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      Taiwan monitoring Chinese strike group off the coast after president meets US speaker

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      Taiwan authorities are monitoring Chinese military activity including a carrier strike group about 200 nautical miles (370km) off the main island’s coastline, after the Taiwanese president, Tsai Ing-wen, met US House speaker Kevin McCarthy in Los Angeles.In the meeting, held at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, McCarthy stressed the urgency of arms deliveries to Taiwan, while Tsai praised the “strong and unique partnership” with the US..Taiwan’s defence minister, Chiu Kuo-cheng, said on Thursday that the island’s military was studying the carrier group, led by the Shandong aircraft carrier. Chiu said the group – a fleet of navy vessels led by an aircraft carrier – appeared to be on a training exercise and no planes had been detected taking off from the ship, but the timing was “sensitive”. He later confirmed that the US aircraft carrier Nimitz, which had been participating in joint drills with Japan and Korea in the East China Sea this week, was also in the same area as the Shandong on Thursday.The carrier group was sent to waters south-east of Taiwan’s main island on Wednesday, shortly before Tsai and McCarthy met in Los Angeles.Japan’s defence ministry confirmed it was also monitoring the strike group, which it detected 300km from Okinawa on Wednesday evening. The ministry said the Shandong was accompanied by the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) frigate Liuzhou and a fast combat support ship as it travelled east towards the Philippines Sea, entering the Pacific Ocean for the first time.Separately, Japan said a PLAN guided-missile destroyer had been detected sailing between Taiwan and the Japanese island of Yonaguni, about 100km off Taiwan’s coast on Tuesday. Taiwan’s defence ministry would not confirm or comment on the detection.Taiwan’s defence ministry also reported three additional PLAN vessels and one anti-submarine helicopter operating near Taiwan in the 24 hours to Thursday morning.Chiu said a separate patrol of the Taiwan Strait announced by Chinese maritime authorities on Wednesday was not a military exercise, but appeared to be Beijing attempting to set a “new normal” in terms of enforcing their domestic law in wider maritime spaces. China’s coastguard, which comes under the command of the central military commission, claims authority to stop and inspect vessels in the area under a controversial 2021 law, though it is not believed to have done so before. The Taiwan defence ministry has instructed Taiwanese vessels, including cargo and ferry services, to not cooperate with attempts by this patrol to board and inspect them.Beijing has reacted angrily to the meeting between Taiwan’s leader and McCarthy, who is the second in line to the US presidency, accusing the pair of undermining its claim over Taiwan, conniving on “separatist” aims, and degrading China-US relations.McCarthy, a Republican who became the most senior figure to meet a Taiwanese leader on American soil in decades, was joined by a bipartisan group of US politicians who voiced support for dialogue with Taiwan amid simmering tensions with China.“We must continue the arms sales to Taiwan and make sure such sales reach Taiwan on a very timely basis,” McCarthy said at a news conference after the meeting, adding that he believed there was bipartisan agreement on this. “Second, we must strengthen our economic cooperation, particularly with trade and technology.”Beijing quickly denounced the meeting. Its foreign ministry said in statement that China will take “resolute and effective measures to safeguard national sovereignty and territorial integrity.”A China defence ministry spokesperson called on the US to “stop its blatant interference in China’s internal affairs”.“We firmly oppose all forms of official interaction between the United States and Taiwan and any visit by leader of the Taiwan authorities to the United States in any name or under whatever pretext,” it said in a statement.China claims democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory, a position the government in Taipei strongly contests. Tsai says they are already a sovereign nation, and Taiwan’s future is for its people to decide.It is the second time Tsai has met the holder of the high-ranking office in less than a year, having welcomed McCarthy’s predecessor, Nancy Pelosi, to Taiwan in August. That visit, which took place on what China considers to be sovereign soil, provoked a stronger reaction from Beijing, including days of live-fire military exercises around Taiwan.So far, the reaction to the California meeting is far more muted. It is understood the McCarthy meeting was held on US soil instead of in Taiwan as McCarthy originally wanted, at least in part to reduce its provocativeness. On Thursday, Taiwan’s national security chief also noted the presidents of France and the European Union were currently visiting China, and “China must practice peaceful diplomacy”.McCarthy told Tsai a shared belief in democracy and freedom formed “the bedrock” of their enduring relationship.“The friendship between the people of Taiwan and America is a matter of profound importance to the free world, and it is critical to maintain economic freedom peace and regional stability,” he said.While stressing that there was no need for retaliation from China after the meeting, McCarthy also said he looked forward to, “more meeting like this in the future”.Republican Mike Gallagher, chair of the House Chinese Communist party committee, responded to China’s objections to the meeting, saying: “If the duly elected leader of one of our most important democratic partners can’t meet with American leaders on American soil, then we are merely feeding the crocodile that will eventually eat us.”Tsai’s US stops have been attended by crowds of pro- and anti-Taiwan protesters. The opposing groups scuffled outside the Ronald Reagan library, and were separated by police. Wednesday’s meeting was also attended by more than a dozen Democratic and Republican lawmakers, highlighting the bipartisan consensus in Congress when it comes to supporting Taiwan.Tsai thanked them for their “unwavering support”, which she said “reassures the people of Taiwan that we are not isolated and we are not alone”.Since 1979, the US has officially recognised the People’s Republic of China as the sole government of the “one China” that is mainland China and Taiwan. But the US also sells arms to Taiwan to deter any military advances from Beijing, something that McCarthy said should continue.He drew an explicit comparison between Hong Kong and Taiwan, saying that when China “reneged” on its promise to allow Hong Kong autonomy for 50 years after the handover to Chinese rule, “that harmed [Beijing’s reputation] around the world”.Michael Swaine, a senior research fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, a thinktank, warned that the meeting could accelerate the downward spiral of US-China relations. He warned that it could trigger a “show of resolve” from Beijing, which could itself “drive Washington to move even closer to Taiwan in order to demonstrate its own resolve”.On Wednesday the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, told Euronews that a move by China to annex Taiwan would have far reaching repercussions “for quite literally every country on Earth”.Chi Hui Lin and Reuters contributed to this report More

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      Mike Pence will comply with subpoena to testify before January 6 grand jury – as it happened

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      It was a lively day in Washington with developments on several fronts this afternoon.
      Former Vice-president, Mike Pence, will not fight a judge’s order compelling him to appear before a special grand jury hearing testimony in the justice department’s investigation into Trump’s efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.
      King Charles invited Biden to the United Kingdom for an official state visit and the US president accepted, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters. She offered no timeline for when the visit would take place.
      Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer on Wednesday signed the repeal of a dormant 1931 law that the banned abortion and criminalized providers who performed them.
      House Speaker Kevin McCarthy met Taiwanese president Tsai Ing-wen in California today, becoming the most senior US figure to meet a Taiwanese leader on US soil since 1979, despite threats of retaliation from China, which claims self-ruled Taiwan as its own.
      The Mexican president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, has weighed in to say he does not agree with the criminal charges brought against former president Donald Trump in the US, calling the case political, Reuters reports.
      Reflecting on his day in court, Trump said he sees a silver lining.“As much as I can enjoy a day like Tuesday,” the former president wrote, denouncing liberals as “Radical Left Lunatics” and insisting there was “no crime” committed, “it was an unbelievable experience, perhaps the Best Day in History for somebody who had just suffered Unjustifiable Indictment!”In a burst of posts on his social media platform, Truth Social, Trump shared polling, promoted by conservative outlets, that showed him stretching his lead over the nominal Republican presidential field.While Trump’s arraignment have appeared to rally Republican voters to his side, polling also shows that a majority of Americans agree with indictment, suggesting his legal woes could hinder him with the broader electorate.He added: “My Poll Numbers have never been better, almost $10 Million was raised for the Campaign and, the day was capped off with a very important Speech. If we don’t stop the Radical Left, America is DEAD!”Nevada senator Jacky Rosen, a Democrat, will seek re-election, an expected but nevertheless welcome announcement for the party facing a tough electoral map in 2024.The Silver State has proved to be one of the nation’s most competitive battlegrounds. In 2022, Democratic incumbent Catherine Cortez Masto narrowly eked out a victory against her Republican opponent, while the state’s Democratic governor lost re-election to the Trump-backed Joe Lombardo.Next year Senate Democrats are defending seats in a handful of states Trump won as well as a number of swing states. This comes after they expanded their narrow majority to 51 in 2022 by flipping a seat Pennsylvania.Rosen’s launch video emphasizes her biography, her support for the infrastructure law and legislation reducing the cost of prescription drug prices, and her focus on issues like abortion access and climate change.Republican-led legislatures around the country are considering – and passing – new laws to control the lives of trans youth – from the care they can seek, to the sports’ team they can play on and the school bathrooms they can use.On Wednesday, Indiana’s Republican governor, Eric Holcomb, signed into law a measure banning all gender-affirming care for minors, after telling reporters the bill sent to his desk was “clear as mud”. With his signature, Indiana joins at least 12 other states that have enacted similar bans or restrictions on such care.Opponents of such legislation say the care, which includes hormone therapy and puberty blockers endorsed by top medical associations, are safe, largely reversible and can be life-saving for trans youth.Republican lawmakers in Kansas, meanwhile, overrode the Democratic governor, Laura Kelly’s veto of a bill banning transgender athletes from participating in girl’s and women’s sports from kindergarten through college, per the Associated Press.It follows a measure approved by Kansas lawmakers on Tuesday that critics say is among the most restrictive in the nation. The bill, which Kelly is expected to veto, would prevent trans people from using public restrooms, locker rooms and other facilities that do not align with the gender on their birth certificate. It would also prevent them from changing their name or gender on their driver’s license.Former Vice-president, Mike Pence, will not fight a judge’s order compelling him to appear before a special grand jury hearing testimony in the justice department’s investigation into Trump’s efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.“Vice-president Pence will not appeal the judge’s ruling and will comply with the subpoena as required by law,” a spokesman for Pence said.“The court’s landmark and historic ruling affirmed for the first time in history that the speech or debate clause extends to the vice-president,” the spokesperson said. “Having vindicated that principle of the constitution, VP Pence will not appeal the judge’s ruling and will comply with the subpoena.”The president and the first lady are “very much looking forward” to welcoming LSU Tigers basketball team to the White House after they defeated the Iowa Hawkeyes to win their first NCAA championship, Jean-Pierre said.But it appears unclear whether the team, or its star player, Angel Reese, is planning to attend after a verbal flap by the first lady, who attended the championship game, suggested both teams be invited to the White House.Traditionally, only the champions are invited. Reese called the remark a “JOKE” on Twitter. The White House attempted to walk back the comment, saying Jill Biden’s comments were “intended to applaud the historic game and all women athletes”.“She looks forward to celebrating the LSU Tigers on their championship win at the White House.”But in a podcast interview, according to CNN, Reese told the hosts that she did not accept Biden’s “apology”. “You can’t go back on certain things that you say … They can have that spotlight. We’ll go to the Obamas.’ We’ll go see Michelle. We’ll see Barack,” the star said.Jean-Pierre said King Charles invited Biden to the United Kingdom for an official state visit and he accepted. The king extended the invitation during a recent call with the president, which Jean Pierre described as “very friendly”. She offered no timeline for when the visit would take place.Biden is not planning to attend King Charles’ coronation next month in keeping with past precedent. The US delegation will be lead instead by the first lady, Jill Biden.Pressed repeatedly on why Biden wasn’t attending, Jean-Pierre insisted that the British people should not see the decision as a “snub.”“I will leave it at that,” she said. “It is not a snub.”On whether he would meet with the king during his visit to the UK and Ireland next week, Jean-Pierre said to stay tuned.White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre is at the podium this afternoon answering reporters’ questions on a range of subjects. Here’s a quick rat-a-tat.
      She declined to offer a timeline of when the White House would release a comprehensive strategy for combatting antisemitism, as Biden announced in a CNN op-ed this morning.
      She would not comment on Trump’s arraignment, citing the White House’s position that it does not comment on ongoing legal cases. However, she did in general terms say that the White House and the president condemns “any type of attacks on any judge or our judicial system”.
      Biden was briefed by senior advisers about the charges against Trump, Jean-Pierre said, insisting his focus was not on the former president. “He’s not focused on this indictment,” she said.
      On McCarthy’s meeting with the Taiwanese president, Jean Pierre said: “There is no reason for Beijing to turn this transit into something that is used as a pretext to overreact … We just do not see, there should not be a reason, for the PCR to overreact here.”
      She would not say whether Biden planned to take family members with him on what he views as a return to his ancestral home. She said he would use his family’s history and Irish roots to tell a broader story about Irish immigrants influence on the nation.
      Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer on Wednesday signed the repeal of a 1931 law that the banned abortion and criminalized providers who performed them.A backlash to the supreme court’s to overturn the constitutional right to an abortion helped power Whitmer and a slate of Democratic candidates to victory in last year’s midterm elections.Voters overwhelmingly approved a citizen-led initiative to enshrine abortion rights in the state’s constitution, which rendered the 1931 law unconstitutional. However, if at some point in the future, voters were to gather enough signatures to amend the state’s constitution and overturn abortion right, the 1931 ban would then have been enforceable.Whitmer’s signature eliminated that possibility entirely, erasing the nearly-century old law completely.Testifying before a federal grand jury, former top Trump administration officials Chad Wolf and Ken Cuccinelli said they repeatedly informed the then-president that he could not seize voting machines as part of his efforts to cling to power in the wake of his defeat in 2020, according to new reporting by CNN.Citing three people familiar with the proceedings, CNN reported that Wolf and Cuccinelli were to describe discussions within the administration related to seizing voting machines when they appeared before the grand jury earlier this year.One of the sources told CNN that Cuccinelli testified to the grand jury that he “made clear at all times” that the Department of Homeland Security did not have the authority to seize voting machines.That line of questioning goes to the heart of [special counsel Jack] Smith’s challenge in any criminal case he might bring — to prove that Trump and his allies pursued their efforts despite knowing their fraud claims were false or their gambits weren’t lawful. To bring any potential criminal charges, prosecutors would have to overcome Trump’s public claim that he believed then and now that fraud really did cost him the election, per CNN.House Speaker Kevin McCarthy met Taiwanese president Tsai Ing-wen in California today, becoming the most senior US figure to meet a Taiwanese leader on US soil since 1979, despite threats of retaliation from China, which claims self-ruled Taiwan as its own, Reuters reports.McCarthy, a Republican who through his House position is number three in the US leadership hierarchy, welcomed Tsai on Wednesday morning at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California, near Los Angeles.China staged war games around Taiwan last August following the visit to Taipei of then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Taiwan’s defense ministry said a Chinese aircraft carrier group was in the waters off the island’s southeast coast ahead of the meeting between Tsai and McCarthy in California.US secretary of state Antony Blinken said there was nothing new about a Taiwanese president transiting through the United States and Beijing should not use it as an excuse to take any action or ratchet up tensions.Supporters waving Taiwan flags and pro-Taiwan and Hong Kong banners chanted “Jiayou Taiwan” – the equivalent of “Go Taiwan.”Washington switched diplomatic recognition from Taipei to Beijing in 1979.A meeting in California is seen as a potentially less provocative alternative to McCarthy visiting Taiwan, something he has said he hopes to do.Even the Mexican president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, has now weighed in to say he does not agree with the criminal charges brought against former president Donald Trump in the US, calling the case political, Reuters reports.Supposedly legal issues should not be used for electoral, political purposes. That’s why I don’t agree with what they are doing to ex-president Trump,” Lopez Obrador said at a news conference this morning.That’s a heck of a lot more than current US president Joe Biden has said on the matter, as he and White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre continue to rebuff requests for comment by political journalists on Trump’s legal crisis.Trump is the first sitting or former US president to face criminal charges, as he pleaded not guilty to 34 felony counts related to business fraud, allegedly to cover up election finance fraud, in New York on Tuesday afternoon.Leftist populist “Amlo” compared Trump’s case to the December ousting of former Peruvian president Pedro Castillo, who was removed from office and arrested after trying to dissolve congress.It should be the people who decide,” said López Obrador, who added that he could not say whether Trump was guilty or not.Here’s where things stand today
      Donald Trump continues to lash out at his opponents – real and perceived – the morning after his historic arraignment. In a pair of social media posts, he attacked the investigations against him, accused Democrats of “weaponizing” federal law enforcement agencies and called on Congressional Republicans to “defund” the DOJ and FBI.
      Janet Protasiewicz won her race for the Wisconsin’s supreme court, beating out a conservative candidate who had advised Republicans on legal efforts to overturn Biden’s 2020 victory in the state through the use of “fake electors”. Her win will flip the ideological balance of the state’s highest court, in an election which democracy observers have called the most consequential one of the year, with abortion rights, redistricting and election rules at stake.
      Progressive Cook county board commissioner Brandon Johnson won the election for Chicago mayor on Tuesday evening after pulling ahead of his opponent Paul Vallas on Tuesday.
      The Justice Department on Wednesday announced that it had reached a tentative $144.5m settlement with victims and relatives of those killed in the 2017 mass shooting at a church in Sutherland Springs, Texas.
      Still to come: House speaker Kevin McCarthy and a bipartisan contingent of lawmakers will sit down with Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen today in California, a carefully choreographed encounter that comes amid rising tensions between the US and China.
      The Justice Department on Wednesday announced that it had reached a tentative $144.5m settlement with victims and relatives of those killed in the 2017 mass shooting at a church in Sutherland Springs, Texas.Dozens of worshipers were killed or injured when gunman Devin Kelley opened fire during a Sunday service at First Baptist church of Sutherland Springs. The gunman, who died of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound, had served in the Air Force. Twenty-six people, including a pregnant woman, were killed and 22 others were injured.After the shooting, dozens of victims and their relatives sued the US air force, alleging that it failed to report the gunman’s history of violence, including an assault conviction, to the FBI’s national background check system. That conviction, they argued, should have prevented the former airman from being able to purchase the guns he used in the assault.A judge had previously ruled that the air force was “60% liable” for the attack as a result of its failure to report the conviction.“No words or amount of money can diminish the immense tragedy of the mass shooting in Sutherland Springs,” said associate attorney general Vanita Gupta in the press release. “Today’s announcement brings the litigation to a close, ending a painful chapter for the victims of this unthinkable crime.”The DoJ said the settlement was still subject to court approvals.In an op-ed published by CNN, Joe Biden marked the start of Passover by imploring Americans and democratic citizens around the world to speak out against rising antisemitism.He said the White House would soon release the “first-ever national strategy to counter antisemitism”, which he said would outline actions the federal government will take based on outreach to more than a thousand “Jewish community stakeholders, faith and civil rights leaders, state and local officials and more.”During his time in office, the president noted, the White House hosted the first High Holiday reception and lit the first permanent White House Hanukah menorah in our nation’s history.Here’s a bit more of Biden’s passover message:To the Jewish community, I want you to know that I see your fear, your hurt and your concern that this venom is being normalized. I decided to run for President after I saw it in Charlottesville, when neo-Nazis marched from the shadows spewing the same antisemitic bile that was heard in Germany in the 1930s,” Biden wrote.
      “Rest assured that I am committed to the safety of the Jewish people. I stand with you. America stands with you. Under my presidency, we continue to condemn antisemitism at every turn. Failure to call out hate is complicity. Silence is complicity. And we will not be silent.” More

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      in US Politics

      Democrats bid to use censorship law against DeSantis and ban his book

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      Democrats in Florida are attempting to use a state law that censors books in public schools against the governor who signed it, Ron DeSantis, by asking schools to review or ban the Republican governor’s own book, The Courage to be Free.“The very trap he set for others is the one that he set for himself,” Fentrice Driskell, the Democratic minority leader in the Florida state house, told the Daily Beast.DeSantis published The Courage to be Free in February, in what was widely seen as an opening shot in his campaign for the Republican presidential nomination. He has said he wrote the book himself.Seeking to compete with Donald Trump – who enjoys convincing leads in polling – DeSantis has established himself as a ruthless culture warrior, willing to use government power against opposing interests and viewpoints.He signed the law regarding books in schools last year. It includes guidelines for content deemed inappropriate on grounds of race, sexuality, gender and depictions of violence.But the law has run into problems over interpretations of its language, not least when a children’s book about Roberto Clemente, a baseball legend who faced racial discrimination, landed at the centre of national controversy.Seeking to take advantage of such uncertainties, Florida Democrats are highlighting instances of language in DeSantis’s book which they contend could violate his own guidelines.As reported by the Beast, in The Courage to be Free, DeSantis “use[s] the terms ‘woke’ and ‘gender ideology’ 46 times and 10 times respectively, both of which could constitute ‘divisive concepts’ the governor has argued should stay out of curricula up to the college level”.DeSantis also claims students have been forced to “chant to the Aztec god of human sacrifice” and, as well as describing violence at Black Lives Matter protests, cites a video showing “dead black children, dramatically warning … about ‘racist police and state-sanctioned violence’”.DeSantis also describes the 2017 mass shooting at congressional baseball practice in which Steve Scalise, a senior Republican, was seriously wounded.Such passages, Democrats contend (in what the Florida publisher Peter Schorsch called a “clever bit of trolling”), could fall foul of the governor’s own rules.According to the Beast, only one school district initially responded to Democrats’ complaints. Marion county, near Orlando, said no public school there possessed the governor’s book.Driskell told the Beast: “We’re leaning into one of [DeSantis’s] weaknesses.“… If America doesn’t want Florida’s present reality to become America’s future reality, people need to know what it’s like here. This is our way of fighting back, but also highlighting how ridiculous some of this becomes, right?” More

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      Trump addresses indictment in brief – as it happened

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      This blog is now closed. You can read our full story on Trump’s arraignment – and the aftermath – here.We’ll be closing this blog shortly. Here is a summary of today’s events so far:
      Donald Trump was charged on Tuesday with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in a historic case over allegations he orchestrated hush-money payments to two women before the 2016 US election to suppress publication of their alleged sexual encounters with him. Prosecutors in Manhattan accused Trump, the first sitting or former US president to face criminal charges, of trying to conceal a violation of election laws during his successful 2016 campaign. The two women in the case are adult film actor Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal.
      Trump pleaded not guilty to the charges. The frontrunner in the race for the Republican nomination in 2024, Trump was subdued, responding briefly when the judge asked him if he understood his rights. At one point, the judge put his hand to his ear as if to prompt an answer. Trump made no comment when he left court just under an hour later.
      Trump flew home to Florida where he addressed family, friends and supporters at his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, delivering a litany of grievances against investigators, prosecutors and rival politicians. He falsely described the New York prosecution as election interference.
      Prosecutor Chris Conroy said: “The defendant Donald J Trump falsified New York business records in order to conceal an illegal conspiracy to undermine the integrity of the 2016 presidential election and other violations of election laws.” While falsifying business records in New York on its own is a misdemeanour punishable by no more than one year in prison, it is elevated to a felony punishable by up to four years when done to advance or conceal another crime, such as election law violations.
      Attorney general Alvin Bragg defended the charges in a press conference after the arraignment. “We today uphold our solemn responsibility to ensure that everyone stands equal before the law. No amount of money and no amount of power changes that enduring American principle,” Bragg said.
      “We’re going to fight it hard,” Todd Blanche, a lawyer for Trump, told reporters after the arraignment. He said that while Trump was frustrated, upset and angry about the charges, “ … he’s motivated. And it’s not going to stop him. And it’s not going to slow him down. And it’s exactly what he expected.”
      Justice Juan Merchan, the judge assigned to Trump’s case, did not impose a gag order but warned Trump to avoid making comments that were inflammatory or could cause civil unrest. Prosecutors said Trump made a series of social media posts, including one threatening “death and destruction” if he was charged. If convicted of any one of the 34 felony charges, Trump could face a maximum of four years in prison.
      The judge set the next hearing for 4 December. Legal experts said a trial may not even get under way for a year. An indictment or conviction will not legally prevent Trump from running for president.
      Trump’s mugshot was not taken, according to two law enforcement officials, though the Trump camp did create their own one to put on a T-shirt as part of a fundraising effort.
      In an opinion piece for the Guardian, Sidney Blumenthal, former senior adviser to President Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton, argues that every indictment will make Trump stronger:
      The indictment of Donald J Trump has not driven a wooden stake through his heart. He has risen, omnipresent and ominous again, overwhelming his rivals, their voices joined into his choir, like the singing January 6 prisoners, proclaiming the wickedness of his prosecution. As he enters the criminal courthouse to pose for his mugshot and to give his fingerprints, evangelicals venerate him as the adulterous King David or the martyred Christ.
      Trump does not have to raise his hand to signal to the House Republicans to echo his cry of “WITCH-HUNT”. He owns the House like he owns a hotel.
      …
      From the report of every new indictment to its reality, Republican radicalization will accelerate. Every concrete count will confirm every conspiracy theory. Every prosecution and trial, staggered over months and into the election year, from New York to Georgia to Washington, will be a shock driving Republicans further to Trump. Every Republican candidate running for every office will be compelled to declare as a matter of faith that Trump is being unjustly persecuted or be themselves branded traitors.
      Politico has painted a picture of the atmosphere at Mar-a-Lago, with a telling comment from former House Speaker Newt Gingrich.Allies, aides, club members and the press were packed into the gilded ballroom of Mar-a-Lago, waiting for former President Donald Trump to arrive… In the ballroom at the Florida estate, there was no sense of sobriety in the air. It felt, instead, like a Maga movie set.
      The room was lit up with bright spotlights for the cameras. And as the assembled guests waited for the man of the hour to arrive, the setting took on the feel of a catwalk for Trump world’s upper crust. Family, staff and top surrogates walked in smiling and waving.
      …
      Tuesday, in a way, was like a campaign relaunch, still grievance-filled but with Trump world feeling that they are in a better position. The polling that just months ago was used as evidence of his failure to rally the base has dramatically shifted, now showing the former president with leads upward of 20 percentage points over DeSantis. It underscored the central paradox of Trump’s political career: His standing benefits from the crises he endures.“We’re back to all Trump all the time,” said former House Speaker and past presidential candidate Newt Gingrich. “Nothing makes him happier.”Here’s a video report on Trump’s speech in Florida earlier, during which he delivered a litany of grievances against investigators, prosecutors and rival politicians. He falsely described the New York prosecution as election interference:I’m just cutting away from the indictment for a moment to the results in Wisconsin, where a Democratic-backed Milwaukee judge has won the high stakes supreme court Race, ensuring liberals will take over majority control of the court for the first time in 15 years with the fate of the state’s abortion ban pending.Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Janet Protasiewicz defeated former Justice Dan Kelly, who previously worked for Republicans and had support from the state’s leading anti-abortion groups.The new court controlled 4-3 by liberals is expected to decide a pending lawsuit challenging the state’s 1849 law banning abortion. Protasiewicz made the issue a focus of her campaign and won the support of Planned Parenthood and other abortion rights groups.Four of the past six presidential elections in Wisconsin have been decided by less than a percentage point. Trump turned to the courts in 2020 in his unsuccessful push to overturn his roughly 21,000-vote loss in the state.Protasiewicz, a Milwaukee County judge, largely focused her campaign around abortion, saying she supports abortion rights but stopping short of saying how she would rule on a pending lawsuit challenging Wisconsin’s 174-year-old ban that was enacted a year after statehood.With that, let’s take a look at the day’s newspaper front pages with my colleague Jonathan Yerushalmy.The Guardian says, “Trump pleads not guilty to 34 charges in hush-money case”, with the paper highlighting the judge’s order that the former president refrain from rhetoric that could cause civil unrest.Time magazine gained a reputation for producing iconic covers throughout the Trump presidency, and they hit the mark again on Wednesday, with the simple headline: “Unprecedented”.The Times splashes with, “Trump in the dock”. The paper’s US correspondents describe how a “stony-faced Trump was released from custody after an hour-long arraignment hearing ahead of a trial likely to take place next year”.“Trump in the eye of the Stormy”, is the Mirror’s headline. The paper goes on to say that, “Finally… ex-President charged over ‘hush-money’ payments to porn star”.You can read the full roundup here:So, how was Trump’s arraignment covered in the US media – and have any lessons been learned since 2016? The AP’s David Bauder has taken a look:“It’s hard to over-dramatize what this means for Donald Trump,” MSNBC’s Chris Jansing said today.
      Oh, but many tried.
      Hour after hour today, the story occupied the full attention of broadcast and cable news networks. They waited for glimpses of Trump’s face to interpret his expression, followed his motorcade’s movements from the air, speculated on how it must feel to be arrested.
      On Monday, Trump’s travels from Florida to New York led cable news networks to revisit the worst of earlier excesses. Throughout the day, aerial camera shots followed Trump’s plane as it took off from Florida and landed in New York, and as his motorcade traveled to Trump Tower in Manhattan – the backdrop to hours of speculation about the case.
      At one point, Trump’s son Eric posted on social media a picture of a television set inside the plane showing a Fox News Channel picture of the plane waiting on a Florida tarmac. “Watching the plane … from the plane,” he said.
      New York state supreme court Judge Juan Merchan declined media requests for video coverage of the hearing where Trump heard the charges against him and pleaded not guilty. That led to constant, mostly empty talk about what might happen.
      Will Trump’s motorcade to the court take Fifth Avenue or the FDR Drive? (The latter.) Will a mug shot of Trump be taken and released? (No.) Would the former president speak to the media before he goes into the court? (No.) After the hearing is done? (Also no.)
      His walk out the door was judged “five seconds of history” by ABC’s David Muir. Those views of Trump, along with still pictures of him during the arraignment, turned political and legal commentators into facial-expression and body-language experts.Mitt Romney, the former presidential nominee, who as a Utah senator was the only Republican to vote to convict Trump in both his impeachment trials, has criticised the Manhattan district attorney’s office for its handling of the hush money case in which the former president pleaded not guilty on Tuesday.“I believe President Trump’s character and conduct make him unfit for office,” Romney said in a statement, as Trump was arraigned.“Even so, I believe the New York prosecutor has stretched to reach felony criminal charges in order to fit a political agenda.”“No one is above the law, not even former presidents, but everyone is entitled to equal treatment under the law. The prosecutor’s overreach sets a dangerous precedent for criminalizing political opponents and damages the public’s faith in our justice system.”There are thorny legal issues raised by Trump’s indictment.“The bottom line is that it’s murky,” Richard Hasen, an expert in election law and professor at the University of California, Los Angeles law school told the Associated Press. “And the district attorney did not offer a detailed legal analysis as to how they can do this, how they can get around these potential hurdles. And it could potentially tie up the case for a long time.”“There are an awful lot of dots here which it takes a bit of imagination to connect,” said Richard Klein, a Touro Law Center criminal law professor. Bragg said the indictment doesn’t specify the potential underlying crimes because the law doesn’t require it. But given the likelihood of Trump’s lawyers challenging it, “you’d think they’d want to be on much firmer ground than some of this stuff,” said Klein, a former New York City public defender.Hasen said it’s not clear whether candidates for federal office can be prosecuted in cases involving state election laws. The defense may also argue the case can’t be brought in state court if it involves a federal election law.While the prosecution’s theory is certainly unusual, it’s not unwinnable, some experts said.Bragg is “going to bring in witnesses, he’s going to show a lot of documentary evidence to attempt to demonstrate that all these payments were in furtherance of the presidential campaign,” said Jerry H.​ Goldfeder, a veteran election lawyer in New York and the director of Fordham Law School’s Voting Rights and Democracy Project.“It remains to be seen if he can prove it beyond a reasonable doubt,” Goldfeder said. But, he added, “Do not underestimate District Attorney Alvin Bragg and do not overestimate Mr. Trump.”On Fox, Laura Ingraham is running a segment on the decision by MSNBC to not broadcast Trump’s remarks in Florida.They’re embarrassed by the “flimsy” indictment and knew Trump would “use his comments to tell the truth,” she says.Hi, my name is Helen Sullivan and I’m taking over our live coverage of this historic day from my formidable colleague Maanvi Singh.If you have questions, comments, or would like to get in touch you can find me on Twitter.After Donald Trump surrendered to authorities and New York and pleaded not guilty to 34 charges of falsifying business records, he delivered a brief, grievance-laden speech from his his Florida residence.
      Trump became the first American president to face criminal charges. Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg said the ex-president faces 34 felony counts of falsifying documents “with intent to defraud and intent to conceal another crime” adding that “these are felony crimes in New York state, no matter who you are”.
      Trump’s court appearance, during which he was finger-printed, but not cuffed, came five days after a New York grand jury voted to indict him, based on a years-long investigation.
      The charges are focused on payments Trump made to hide an affair with adult film star Stormy Daniels, as well as hush money deals with Playboy model Karen McDougal and a former Trump Tower doorman. The district attorney’s office has accused Trump of having “orchestrated a scheme” with the intent “to influence the 2016 presidential election by identifying and purchasing negative information about him to suppress its publication and benefit the defendant’s electoral prospects”.
      Separately, Trump faces a criminal investigation into his role during the January 6 insurrection and his retention of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago after leaving office. He is also facing an investigation into efforts to overturn the elections in Georgia. The New York state attorney general has sued Trump, his family, and the Trump Organization over financial wrong doing. He is also facing a defamation suit arising from allegations of rape.
      In a rambling speech, Trump collapsed long-held grievances with complaints about the several investigations he is facing, focused especially on the classified documents case. He repeated falsehoods about the nature of the accusations he is facing, and personally attacked the prosecutors and investigators leading the cases.
      The president only spoke for about 25 minutes – which was much shorter than his standard. But otherwise, the remarks had many elements of his standard rally stump speech.I’m signing off, but my colleagues in Australia will continue to bring you updates and analysis.
      – Maanvi SinghFact check: Judge in hush money caseTrump called justice Juan Merchan a “Trump-hating judge with a Trump-hating wife whose daughter worked for Kamala Harris”.Merchan’s daughter is president of Authentic, an agency that has worked with the campaigns of Joe Biden, Kamala Harris , Cory Booker and other Democrats. But that is not a conflict of interest for the justice, or grounds for a recusal by judicial ethics standards.Fact check: Classified documentsDuring the speech, Trump also claimed that the Presidential Records Act involves a negotiation with the National Archives and Records Administration over documents, which is false. In fact, Nara gets custody of presidential documents the moment he leaves office.Trump was joined tonight by his children Don Jr, Eric and Tiffany, as well as supporters including Roger Stone, Mike Lindell, far-right representatives Marjorie Taylor Greene and Matt Gaetz, and former Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake.Missing tonight were Trump’s eldest daughter Ivanka Trump, who has distanced herself from her father after working for his administration, and Melania Trump.CNN cut away from its live coverage of Trump’s speech as the former president continued to rail against the charges against him.Meanwhile, MSNBC opted not to broadcast Trump’s remarks at all. Instead, host Rachel Maddow said the outlet would monitor his remarks for any news rather than cover them in full.“This is basically a campaign speech in which he is repeating his same lies and allegations against his perceived enemies,” Maddow said. “He’s just giving his normal list of grievances. We don’t consider that necessarily newsworthy and there is a cost to us as a news organization of knowingly broadcasting untrue things.”NPR also did not air Trump’s speech live.Donald Trump has repeatedly misconstrued the investigation into his possession of classified documents, comparing what he did to what his predecessors did.Trump took classified documents to Mar-a-Lago, whereas former president Barack Obama turned over documents, according to the National Archives and Records Administration itself. In the cases of other former presidents, the Nara moved documents out of DC to other facilities. More

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      Tennessee Republicans bid to expel Democrats who cheered gun control protest

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      Republican legislators in Tennessee have begun the process of expelling three Democratic colleagues from the conservative-controlled house over their support for a gun control protest at the state capitol days after a deadly school shooting in Nashville.On Thursday, hundreds gathered at the capitol to protest against the absence of gun control measures after three nine-year-old students and three staff members were killed at the Covenant school last week, according to a report in the Tennessean.Using a bullhorn, state representatives Gloria Johnson, Justin Jones and Justin Pearson approached the house podium without being recognized and cheered the protesters on.Jones and Pearson are each in their first year as representatives, while Johnson has been in office since 2019.House Republicans introduced three resolutions to expel the Democratic trio at the end of Monday’s session, four days after the protest. The chamber’s leadership also compared the gun control protest to an “insurrection”.Expelling a house member is an extremely rare occurrence, with only two of the chamber’s members removed since the civil war.The three have already been stripped of their committee assignments as more sanctions are expected, according to the Tennessee house speaker, Cameron Sexton.Several representatives also referred to Jones as a “former representative” during Monday’s session, the Associated Press reported.The trio is being accused of “knowingly and intentionally [bringing] disorder and dishonor to the House of Representatives through their individual and collective actions”, according to the filed resolutions.Tensions flared during Monday’s session as supporters in the gallery booed and jeered at the introduced resolutions.At one point, Sexton ordered state troopers to remove supporters.House members also got into a confrontation on the chamber floor. Jones accused representative Justin Lafferty of pushing him and grabbing his phone.Republicans who filed the resolution successfully argued to expedite the expulsion process, with a vote scheduled for Thursday, the AP reported.House Democrats will probably be unable to block the expulsion resolutions given the house’s Republican majority, made up of lawmakers who are in favor of keeping guns as accessible as possible to the public.The rally followed the killings of Evelyn Dieckhaus, Hallie Scruggs, William McKinney, Katherine Koonce, Cindy Peak and Mike Hill at the Covenant school. Dieckhaus, Scruggs and McKinney were all students. Koonce, 60, was the school’s leader. Peak and Hill, both 61, respectively worked as a substitute teacher and a custodian.Authorities have said that the victims were all slain after an intruder fired 152 times in the school. A motive is unknown, but officials have said they believe that the shooter contemplated the actions of other mass murderers, according to the Daily Beast.Since the shooting, thousands have gathered at the Tennessee capitol calling for meaningful gun control measures, including young children and their parents, who packed the building ahead of Monday’s session.At the White House press briefing in Washington, DC, on Tuesday, the press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, said: “By doing what they’re doing with these three Democratic legislators, they’re shrugging in the face of yet another tragic school shooting while our kids continue to pay the price.” More

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      Every indictment will make Trump stronger – and Republicans wilder | Sidney Blumenthal

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      The indictment of Donald J Trump has not driven a wooden stake through his heart. He has risen, omnipresent and ominous again, overwhelming his rivals, their voices joined into his choir, like the singing January 6 prisoners, proclaiming the wickedness of his prosecution. As he enters the criminal courthouse to pose for his mugshot and to give his fingerprints, evangelicals venerate him as the adulterous King David or the martyred Christ.Trump does not have to raise his hand to signal to the House Republicans to echo his cry of “WITCH-HUNT”. He owns the House like he owns a hotel.“I keep him up on everything that we’re doing,” says Marjorie Taylor-Greene, who serves as one of his agents over the House speaker, Kevin McCarthy. Nine of the 25 Republicans on the House judiciary committee and 11 of the 26 on oversight have endorsed him. Elise Stefanik, chair of the House Republican Conference, has pledged her allegiance. Jim Jordan, who refused to honor a subpoena from the January 6 committee, now issues flurries of subpoenas as chair of the Orwellian-named subcommittee on the weaponization of the federal government, to obstruct investigations of Trump, and not incidentally into Jordan’s and other House Republicans’ roles in the insurrection. But not even a subpoena to the New York district attorney, Alvin Bragg, or any other prosecutor, could command the tide of indictments.Between the motion of Trump’s first indictment and the act of the last Republican primary, more than a year from now, on 4 June 2024, the shadow will fall on the only party with an actual nomination contest. Trump’s pandemonium will only have an electoral valence for the foreseeable future in its precincts. His damage to the constitution, the national security of the United States and the rule of law will be extensive, but his most intense and focused political destruction will be circumscribed within the Republican party.From the report of every new indictment to its reality, Republican radicalization will accelerate. Every concrete count will confirm every conspiracy theory. Every prosecution and trial, staggered over months and into the election year, from New York to Georgia to Washington, will be a shock driving Republicans further to Trump. Every Republican candidate running for every office will be compelled to declare as a matter of faith that Trump is being unjustly persecuted or be themselves branded traitors.Profession of the holy creed of election denial has already been broadened to demand profession of the doctrine of Trump’s impunity. Every Republican attempting to run on law and order will be required to disavow law and order in every case in which Trump is the defendant. Trump’s incitement to violence will not have an exception of immunity for the Republican party. Beginning in the Iowa caucuses, the confrontations may not resemble New England town meetings. If Trump were to lose in the first tumultuous caucuses, can anyone doubt he will claim it was rigged? Was January 6 a preliminary for the Republican primaries of 2024?The death watch of Trump is a cyclical phenomenon. After each of his storms, the pundits, talking heads and party strategists on all sides emerge from their cellars, survey the latest wreckage and check the scientific measurements of the polls to give the “all clear” sign that the cyclone had passed. When Trump lost to Joe Biden in 2020, thoughtful analysts assured that Trump’s time was gone, he would fade away and his comeback in 2024 was an impossibility, just “not going to happen”. Everyone should “relax”. Then came January 6. When Trump’s endorsed candidates in the 2022 midterm elections, a gaggle of election deniers and conspiracy mongers, were ignominiously rejected, last rites were pronounced. Trump was dead again.“We want to make Trump a non-person,” Rupert Murdoch said after the January 6 insurrection. Trump’s image was virtually banished from his bandbox of Fox News. He would be airbrushed out of the next episode of history.“The best thing for the country would be to have a president in 2025 who represents a new chapter,” wrote Emily Seidel, chief executive of the Koch network’s Americans for Prosperity, in a memo.On 5 February, the Koch dark money syndicate held a conference of its billionaire donors and key activists at Palm Springs, California, to lay the groundwork for the dawning of the post-Trump age. There it was decided to swing its enormous resources behind the candidacy of Ron DeSantis, the governor of Florida, who they had originally cultivated as one of their Tea Party hothouse congressmen.The wishful thinking that Trump would magically disappear, however, ignored the omens of Liz Cheney’s purging, the victories of his candidates in the midterm Republican primaries over blanched “normies”, and the corrupt bargain that McCarthy was forced to make to secure his speakership. The implacability of Trump’s political base’s attachment was discounted.Murdoch, Koch et al should have grasped the dangerous fluidity of the extremism they stoked, financed and organized for decades, which metastasized into Trump. Their approach to Trump was not dissimilar to that of Vladimir Putin, treating him as their useful idiot. Putin’s purpose was and is to use Trump to destroy Nato and the western alliance, and as an agent of chaos within the US of a magnitude that no KGB agent could have recruited during the cold war.The Koch network contentedly used Trump to pack the courts with Federalist Society stamped judges, deregulate business and thwart policy on climate change. But despite delivering those goods, Trump was ultimately uncontrollable. The problem with Trump was not his wildness and lawlessness. They were willing to tolerate him so long as his administration produced for them. Trump’s foibles were the cost of business. His liability was that he was not their kind of Republican, at heart a laissez-faire free market libertarian. Trump hated international trade and opposed slashing entitlements, particularly social security and Medicare, which they have long tried to hobble and privatize. In 2018, he tweeted his contempt for the “Globalist Koch Brothers, who have become a total joke in real Republican circles … I never sought their support because I don’t need their money or bad ideas. They love my Tax & Regulation Cuts, Judicial picks & more. I made them rich.” But his worst debit for them was that he lost. With DeSantis, they thought they could finally move on. Without Trump, they could wipe the slate clean, restore the past and return to the glory days when the Tea Party militants besieged town hall meetings to shriek against Obamacare. The undercurrent of the oligarchs’ romance with DeSantis is a strange nostalgia.Trump’s announcement on 18 March that he would be arrested and charged in New York three days later, born of a combination of panic and seizing an opportunity for grift, was not a deliberate strategic masterstroke, though it had that effect. In February, DeSantis led Trump by 45% to 41% in the Yahoo/YouGov poll. In the poll taken just after Trump said he would be arrested, Trump shot into the lead 47% to 39%. After he was indicted, he left DeSantis in the dust, 57% to 31%.Trump had already sent Murdoch’s and Koch’s presumptive candidate reeling. DeSantis has positioned himself as a cultural warrior but Trump smashed into his vulnerable flank. Before he adopted his gay bashing and race- and Jew-baiting persona, DeSantis was a cookie-cutter Tea Party congressman who voted several times to cut social security and Medicare. When Trump slammed him for his votes in early March as “a wheelchair over the cliff kind of guy”, DeSantis renounced his position, saying he would not “mess” with social security. Even before the indictment, Trump had Il Duce of the Sunshine State dancing like Ginger Rogers backwards in the Cuban heels of his cowboy boots. Trump has not relented. The day after he was indicted, his Make America Great Again political action committee broadcast an ad ripping DeSantis: “President Trump is on the side of the American people when it comes to social security and Medicare. Ron DeSantis sides with DC establishment insiders … The more you see about DeSantis, the more you see he doesn’t share our values. He’s not ready to be president.” On the right that Trump has made, national socialism beats laissez-faire.DeSantis reacted to Trump’s indictment by stating that he would not extradite him from Florida to New York, which nobody had asked him to do. His empty gesture as a two-bit secessionist would be in defiance of the constitution’s article IV extradition clause. Between the emotion and the response falls the hollow man. His rhetorical lawlessness in tribute to Trump only enhanced Trump’s pre-eminence over him.If anyone should have known better, it was Murdoch. His media properties now veer from slavishly outraged defense of the accused Trump on Fox News (“Witch-hunt!”) to trashing him in the New York Post (“Bat Hit Crazy!”) to puffing DeSantis in the Times of London, not widely read in Iowa or New Hampshire. The ruthless operator has been outplayed. Murdoch, who takes no prisoners, is Trump’s prisoner.Murdoch profitably buckled in for the Trump ride all the way to January 6. His decision not to jump off for the crash has now landed him in his biggest scandal, thrusting him in the middle of the Trump debacle with a January 6 trial of his own. After the 2020 election, following the lead of Trump and his attorneys, Fox News broadcast that Dominion Voting Systems had changed or deleted votes to help steal the election. The Fox chief executive, Suzanne Scott, wrote in an email shutting down the fact-checking of Trump falsehoods: “This has to stop now … this is bad business … the audience is furious and we are just feeding them material.” On 5 January, the eve of the attack on the Capitol, Murdoch discussed with Scott whether the network should report the truth: “The election is over and Joe Biden won.” He said those words “would go a long way to stop the Trump myth that the election stolen”. Scott told him that “privately they are all there” but “we need to be careful about using the shows and pissing off the viewers”. On 12 January, Murdoch emailed the Fox board member Paul Ryan that he had heard that the Fox host Sean Hannity “has been privately disgusted by Trump for weeks, but was scared to lose viewers”.Fox was terrified of its own audience, the Trump base it had whipped up day after day, fearful it would defect to a more pro-Trump site, Newsmax or One America News Network. Instead of broadcasting the facts, its executives ordered conspiracy theories and lies be aired to satisfy voracious demand. Murdoch admitted in an email that Trump’s claims of voter fraud were “really crazy stuff”. But the show must go on. Dominion is now suing Fox News for $1.6bn for defamation.Much of the material in the discovery documents reads like dialogue from a bad French farce.“I hate him passionately,” wrote a histrionic Tucker Carlson about Trump. Murdoch told Scott about Giuliani’s and the others’ lies: “Terrible stuff damaging everybody, I fear.” On 21 January 2021, Murdoch called Trump “increasingly mad”. Murdoch wondered, after serving as Trump’s chief enabler, “The real danger is what he might do as president.” Quel surprise!Of course, the specific falsehoods Fox recklessly and maliciously broadcast about Dominion were of a piece with those the network has been pumping out for years. That Murdoch is shocked, shocked is worthy of Capt Renault discovering there is gambling in the backroom of Rick’s Café in Casablanca. “Your winnings, sir.”The day after Trump was indicted, Judge Eric Davis ruled that the Dominion case would go to trial.“The evidence developed in this civil proceeding demonstrates that [it is] CRYSTAL clear that none of the [Fox News] statements relating to Dominion about the 2020 election are true,” he wrote. That trial will begin in mid-April and will probably last for weeks with major Fox personalities and Murdoch called to the stand. The very bad news is that in Delaware, where the trial will take place, unlike in New York, where the Trump trial will be held, television cameras are allowed in the courtroom. Undoubtedly, Fox will not be airing the humiliation of its stars and executives, but it is certain that CNN, desperate for ratings, and MSNBC will happily fill schedules with a Fox cavalcade.Fox’s propaganda was intimately linked to the January 6 coup, but could not be investigated by the January 6 committee. Murdoch’s desperate desire to separate himself from Trump will be impossible when Fox’s lies for Trump in the subversion of constitutional democracy are on full display. The Dominion trial will provide a necessary complement to the trials of Trump, more than an atmospheric touch of political theater, but bearing on politics moving forward. Murdoch, chained to his service to Trump, will not escape a judgment any more than Trump.The response of Fox’s audience to Fox in the dock will inevitably be to rally around Trump. Murdoch may be finished with Trump but Trump is not finished with him. Murdoch’s trial will contribute to the tightening of support for his object of contempt.“I am your retribution,” Trump promises. He rages against DeSantis and Fox as “Rinos” – Republicans In Name Only, which is to say Republicans. In the courtroom drama ahead, Trump will flail against his host of prosecutors, but his retribution during his battle for the nomination will be levied against the Republican party.
      Sidney Blumenthal, former senior adviser to President Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton, has published three books of a projected five-volume political life of Abraham Lincoln: A Self-Made Man, Wrestling With His Angel and All the Powers of Earth More

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      The indictment of Donald Trump – podcast

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      Donald Trump will make history this week as the first US president to be charged with a criminal offence. Later today he will present himself at a court in Manhattan to hear the charges against him which relate to campaign finance irregularities over the hush money paid to the adult film star Stormy Daniels in the final days of his successful 2016 run for office. As Hugo Lowell tells Michael Safi, once again with Trump we are in uncharted territory. Trump denies breaking the law and has targeted the prosecutor of the case with claims of a “witch-hunt”. He’s also using the court appearance as a focal point for recent fundraising efforts. The case is unlikely to be resolved before the 2024 election in which Trump is still the leading candidate in the Republican nomination race. But in all likelihood he will be campaigning for the White House while facing felony charges next year. More