bolsonaro’s and Erdoğan’s children, with especially nefarious roles reserved for sons-in-law); these families then use the state to enrich themselves.Unlike with ordinary corruption, envelopes with cash are not changing hands under the table; rather, the perfected mafia state is about using ostensibly legal procedures like public procurement where, strangely, only one bidder ever shows up. Yet the methods to keep such a system going are recognizably mafia-style: absolute loyalty is given in exchange for material reward and, equally important, protection for an indefinite future through capturing the judiciary. Unlike with the ideologically driven authoritarian states of the 20th century, the main aim is not, as a Hungarian observer put it, “To persecute the innocent. It is the power to protect the guilty.”With protagonists like Sidney Powell, and stage settings like Four Seasons Total Landscaping, it is tempting to dismiss Trump’s conspiracy as a farce, more Corky Romano than The Godfather. Yet, as Willis’s indictment makes clear, it had real victims, such as the two Black election workers who were relentlessly intimidated by Trumpists. It’s crucial that these stories, with all their sordid details, come out. The law, as Gerald Ford, about to pardon his predecessor Richard Nixon, claimed, is not a respecter of persons, but a respecter of reality.Except that reality neither explains nor interprets itself. The legal process can teach people to see not just isolated facts, but patterns such as a conspiracy, and make citizens comprehend that figures they think of as career politicians and law professors can act in concert like organized criminals. This matters not only to bringing perpetrators to justice; it also matters as people make future choices. After all, organizations can also learn. Although the conspiracy after the 2020 election was amateurish in many ways, Trump’s current campaign shows that Maga operatives are trying to draw lessons from previous failures. Another Trump administration may well succeed in creating a real mafia state.
Jan-Werner Müller is a professor of politics at Princeton University. He is also a Guardian US columnist More

The founder and sponsor of a far-right network of secretive, men-only, invitation-only fraternal lodges in the US is a former industrialist who has frequently speculated about his future as a warlord after the collapse of America, a Guardian investigation has found.Federal and state tax and company filings show that the Society for American Civic Renewal (SACR) and its creator, Charles Haywood, also have financial ties with the far-right Claremont Institute.SACR’s most recent IRS filing names Haywood as the national organization’s principal officer. Other filings identify three lodges in Idaho – in Boise, Coeur d’Alene and Moscow – and another in Dallas, Texas.SACR’s public-facing presence is confined to a slick one-page website advertising the organization’s goal as “civilizational renaissance”, and a society “with strong leadership committed to family and culture”.The site claims SACR is “raising accountable leaders to help build thriving communities of free citizens” who will rebuild “the frontier-conquering spirit of America”. It condemns “those who rule today”, saying that they “corrupt the sinews of America”, “[alienate] men from family, community, and God” and promising to “counter and conquer this poison”.It also prominently features SACR’s cross-like insignia or “mark” which it describes variously as symbolizing “sword and shield” and the rejection of “Modernist philosophies and heresies”.Finally, the site advises that SACR membership “is organized primarily around local groups overseen by a national superstructure” and “is by invitation only”, offering an email address for those “interested in learning more”.The Guardian emailed the website contact address from a pseudonymous address but received no response.Heidi Beirich is co-founder of the Global Project on Hate and Extremism and an expert of the far right. She characterized the rhetoric on the website as “palingenetic ultranationalism”, a feature of fascism that proposes a revolution as a means of national rebirth.Haywood has become more active and prominent as a blogger and commentator on the far-right podcast circuit since selling his solely owned Indianapolis-based shampoo manufacturing company, Mansfield-King, to a competitor for an undisclosed price in September 2020.On his personal website, The Worthy House, where he styles himself “Maximum Leader”, Haywood has written that the sale made him “rich beyond the dreams of avarice and looking to cause trouble”. Mansfield-King was reportedly “on track to do $45m in revenue” in the year before its sale.He has featured on Claremont Institute podcasts like The American Mind and shows run by Claremont Institute staffers and alumni, like the New Founding podcast. He has also written for Claremont’s website, The American Mind.Indiana company records show that Haywood incorporated SACR as a domestic non-profit in Indiana on 22 July 2020, just ahead of the sale of his company. IRS records show that on SACR was approved as a non-profit fraternal organization – with provision to create subsidiary lodges – under section 501(c)(10) of the Internal Revenue code.The organization’s structure, aims and apparent secrecy are striking in the light of some of the ideas Haywood has promoted in articles on the Worthy House website.One idea he has repeatedly raised on the website is that he might serve as a “warlord” at the head of an “armed patronage network” or “APN”, defined as an “organizing device in conditions where central authority has broken down” in which the warlord’s responsibility is “the short- and long-term protection, military and otherwise, of those who recognize his authority and act, in part, at his behest”.The “possibilities involving violence” that APNs might face, Haywood writes include “more-or-less open warfare with the federal government, or some subset or remnant of it”.Further on, Haywood writes: “At this moment I preside over what amounts to a extended, quite sizeable, compound, which when complete I like to say, accurately, will be impervious to anything but direct organized military attack”, adding that “it requires a group of men to make it work … what I call ‘shooters’ – say fifteen able-bodied, and adequately trained, men.”These “shooters”, Haywood explains, “can operate my compound, both defensively and administratively”, meanwhile, “I have the personality, and skills, to lead such a group.”Haywood was one of the first on the right to try to rehabilitate the rioters who stormed the US Capitol on 6 January 2021. Just over two months after that incident, he praised it as an “electoral justice protest”, commenting that “the Protest was pretty awesome in every way. Its most precise analog in American history … is the Boston Tea Party.”The Guardian requested comment from Haywood via text message and email after attempting to contact him via telephone but received no response.Laura K Field is a political theorist and a senior fellow at the Washington DC-based thinktank the Niskanen Center who has written and spoken extensively about the “reactionary conservatism” of the Claremont Institute and those in its milieu.In a telephone conversation, Field said that “some of the Claremont Institute’s leaders have taken on an apocalyptic view of America and think we’re already in a situation where our society is more conflict-ridden than we were before the civil war”.Their fears of “unyielding technocratic tyranny” mean that some in Claremont circles have been “dabbling in talk of secession for years”, and “believe they need to use whatever they might need, including paramilitaries”.Haywood’s ideas have seen him characterized as an extremist even by others on the far right including the former American Conservative columnist Rod Dreher, who wrote last December that Haywood was “seriously, batshit crazy” and characterized him as writing from a “Midwestern Führerbunker”.State and federal tax filings, however, indicate that Haywood has succeeded in attracting men to help him build a network in line with his ideas. Although there is no public membership list available, federal and state filings from regional lodges identify their officers along with those who initially incorporated each lodge.In particular, Skyler Kressin of Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, appears to serve a key role in SACR. Idaho and Texas company records show that Kressin incorporated lodges in Boise, Coeur d’Alene and Dallas; serves as a director of the Coeur d’Alene and Dallas lodges; and was named as the principal officer of the parent organization on its 2020-2021 tax return.Like other members revealed as officers in the filings, Kressin appears to be an affluent professional working as a tax accountant.The Guardian emailed a request for comment to Kressin but received no response.According to tax records Haywood has funded SACR through his Howdy Doody Good Times foundation, for which he and his wife, Alison Murphy, are both listed as directors. In the 2020-2021 tax year the foundation gave $30,000 to SACR, followed by $10,000 the following year, according to its 990 filings.Further funding for SACR was provided by the Claremont Institute, which gave $26,248 in 2021 in one of only two grants the organization distributed that year, per its own IRS filings.In another indication of what appears to be a mutually supportive relationship, Haywood’s foundation contributed $50,000 to the Claremont Institute in 2020-2021.The Guardian emailed a Claremont media spokesperson, David Bahr, inviting comment.On Haywood’s sponsorship of SACR and his Claremont ties, Field, the political theorist, said: “What’s creepy about the local-level stuff is that this country has a history of local autocracy … the way they’re acting undermines the rule of law.” More

Some years ago, at an African Union conference in Addis Ababa, I heard the then UN secretary general, Kofi Annan, say to an audience stuffed with life presidents: “One of the tests of leadership is knowing when to leave the stage.” All the big offenders were present – Robert Mugabe from Zimbabwe, Omar Bongo from Gabon, Teodoro Obiang from Equatorial Guinea and Yoweri Museveni from Uganda. They sat stony-faced amid much nervous foot-shuffling and laughter as the chairman, the former president of Mozambique, Joaquim Chissano (one of the few African leaders who stood down when his time was up), pointed at them and said, “And we all know who Kofi was talking about, don’t we?” It was an electric moment.Annan may have been talking about African presidents, but today his words might equally apply elsewhere. Is it not extraordinary that, more than 200 years after it was founded, a political system as open and allegedly sophisticated as that in the US can only offer the American electorate a choice between two elderly males – one a serial liar and the other a decent man well past his sell-by date. One can understand what drives Donald Trump (77) – a desire to stay out of prison – but why on earth should Joe Biden (80), who has held elected office since 1972, want to cling to power? And not just Biden; what of Nancy Pelosi (83), until recently House speaker, or the Senate Republican leader, Mitch McConnell (81), both visibly fading? Or, indeed, the revered supreme court justice, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, whose refusal to recognise that her time was up arguably gifted control of the most important institution in the US to the hard right when she died in post in 2020 at the age of 87.Despots at least have the excuse that, having trampled their enemies and made themselves rich beyond the dreams of avarice, they can’t guarantee that were they to relinquish the reins of office, they wouldn’t be called to account for their misdeeds. Political leaders in a mature democracy, however, have no such excuse. A comfortable retirement awaits them – a good pension, lucrative memoirs and (should they want it) adulation on the after-dinner speaking circuit.In the UK, whatever our problems, rule by geriatrics is not an issue, although once upon a time it was. William Gladstone, Winston Churchill and Clement Attlee – great men in their heyday – overstayed their welcome. Margaret Thatcher and Tony Blair, though by no means geriatric, had to be prised out of office. Some of our judges, too – notably Lord Denning – overstayed.Our problem, however, is almost the opposite: in the increasingly febrile UK, such is the pressure on a reigning prime minister that, in recent years, it has been rare to last a single full term, never mind two. And as for ministers, the turnover is extraordinary. Rory Stewart, to name but one, held five posts in four years. We could do with a bit more stability, not less.Many of the current generation of MPs seem to get their feet on the ladder when they are far too young. Some are not long out of university or a political thinktank. I am occasionally asked by an ambitious young person for my thoughts on how to get into parliament. My advice is always the same: “Go away and do something else first and then you might be of more use if and when you do get elected.” For better or worse, I was 39 when I was first elected as an MP.Experience in other fields is important. There is more to politics than tweeting. (Though I read with horror the other day that there are now companies that, for an appropriate fee, offer a bespoke social media service to young professionals vying for selection as candidates for parliament. Lord, save us.)Power, of course, when finally achieved, is addictive. Having striven for so long to reach the top – nearly 50 years in Biden’s case – there is understandably a reluctance to relinquish office. The longer you are in power, the more messianic you become. “All prime ministers go mad after two terms,” one of Blair’s closest advisers once remarked to me, only half-jokingly. The US system, for all its faults, does have one great strength: two terms and you are out.As for me, who only ever inhabited the political foothills, I stood down at the age of 62. As those who have read my diaries will know, a great deal of agonising preceded the decision. At the time I regarded it as either the best or the worst decision of my life. Thirteen years on, I am pleased to report that it has worked out better than I could ever have anticipated. It’s always better to go when people are still asking “why” rather than “when”.
Chris Mullin is a former Labour minister. His most recent diaries, Didn’t You Use to Be Chris Mullin?, are published by Biteback More

From 20m agoJoe and Jill Biden have landed on Maui to survey the devastation wrought by recent wildfires. The Bidens are accompanied by Deanne Criswell, the administrator of the US Federal Emergency Management Agency (Femas).While on the island, the first couple will also meet with first responders and be briefed by state and local officials about the response.Stay tuned to the Guardian’s live blog for updates on the Bidens’ visit.Federal prosecutors are objecting to the April 2026 trial date proposed by lawyers for Donald Trump in the case accusing the former president of scheming to overturn the results of the 2020 election, the Associated Press reports.Defense lawyers said that the far-off date was meant to give prosecutors time to review the 11.5m pages of potential evidence. But prosecutors said much of that material includes duplicate pages or information that is already public like Trump’s social media posts.Prosecutors wrote:
In cases such as this one, the burden of reviewing discovery cannot be measured by page count alone, and comparisons to the height of the Washington Monument and the length of a Tolstoy novel are neither helpful nor insightful; in fact, comparisons such as those are a distraction from the issue at hand – which is determining what is required to prepare for trial.
As part of the agreement, Donald Trump “shall perform no act to intimidate any person known to him or her to be a codefendant or witness”, the court filing shows.The former president cannot make a “direct or indirect threat of any nature” against any codefendant, including through “posts on social media or reposts of posts made by another individual on social media”.Trump is also prohibited from communicating about the case with any codefendants in the Georgia case except through his lawyer.Donald Trump’s bond in the sweeping Georgia racketeering case has been set for $200,000, according to court filings at Fulton county court.From the Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Tamar Hallerman:Donald Trump’s legal team has arrived at the Fulton county courthouse where they are expected to meet with district attorney Fani Willis’s office, CNN reported, citing sources.Trump’s lawyers Todd Blanche, Jennifer Little and Drew Findling will be doing the negotiating, according to one source.Trump and several of his codefendants in the Georgia racketeering case are expected to work out the terms of their bond today with the Fulton county DA’s office, the report said.Court filings show Willis has reached a $100,000 bond agreement with former Trump lawyer John Eastman, and a $10,000 bond for bail bondsman Scott Hall.Texas senator Ted Cruz, a former candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, appeared on Monday to fall for one of the oldest internet hoaxes, sharing a supposed picture of a shark on a flooded highway in Los Angeles with the remark: “Holy crap.”California does indeed face potentially catastrophic flooding thanks to Storm Hilary, but users of X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, were swift to point out that the image Cruz reposted is in fact wholly crap.Had Cruz checked Snopes before posting his remark, he might have noted the site’s description of previous uses of the shark-on-a-highway picture, including in relation to his own state.Cruz did not delete his post. Hours later, he wrote:
I’m told this is a joke. In LA, you never know … And everyone please stay safe from the storm or otherwise.
It was not Cruz’s first flirtation with social media ridicule. In 2017, the senator’s account on the service then known as Twitter “liked” a tweet showing pornographic material. Cruz appeared to blame a staffer.“It was not me, and it’s not going to happen again,” he said.Donald Trump holds a commanding lead over his Republican primary rivals, according to the latest Morning Consult poll, with the former president beating his closest rival, Florida governor Ron DeSantis, by 44 points.Scott Hall, a bail bondsman who was charged with racketeering and six criminal conspiracy counts relating to a scheme to access voting machines and data in rural Coffee county, has reached a bond agreement with Fulton county district attorney Fani Willis, court filings show.In a “consent bond order” listed on the Fulton county court website, Hall agreed to a $10,000 bond, that he will “report to pre-trial supervision every 30 days” and that is barred from communicating with the other 18 defendants in the case.Hall, Cathy Latham and Misty Hampton “aided, abetted, and encouraged” employees from the data solutions firm SullivanStrickler to access voting equipment inside the Coffee county board of elections registration office, according to the indictment handed down by Willis.Donald Trump plans to introduce sweeping new restrictions on immigration and the border if he wins the 2024 presidential election, according to a report.During his tenancy in the White House, Trump built part of a border wall, established strict wealth and health tests for prospective immigrants, and limited asylum. But the former president’s plan would go much further, potentially making it tougher for millions of foreigners to enter or stay in the US, Axios writes.Under Trump’s plans, ideological screening would be ramped up for people legally applying to come into the country, the report says. US law has blocked communists from entering for decades, but it has rarely been enforced, and Trump wants to enforce the law to reject applicants who are deemed “Marxists”, Axios says. Trump would also expand his “Muslim ban” idea to block more people from certain countries from entering the US, according to the report.Under a new Trump administration, the US Coast Guard and Navy would be sent to form a blockade in the waters off the US and Latin America to stop drug-smuggling boats, it says. He will also designate drug cartels as “unlawful enemy combatants” to allow the US military to target them in Mexico, it says, and extend the floating barriers along the Rio Grande.The former president intends to end birthright citizenship for children of undocumented immigrations, according to the report. He would also allegedly seek to complete his border wall.Trump adviser Stephen Miller told Axios:
For those passionate about securing our immigration system …… the first 100 days of the Trump administration will be pure bliss – followed by another four years of the most hard-hitting action conceivable.
Donald Trump has already recorded an interview with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson that the former president plans to use as counterprogramming for the first Republican presidential primary debate on Wednesday, NBC News reported, citing sources.It is unclear how and when the interview will be aired. Carlson has been releasing interviews on X, formerly known as Twitter, since he was fired from Fox News earlier this year.Trump senior campaign adviser Jason Miller told the news channel that the former president will be at his club in Bedminster, New Jersey, the night of the debate, which will air at 9pm eastern time on Wednesday.John Eastman, a former adviser to Donald Trump who was charged for his alleged role in helping the former president try to overturn the 2020 presidential election in Georgia, has agreed to a $100,000 bond in the case, court filings show.In a “consent bond order” listed on the Fulton county court website, Eastman and prosecutors agreed to a $100,000 bond on the charges Eastman is facing, which include racketeering, criminal conspiracy and filing false documents. Eastman’s $100,000 bond order is the first to appear on the Fulton county court website.Under the terms of the order, Eastman “shall report to pre-trial supervision every 30 days”, and “shall perform no act to intimidate any person known to him or her to be a codefendant or witness in this case or to otherwise obstruct the administration of justice”.From CNN’s Kaitlan Collins:In Montana, a judge ruled in favor of young people who allege that the state’s promotion of fossil fuels violates their right to a “clean and healthful environment”, which is guaranteed in the state’s constitution.This case is one of several constitutional climate lawsuits filed on behalf of young people and brought by the nonprofit law firm Our Children’s Trust. There are also four pending lawsuits in other states. One of those cases, brought by Hawaii youth plaintiffs, is set to go to trial in June 2024, attorneys announced this month.The judge’s ruling, if upheld, will compel Montana to consider climate change when deciding whether to approve or renew fossil fuel projects. But it will not stop the state from allowing new fossil fuel infrastructure.Read the entirety of the Guardian’s explainer on the Montana decision here.Donald Trump’s rivals for the Republican presidential nomination reacted in mostly muted fashion to his declaration that he will skip all the party’s primary debates, not just the first in Milwaukee on Wednesday.Andrew Romeo, a spokesperson for Ron DeSantis, Trump’s closest if distant rival, insisted:
No one is entitled to this nomination, including Donald Trump. You have to show up and earn it.
Among Trump’s Republican rivals, notwithstanding a warning from the rank outsider Will Hurd that “kissing his butt is not going to help you win”, reaction to Trump’s debate avoidance plans remained muted at best.Mike Pence, formerly vice-president to Trump, echoed the chairperson of the Republican National Committee when he told ABC News:
One thing I realised about him is it’s not over till it’s over. So I’m actually still hoping he shows up.
Vivek Ramaswamy, the biotech entrepreneur who has gone from wide outsider to contender for second place, aimed a warmup barb at DeSantis when he said:
We don’t need another career politician beholden to the donor class sitting in the White House. Cronyism leads to corruption. The choice for GOP primary voters: Do we want Super Pac puppets? Or patriots who speak the TRUTH?
According to Axios, James Uthmeir, DeSantis’s new campaign manager, used a memo to donors and supporters to warn that the Milwaukee debate would be other candidates’ “biggest chance yet to grab headlines by attacking the governor, so we know they will try their best”. Uthmeir also offered a touch of optimism.“We all know why our competitors have to go down this road,” he said.
Because this is a two-man race for the Republican nomination between Governor DeSantis and Donald Trump.
Donald Trump Jr confirmed he will travel to Wisconsin to attend the first Republican presidential primary debate, even though his father, Donald Trump, said he will not be there.The Trump campaign told the Hill that Trump Jr will be in Milwaukee as a “surrogate” in support of his father’s reelection bid.Larry Hogan, the former Republican governor of Maryland, said No Labels would “very likely” launch a third-party “alternative” if Donald Trump and Joe Biden are the nominees for their parties in the 2024 presidential election.“f Trump and Biden are the nominees, it’s very likely that No Labels will get access to the ballot and offer an alternative,” Hogan said on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday.
If most of the voters don’t want A or B, we have an obligation to give them C, I mean, for the good of the country.
An “overwhelming majority” of Americans are “completely fed up with politics”, said Hogan, who serves as the national co-chairman of No Labels.
They think Washington is broken. And so, even though this normally is not something that we consider and talk about seriously because it hasn’t happened in the past, this is something that could happen.
Today is the cutoff for required set by the Republican national committee (RNC) for candidates who want to take part in Wednesday’s primary debate.To qualify for the 23 August debate, candidates need to have reached at least 1% in three high-quality national polls or a mix of national and early-state polls, between 1 July and 21 August, and a minimum of 40,000 donors, with 200 in 20 or more states. Candidates must also sign a pledge promising to support the party’s ultimate nominee.At least nine candidates appear to have made the cut so far for the first Republican presidential debate in Milwaukee, according to a New York Times tracker. Seven candidates have definitely qualified, and they are:
Ron DeSantis, governor of Florida
Doug Burgum, governor of North Dakota
Chris Christie, former governor of New Jersey
Nikki Haley, former governor of South Carolina
Mike Pence, former vice president
Tim Scott, senator for South Carolina
Vivek Ramaswamy, entrepreneur
Asa Hutchinson, former governor of Arkansas, said on Sunday that had also met the qualification criteria. Donald Trump, who has said he will not take part in the debate, could qualify but he has not signed the loyalty pledge.But there are two candidates, Miami mayor Francis X Suarez and the businessman Perry Johnson who have said they met the criteria but whose claims have not been corroborated by the RNC.Joe Biden and the first lady, Jill Biden, are currently on the way to Maui to comfort survivors of the devastating wildfires that ripped through the western part of the Hawaiian island nearly two weeks ago.The Bidens, who are pausing their vacation in Lake Tahoe, will take a helicopter tour of the burned-out areas. They will then visit Lahaina, a historic town of 13,000 people that was virtually destroyed by the flames, to see the wildfire damage first-hand and meet with first responders.The president will deliver remarks “paying respects to the lives lost and reflecting on the tragic, lasting impacts of these wildfires on survivors and the community,” a White House official said.“I know how profoundly loss can impact a family and a community and I know nothing can replace the loss of life,” Biden said in a statement ahead of the trip.
I will do everything in my power to help Maui recover and rebuild from this tragedy. And throughout our efforts, we are focused on respecting sacred lands, cultures, and traditions.
Biden has faced criticizm among some Republicans and others for his initial response to the Maui fires, after he went several days without speaking about the tragedy while on vacation at his Delaware beach house. The White House said Biden has been leading a “whole of government” effort to help Hawaii recover.Donald Trump and his 18 co-defendants in a sprawling racketeering case have until this Friday to surrender to authorities in Atlanta and to be booked at the notorious Fulton county jail, also known as “Rice Street”.The sprawling detention center has a reputation for troubled conditions for inmates. Last month, the justice department launched a civil rights investigation into dilapidated and unsanitary conditions at the jail, as well as violence against detainees. The investigation was sparked in part by the death of LaShawn Thompson, who according to his family was found “eaten alive by insects and bedbugs” in a filthy cell in September 2022.The Fulton county jail suffers from problems with overcrowding, overflowing toilets and faulty air conditioning, according to the Washington Post. Fulton county sheriff Patrick Labat, who oversees the jail and has pushed for funding to replace it, said:
What you’ll see in these wheelbarrows are shanks. Right now, they total over 1,100 shanks. These are pieces of the building that have been ripped apart, fashioned into knives, fashioned into deadly weapons.
Trump and his co-defendants, including Rudy Giuliani, an attorney for the ex-president and former New York City mayor, and Mark Meadows, the former White House chief of staff, will be treated like everyone else should they surrender there, according to the local sheriff.That means they will undergo a medical screening, be fingerprinted and have mug shots taken, and could potentially spend time in a holding cell at the jail, according to a New York Times report.Fox & Friends host Steve Doocy said Donald Trump’s decision to skip the first GOP primary debate this week could benefit Joe Biden.“Unfortunately by skipping the debates, Donald Trump may actually be helping Joe Biden because he’s giving Joe Biden an excuse for not debating Donald Trump,” Doocy said on the Fox News program.
That’s one of the things that [Republican National Committee chairwoman] Ronna McDaniel told the former president when she was trying to get him to do the first debate. But he said, ‘Nope, not going to do it.’”
“I don’t know how that would be, though. How could Joe Biden rationalize not going against Donald Trump?” asked co-host Brian Kilmeade.Doocy replied:
Because if Donald Trump says, ‘Everybody knows me, I don’t need to do it,’ then Joe Biden does, ‘Everybody knows me! I’m the president.’ More

Donald Trump’s bond on racketeering and conspiracy charges relating to attempted election subversion in Georgia was set at $200,000.In a court document posted online on Monday, bond amounts for the 13 charges against the former president ranged from $10,000, for counts including criminal conspiracy and filing false documents, to $80,000, for a violation of the Georgia Rico Act, often used against organised crime.Terms included a prohibition of “act[ing] to intimidate any person known to … be a codefendant or witness in this case”, including in “posts on social media”.Authorities in Georgia are investigating threats made to grand jurors.The bond document also said Trump “shall not communicate in any way, directly or indirectly, about the facts of this case with any person known to him to be a codefendant in this case except through his or her counsel”.John Eastman, a law professor who advised Trump in his attempt to overturn his defeat by Joe Biden in 2020, saw bond set at $100,000.Defendants also include the former New York mayor and Republican presidential hopeful Rudy Giuliani. The deadline for defendants to turn themselves in is 12pm ET on Friday.The document concerning Trump’s bond was signed by Scott McAfee, a superior court judge, three Trump lawyers and Fani Willis, the district attorney of Fulton county who last week secured indictments of Trump and 18 aides and allies.Willis has proposed that arraignments begin in the week of 5 September before a trial in March.Trump denies wrongdoing in Georgia and in three other indictments which have produced a total of 91 criminal charges.The charges cover federal and state election subversion in 2020, the retention of classified information after leaving office, and hush-money payments to a porn star during the 2016 election.Despite such unprecedented legal jeopardy – to which can be added civil investigations of Trump’s business affairs and a defamation case in which a judge said Trump was adjudicated a rapist – the former president dominates the race for the Republican presidential nomination.Ahead of the first debate on Wednesday, which Trump will not attend, he leads his nearest challenger, Florida governor Ron DeSantis, by about 40 points in national polling averages and by wide margins in key states.On social media on Monday, some observers doubted that Trump, notorious for attacking enemies on social media (which he did the same day, aiming at the Georgia governor, Brian Kemp), would abide by the terms of his bond.“Barring a real come-to-Jesus moment,” said Anthony Michael Kreis, a Georgia State law professor, “the only way Trump doesn’t violate his … conditions is if his lawyers confiscate his phone.”Others noted how Trump has leveraged his predicament to fund his campaign to return to the White House, widely seen as his best hope of avoiding prison.Ron Filipkowski, a Florida attorney turned viral Trump critic, said it was “time to shake down the donors”. More

The biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, a contender for the Republican presidential nomination, was condemned for conspiracy-tinged remarks about the events of 9/11 and the January 6 attack on the Capitol.“I think it is legitimate to say how many police, how many federal agents, were on the planes that hit the Twin Towers,” Ramaswamy said, in a profile published by the Atlantic on Monday.“Maybe the answer is zero. It probably is zero for all I know, right? I have no reason to think it was anything other than zero. But if we’re doing a comprehensive assessment of what happened on 9/11, we have a 9/11 commission, absolutely that should be an answer the public knows the answer to.”Charles P Pierce, a writer for Esquire, said: “There is not a single sentence in this paragraph that doesn’t disqualify this guy from being president of the United States.”The events of 9/11 – and the absence of any US government plot – were established by an official commission, a bipartisan group which published its final report in July 2004.On 11 September 2001, four planes took off from Boston, Washington and Newark before being hijacked by terrorists. Two planes hit the towers of the World Trade Center, in Manhattan. One hit the Pentagon in Virginia. A passenger revolt on the fourth plane brought it down in a field in Pennsylvania before it could reach its target, the Capitol or the White House.The death toll was 2,977. Thousands were hurt. More than 2,000 survivors and first responders have died from cancers and other disorders related to the crash sites.The US deemed al-Qaida responsible, spawning wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and operations elsewhere in which millions died.In the Atlantic profile, Ramaswamy, 38, did not confine his conspiracy-laced remarks to 9/11. He made that comment after being asked, “What was the truth about January 6?”, the deadly attack on Congress by supporters of Donald Trump seeking to overturn the 2020 election.“I don’t know,” Ramaswamy said, “but we can handle it. Whatever it is, we can handle it. Government agents. How many government agents were in the field? Right?”Ramaswamy launched his presidential campaign as a rank outsider but has improved in polling to challenge Ron DeSantis, the hard-right governor of Florida, for second place to Trump.Ramaswamy, DeSantis and other candidates are due to appear in the first debate in Milwaukee on Wednesday. Ramaswamy’s remarks about 9/11 seem likely to be raised.Trump is skipping the debate. But the former president also has a history of controversial comments about 9/11, including claiming “thousands and thousands” of Muslims in New Jersey were seen celebrating the fall of the towers in New York (they were not) and saying he owned the tallest building in lower Manhattan after the World Trade Center fell (he did not).Seeking to appeal to Trump voters, Ramaswamy seems eager to cover similar ground. Earlier this month, on the rightwing Blaze TV, he was asked if he thought 9/11 was an “inside job” or happened “exactly like the government tells us”.“I don’t believe the government has told us the truth,” Ramaswamy said. “I’m driven by evidence and data. What I’ve seen in the last several years is we have to be skeptical of what the government does tell us.”Ramaswamy later said he was referring to what is known or not known about links between the 9/11 attackers and the government of Saudi Arabia. But the Wall Street Journal, based in downtown Manhattan, was among those to rebuke him.Referring to a notorious conspiracy theorist, the paper’s editorial board said: “Oh, man. What ‘evidence and data’ is he talking about? An Alex Jones broadcast?”It added: “More such flights into political exotica will encourage many voters to conclude that Mr Ramaswamy isn’t ready for his closeup, much less the demands of the presidency.”Ramaswamy protested against such treatment, on platforms including an interview with the former Fox News host Tucker Carlson. In that conversation, Ramaswamy said controversy over his comments about 9/11 would not prove a “campaign-ender”, adding: “I explicitly said that the government absolutely lied to us. The 9/11 commission lied. The FBI lied. Now, is this a core point of my campaign? No, it’s not.”He also claimed to be “speaking the truth you’re not supposed to speak”.Then came the Atlantic profile.Ammar Moussa, Democratic national press secretary and rapid response director, wrote: “Oh my god. Not only is Vivek spreading conspiracy theories about January 6, but now is implying the federal government was behind 9/11? What are we doing here?”Thomas Lecaque, a historian at Grand View University in Iowa, went harder: “I think it’s legitimate to say Vivek Ramaswamy should be treated like a 9/11 conspiracy nut and given the complete lack of respect, time, and media space that deserves.” More