Donald Trump has just left Trump Tower and is heading to the court building in Lower Manhattan.
This is where he will be formally arrested. The journey itself is about a 30-minute drive south through Manhattan, but that time could be much less if there’s a full police escort.
About ten automobiles, with a police escort, are currently traveling into Lower Manhattan.
New York City firefighters and police are in the caravan.
It appears that all traffic has been moved off the highways, so the trip could take as short as 20 minutes.
The motorcade is seen moving south in the video taken from a helicopter, which you can see at the top of this page.
Far-right Georgia congresswoman, Marjorie Taylor Greene, has compared former US President, Donald Trump’s indictment to the arrest of Jesus Chris by the Roman government.
She made the comparison while speaking to a crowd at a rally outside the Manhattan courthouse earlier today.
Talking to Right Side Broadcasting Network’s Brian Glenn, whom she is currently dating, Greene argued that Trump was “joining some of the most incredible people in history [by] being arrested today”.
“Nelson Mandela was arrested, served time in prison,” she said.
“Jesus was arrested and murdered by the Roman government.”
Reiterating that the former president was being “persecuted”, she added: “I just can’t believe it’s happening, but I’ll always support him. He’s done nothing wrong.”
The media-savvy provocateur is fresh off a widely panned appearance on CBS News’ 60 Minutes programme, in which she defended calling her political opponents “paedophiles”.
When Donald Trump comes in court tonight, one of his attorneys has predicted that he will enter a “very loud and proud” not-guilty plea.
When he is taken into custody on Tuesday, the first former president to be indicted, he will be informed that he is charged with 34 felonies for falsifying company records.
On the eve of the 2016 election, hush money payments were made to Stormy Daniels, a porn star, and Karen McDougal, a former Playboy model, who both claim to have had affairs with Trump.
In a historic move before of the election in 2016, he will be led out Trump Tower by Secret Service personnel to be officially charged, fingerprinted, and photographed.
In an email to supporters of his 2024 campaign, Trump mourned ‘the loss of justice in America’.
He wrote: ‘Today is the day that a ruling political party ARRESTS its leading opponent for having committed NO CRIME.
‘As I will be out of commission for the next few hours, I want to take this moment to THANK YOU for all of your support.
‘Our nation is becoming a Marxist Third World country that CRIMINALIZES dissent and IMPRISONS its political opposition.’
He added: ‘We are a nation that declared its independence from the world’s biggest empire, won two world wars, and landed the first man on the moon.
‘Resilience is in our blood. Our movement has overcome so much. And there is no doubt in my mind that we will prevail once again and WIN the White House in 2024.’
Asked how Trump will conduct himself during the short appearance, Joe Tacopina told CNN’s State of the Union he will ‘very loudly and proudly say “not guilty”’.
The lawyer said he would also deny any lesser charges, even if it would bring an end to the case.
Mr Tacopina said he does not believe the case will ever reach a jury, but conceded: ‘Really, there’s a lot of mystery here because we’re doing something that’s never been done before.’
Speaking to ABC’s Good Morning America, he said: ‘I think there will be a typical processing, which does not take long, 20-30 minutes. There won’t be handcuffs.
‘But, yeah, he’ll be processed the way anyone else would be — to a degree.’
Trump is expected to be released following the hearing as thee charges against him do not require bail to be set.
He is due to return to Mar-a-Lago in Florida this evening to hold a rally in which he is set to be joined by supporters as he seeks to use the criminal charges as a boost to his 2024 campaign.
Trump has denied any wrongdoing and has blasted the investigation as part of a years-long ‘witch hunt’ aimed at damaging his candidacy.
The judge could issue a gag order barring him from speaking about his indictment on the campaign trail, but such directions are usually made at the request of the defendant and Trump is said to be relishing the attention.
His campaign team claims he raised $8 million in the less than a week since the indictment.
Trump has assailed the Manhattan district attorney, egged on supporters to protest and claimed without evidence that the judge ‘hates me’ — something his own lawyer has said is not true.
Today, when Donald Trump makes his court appearance as the first former US president to be charged with a crime, history is likely to be made in a New York courtroom.
A judge will take his photo, take his fingerprints, and bring the guy who oversaw one of the most powerful nations in the world for four years to court.
It happens after he formally began his 2024 presidential campaign.
But what specifically is the issue? Let Metro guide you through it.
Adult film star Stormy Daniels claims she had a sexual encounter with Trump back in 2006, the year after he married his third wife Melania who had just given birth to their son Barron.
When the 2016 election came around, she was planning on selling her story, so Trump’s lawyer, Michael Cohen, paid her $130,000 (£105,000) for her silence.
Trump is believed to have reimbursed Cohen more than double the original amount, but has continued to deny the affair.
Hush money is not illegal but court documents claim that the former Apprentice star falsely listed his former lawyer’s reimbursement as ‘legal services’.
Given that it allegedly happened as Americans went to the polls, there’s a chance it could also violate laws about payments that help an election campaign.
In 2018, Cohen pleaded guilty to nine federal charges, including campaign finance violations, and was sentenced to three years in prison.
What about Donald Trump and Karen McDougal?
The new investigation into Trump is said to also be probing a second alleged payment of $150,000 (£120,000) made to former Playboy model Karen McDougal, who claims to have had an affair with Trump beginning in 2006.
The parent company of the National Enquirer agreed to pay McDougal $150,000 (£120,000) for the rights to her story.
But the tabloid never published her account, a practice known as ‘catch and kill’. Trump has also denied having this affair.
It is not immediately clear whether this is definitely part of the criminal case, which remains under seal.
What charges will Donald Trump face?
Two sources have claimed the indictment includes multiple charges of falsifying business records, including at least one felony offence.
But we don’t actually know yet – and we’ll hopefully find out tonight.
To prove that Trump committed a fraudulent offence that rises above a misdemeanour, prosecutors need to present evidence that his records were intentionally falsified – and were done so with the intention of committing, aiding or concealing another crime.
The 76-year-old is expected to be released by authorities because the charges against him do not require that bail be set.
Unless his attorneys succeed in using pre-trial motions to get the case dismissed before it reaches a jury, there will be a trial where the billionaire can make his case.
So what will happen with Donald Trump today?
Trump is predicted to arrive at a Manhattan court at around 6.30am local time (11.30am UK time).
He is expected to be be fingerprinted and have a mug shot taken before investigators complete arrest paperwork.
Following this, he will appear before a judge for his arraignment at around 2.15pm US time (7.15pm UK time).
The charges will be read and Trump will be asked to enter a plea.
If he says not guilty, as expected, the judge will set a court date for a further hearing or a trial.
The former US leader is due back at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, at 8.15pm local time (1.15am UK time on Wednesday) where he will give a speech.
Could Donald Trump go to jail?
Technically, yes. The charge of falsifying business records in the first degree is a low-level felony carrying up to four years in prison.
But first-time offenders rarely go to prison on violent, low-level felonies.
The most likely outcomes are a fine, community service, or probation.
If this is the case, it doesn’t mean the trial won’t matter in the long run though.
Trump is facing a number of other criminal investigations which carry a risk of more serious criminal charges. A defendant’s prior criminal record can have an impact on sentencing.
What has Donald Trump said about the hush money case?
Trump is expected to plead not guilty and has warned of potential ‘death & destruction’ if he faces criminal charges.
He believes the New York grand jury indictment – and three additional pending investigations – are politically motivated and intended to weaken his bid to retake the White House.
Writing on his Truth Social media site, he said: ‘What kind of person can charge another person, in this case a former President of the United States, who got more votes than any sitting President in history, and leading candidate (by far!) for the Republican Party nomination, with a Crime, when it is known by all that NO Crime has been committed, & also known that potential death & destruction in such a false charge could be catastrophic for our Country?’
The former reality-TV star has been hyping that narrative to his political advantage, raising millions of dollars since the indictment on claims of a ‘witch hunt’.
He has personally assailed the Manhattan district attorney, egged on supporters to protest, and claimed without evidence that the judge presiding over the case ‘hates me’ – something his own lawyer has said is not true.
Can Donald Trump still run for president?
Yes. There is nothing in the US Constitution that stops Trump from running to become president again.
Even if he did go to prison, he could still – in theory – run.
To qualify, you have to be born in America, to have been a resident for 14 years and be over 35.
But the case is likely to become a huge distraction amid his campaign.
We lament the loss of justice in America today, Donald Trump wrote in an email to supporters of his Trump 2024 campaign.
He states: “The day has come when the political party in power APPRESSES its main rival despite the latter having done NO CRIME.
“I want to take a moment to thank you for all of your support because I will be unavailable for the upcoming few hours.
“Our society is turning into a Marxist Third World country, criminalizing dissent and imprisoning its political opposition.”
He goes on: “We are a nation that declared its independence from the world’s biggest empire, won two world wars, and landed the first man on the moon.
“Resilience is in our blood.
“Our movement has overcome so much.
“And there is no doubt in my mind that we will prevail once again and WIN the White House in 2024.”
Trump wants hearing moved
We have heard from the former president for the first time today – a post on his own social media site in which he renews his attack on the judge and calls for the hearing today to be moved.
In a treat for fans of capitalised communication, the former president describes Judge Juan Merchan as from a family of “Trump haters”.
He says the Manhattan court is in a Democrat area – which, he suggests, is unfair…
Trump may speak outside courtroom
Donald Trump may speak to the media both before and after his New York court appearance, it has been reported.
Chris Kise, one of Trump’s lawyers, said he met the former US president last night at Trump Tower, CNN reported.
“The president is resilient, upbeat, and is as determined as ever to fight off drivers of injustice,” Mr Kise said.
CNN also reported that Trump is “eager to speak publicly about his indictment, according to multiple people familiar with his thinking”.
Despite not being scheduled to speak until he gets back to Florida later, he is weighing up “saying something while still in Manhattan”, the news outlet reported.
However, advisers have apparently urged him to hold off until he is back among friends and supporters at Mar-a-Lago.
Where is the courtroom in relation to Trump Tower, where the ex-president is currently?
Anti-Trump protester ushered away from small gathering that has turned out in support
US correspondent James Matthews is outside the Manhattan court where Donald Trump will appear later and his team have shot this…
Trump has lost $700m thanks to social media platform – Forbes
Donald Trump has lost $700m (£560.9m) thanks to his social media platform Truth Social, according to Forbes.
The news outlet has reported that the former president’s fortune has dropped from an estimated $3.2bn (£2.5bn) to $2.5bn (£2bn).
In its report, the American magazine said the 76-year-old’s social media business had the potential to boost his fortune by billions, but the hype surrounding it never lined up with reality.
As soon as he announced the plan, shares in Trump’s Truth Social’s special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) shot up from $10 (£8) to $175 (£140) in two days, Forbes said.
Yesterday, they were 92% off their highs, trading at $14 (£11).
“Truth Social will not hit its projected 81 million users until 2086. By that point, Trump would be 140 years old. A more likely outcome: Truth Social will join Trump Steaks, Trump University and GoTrump.com in the graveyard of failed Trump ventures,” it wrote.
Still a ‘lot of mystery’ surrounding Trump’s case, says his lawyer
There is still a “lot of mystery” surrounding how Donald Trump’s case will play out today, one of his lawyers has said.
Speaking to Good Morning America, Joe Tacopina said the former US president’s legal team are “doing something that’s never been done before” and it’s hard to tell how that will go.
He also explained that there is no indication that a gag order – a legal order that prevents people from talking about the case to the public – will be implemented.
“Here you have something uniquely different. The defendant is the leading Republican candidate for the office of the president of the United States and will be campaigning,” he said.
“Hard to put a gag order when he’s going to be fielding questions about his current legal situation.”
Trump is set to appear in court later today on charges related to falsifying business records in a hush-money investigation.
The 76-year-old has denied any wrongdoing, and has repeatedly called the indictment a “political persecution”.
‘Hillary Clinton’ arrives at the courthouse
Hillary Clinton, who battled Donald Trump for the White House in 2016, has turned up close to the Manhattan Criminal Courthouse building.
She has a sign saying: “Lock him up.”
Okay, so it’s a cardboard cutout, but as symbolism goes, it’s pretty potent.
There was clearly little love lost between the candidates when they jostled for the top job.
The following year, in 2017, Mrs Clinton said Trump’s presence next to her during the presidential debates made her so uncomfortable her “skin crawled”.
She also said she had to resist shouting: “Back up you creep, get away from me.”
All three of Trump’s lawyers will be in court
All of Donald Trump’s lawyers will be in the courtroom with him today, a member of the former US president’s legal team has said.
Speaking to our US partner network NBC News, Joe Tacopina confirmed he will be joined by Susan Necheles and newly appointed lawyer Todd Blanche this afternoon.
Trump is due to appear in front of Judge Juan Merchan at around 2.15pm US time (7.15pm UK time).
It’s here the 76-year-old will be told the charges he is facing, and asked to enter a plea.
Manhattan district attorney arrives at court
Manhattan’s district attorney has arrived at court ahead of Donald Trump’s arraignment later today.
Alvin Bragg could become the first prosecutor anywhere to bring a criminal case against a former US president.
Prosecutors, led by the 46-year-old Democrat, are expected to unseal the former US president’s indictment by a grand jury.
This is when Trump and his defence lawyers will get a glimpse of the precise allegations against him.
The six legal steps that could lead Trump to sentencing
Trump told he’s been charged with 34 felony counts – reports
Donald Trump has been told he will be charged with 34 felony counts for falsifying business records, according to leaked information.
The details reported by Yahoo News revealed he will not be placed in handcuffs, have a mugshot taken, or placed in a jail cell – typical procedures for defendants.
The charge of falsification of business records can be prosecuted in New York state as a misdemeanour.
But a source told the news site that the District Attorney’s office bumped up the charges to the lowest level of felonies on the grounds that the conduct was intended to conceal another underlying crime.
The crime carries a potential jail term of up to four years but, according to the media outlet, a New York law enforcement official has said first time offenders don’t get “jail time”.
Sky News has not seen the leak, and Trump’s indictment remains sealed, as is standard in New York before an arraignment.
It’s coming up to 8am in New York and journalists have been queuing through the night
It’s coming up to 8am in New York now, and many journalists have been queuing through the night for a chance to get into court for Donald Trump’s appearance.
Judge Juan Merchan has barred the use of digital devices in the 76-year-old’s hearing, meaning cameras will not be inside to film it.
Some photographers will be allowed to snap pictures before the arraignment begins, but after that, mobile phones and laptops will be banned from the courtroom.
As a result, a limited number of journalists will be able to access the actual hearing.
Congresswoman organises protest against Trump’s ‘political persecution’ opposite court
A Republican congresswoman has organised a protest against Donald Trump’s “political persecution” opposite the court he is appearing in.
Marjorie Taylor Greene, a prominent Trump supporter, called for people to gather at Collect Pond Park in Manhattan this afternoon.
“Wear your MAGA hats,” she urged, referring to the caps many Trump fans wear that feature his popular 2016 presidential campaign slogan, “Make America Great Again”.
Alt-right political activist Jack Posobiec and podcast host Graham Allen are also due to attend the rally, along with Republican representative George Santos.
On an event page for the protest, a message reads: “Join us in peaceful protest of Alvin Bragg’s heinous attack on President Donald J. Trump.”
Mr Bragg is Manhattan’s first black district attorney and could become the first prosecutor anywhere to bring a criminal case against a former US president.
Earlier today, New York City Mayor Eric Adams, a Democrat, urged Trump supports to keep themselves under “control” while in the area.
He also singled out Ms Taylor Greene, telling her: “While you’re in town, be on your best behaviour.”
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The party needs Trump as much as Trump needs the party
Donald Trump inspires loyalty today for the same reasons that he attracted winning numbers in the 2016 election, writes Sky News US correspondent James Matthews.
He has an appeal to the predominantly white working and middle classes who have felt the US culture and economy drifting away from them.
His politics are polarising. He plays on anger, resentment – has always defined himself as a man of the people taking on the establishment.
He drove a tribalism through his years in power that continues to exist today and entrenches support for him.
His opponents say it’s a cult-like following.
Whatever it is, it’s a substantial chunk of the Republican Party, and, for that reason, more moderate Republicans tiptoe around Trump and issues related to him.
They are reluctant to lose those members, over whom he has influence.
The party needs Trump as much as Trump needs the party.
Today’s judge presided over previous Trump case
Judge Juan Merchan, who will be presiding over the courtroom that Donald Trump is due to walk into later, also oversaw a criminal trial of the Trump Organization.
Last December, the real estate company was found guilty of running a criminal scheme to defraud tax authorities for 15 years.
The scheme included avoiding paying personal income taxes on perks such as rent-free apartments and luxury cars.
The former US president was not personally charged in the case.
Nevertheless, he has lashed out at Judge Merchan on social media.
On Friday, he claimed on Truth Social that the judge “hates” him. He also claimed he was “biased”, a comment labelled foolish by a legal expert (see 9.59am post).
The judge did not reply to a request from Reuters for comment.
The Trump Organization trial is not Judge Merchan’s only recent encounter with people close to the former president.
He is also presiding over a criminal case involving former Trump campaign and White House adviser Steve Bannon.
Judge Merchan has been a Manhattan criminal court judge since 2009.
Two NYT newspapers, two very different approaches
Two major New York newspapers have taken strikingly different approaches to the story of Donald Trump’s court appearance.
The tabloid New York Post covers the whole of its Tuesday front page with developments, adding some alliteration to its headline with: “Day of the Don.”
The broadsheet New York Times, on the other hand, does not splash on the story, confining it to a single column on the right hand side, including a small square picture of the former president.
Polarised opinions outside Trump Tower
Supporters and denigrators of Donald Trump have gathered outside Trump Tower in New York.
Unsurprisingly, there is little consensus – very few shades of grey.
On one side are those who want the former president back in the White House.
On the other are people who think he should be under lock and key.
If Trump goes to prison, his secret service agents will go with him
Were Donald Trump to go to prison, his secret service agents would go with him, a retired US judge has told Sky News.
Joseph Cosgrove, from the Court of Common Pleas of the 11th Judicial District, said that later today, when the former president appears in court, he will be “surrounded by his own armed guards – namely the secret service of the United States”.
Judge Cosgrove added: “No matter where he goes, he will have secret service protection, which creates just this bizarre image.
“Let’s assume the worst for Mr Trump: if he were sentenced to some sort of confinement, he would be confined with his secret service agents.
“They are ordered under federal law to protect him at all cost.
“So we are wading into territory that is just bizarre – (that’s) the only way I can describe it.”
Donald Trump has accused the judge in his case of being “biased”.
The former president made the allegation on social media.
Judge Cosgrove described that comment as “not a good thing to do”.
He went on: “Judges don’t appreciate that sort of accusation.
“First of all, in this case, it is completely untrue. That’s the furthest thing from anyone’s mind except Donald Trump’s.”
The judge continued: “It’s not a good thing to step into the courtroom when the one person who’s in charge, the adult in the courtroom, is the judge.
“This is really a foolish thing on Mr Trump’s part.
“His lawyer, Joe Tacopina, walked that back the other day saying that, no, the judge is certainly not biased and that’s a smart thing to do.”
‘Unprecedented territory’: Trump could be fighting court case in middle of White House election campaign
Donald Trump’s case could return to court in the middle of next year while the fight for the White House is in fill swing, former British ambassador to Washington, Lord Darroch, has told Sky News.
He predicted that the former president’s lawyers will “find lots of legal processes to delay things”.
Under that scenario, when the case does get back to the courtroom, Trump may have been chosen as the Republicans’ candidate for the presidency.
“This is unprecedented territory,” Lord Darroch said.
“I don’t know what happens then – I’m not sure Americans know exactly what happens then, but we will be seeing something we’ve never seen before.”
On whether the legal case could boost Mr Trump’s chances of returning to the White House, Lord Darroch said the first Republican presidential primary is not until January 2024. So, there is a long way to go.
And Lord Darroch pointed out that while Trump was eight points ahead of Florida governor Ron DeSantis a week ago, and that lead is now up to 26 points, it does not necessarily hold that such a figure would win an election.
He added: “You need to win over independents, floating voters. He didn’t in 2020. And it’s not clear to me that what’s happening to him actually helps him with floating voters for 2024.”
Lord Darroch lost his job in Washington after a diplomatic note he wrote about Mr Trump became public.
He described the then president, who had been in office for about six months, as “dysfunctional” and “inept”.
Asked if he stood by those comments, Lord Darroch replied: “Of course.”
A Stormy Daniels candle, anyone?
Stormy Daniels’s alleged encounter with Donald Trump in 2006 appears to have boosted her finances.
Following his indictment last week, the adult film star tweeted that “merch orders” were “pouring in” and she was trying not to spill her champagne.
Her hashtag is #Teamstormy and people have been asking for autographs, too, she tweeted.
“Thank you to everyone for your support and love! I have so many messages coming in that I can’t respond.”
Customers were advised to allow a few extra days for shipment.
As an example of the “merch”, she has some handmade candles for sale which “smell wonderful and cleanse the space of negative energy”.
Daniels – real name Stephanie Clifford – is married to a fellow adult film star and has a young daughter and a horse farm, according to her social media profiles.
She grew up with a single mother in Louisiana, telling Vice News in 2021: “We were just trash, and my mom was a trainwreck, and my clothes didn’t fit, and I was poor and I smelled.”
But she said she did well at school, edited her high school newspaper and started stripping to support herself.
A day before he is anticipated to be arraigned in a hush money case, former President Donald Trump’s private jet landed in New York City and his motorcade was driven to Trump Tower.
On Monday, just after 3:25 p.m., a jet bearing Trump’s name landed down at LaGuardia Airport.
The motorcade of Donald Trump was then escorted by New York Police Department officers from the Queens airport to Trump Tower in midtown Manhattan.
Trump, 76, wearing a suit, was seen getting out of a car outside Trump Tower and entering the skyscraper.
Ex-President Donald Trump’s plane landed at LaGuardia Airport shortly after 3.25pm on Monday (Pictures: Getty Images/AP)Former President Donald Trump’s plane sits on the tarmac at LaGuardia Airport on Monday (Picture: AP)
His wife, former First Lady Melania Trump, was also seen arriving at Trump Tower on Monday afternoon wearing a white coat with a black belt.
The ex-president’s motorcade departed his Mar-a-Lago home in Florida around 12.59pm on Monday and heading for Palm Beach International Airport, where his plan was waiting.
Trump will spend Monday night at Trump Tower, and is scheduled to appear at a court in lower Manhattan on Tuesday afternoon, with a hearing set at 2.15pm. He faces more than 30 criminal charges in court after a grand jury on Thursday voted to indict him for his role in a hush payment to porn star Stormy Daniels.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has been investigating Trump’s alleged role in a $130,000 payment his former lawyer Michael Cohen made to Daniels in exchange for her silence on her claims of an affair with Trump.
Former President Donald Trump got to Trump Tower on Monday afternoon and will spend the night there (Picture: Reuters)
Trump’s legal team has said he will voluntarily surrender and intends to challenge ‘every potential issue’ once the indictment is unsealed.
The Secret Service is set to accompany Trump early afternoon Tuesday to the district attorney’s office in the same building as the courthouse where he is slated to be arraigned.
Trump’s team is opposing news outlets’ request to allow broadcasting of Trump’s arraignment.
‘As Your Honor is well-aware, this case presents extraordinary security concerns (including Secret Service-related concerns) and we submit that any video or photography of the proceedings will only heighten these serious concerns,’ Trump’s legal team wrote in a letter to acting New York Supreme Court Judge Juan Merchan.
Merchan said he will likely decide on Monday night whether to allow broadcasting.
Trump on Sunday night disclosed his plans on his Truth Social platform: ‘I will be leaving Mar-a-Lago on Monday at 12 noon, heading to Trump Tower in New York.
‘On Tuesday morning I will be going to, believe it or not, the Courthouse. America was not supposed to be this way!’
Trump does not plan to stay in New York City long – he has scheduled a speech back at his Mar-a-Lago residence on Tuesday evening.
Donald Trump doesn’t seem to have been shaken by the fact that he is the first president in US history to be charged with a crime.
The former US president was photographed through the windows of his vehicle waving and giving cheerleaders the thumbs up.
On Saturday, he was spotted by photographers as he departed the Trump International Golf Club in Palm Beach, Florida.
On Tuesday, Mr. Trump is anticipated to turn himself in to the police in New York.
Former US President Donald Trump sits in the rear of his limousine as he departs Trump International Golf Club in Palm Beach, Florida, on April 1, 2023 (Picture: AFP)
He faces charges over allegations he made hush-money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels.
It will mark the first time a US president has ever been subject to criminal proceedings.
The recent indictment accuses Mr Trump of falsifying business records, chiefly over a payment of $130,000 (£105,000) to Ms Daniels on the eve of the 2016 presidential election for her silence over a purported extramarital affair.
The alleged sexual encounter is believed to have taken place at a celebrity golf tournament in 2006, just four months after the birth of Barron Trump, Mr Trump’s only child with his third wife, Melania Trump.
Mr Trump has said he will fight the allegations, and that they will not affect his ambitions for the 2024 presidential election.
He claims to have raised more than $4,000,000 towards his upcoming campaign in the first 24 hours after the indictment was publicly announced.
The former president has told supporters the proceedings show he is the victim of a ‘witch-hunt’ by the US political establishment.
Ms Daniel’s allegations aren’t the first time Mr Trump has been accused of sexual impropriety.
Rumours of extramarital affairs have followed him throughout his career, with at least 26 women accusing him of sexual misconduct stretching back to the 1970s.
In another historic first, he was also twice impeached during his time as president – once for allegedly trying to turn up dirt on then-presidential candidate Joe Biden and his son Hunter, and a second time for his role in the January 6 attack on the US Capitol building.
The hush-money case isn’t the only investigation into Mr Trump’s affairs launched following his time in office.
In July 2021, New York prosecutors charged The Trump Organization over a ‘15 year scheme to defraud the US government’.
The following August, his resort in Mar-a-Lago was raided by FBI officers looking to retrieve classified documents related to national security interests.
Ms Daniels had been due to give a world-exclusive interview with Piers Morgan on Friday night.
Her interview was cancelled at the 11th hour, with security issues cited.
A grand jury has decided to indict Donald Trump over hush money payments to a porn star, making him likely to be the first former US president to be charged with a felony.
The precise charges are unknown because indictments often don’t become public until after a suspect makes their initial court appearance.
Nevertheless, they are connected to a $130,000 (£105,000) payment made to Stormy Daniels, an adult film star, on the night of the 2016 presidential election.
Ms. Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, asserts that she had an affair with Trump and made an offer to the media to publish her tale.
Trump’s then-lawyer Michael Cohen handed over the money to keep her quiet about the purported sexual encounter said to have taken place after they met at a celebrity golf tournament.
Cohen was later reimbursed more than double that amount by the Trump Organization in the form of bonuses and other payments logged as business expenses.
Earlier that same year, he arranged a second payment to former Playboy model Karen McDougal, who also claims to have had an affair with Trump.
The former president denies both affairs and has called the Manhattan investigation a ‘witch hunt’.
Reports suggest he is relishing the prospect of a ‘perp walk’ when he hands himself into authorities in the coming days.
He will have his mugshot and fingerprints taken before being released on bond.
Trump is expected to surrender early next week.
How that happens remains unclear given the unprecedented circumstances, but police sources told ABC News that all NYPD officers have been ordered to show up in full uniform for deployment across the city.
Police chiefs and top safety aides at the mayor’s office have been meeting to discuss how to handle potential protests, amid fears of a repeat of the January 6 rampage.
Trump has already indicated he will not be dropping out of the 2024 presidential race.
He accused District Attorney Alvin Bragg, a Democrat, of trying to hurt his chances of winning re-election against Democratic President Joe Biden.
In a statement, Trump said: ‘This is Political Persecution and Election Interference at the highest level in history.’
It went on: ‘The Democrats have lied, cheated and stolen in their obsession with trying to “Get Trump,” but now they’ve done the unthinkable – indicting a completely innocent person in an act of blatant Election Interference.’
Shortly after, he appealed to supporters to provide money for a legal defense and has raised over $2 million, according to his campaign.
In the moments after the grand jury’s reported decision, Trump was taking in the development from his Mar-a-Lago home, his aides told the New York Times.
The aides said they were surprised the indictment came on Thursday, a few people close to Trump told the newspaper.
The grand jury’s reported vote comes a day after a report that the jurors would be taking a one-month break and that an indictment would in turn come in late April at the soonest.
A source told Politico that jurors were slated to consider a different case or cases – not Trump’s – on Thursday as well as Monday and Wednesday of next week.
The panelists apparently would then have the Passover holiday off, plus the following two weeks for a hiatus planned since January.
Trump is leading among Republican voters in many polls. His son Eric tweeted: ‘This is third world prosecutorial misconduct.
‘It is the opportunistic targeting of a political opponent in a campaign year.’
Trump first indicated to the public that the case was intensifying on March 18, when he posted on his Truth Social platform that he expected to be arrested.
He wrote at the time that ‘illegal leaks’ from the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office indicate that ‘THE FAR & AWAY LEADING REPUBLICAN CANDIDATE & FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, WILL BE ARRESTED ON TUESDAY OF NEXT WEEK’.
After the announcement of Trump’s indictment, cities across the US braced for possible protests.
An internal New York Police Department memo obtained by The Times issued shortly after 5.30pm stated that all uniformed members were to ‘remain prepared for mobilization at any time during their assigned tour’.
Some legal experts believe Trump would be released at his own recognizance. Los Angeles criminal defense attorney Ambrosio Rodriguez, formerly a senior deputy district attorney in Southern California, stated that ‘an indictment is not a barrier to re-election at all’.
‘Trump’s attorneys could even ask that his trial be delayed until after the election and possibly until after he serves another term in the White House,’ stated Rodriguez.
‘Whether that request would be granted is another matter, and it’s impossible to understate how much such a ruling would complicate the case.’
According to several media sites, former president Donald Trump raised $1.5 million in the three days following his projection on Truth Social that he would be detained on Tuesday.
According to Fox News, Trump’s 2024 campaign acknowledged the amount on Wednesday. According to reports, the funds came from local donations.
The same sum was raised over that time period, according to The Washington Post, which cited an unnamed individual with knowledge of the situation.
The resulting average of $500,000 per day is about twice as much as the average daily income from the weeks prior to and following his announcement of his candidacy for president in November.
The Trump campaign brought in $11.8 million in the six weeks before the announcement, averaging out at $280,000 a day. And in the six weeks after Trump announced his run, his campaign raised $9.5 million, or $226,000 a day.
The former president’s funding boost came after he wrote on Truth Social on Saturday that he would be arrested Tuesday over the hush-money investigation by the Manhattan district attorney’s office. It’s unclear what basis he had for the claim — his lead defense attorney told Insider on Saturday that the defense team hadn’t heard an arrest date from the Manhattan DA — but Tuesday came and went with no arrest.
Trump urged supporters to “PROTEST, TAKE OUR NATION BACK” in his Truth Social post, which came amid rising indicators that he might soon be indicted by a New York grand jury over the Stormy Daniels hush-money case.
As the anticipation of an indictment grew, Trump’s campaign capitalized by highlighting it in almost every fundraising message. The daily messages seen by Insider tell recipients that the “justice system has utterly COLLAPSED” and that they can be a “FOUNDING DEFENDER” by giving money to the former president.
One such email asked supporters to sign a petition opposing a Trump arrest and afterward requested donations to his campaign.
The former president’s fundraising efforts appeared on Truth Social as well.
“If you are doing poorly, as so many of you are, do not send anything. If you are doing well, which was made possible through the great policies of the Trump Administration, send your contribution,” he wrote Monday. He reposted the same message Wednesday, making no mention of his own false arrest prediction.
Trump has raised millions while casting himself as a victim of political persecution. In the weeks after he lost the 2020 election, he raised a reported $170 million off lies that the White House was stolen from him.
He also told voters that their money would go to an “Official Election Defense Fund” for investigating the election, but the House select committee investigating the Capitol riot confirmed in June that no such fund ever existed. Most of the money instead went to Trump’s PAC, per the Post.
Representatives for Trump didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment sent outside business hours.
After news of the former president’s potential indictment this week, AI-generated deepfakes depicting Donald Trump being detained became viral on Twitter.
Trump was anticipated to be indicted by a grand jury this week on suspicion of making hush payments to porn star Stormy Daniels.
The false photos that journalist Elliot Higgins posted on Twitter have already been seen more than five million times.
Images from the series showed Trump obstructing police before being taken into custody. The 45th president might be seen attempting to flee in some of the fake images.
The deepfake series also includes some of Melania Trump, along with the former president’s son, Donald Trump Jr protesting the arrest.
Higgins used Midjourney, an artificial intelligence text-to-image generator, to generate the lifelike images.
‘Making pictures of Trump getting arrested while waiting for Trump’s arrest,’ tweeted Higgins, who is also the founder of investigative collective Bellingcat.
Higgings said that, for several images, he submitted the text prompt, ‘Donald Trump falling over while getting arrested. Fibonacci Spiral. News footage’.
The fake images looked eerily real but if you look closely, you can see that the text on the police officers’ uniforms is gibberish, along with distorted faces and hands. These are usually tell-tale signs of AI-generated images.
‘The Trump arrest image was really just casually showing both how good and bad Midjourney was at rendering real scenes like the first image has Trump with three legs and a police belt,’ Higgins told the Associated Press.
‘I had assumed that people would realise Donald Trump has two legs, not three, but that appears not to have stopped some people passing them off as genuine, which highlights that lack of critical thinking skills in our educational system.’
Other AI-generated images depicting Trump’s imaginary arrest, have been doing the rounds on the internet with many people falling for it at first glance.
The incident shows the disturbing power of AI-generated images in perpetuating fake news.
As for Trump, he remains free as he is unlikely to be indicted and arrested this week.
Former President of the United States of America (USA) Donald John Trump says he expects some members of the security particularly the FBI to pick him up in a swoop arrest come Tuesday March 21, 2023.
On Saturday, Trump announced he would be arrested on Tuesday in a criminal case involving hush money payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels, but there has been no official confirmation on the likelihood that charges will be brought.
Top Republicans, including some of Donald Trump’s potential rivals for the party’s 2024 presidential nomination, rushed to his defence after the former president said he expected to be arrested next week.
“The idea of indicting a former president of the United States is deeply troubling to me, as it is to tens of millions of Americans,” said former vice-president Mike Pence, who is widely expected to launch a campaign for the Republican nomination in the coming weeks.
The reaction underscores the political risks faced by would-be opponents who are eager to convince voters that it is time to move on from the former president, but who must contend with the fact that he remains the most popular figure in the party.
Trump garnered similar support last summer after the FBI searched his Mar-a-Lago club as part of an investigation into his handling of classified documents. The search also proved a fundraising boon.
Among those coming to Trump’s defence on Saturday were House speaker Kevin McCarthy, who said a possible indictment would be “an outrageous abuse of power by a radical DA [district attorney] who lets violent criminals walk as he pursues political vengeance” against Trump.
McCarthy said he would direct relevant Republican-led House committees “to immediately investigate if federal funds are being used to subvert our democracy by interfering in elections with politically motivated prosecutions”. McCarthy has not endorsed Trump’s White House campaign, but Trump helped McCarthy secure the speakership after a contentious campaign that required multiple rounds of voting.
McCarthy’s predecessor as speaker, Democrat Nancy Pelosi, said in a statement, “the former president’s announcement this morning is reckless: doing so to keep himself in the news and to foment unrest among his supporters.”
“He cannot hide from his violations of the law, disrespect for our elections and incitements to violence.”
On Saturday, Trump posted a message on his Truth Social platform, referring to himself in the third person, saying: “The far and away leading Republican candidate and former president of the United States of America will be arrested on Tuesday of next week.”
Law enforcement officials in New York have been making security preparations for the possibility that Trump could be indicted, but there has been no public announcement of any timeframe or any indictment.
A spokesperson and a lawyer for Trump said later on Saturday that his post was based on media reports rather than any actual update from, or communication with, prosecutors. Trump’s post cited “illegal leaks from a corrupt and highly political Manhattan district attorney’s office”.
The district attorney’s office declined to comment.
In his post, Trump called on his supporters to “PROTEST, PROTEST, PROTEST!!!”
The post evoked the message from the then-president that preceded the insurrection by extremist supporters at the US Capitol on 6 January 2021 which ultimately failed to thwart the certification of Joe Biden’s victory.
In the lead-up to the 2024 election, voters should be able to hear equally from candidates, according to the video streaming platform.
More than two years after his supporters violently stormed the US Capitol, YouTube has lifted restrictions onDonald Trump’s channel, making it the newest social media platform to fully restore the former US president’s account.
The choice was made on Friday as the race for the Republican presidential nomination in the 2024 election began to heat up with Trump, who has formally declared his candidature, frequently taking potshots at potential rivals.
“We carefully evaluated the continued risk of real-world violence, while balancing the chance for voters to hear equally from major national candidates in the run up to an election,” YouTube, which is owned by Google, said in a tweet on Friday.
After a right-wing mob attacked the US Capitol in Washington, DC on January 6, 2021, to prevent the certification of President Joe Biden’s victory, several social media networks restricted or banned Trump’s accounts.
The president’s critics accuse him of inciting the violence, including via social media posts where he made false accusations of election fraud.
In recent months, social media firms – including Twitter and Meta-owned Facebook and Instagram – have restored the former president’s accounts. But Trump has not returned to these websites. Instead, he has been communicating with supporters through his own platform, Truth Social.
As president, Trump’s social media posts – especially on Twitter – constantly stirred controversy, and at times caused international diplomatic crises.
Twitter “permanently suspended” Trump’s account after the January 6 riot, but the platform reversed the decision after it was acquired by billionaire Elon Musk.
“I am staying on Truth. I like it better, I like the way it works, I like Elon, but I’m staying on Truth,” he told Fox News last year.
The former president still maintains that the 2020 election was “stolen” – a claim that he regularly repeats on Truth Social.
In December, a Democratic-led congressional panel that investigated the attack on the Capitol recommended criminal charges against the former president.
A special Justice Department prosecutor is investigating Trump for his role in the riot and possible mishandling of classified information in a separate investigation.
As he gears up for the 2024 primaries, Trump is also facing several state-led inquiries into his campaign conduct, efforts to overturn the 2024 elections and private business practices.
Trump denies wrongdoing in all cases and accuses prosecutors of weaponising the justice system against him for political purposes.
“THE FAKE INVESTIGATIONS BY RADICAL LEFT DEMOCRAT PROSECUTORS ARE NOTHING OTHER THAN ELECTION INTERFERENCE INTO THE POLITICS OF A FAILING NATION,” he wrote on Truth Social on Thursday.
Donald Trump will be allowed back on to Facebook and Instagram, after Meta announced it would be ending its two-year suspension of his accounts.
The suspension will end “in the coming weeks”, the social media giant said.
In a statement, Nick Clegg, Meta’s president of global affairs, said the public “should be able to hear what their politicians are saying”.
The then-US president was indefinitely suspended from Facebook and Instagram after the Capitol riot in 2021.
The firm had taken action following Mr Trump’s “praise for people engaged in violence at the Capitol”, Mr Clegg said.
“The suspension was an extraordinary decision taken in extraordinary circumstances,” he added.
He said a review found that Mr Trump’s accounts no longer represented a serious risk to public safety.
But because of Mr Trump’s past “violations” he would now face heightened penalties for repeat offences.
Republicans have been pressing for Mr Trump to be allowed back on Facebook as he prepares to run for the presidency again next year.
Mr Trump posted on his own social media company, Truth Social, in response on Wednesday, saying that Facebook had “lost Billions” after banning “your favorite President, me”.
“Such a thing should never again happen to a sitting President, or anybody else who is not deserving of retribution!” he wrote.
Donald Trump now has a decision to make.
Truth Social, a social media platform he set up in 2021, has vastly fewer users than Facebook.
Facebook has three billion users.
Truth Social may have as many as five million accounts – though it’s likely it has far fewer active users.
However, Mr Trump has an exclusivity agreement with Truth Social – that means he is legally required to post first on the platform – six hours before any other platform.
It means if he posts on Facebook or Twitter – there is a chance he could get sued.
Analysts also warn that if Mr Trump were to stop using Truth Social, or post content elsewhere, the platform would struggle to survive.
He could simply ignore that exclusivity agreement – and start posting content straight away.
However, that could open him up to legal problems.
What is also possible is that he simply waits until June, when the agreement times out.
Or, he could take the decision never to go back to platforms that he has criticised consistently.
However, if he is going to have a tilt at the White House, being on Facebook – the world’s biggest social media platform – would make a lot of sense.
Whatever happens next, the ball is firmly in Mr Trump’s court now.
If he does decide to come back, though, he will have to follow Meta’s rules. The company has left the door open for another suspension if he flouts them.
It means Mr Tump will have to hold his tongue (to a certain extent) on Facebook, in a way that he doesn’t currently have to on Truth Social.
News of Mr Trump’s re-instatement was quickly criticised by Democrats and some activist organisations who expressed concern that the former president could again use the platform to repeat false claims that he won the 2020 election.
“Trump incited an insurrection,” California Democratic Representative Adam Schiff wrote on Twitter. “Giving him back access to a social media platform to spread his lies and demagoguery is dangerous.”
Derrick Johnson, the president of the NAACP, a civil rights organisation, told the Associated Press that he sees the move as a “grave mistake” that is a “a prime example of putting profits above people’s safety”.
“It’s quite astonishing that one can spew hatred, fuel conspiracies, and incite a violent insurrection at our nation’s Capitol building, and Mark Zuckerberg still believes that is not enough to remove someone from his platforms,” he said.
Twitter had also banned the former president following the 6 January 2021 US Capitol riot, saying he had broken its rules on the glorification of violence.
But in November, Twitter’s owner Elon Musk said Mr Trump’s account ban had been lifted, after running a poll in which users narrowly backed the move.
Mr Trump has not yet returned to Twitter, having earlier said: “I don’t see any reason for it.”
The handling of classified documents byDonald Trump and Joe Biden is being investigated by special counsels.
As 2022 got begun, things were looking good for US President Joe Biden.
His popularity was increasing.
Slowing down was inflation. Republicans were at war with themselves after a disappointing midterm season, while Democrats banded together behind Biden’s likely reelection campaign.
However, on Thursday, Attorney General Merrick Garland named a special counsel to look into how the Democratic president handled secret documents, casting further doubt on Biden’s political future.
NBC News then reported on Wednesday that a second batch of classified documents had been found. Biden’s lawyers and the White House disclosed on Thursday that documents had been found in December in Biden’s home in Wilmington, Delaware. A search of his second home did not turn up any documents.
Democrats publicly and privately conceded that the stunning information and appointment of a special counsel was at best an unwelcome distraction at an inopportune time that muddies the case against Donald Trump. The Republican former president is facing a special counsel of his own and is under federal criminal investigation for his handling of classified documents and other potential transgressions.
There are major differences between the two cases. Most notably, there is no suggestion that Biden purposefully tried to prevent the documents discovered at his home or office from being turned over or that he was even aware of their presence. Trump, who is being probed for potentially obstructing investigators, also had far more classified documents in his possession.
But Thursday’s appointment of a special counsel nonetheless thrusts legal uncertainty over the sitting president and could revive debate among Democrats about the wisdom of his seeking a second term.
“No one’s going to say this is helpful,” veteran Democratic strategist James Carville said. “It’s pretty evident that’s not the case.”
As Democrats recoiled into a defensive posture, Trump’s would-be Republican rivals in 2024 acknowledged that the contours of the upcoming race had shifted.
Trump “is the luckiest man in American politics”, said John Bolton, who served as national security adviser under Trump and is considering a Republican White House bid. “This ought to be disqualifying to both of them.”
Thus begins a messy election season in which the current and former presidents of the United States are both under investigation by special counsels as they gear up for a potential rematch in 2024. Many voters in both parties were already calling for a new generation of leadership to emerge in the nascent presidential contest. Such calls are now growing louder.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre fielded multiple questions regarding the documents dodging questions about why the White House had not revealed their existence sooner [Jonathan Ernst/Reuters]
“On many political fronts, Biden’s touted 2024 campaign is potentially vulnerable,” said Norman Soloman, a progressive Democrat who leads the so-called “Don’t Run Joe” campaign, which is already running television ads against Biden in key states. “Democrats and the country as a whole would be much better off this year and next if he’s not running for president.”
The 80-year-old president has already indicated he plans to seek a second term, but he has yet to make a final decision. His allies believe he is likely to make a formal announcement after the end of March.
So far, at least, no high-profile Democrats appear willing to challenge Biden in a prospective presidential primary contest. Privately, however, some Democratic officials believe the new federal probe may help motivate an outside candidate.
Garland said Biden’s lawyers had informed the Department of Justice on Thursday morning of the discovery of a classified document at Biden’s home, after FBI agents first retrieved other documents from the garage in December.
Speaking to reporters Thursday, Biden said he was cooperating “fully and completely with the justice department’s review”.
“People know I take classified documents and classified material seriously,” Biden said. He added, “My Corvette’s in a locked garage.”
There are stark differences between the Trump and Biden document cases, including the volume of documents discovered and the gravity of the continuing grand jury investigation into the matter at Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s Palm Beach, Florida, home.
Roughly 300 records with classification markings were recovered from Mar-a-Lago, a private club that hosts constant events. The search of Trump’s property was the culmination of months of back-and-forth between the government and Trump’s representatives, who repeatedly resisted efforts to return the missing documents. And the Department of Justice has said classified documents were “likely concealed and removed” from a storage room as part of what they allege was an effort to obstruct the federal investigation.
A warrant for the search showed the FBI was investigating crimes including the willful retention of national defence information and efforts to obstruct the federal probe.
Trump has nonetheless seized on the news, seeking to use it to undermine the investigation into his actions.
“It’s over,“ Trump said in an interview with conservative talk radio host Mark Levin on Thursday evening. ”When all of these documents started coming out and Biden had them, it really changed the complexion and the intensity that they were showing to me because, you know, what they did is – I don’t say far worse, I did nothing wrong — what they did is not good. What they did is bad.”
Some Democrats were hopeful, but not certain, that voters might distinguish between Biden’s cooperative approach involving a small trove of documents he apparently possessed by mistake and what federal prosecutors described as Trump’s willful obstruction of hundreds of government secrets.
“It’s all the difference in the world between having something you don’t know you have and having something you know you have and aren’t supposed to have,” Carville said. “Is that going to get lost among a third of the country? Probably so.”
Bolton, a fierce Trump critic, predicted that the significant legal differences between the two cases would “get lost in the fog”. Now, he finds it hard to believe that Trump can be prosecuted for the Mar-a-Lago documents, regardless of the circumstances.
“I don’t see how a criminal case goes forward at this point,” Bolton said. “I just think it’s such a cloud over the prosecution.”
While the ground may have shifted, Trump’s legal challenges are not going to disappear.
Two months ago, Garland appointed former Department of Justice public corruption prosecutor Jack Smith to lead investigations into the classified documents discovered at Mar-a-Lago as well as key aspects of a separate probe involving the January 6, 2021, insurrection and efforts to undo the 2020 election.
Federal prosecutors have been especially focused on a scheme by Trump allies to elevate fake electors in key battleground states won by Biden as a way to subvert the vote. They issued subpoenas to multiple state Republican Party chairmen.
Democratic strategist Josh Schwerin described the latest development as “certainly not ideal”.
“I think everyone would wish this hadn’t happened, including the president,” he said. “But it’s important to keep all of this in context: Everyone views President Biden as a far more responsible figure than Donald Trump. And that cannot be forgotten.”
For being found guilty of 17 criminal charges, the judge could impose the maximum penalty on the business.
A New York judge has ordered that the real estate firm bearing former US President Donald Trump’s name pay a $1.6 million criminal fine after it was found guilty of 15 years of tax fraud scheme.
After twoTrump Organizationaffiliates were found guilty of 17 criminal charges, including conspiracy and falsifying business records, by a jury last month, Justice Juan Merchan of the Manhattan criminal court handed down the sentence on Friday.
The penalty was the maximum the judge could impose for a scheme in which the former president’s top executives dodged personal income taxes on lavish job perks, a symbolic and hardly crippling blow for an enterprise boasting billions of dollars in assets.
Trump himself was not on trial and denied any knowledge of his executives evading taxes.
While the fine – less than the cost of a Trump Tower apartment – isn’t big enough to impact the company’s operations or future, the conviction is a black mark on the Republican’s reputation as a savvy businessman as he mounts a campaign to regain the White House.
Neither the former president nor his children, who have helped run and promote the Trump Organization, were in the courtroom for the sentencing.
Prosecutor Joshua Steinglass said the fine constitutes “a fraction of the revenue” of the Trump Organization and that the scheme was “far-reaching and brazen”.
“All of these corrupt practices were part of the Trump Organization executive compensation package, and it was certainly cheaper than paying higher salaries to those executives,” he said.
Because the Trump Organization is a corporation and not a person, a fine is the only way a judge may punish the company. The maximum penalty that Merchan was able to impose was double the taxes a small group of executives avoided paying on benefits that included rent-free apartments in Trump buildings, luxury cars and private school tuition.
Besides the company, only one executive was charged in the case: former Trump Organization Chief Financial Officer Allen Weisselberg, who pleaded guilty in August to evading taxes on $1.7m in compensation. He was sentenced Tuesday to five months in jail.
Trump has said the case against his company was part of a politically motivated “witch hunt” waged against him by vindictive Democrats. The company’s lawyers have promised to appeal the verdict.
Over his years as the company’s chief moneyman, Weisselberg had received a rent-free apartment in a Trump-branded building in Manhattan with a view of the Hudson River. He and his wife drove Mercedes-Benz cars leased by the company, and when his grandchildren went to an exclusive private school, Trump paid their tuition.
Former Trump Organization Chief Financial Officer Allen Weisselberg, who pleaded guilty to tax fraud and was sentenced to five months in jail, testified at the trial that the tax fraud was his idea and the Trump family did not know what he was doing [File: Carlo Allegri/Reuters]
A handful of other executives received similar perks.
When called to testify against the Trump Organization, Weisselberg said he didn’t pay taxes on that compensation and he and a company vice president conspired to hide the perks by having the company issue falsified tax forms.
Weisselberg also tried to take responsibility on the witness stand, saying nobody in the Trump family knew what he was doing. He choked up as he told jurors, “It was my own personal greed that led to this.”
Trump Organization lawyers repeated the mantra, “Weisselberg did it for Weisselberg,” contending that he had gone rogue and betrayed the company’s trust.
Assistant District Attorney Joshua Steinglass contested that claim in his closing argument, showing jurors a lease Trump signed himself for Weisselberg’s apartment.
“Mr. Trump is explicitly sanctioning tax fraud,” Steinglass argued.
A jury convicted the company of tax fraud on December 6.
The company’s fine will be barely a dent in the bottom line for an enterprise with a global portfolio of golf courses, hotels and development deals. It could face more trouble outside of court due to the reputational damage, such as difficulty finding new deals and business partners.
The Trump Organization’s conviction and sentencing don’t end Trump’s battle with Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, a Democrat who took office a year ago. Bragg has said that a related investigation of Trump that began under his predecessor Cyrus Vance Jr is “active and ongoing” with a newly hired prosecutor leading the charge.
At the same time, New York Attorney General Letitia James is suing Trump and the Trump Organization, alleging they misled banks and others about the value of their many assets, a practice she called the “art of the steal”, a reference to Trump’s book The Art of the Deal.
James, a Democrat, is asking a court to ban Trump and his three eldest children from running any New York-based company and is seeking to fine them at least $250m. A judge has set an October trial date. As a preliminary measure, he appointed a monitor for the company while the case is pending.
Trump faces several other legal challenges as he looks to win the 2024 presidential election.
A special grand jury in Atlanta has investigated whether Trump and his allies committed any crimes while trying to overturn his 2020 election loss in Georgia.
Last month, a House committee voted to make a criminal referral to the Department of Justice over Trump’s role in sparking a violent insurrection at the US Capitol on January 6, 2021. The FBI is also investigating Trump’s storage of classified documents.
Donald Trump is being sued for wrongful death by the partner of a US Capitol Police officer who passed away the day after the disturbance on January 6, 2021.
According to the lawsuit, Mr. Trump “deliberately stirred up the crowd” that assaulted Brian Sicknick.
On the occasion of the second anniversary of the riots, police have increased security on Capitol grounds.
Although the FBI claims there are still many at large, hundreds have already been found guilty.
According to federal police, more than 300 of the perpetrators of the violence that day remain unidentified.
One of them is in charge of the pipe bombs that were detonated the night before the riots near the Republican and Democratic national committee offices.
The FBI announced on Wednesday that it will pay anyone with information that can help them identify the culprit $500,000 (£420,730).
Two years ago, when Congress declared President Joe Biden the winner of the 2020 election, there was a riot at the US Capitol.
The mob stormed the Capitol following a speech from Mr Trump, who was speaking at a rally one mile from the Capitol grounds. In his speech, Mr Trump claimed election fraud and called on then-Vice-President Mike Pence to overturn the results.
“We’re going to walk down to the Capitol,” Mr Trump said in the speech. “If you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore.”
In the same speech he also told them to “peacefully and patriotically make their voices heard”.
During a commemoration event on Thursday at the White House, Mr Biden called the events of 6 January an “inflection point” of US history.
“It’s hard to believe that this could happen right here in America,” he said.
“January 6 is a reminder that there is nothing guaranteed about our democracy,” Mr Biden added.
US Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick died one day after the 6 January 2021 riots (Getty Images)
‘Wrongful death’
One woman was fatally shot during the riots by a police officer. Three others who were on Capitol grounds that day died from natural causes.
One of them was Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick, who died a day after the riots from a series of strokes.
While Mr Sicknick did not suffer any injuries during the riot, a lawsuit filed by his family on Thursday alleges the violent mob played a role in his death.
His family sued Mr Trump on Thursday for wrongful death, claiming that the former president “intentionally riled up the crowd” and that Mr Sicknick died as a result of “the injuries that violence caused”.
“Many participants in the attack have since revealed that they were acting on what they believed to be Defendant Trump’s direct orders in service of their country,” the lawsuit states.
The lawsuit also accuses Mr Trump of violating Mr Sicknick’s civil rights, assault and negligence, and is seeking $10m in damages.
Mr Trump has not yet commented on the lawsuit.
On Thursday, Mr Biden awarded several presidential citizen’s medals to officers who responded to the 6 January riots, including a posthumous medal for Mr Sicknick, saying he “lost his life after protecting the citadel of democracy.”
Since the attacks, a Democrat-led congressional probe also examined Mr Trump’s role in inciting the riots.
In December, the US House committee probing the 6 January attack asked federal prosecutors to charge Mr Trump with obstruction and insurrection – marking the first time in US history that Congress referred a former president to be criminally prosecuted.
A company spokesperson told CNN on Monday that Facebook’s parent company, Meta, is considering whether to allow former President Donald Trump back onto its platforms and will make a decision in the coming weeks.
The decision, which is expected to be one of the most significant in the company’s history, is being considered by a specially formed internal company working group comprised of leaders from various parts of the organisation, according to a person familiar with the deliberations.
According to the person, the group includes representatives from the company’s public policy, communications, content policy, and safety and integrity teams. The Financial Times broke the news about the working group.
Trump was banned from Meta’s platforms Facebook and Instagram after the attack on the US Capitol in January 2021. Initially, the ban was indefinite, but that was later revised, and the company said it would consider allowing Trump back on the platforms after two years. Those two years elapse on Saturday, January 7, 2023.
The company is not expected to announce its decision on Saturday. Instead, Meta spokesperson Andy Stone told CNN on Monday that the announcement would occur “in the coming weeks.”
The decision to re-platform a former US president is being led by a former deputy prime minister of the United Kingdom.
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Nick Clegg, Meta’s president of global affairs, said he is overseeing the decision. Clegg has risen through Meta’s ranks since joining the company in 2018, a year after he lost his seat in British Parliament.
Over the past year, Clegg has taken public responsibility for more of the company’s thorny political decisions, shielding the company’s founder, Mark Zuckerberg, who is said to be focusing more on developing the so-called metaverse.
Meta initially said Trump was suspended from its platforms due to his praise for people engaged in violence at the US Capitol. In a blog post in June 2021, Clegg explained how the company would consider allowing Trump back on its platforms.
“If we determine that there is still a serious risk to public safety, we will extend the restriction for a set period of time and continue to re-evaluate until that risk has receded,” Clegg wrote.
If Trump’s accounts are restored, he could once again have them revoked if he breaks the platforms’ rules, Clegg warned. “When the suspension is eventually lifted, there will be a strict set of rapidly escalating sanctions that will be triggered if Mr. Trump commits further violations in future, up to and including permanent removal of his pages and accounts,” he wrote.
A return to Meta could be a potential boon for Trump’s 2024 election campaign. Trump has 34 million followers on Facebook and 23 million followers on Instagram. Previous Trump campaigns have lauded the effectiveness of Facebook’s targeted advertising tools and have spent millions running Facebook ads.
A return would also signal a shift in Silicon Valley’s relationship with the former president. Trump had also been banned from Twitter but his account was reinstated in November by that company’s new owner, Elon Musk.
Trump has yet to post on Twitter after the reinstatement, instead continuing to post on his own social media platform, Truth Social. It remains unclear whether Trump simultaneously posting on mainstream platforms would violate his agreements with Truth Social’s parent company.
Last month, two Democratic lawmakers urged Meta to maintain Trump’s suspension from its platforms, arguing that the former president’s recent posts on Truth Social suggest he is likely to violate the social media giant’s policies if given a chance.
“For Meta to credibly maintain a legitimate election integrity policy, it is essential that your company maintain its platform ban on former president Trump,” California Rep. Adam Schiff and Rhode Island Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse wrote in a letter. “Based on Meta’s own statement on standards for allowing Trump back on the platform, his account should continue to be restricted.”
Six years’ worth of Donald Trump’s tax returns will be made public, according to a committee vote in the US House of Representatives.
The decision by the US Supreme Court last month ends a nearly four-year legal battle by Democrats to obtain the documents.
Even though US presidents are not required by law to release their tax returns, they have been doing so voluntarily for decades.
The former president has made a significant effort to conceal his tax returns.
The US House Ways and Means Committee voted 24-16 on Tuesday evening to publish the documents, with all Democrats on the panel in favour and all Republicans opposed.
One of the committee members, Pennsylvania Democrat Brendan Boyle, said afterwards: “This is one of the most important votes I will ever cast as a member of Congress, and I stand by it 100%.”
But Kevin Brady, the ranking Republican on the committee, said Democrats had just “unleashed a dangerous new political weapon”.
“Congress’ enemies list is back,” said the Texas congressman. “Every American taxpayer who may get on the wrong side of majority in Congress is now at risk.”
It is unclear when the public will see the financial documents which stem from 2015-20, when Mr Trump was running for president and serving in the White House.
Lloyd Doggett, a Texas Democrat on the panel, told CNN the release of the files could take “a few days” in order to redact personal information such as Social Security numbers.
The returns could offer a first-hand look into Mr Trump’s finances, including his assets, sources of income, charitable contributions and liabilities, including the possibility of loans owed to foreign entities.
In 2016, Mr Trump became the first major-party presidential nominee since Richard Nixon in 1972 to decline to publicly release his tax returns while campaigning for office. At the time, he said he would do so after an Internal Revenue Service audit had concluded.
However, on Tuesday Democrats on the panel said that Mr Trump was not actually under an audit in 2016, and that the Internal Revenue Service did not begin their official audit until 2019.
The House Ways and Means Committee had first sought the returns when Democrats took over the lower chamber of Congress in 2019. The committee, citing a federal law allowing it to request special access to individual tax returns, said the information was necessary as a part of a review of federal tax law.
Republican critics, however, have countered that such explanations were merely an excuse to access Mr Trump’s financial documents.
The Trump administration refused to co-operate with the committee’s request, prompting a drawn-out legal battle that ended when the US Supreme Court, in an unsigned opinion, upheld an appellate court ruling that the Democrats were entitled to the returns.
In 2020, the New York Times obtained leaked copies of 18 years of Mr Trump’s tax returns. In a series of articles on the topic, the newspaper reported that the president paid no federal taxes in 10 of those 18 years and only $750 (£615) in each of his first two years in the White House. It also disclosed that the then-president was in a fight with the Internal Revenue Service over the legitimacy of a $72.9m tax refund he had claimed and owed more than $400m in debt due by 2024.
A representative of Mr Trump’s business empire denied the accuracy of the report at the time. Official copies of the former president’s tax returns, which are now expected to be released before Republicans take control of Congress on 3 January, should settle the matter.
The vote comes one day after a Democratic-led congressional panel asked the US justice department prosecutethe former president for insurrection and other criminal charges related to last year’s riot by his supporters at the Capitol in Washington DC.
Three criminal charges against former President Donald Trump are expected to be recommended by the congressional investigation into the Capitol incident last year.
According to US media, a former US president will face an unprecedented rebellion accusation from the House of Representatives select committee.
The panel’s final report is anticipated to be released the following week.
The justice department – which is already investigating Mr Trump’s role in the unrest – is not obliged to consider referrals from any congressional panel.
Mr Trump denies wrongdoing. On Friday his spokesman, Steven Cheung, said in a statement: “The January 6th un-Select Committee held show trials by Never Trump partisans who are a stain on this country’s history.”
The select committee is scheduled to hold its final meeting on Monday when any charging recommendations would be unveiled.
As well as insurrection, according to various outlets, the panel will suggest Mr Trump be charged with obstructing an official proceeding and conspiracy to defraud the United States.
The nine panellists are expected to approve the final eight-chapter report, drawing on interviews with more than 1,000 witnesses, and submit it to the Department of Justice (DoJ).
The full report will be made public on Wednesday, said chairman Bennie Thompson, a Mississippi Democrat who is helming the select committee.
California congresswoman Zoe Lofgren, another member of the panel, told CNN on Friday that the lawmakers have “been very careful in crafting these [charging] recommendations and tethering them to the facts that we’ve uncovered”.
The House select committee has argued Mr Trump spread claims that he knew were false about the 2020 presidential election being stolen, before pressuring state officials, the justice department and his own vice-president to help subvert his defeat. The panel accuses him of inciting the Capitol riot in a last-ditch bid to remain in power.
The DoJ is already investigating the then-Republican president’s actions surrounding the riot.
Seven days after the raid on Congress, the House impeached Mr Trump for a second time on the grounds of incitement of insurrection.
Mr Trump, who is the only president to ever be impeached twice, was cleared by the US Senate.
Last month, Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed a former war crimes prosecutor to decide whether Mr Trump should be prosecuted.
Jack Smith is tasked with determining if the 2024 presidential candidate should be put on trial for mishandling classified files that were recovered during an FBI search of Mr Trump’s Florida estate in August, or for encouraging the violent mob on 6 January 2021.
The congressional inquiry into last year’s Capitol riot will reportedly recommend three criminal charges against former President Donald Trump.
The House of Representatives select committee will seek an unprecedented charge of insurrection against a former US president, according to US media.
The panel is expected to publish its final report next week.
Trump supporters stormed Congress on 6 January 2021 in a bid to stop Joe Biden’s certification as president.
The justice department – which is already investigating Mr Trump’s role in the unrest – is not obliged to consider referrals from any congressional panel.
Kenyans have are expressed shock online at the apparent existence of an office of the first daughter connected to the second-born child of President William Ruto.
Charlene Ruto is seen addressing a crowd in a video that has gone viral online while speaking at a summit in Tanzania. She introduces her “team from Kenya,” which includes her adviser and another person who serves as the “head of trade and investments at the office of the first daughter.”
The audience seems to applaud and laugh aloud in response.
“I don’t get what is funny,” Ms Ruto responds as she attempts to continue with the introductions.
Kenyan law does not provide for an office of the first daughter and there has not been any public announcement of the introduction of such an office.
Kenyans online have been criticising what some see as a misuse of taxpayers’ money.
“Charlene Ruto introducing her team from the office of the first daughter who are paid with taxpayers money despite being an illegal office,” a Kenyan on Twitter says.
Another asks how the office was established and shares the video:
Social embed from twitter
When and how was the office of the first daughter established? What is it’s mandate? How are the staff paid? Under which budget? https://t.co/WiVvnfvgYE
Ms Ruto has been regularly meeting leaders across the country and attending international forums meeting foreign dignitaries since her father became president.
She has been among the most trending topics online on Wednesday.
She has sparked online debates in the past amid her many political engagements – and has been nicknamed Quickmart Ivanka on Twitter, a mockery of her similarities with Ivanka Trump, the daughter of former US president Donald Trump.
A US appeals court has ended a “special master” review of documents seized from Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate.
The ruling is a win for the US Department of Justice, which is probing if Mr Trump took classified documents with him when he left the White House.
The “special master” is an independent lawyer who decides if any of the records are covered under attorney-client or executive privilege.
Investigators can now review the documents in full.
The ruling was made on Thursday by a three-judge panel in the Atlanta-based 11th Circuit US Courts of Appeal, after the Department of Justice challenged a September decision that granted Mr Trump’s request for the special master review.
In its ruling, the appeals court wrote that there was no “judiciary license to interfere in an ongoing investigation”.
“The law is clear. We cannot write a rule that allows any subject of a search warrant to block government investigations after the execution of the warrant. Nor can we write a rule that allows only former presidents to do so,” the court wrote.
A special master review would have delayed the Department of Justice’s inquiry into Mr Trump’s handling of classified documents, as the government was banned from reviewing or using the materials until it was complete.
Raymond Dearie, a 78-year-old New York judge who was first nominated by Republican President Ronald Reagan in 1986, was assigned as the special master with his case.
It is unclear if Mr Trump and his lawyers will appeal against Thursday’s ruling.
Mr Trump is being investigated for allegedly taking national classified documents with him to his private Florida home in Mar-a-Lago after he left the White House.
The authorities say these documents should have been handed over to the National Archives – as required of US presidents upon leaving office.
The FBI seized 15 boxes of White House documents in January, which officials said contained “highly classified reports”, some of which were “intermixed with other records” and contained Mr Trump’s “handwritten notes”. They also seized another 20 boxes in August.
In total, the Department of Justice alleged that 11 sets of classified documents were taken from the White House by Mr Trump.
The former president denied any wrongdoing, and argued that he had declassified all the documents as president and that they were kept securely at his Mar-a-Lago home.
When requesting a special master, Mr Trump’s lawyers argued some of the documents are covered by attorney-client privilege – meaning they can be withheld under a US law that allows people to keep conversations with their lawyers private.
Trump records probe timeline
January 2022 – The National Archives retrieves 15 boxes of White House records from Mar-a-Lago, and says some of the documents it received at the end of Trump administration were torn up
February – Reports emerge that classified files were found in the Mar-a-Lago cache and National Archives has asked DoJ to investigate
April – US media report the FBI has begun a preliminary investigation
3 June – A senior DoJ official and three FBI agents travel to Mar-a-Lago to review items in a basement. According to Mr Trump, he told them: “Whatever you need, just let us know”
8 June – Federal investigators write to a Trump aide to ask that a stronger lock be used to secure the room storing the items. Trump says that request was quickly fulfilled
22 June – The Trump Organization receives a DoJ summons for CCTV footage from Mar-a-Lago
8 August – Dozens of agents search Mar-a-Lago, seizing more than 33 boxes, some containing top secret files, according to the warrant
12 August – Warrant released, showing that 11 sets of classified documents were taken
25 August – Judge orders justice department to release a redacted version of court papers that convinced him to authorise a search of the Trump estate
5 September – A judge grants Mr Trump’s request for a “special master” to review the documents
1 December – A US appeals court reverses the earlier special master decision, giving the DoJ full access to documents seized from Mar-a-Lago
E. Jean Carroll, a former columnist who accused Donald Trump of sexualassault, is suing the ex-president for a second time.
According to the Associated Press, the ex-Elle contributor filed the civil lawsuit electronically on Thanksgiving Day, shortly after New York’s Adult Survivors Act went into effect. The law allows sexual assault survivors to take legal action against their abusers between Nov. 24, 2022-Nov. 24, 2023, even after the Statute of Limitations expired.
Carroll publicly accused Trump of sexual assault in her 2019 book, claiming the then-president had raped her in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room in the mid-1990s. Trump denied the claims in an interview with The Hill shortly after.
“I’ll say it with great respect: Number one, she’s not my type,” Trump said. “Number two, it never happened. It never happened, OK? … I know nothing about this woman. I know nothing about her. She is — it’s just a terrible thing that people can make statements like that.”
Carroll ultimately sued Trump for defamation after he accused her of lying. That suit is currently pending.
The newly filed suit, which also includes allegations of battery, was updated with claims Trump made on his Truth Social platform last month.
“I don’t know this woman, have no idea who she is, other than it seems she got a picture of me many years ago, with her husband, shaking my hand on a reception line at a celebrity charity event,” he wrote before submitting to a sworn deposition related to the 2019 lawsuit. “She completely made up a story that I met her at the doors of this crowded New York City Department Store and, within minutes, ‘swooned’ her. It is a Hoax and a lie, just like all the other Hoaxes that have been played on me for the past seven years. And, while I am not supposed to say it, I will. This woman is not my type!”
Carroll claims Trump’s denial has caused her pain and suffering, psychological harms, dignity loss, and reputation damage. She is seeking unspecified compensatory and punitive damages.
The Donald Trump team has expressed displeasure over Kanye West’s recent comment about Mr Trump.
The former president faced additional backlash this week after he met with Kanye West and Nick Fuentes, a far-right conspiracy theorist who’ known for his white supremacist ideology. The three dined together Tuesday at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida; however, Trump insisted he had no idea who Fuentes was prior to the dinner.
“This past week, Kanye West called me to have dinner at Mar-a-Lago,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform. “Shortly thereafter, he unexpectedly showed up with three of his friends, whom I knew nothing about. We had dinner on Tuesday evening with many members present on the back patio. The dinner was quick and uneventful. They then left for the airport.”
Three anonymous sources told NBC News that Trump was not familiar with Fuentes before Tuesday’s get-together. Two of those insiders were described as Trump advisers, and the third was said to be a person who was “familiar with the dinner conversation,” but not involved in Trump’s campaign.
“This is a fucking nightmare,” a Trump adviser said, suggesting the dinner could potentially harm his 2024 presidential bid. “If people are looking at [Florida Gov. Ron] DeSantis to run against Trump, here’s another reason why.”
The sources, however, claimed that Trump’s aforementioned statement wasn’t completely true. Though the ex-president insisted he didn’t know the three people who accompanied Kanye to the dinner, the insiders said one of those “friends” was Karen Giorno—a political strategist who served as the Trump campaign’s Florida director in 2016. The sources said Trump knew Giorno by “name and sight.”
Kanye took to Twitter on Thursday to share details about the Mar-a-Lago dinner. He claimed Trump was “really impressed with Fuentes.
“… And Nick Fuentes, unlike so many of the lawyers, and so many of the people that he was left with on his 2020 campaign, he’s actually a loyalist,” Ye said in the video, titled Mar-a-Lago debrief.
Kanye also claimed he had asked Trump to be his 2024 running mate—a request that allegedly caused the former president to lose his temper.
“When Trump started basically screaming at me at the table telling me I was gonna lose,” Ye said in the video. “I mean, has that ever worked for anyone in history? I’m like, ‘Woah woah, hold on, hold on, Trump. You’re talking to Ye.’”
E Jean Carroll, a writer, has filed a lawsuit against Donald Trump in the US state of New York for allegedly raping her in the 1990s.
Ms Carroll, 78, is one of the first people to file a lawsuit under the Adult Survivors Act, which went into effect on Thursday.
The state law provides victims with a one-year period in which to file sexual assault lawsuits in New York for claims that would otherwise have exceeded statute limitations.
The allegations against the former president have been denied.
Ms Carroll alleges the attack took place in a New York luxury department store dressing room 27 years ago.
The Adult Survivors Act allows victims to come forward if the sexual assault occurred when they were over the age of 18 and took place on a date that exceeds time limits that exists on most felonies.
It is modelled after the state’s recent Child Abuse Act, which applied to victims who were abused as minors.
The Child Abuse Act, which came into effect in 2019, allowed a two-year period for victims to come forward. Around 11,000 lawsuits were filed in New York against churches, hospitals, schools, camps and other institutions under that law.
Ms Carroll has also sued former President Trump for defamation after he accused her of lying when she first made her allegations public in 2019. Mr Trump has called Ms Carroll’s claims “fiction”. A civil trial for that case is scheduled for 6 February.
In a statement, Ms Carroll’s attorney, Roberta Kaplan, said the new lawsuit filed on Thursday is intended to hold Mr Trump accountable for the alleged assault.
Alina Habba, a lawyer for Mr Trump, told US media that, while she respects and admires individuals that come forward “this case is unfortunately an abuse of the purpose of this Act” and “runs the risk of delegitimising the credibility of actual victims”.
Others are also planning to file lawsuits under the new law.
This includes a planned class action lawsuit against Robert Hadden, a former gynaecologist at hospitals tied to New York-Presbyterian and Columbia University, who has been accused by dozens of patients of sexual abuse.
Mr Hadden was convicted in 2016 on sex-related charges in state court,but has pleaded not guilty to federal charges of abusing female patients over two decades.
Advocates for survivors of sex abuse believe the legislation provides an opportunity for people to come forward who may not have done so previously due to trauma or fear of retaliation.
Several other states have also extended or temporarily eliminated their statues of limitation on sex crimes in the wake of the #MeToo movement in 2018, including New Jersey, California, Arizona and Montana.
During a meeting with Trump in Mar-a-Lago this week, Kanye West revealed that the former US president allegedly insulted his ex-wife Kim Kardashian and turned down his desire to run alongside him in the 2024 election.
The artist and fashion designer disclosed he met with Trump on Wednesday to talk about a potential merger in a two-minute campaign advertisement released to Twitter on Friday morning, November 25.
Ye gave his own description of the conversation in the brief video, claiming that the previous president heard him express his desire to become president.
Kanye claims that he questioned Trump after the former US president warned him that he would lose if he ran for office.
‘The thing that Trump was most perturbed about [is] me asking him to be my vice president,’ Kanye said the clip posted on his recently-unlocked Twitter account on Thanksgiving night.
He continued: ‘I think that was, like, lower on the list of things that caught him off guard.
‘It was the fact that I walked in with intelligence.’
He charged that the former president had distanced himself from other public personalities like Fuentes because of their opinions while dismissing key members of his cabinet, including top advisers Karen Giorno and Steve Bannon.
West would go on to praise Fuentes as a Trump “loyalist,” praising his support for the Capitol takeover by supporters of the then-outgoing president on January 6, 2021.
‘Nick Fuentes, unlike so many of the lawyers and some of the people [Trump] was left with on his 2020 campaign, he’s actually a loyalist,’ West said in the video, which featured a caption with the hashtag #YE24.
‘When all the lawyers said, “forget it, Trump’s done,” there were loyalists running up in the White House, right?’ West continued.
Ye proceeded to chide the Trump for not doing anything to help the hundreds of Americans being prosecuted for their part in the January 6 insurrection attempt
‘Why, when you had the chance, did you not free the January 6ers?’ West asked incredulously.
The rapper then offered advice to Trump, telling him to ‘go and get these people that the media tried to cancel’ .
West said he did not become offended until Trump insulted Kim Kardashian to his face, though the insult itself is censored in the footage.
Trump allegedly told West, ‘you can tell her I said that.’
The rapper said that at that point, he told Trump, ‘That’s the mother of my children.’
‘Trump started basically screaming at the table telling me I was gonna lose,’ West recalled, adding, I mean, has that ever worked for anyone in history?’
‘I’m like, “Wait, hold on Trump – you’re talking to Ye.”‘
Despite several scandals surrounding his recent behaviour, rapper Kanye Westhas stated his intention to run for President of the United States in 2024.
The actor, who has legally changed his name to Ye, shared a video of his campaign logo with the caption Ye 24 on social media.
He also claimed to have approached Donald Trump about becoming his running mate.
West previously ran for president in 2020, but his campaign was a flop, garnering only 70,000 votes.
His latest claims were made in a video posted after West was spotted at Trump’s Mar-A-Lago golf club earlier this week, accompanied by prominent white nationalist Nick Fuentes.
West said his request for a running mate left the former president, who recently launched his own re-election campaign, “most perturbed”.
In a video titled Mar-A-Lago Debrief, West claimed: “Trump started basically screaming at me at the table, telling me I’m going to lose. Has that ever worked for anyone in history?”
IMAGE SOURCE,AFP Image caption, West previously appeared to be on good terms with Trump
He provoked a storm of criticism after attending Paris Fashion Week in a T-shirt bearing the slogan “White Lives Matter” – a phrase adopted by white supremacists, who began using it in 2015 as a response to the Black Lives Matter movement.
West then claimed his critics were being paid by a secret cabal of Jewish people, a common trope of antisemitism.
As he continued to make antisemitic comments online and in television interviews, the 45-year-old was dropped by his talent agency, while fashion companies including Gap, Adidas and Balenciaga said they would no longer work with him.
The musician later commented that he had lost “two billion dollars in one day”.
Earlier this week, Rolling Stone magazine reported claims that West had used “porn, bullying and mind games” to create a “toxic environment” among Adidas employees working on his Yeezy brand shoes.
The company said on Thursday it had launched an independent investigation into the claims.
When West ran for president in 2020, he announced his campaign too late to appear on the ballot in at least six states.
He held only one rally, in which he broke down in tears as he discussed abortion, and funded two television adverts. In the end, he was only listed as a candidate in 12 states.
For his 2024 bid, the rapper suggested he had enlisted alt-right commentator Milo Yiannopoulos as his campaign manager.
A former editor at the right wing publication Breitbart, Mr Yiannopoulos was largely shunned by mainstream conservatives after a video emerged in 2017 of him appearing to condone paedophilia. He said the comments were “gallows humour” and stated his “disgust” at the sexual abuse of minors.
Most recently, Mr Yiannopolous worked as an intern for Republican congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene.
The artist formerly known as Kanye West says he asked ex-Apprentice host Donald Trump to be his “running mate in 2024” while wearing jeans in the bowels of Florida.
In a tweet shared Tuesday night, Ye briefly addressed what he says was his first time at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort, jeans-wearing included.
“First time at Mar-a-Lago,” he wrote. “Rain and traffic. Can’t believe I kept President Trump waiting. And I had on jeans.”
From there, Ye set up a poll regarding his apparent 2024 plans, which have again become a point of discussion in recent days.
“What you guys think [Trump’s] response was when I asked him to be my running mate in 2024?” Ye, who previously staged a campaign in 2020, asked.
Image via Ye on Twitter
Of course, Ye and Trump have been friendly in the past, including in a widely criticized White House visit in 2018 (see below) during which Ye wore a MAGA hat. More recently, however, Rolling Stone sources claimed Trump had said privately that Ye needed “help” amid then-ubiquitous coverage of a number of comments called out as anti-Semitic.
Adidas, Balenciaga, MRC, and others are among those who have cut ties with Ye in recent months.
“Ye’s recent comments and actions have been unacceptable, hateful and dangerous, and they violate the company’s values of diversity and inclusion, mutual respect and fairness,” an adidas rep said in a statement shared in October announcing the immediate termination of the partnership.
ElonMusk has reinstated former President Donald Trump’s Twitter account.
The move came after Musk polled his 117 million followers with the final results being 51.8 percent who voted “yes” and 48.2 percent who voted “no.” The final results tallied votes from 15,085,458 people.
Musk has previously restored Kathy Griffin, the Babylon Bee, and Jorden Peterson who all have active Twitter accounts now.
He also mentioned that Twitter’s new policy since he took over as owner is “freedom of speech, but not freedom of reach. Negative/hate tweets will be max deboosted & demonetized, so no ads or other revenue to Twitter. You won’t find the tweet unless you specifically seek it out, which is no different from rest of Internet.”
In a statement, NAACP President Derrick Johnson wrote after learning of Trump returning to Twitter: “In Elon Musk’s Twittersphere, you can incite an insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, which led to the deaths of multiple people, and still be allowed to spew hate speech and violent conspiracies on his platform. If Elon Musk continues to run Twitter like this, using garbage polls that do not represent the American people and the needs of our democracy, God help us all.”
Trump announced on Nov. 15 that he is running for president in 2024. It hasn’t been made formal on whether he’ll return to Twitter or if he’s sticking with Truth Social.
Trump’s last tweet was from Jan. 8, 2021.
To all of those who have asked, I will not be going to the Inauguration on January 20th.
Twitter’s new owner Elon Musk has said Donald Trump’s account has been reinstated after running a poll in which users narrowly backed the move.
“The people have spoken,” tweeted Mr Musk, saying that 51.8% of more than 15 million Twitter users voted for the ban to be lifted.
But the former US president may not return to the platform, earlier saying: “I don’t see any reason for it”.
His account was suspended in 2021 due to the risk of incitement of violence.
Twitter’s previous management acted just days after Donald Trump’s supporters stormed the US Capitol in Washington DC on 6 January.
Hundreds of rioters entered the complex as the US Congress attempted to certify Joe Biden’s victory in the presidential election. The ensuing violence led to the deaths of four civilians and a police officer.
Soon after the riots, Donald Trump’s Facebook, Instagram and YouTube accounts, which all had tens of millions of followers – were also suspended.
Several months later, he launched his own social media platform, Truth Social.
Earlier this week, the Republican announced that he would once again run for the US presidency in 2024.
Mr Musk, the world’s richest man, took control of Twitter in October in a $44bn (£37bn) deal.
He immediately embarked on a series of radical changes within the social media giant, amid concerns that he might loosen Twitter’s regulations on hate speech and misinformation.
With just over a week before the US midterm elections on 8 November, he responded to questions about whether he would reinstate Mr Trump’s account by tweeting: “If I had a dollar for every time someone asked me if Trump is coming back on this platform, Twitter would be minting money!”
Earlier this week, he told employees that the company’s office buildings would be temporarily closed, with immediate effect.
The announcement comes amid reports that large numbers of staff were quitting after Mr Musk called on them to sign up for “long hours at high intensity” or leave.
The estate for Issac Hayes has threatened Donald Trump with legal action after he launched his 2024 presidential campaign with one of the late musician’s songs.
In a pair of tweets, the estate of the iconic singer-songwriter and actor condemned the Trump campaign’s usage of the 1966 Sam & Dave song “Hold On I’m Coming,” which Hayes co-wrote with David Porter.
“Once again, the estate and family of Isaac Hayes DID NOT approve the use of ‘Hold On I’m Coming’ by Sam and Dave by Donald Trump at his 2024 Presidential announcement tonight,” the official account for Hayes tweeted. “We are exploring multiple legal options to stop this unauthorized use.”
In a follow-up, the estate expressed frustration with how difficult it can be to stop a politician from using a musician’s music.
“Stopping a politician from using your music is not always an easy task, but we are dedicated to making sure that Donald Trump does not continue to use ‘Hold on I’m Coming’ written by Isaac Hayes and David Porter in further rallies and public appearances,” the second tweet read.
The list of musicians who have publicly criticized Trump’s campaigns for using their music is extensive, and many have threatened legal action. Some of the most notable examples include Neil Young, Bruce Springsteen, Elton John, Pharrell, Adele, Rihanna, the Village People, and Creedence Clearwater Revival.
Trump officially announced his 2024 run on Tuesday, during which he once again vowed to “make America great and glorious again,” whatever that means. The 76-year-old twice-impeached president has filed official forms with the FEC, and Joe Biden has already expressed his intention to run again.
Donald Trump announced his 2024 presidential campaign on Tuesday night.
“In order to make America great and glorious again, I am tonight announcing my candidacy for president of the United States,” he told supporters at Mar-a-Lago, as seen in the video above. Trump tapped into all too familiar language with proclamations that the U.S. is “being destroyed before your eyes” and has become “a failing nation for millions of Americans” in his absence.
The 76-year-old one-term, twice-impeached POTUS also filed official forms with the Federal Election Commission. President Joe Biden, who will turn 80 on Nov. 20, has recently indicated he intends to run for reelection.
Donald Trump was elected in 2016 and left office in 2021, two weeks after his conspiracies fueled the Jan. 6 capitol riot that caused multiple fatalities. Axios notes the former Apprentice host’s third run for the presidency “comes as Republicans are reevaluating his role as the face of the party following midterm failures and ongoing controversies.”
NPR points out that since the GOP “underachieved” in last week’s midterms, “fingers are being pointed in Trump’s direction, even from within his own party.” The outlet adds that he’s making “an effort to freeze out the GOP presidential field and force Republican elected officials to get off the sidelines and endorse him.”
“This campaign will be about issues, vision and success, and we will not stop, we will not quit, until we’ve achieved the highest goals and made our country greater than it has ever been before,” Trump said on Tuesday night.
The ex-leader’s current legal issues are plentiful. The Department of Justice is looking into his use of classified materials recovered at Mar-a-Lago, as well as his attempts to invalidate the 2020 election results.
His alleged pressure to tamper with Georgia election results has prosecutors performing a criminal investigation, and New York Attorney General Letitia James filed a $250 million lawsuit against Trump and three of his kids for purported business fraud. The failed steak salesman is himself suing CNN for defamation, seeking $475 million.
President Trump’s younger daughter Tiffany has kept a lower profile than her older half-siblings in the years since her father’s inauguration, but in November 2022, she tied the knot it an over-the-top wedding. In light of her nuptials, here’s what to know about Donald Trump’s youngest daughter.
Tiffany Trump recently married Michael Boulos, who grew up in Lagos, Nigeria. His wealthy family apparently owns a company that trades in vehicles, equipment, retail, and construction. Boulos lives in London and reportedly met Trump in Greece in 2018, and as evidenced by photos posted on Instagram, Trump brought him to the White House around Christmastime in 2019 and again in 2020.
Tiffany Trump recently graduated from Georgetown Law
Like so many graduates during Covid, Tiffany celebrated the milestone virtually. She recently posted on her Instagram stories about graduating from law school, but at this point it’s unclear what she’ll do next. Here she is with Mariana Jantz, a friend from Georgetown.
She chose to wear white to the 2019 State of the Union.
At the 2019 State of the Union, many Democratic women chose to wear white to honor of the legacy of women’s suffrage in the United States. Tiffany Trump also appeared at the event in an all-white ensemble, though it’s unclear if she was purposefully trying to send a sartorial message, or if it was an unintentional coincidence.
Tiffany Trump’s relationship with her father has not always been any easy one.
Though she visited her father in the White House and attended Easter services with the President and First Lady last spring at Mar-a-Lago, People reports that “behind the scenes, Tiffany’s already strained relationship with her father has hit new lows since he took office in January 2017, with the pair going months at a time without contact.”
“She went a very long time without seeing him,” a source close to Tiffany told the magazine. “The last time she was at a family function with him, it was awkward for her and she didn’t feel totally welcome.”
She and her longtime boyfriend, Ross Mechanic, split after she started law school.
The two dated for more than two years and broke up when she moved to Washington, D.C. to attend Georgetown Law, Page Six reports. Mechanic, 23, and Trump met as undergraduates at the University of Pennsylvania, and he attended her father’s inauguration. He is reportedly a data engineer at Cadre, a New York-based real estate investment platform founded by Jared and Joshua Kushner.
She spent New Year’s Eve in 2017 at a Playboy party.
While Donald Trump and the rest of the first family rang in 2018 at Mar-a-Lago, the president’s youngest daughter celebrated at a Playboy party. She was apparently the guest of honor at an event thrown by Cooper Hefner (the late-Hugh Hefner’s son) in Los Angeles.
She gets along with her siblings—now.
Tiffany and her older half-siblings have always appeared to get along well, but on-air radio conversations between Howard Stern and Donald Trump, unearthed in the Fall of 2017, reveal that Ivanka and Donald Jr. apparently tried to cut their younger sister out of her inheritance. Stern asked Trump, a frequent guest on his show, if Donald Jr. and Ivanka were trying to “bump off a child.” Trump responds, “Tiffany?” “Is there any truth to that? [Inaudible] Tiffany?” Stern asks. “Tell me the truth, though,” the radio host says, after Trump tries to dodge the question. “Yes,” Trump said.
She was the only one of Trump’s adult children not named to his Transition Team.
She did appear with her three older siblings on the then president-elect’s 60 Minutes interview. She had this to say: “I mean, I don’t think we can really prepare for our father becoming president. But we were all there together with everyone that’s worked so hard. And my dad has worked so hard. And it’s just–it’s really awe-inspiring.”
Yes, she was named after the store.
The very Tiffany & Co., located on the corner of Fifth avenue and 57th street in New York City, made famous by Audrey Hepburn. Donald Trump completed his 58-story masterpiece, the Trump Tower skyscraper, on the prime slice of real estate adjacent to Tiffany’s in 1982, 11 years before his fourth child was born.
You may recognize Marla Maples from Dancing with the Stars. When the Donald’s marriage to his second-wife Maples ended, she packed up for the west coast, raising Tiffany in Los Angeles. On Where are they Now?, a 17-year-old Tiffany told Oprah, “My mom and I have always been very close since she did raise me as a single mom… Everyone I know is like, ‘Wow you guys have a really good relationship!’ She’s with me a lot of the time.” Judging from her Instagram feed, the duo hangs out a lot—giving Coachella vibes by the pool, zip lining at Sundance, wearing matching LBDs at the Carlyle. They both broke out some serious tango moves on a recent episode of DWTS.
She graduated from the University of Pennsylvania. Attending UPenn is a family tradition—her dad, brother Don Jr., and sister Ivanka all went there. (Tiffany, far right, is pictured above with Don Jr., Barbara Walters, Ivanka, and Eric.)
Good grades were a priority.
“She’s got all As at Penn, so we’re proud of her,” the Donald told People in December of 2014. She once arrived a day late to a DuJour photo shoot because she was writing a paper for a summer class.
Big sister Ivanka, who runs a fashion business, reportedly scored her little sister an internship at the fashion title. Rumor has it that Tiffany lunched with Anna Wintour.
She had musical ambitions.
At 17, she released a dance song called “Like a Bird.” It was heavy on the Auto-Tune.
She lent her walk to Just Drew designer (and fellow RKOI) Andrew Warren (that’s him with Tiffany) for his fall 2016 show, modeling a navy blazer and tights.
She spoke at the Republican National Convention.
On day two of 2016’s Republican National Convention Tiffany addressed the delegates. “Please excuse me if I’m a little nervous,” she began. “When I graduated college a few months ago, I never expected to be here tonight addressing the nation.” Despite the nerves, she used her speech to cast a soft light on the then-nominee, highlighting his strengths as a father, “In person, my father is so friendly, so considerate, so funny, and so real,” she said. “I have admired my father all of my life, and I love him with all my heart.”
The youngest Trump daughter made her relationship with Boulos both Instagram and White House official in 2019 when she posted a photo with him in the Red Room. A source told PEOPLE at the time that Tiffany and Boulos first connected after meeting at Lindsay Lohan’s club in Greece.
Boulos, the son of a wealthy family with businesses in Nigeria, proposed to Tiffany in January 2021. A source told PEOPLE that July that the couple were focused on wedding planning amid her family’s scramble to sort out their post-White House lives.
“They both want to marry in a big ceremony, your basic international spectacle,” the social source said of the couple. “Tiffany likes the idea of a glamorous and glitzy affair and, surprisingly, so does Michael.”
While Tiffany and Boulos were reportedly considering having their wedding in Miami or Greece, they ultimately settled on her father’s Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, Florida, as the location for the main ceremony. The pair wed just after Tropical Storm Nicole passed through Florida and days before Donald is expected to launch his third presidential campaign for the 2024 presidential election.
Here’s everything to know about Tiffany Trump’s new husband Michael Boulous.
He and Tiffany met at Lindsay Lohan’s club
Tiffany Trump and Michael Boulos.Dia Dipasupil/Getty
Shortly after Tiffany and Boulous made their public debut, a source confirmed to PEOPLE that the pair met in the summer of 2018 in Mykonos, Greece, at the Mean Girls alum’s beach club, which was the subject of the MTV reality show Lindsay Lohan’s Beach Club.
Speaking with PEOPLE at her show’s premiere party, Lohan downplayed any possible matchmaking role.
“I wasn’t there when they met,” she said.
“I know him … and I know her … but I don’t know what happened,” Lohan explained, noting that she was only recently introduced to Boulos through mutual friends and described her relationship with Tiffany as “friendly.”
He grew up in a prominent family in Nigeria
SAUL LOEB/AFP
According to Page Six, Tiffany and Boulos both have wealthy families and prominent parents in common. The outlet reported that Boulos’ family founded SCOA Nigeria as well as Boulos Enterprises. His brother is the performer Farastafari.
Boulos Enterprises is “a distribution and trading company for commercial motorcycle, power bikes, tricycle and outboard motors” based in Nigeria, according to Crunch Base. It’s the sole importer and distributor of Suzuki products in the country.
The outlet also reported that Boulos’ family is Lebanese and that he grew up in Lagos, Nigeria — a part of the world the president reportedly mocked as a “s—hole” while discussing immigration in 2018. Trump quickly denied these accounts but said he had used “tough language.” Nigeria at the time said that he did use such a label and that it was “deeply hurtful, offensive and unacceptable,” according to Reuters.
A Tiffany source, however, told PEOPLE that she wasn’t phased about dating someone who grew up in an area her father reportedly mocked.
“Tiffany’s not keeping her finger on the pulse of that BS,” the insider said.
He’s spent plenty of time with Tiffany’s family
Nicholas Kamm / AFP
According to Page Six, Tiffany first introduced Boulos to her relatives at the Trump family’s Mar-a-Lago Thanksgiving dinner in 2018. A source told the outlet, “Tiffany is happy she has so far been able to keep things with Michael under the radar. But she introduced him to her family at Thanksgiving, and he comes across as a very intelligent young man from a great family.”
Since their initial introduction, Boulos has seemingly spent plenty of quality time with Tiffany’s family. He shared a photo of him and Tiffany smiling behind Donald in the Oval Office in December 2020 and has posted several photos with her half-siblings — Don. Jr, Ivanka and Eric.
Boulos has also gotten to know Tiffany’s mother, actress Marla Maples, and was photographed sitting front row at New York Fashion Week with her in 2019.
He proposed to Tiffany at the White House
In a farewell message to her father ahead of his departure from office in January 2021, Tiffany announced that she and Boulos were engaged.
“It has been an honor to celebrate many milestones, historic occasions and create memories with my family here at the White House, none more special than my engagement to my amazing fiancé Michael! Feeling blessed and excited for the next chapter!” she wrote on social media along with a photo of her and Boulos smiling together.
Boulos shared a message of his own on his Instagram profile, writing, “Got engaged to the love of my life! Looking forward to our next chapter together.”
A year into their engagement, Tiffany shared photos from the couple’s proposal in the White House Rose Garden. “One year down forever to go ♾❤️,” she wrote alongside a photo of Boulos on one knee holding a ring box. A second photo shows Tiffany and Boulos hugging after she said “yes” to his proposal with a $1.2-million diamond ring.
They live in Miami
Pierre Suu/GC Images
After Tiffany graduated from Georgetown Law School in May 2020, PEOPLE reported that she and Boulos had been spending time socializing in Miami while she contemplated her next move away from her father’s political turmoil.
“She is actively looking for a house in Miami Beach,” a local source told PEOPLE in January 2021, noting that Tiffany had “been in Miami Beach for five or six days.”
The pair ended up settling in Miami not far from other members of the Trump family. Ivanka and her husband Jared Kushner live in the area while Donald Trump Jr. and his fiancée, Kimberly Guilfoyle, bought a home in north Palm Beach County. Meanwhile, the former president, first lady Melania Trump and their son Barron live seasonally at the Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach.
“She and Michael picked Miami because it is so multicultural,” a source told PEOPLE in October 2021. “They want to marry in Greece and may have a ceremony there with another one here in the States.”
The insider added that having two weddings was not off the table for the couple. “Tiffany loves Mykonos and would like to marry around there even if she has another celebration in the U.S., maybe at Mar-a-Lago,” the source said.
They got married at her family’s Mar-a-Lago club
Photo: Hy Goldberg for Denis LEON + Co.; Wedding Plan + Design: Toni Breiss; Publicity: Stuart Watts.
On Nov. 12, 2022, Tiffany and Boulos said their vows at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach. Tiffany’s mother Marla Maples told PEOPLE that the family chose the venue because “this was Tiffany’s childhood home and where she was brought into the world.”
“We are focused on this sacred union and welcoming beloved friends and family, not on politics,” she said.
A social source described the nuptials as a “joyous family occasion,” noting that all of the Trumps were in attendance.
According to Maples, both of Tiffany’s parents played roles in the wedding. Donald walked Tiffany down the aisle and partook in a father-daughter dance while Maples shared a prayer during the service.
As for the bride’s dress, Tiffany chose a gown that nodded to Boulos’ heritage. “It’s a Lebanese American wedding, so we were so happy to have Elie Saab create the magic,” said Maples. The couple’s cake also had special meaning: it was modeled after Donald and Maples’ custom, 7-foot-tall Sylvia Weinstock wedding cake.
Many thought that Donald Trump’s farewell to the White House might defuse controversies surrounding the former president of the United States, but that hasn’t been the case. The media continues to closely follow Trump’s every move and a result, he continues to steal the headlines.
After the polls marked the defeat of the Republican party in the U.S. Senate elections, the latest development in the Trump family has had nothing to do with politics, but the celebration of the highly anticipated wedding of Tifanny Trump, where Donald clearly had a very good time.
Donald Trump celebrates his daughter’s wedding by dancing and dedicating a few words to the new couple.
The daughter of the former president recently had her wedding ceremony with Michael Boulos at one of the most elegant resorts on the Florida coast, the Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach.
During the wedding, Donald Trump not only walked Tiffany down the aisle as tradition dictates, but also dedicated a few words to the new couple: “Michael you better take care of her. You are certainly a special person with a maturity beyond your years. You are two spectacular people and this day will be precious for everyone,” said the former president.
As reported by the American media Page Six, Trump was in a very good mood that night and showed it on the dance floor where, with his daughter, he danced to ‘Here comes the sun’ before commencing a party that would last all night.
Former US President Donald Trump has lashed out at Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, escalating a simmering feud between the two top Republicans.
Mr Trump dismissed his former political aide as a “average” governor who lacked “loyalty.”
Mr. DeSantis, 44, was re-elected in a landslide in the midterm elections on Tuesday, cementing his position as the Republican Party’s brightest rising star.
He is widely expected to run for the Democratic nomination for President in 2024.
But Mr. Trump, 76, appears to be standing in his way.
The former president – who has a massive campaign war chest and remains hugely popular with the party’s base – would be a formidable opponent for Mr DeSantis, or any other Republican who dares challenge him.
In a lengthy statement on Thursday night, Mr Trump dismissed the Florida governor as a political lightweight who had come to him “in desperate shape” when running for his first term in office in 2017.
He went on to complain that Mr DeSantis – whom he is nicknaming “Ron DeSanctimonious” – was “playing games” by refusing to rule out a presidential bid.
“Well, in terms of loyalty and class, that’s really not the right answer,” Mr Trump added.
The former president is widely expected to announce his own plan for a White House comeback as soon as next week.
All this is a familiar strategy – conducted with familiar viciousness and drama.
In 2016, Mr Trump lashed out at prominent figures within his own party with no restraint – presidential rivals Jeb Bush, Ben Carson, Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio, as well as Arizona Senator John McCain. He didn’t need the respect or support of Republican leaders and wore their scorn as a badge.
At the time, those leaders feared Mr Trump would be a disastrous standard-bearer, that he would sink the party and doom them to defeat.
Mr Trump won the White House anyway, but after this week – and the Republican midterm rout in 2018 and Mr Trump’s 2020 re-election defeat – his party’s elders are once again getting skittish.
While Mr DeSantis is bathing in the glow of his re-election victory, Mr Trump has been blamed for the Republicans’ disappointing performance in the midterm elections.
The race for control of the House of Representatives and Senate went down to the wire. Two days after Americans went to the polls, it remains unclear which party will control the twin chambers of Congress.
Voters by and large rejected candidates who backed Mr Trump’s baseless claims of election fraud in 2020, and many of his high-profile picks for office struggled or lost outright.
Even close allies of the ex-president have called for him to reconsider what he has teased to be a big announcement on 15 November.
His margin of victory in Miami-Dade county – traditionally a Democratic stronghold – was the largest won by a Republican in four decades.
According to an October Ipsos poll, 72% of registered Republicans said Mr DeSantis should have a great deal or good amount of influence on the future of the party. Some 64% said the same of Mr Trump, 76.
The governor did not immediately respond to Mr Trump’s jibes on Thursday.
Ex-US President Donald Trump has lashed out at Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, as the simmering rivalry between the two top Republicans boiled over.
Mr Trump belittled his former political apprentice as an “average” governor, lacking in “loyalty”.
Mr DeSantis, 44, won re-election in a landslide in Tuesday’s midterms, sealing his status as the Republican party’s brightest rising star.
He is widely expected to run for the party’s 2024 White House nomination.
But Mr Trump, 76, looks increasingly likely to stand in his way.
The former president – who has a massive campaign war chest and remains hugely popular with the party’s base – would be a formidable opponent for Mr DeSantis, or any other Republican who dares challenge him.
In a lengthy statement on Thursday night, Mr Trump dismissed the Floridagovernor as a political lightweight who had come to him “in desperate shape” when running for his first term in office in 2017.
“Ron had low approval, bad polls, and no money, but he said that if I would Endorse [sic] him, he could win,” Mr Trump said. “I also fixed his campaign, which had completely fallen apart.”
He went on to complain that Mr DeSantis – whom he is nicknaming “Ron DeSanctimonious” – was “playing games” by refusing to rule out a presidential bid.
“Well, in terms of loyalty and class, that’s really not the right answer,” Mr Trump added.
The former president is widely expected to announce his own plan for a White House comeback as soon as next week.
While Mr DeSantis is bathing in the glow of his re-election victory, Mr Trump has been blamed for the Republicans’ disappointing performance in the midterm elections.
The race for control of the House of Representatives and Senate went down to the wire. Two days after Americans went to the polls, it remains unclear which party will control the twin chambers of Congress.
Voters by and large rejected candidates who backed Mr Trump’s baseless claims of election fraud in 2020, and many of his high-profile picks for office struggled or lost outright.
Even close allies of the ex-president have called for him to reconsider what he has teased to be a big announcement on 15 November.
“Republicans have followed Donald Trump off the side of a cliff,” one former Trump adviser, David Urban, told the New York Times.
“I think he needs to put it [his campaign announcement] on pause,” Kayleigh McEnany, Trump’s former press secretary, told Fox News.
Mr DeSantis’ 20-point win over his Democratic rival Charlie Crist has, by contrast, drawn universal acclaim from conservative commentators.
His margin of victory in Miami-Dade county – traditionally a Democratic stronghold – was the largest won by a Republican in four decades.
According to an October Ipsos poll, 72% of registered Republicans said Mr DeSantis should have a great deal or good amount of influence on the future of the party. Some 64% said the same of Mr Trump, 76.
The governor did not immediately respond to Mr Trump’s jibes on Thursday.
Thepresident stated that he would decide whether to run for a second term early next year.
Joe Biden has called his party’s positive midterm results a “good day for America,” but the Senate race remains tight.
Democrats are expected to lose only seven seats, defying predictions of a “giant red wave” of Republican gains.
Though the Republicans would retake control of the House of Representatives, this would be a far better outcome for the US president than his recent predecessors.
Donald Trump lost 40 seats in the 2018 midterms, while Barack Obama suffered 63 losses in 2010.
With three states left to declare, the battle for control of the Senate remains in the balance.
The Republicans have picked up 49 seats to the Democrats’ 48. The Republicans need to win two more seats to win back the Senate from the Democrats.
Image: Former US president Donald Trump claimed the Republican results were a ‘very big victory’ for him personally
Speaking at the White House, President Biden described the midterm results so far as a “good day for democracy” and a “good day for America”.
Although many results are still unclear, he said they represent a “clear and unmistakable message to preserve our democracy”.
“The American people have spoken and shown that democracy is who we are,” he said.
But he added that “the voters were also clear that they’re still frustrated, I get it, it’s been a really tough few years for this country”.
In reference to Donald Trump‘s claims he “stole” the last elections, he said vote counters and officials “did their job and fulfilled their duty… without any interference”.
He also said he would make a decision on whether he would run for a second term early next year.
Although losing the House of Representatives would thwart the president’s legislative programme, it is a much smaller loss than some had predicted.
The race between Georgia’s incumbent Democrat senator and his Republican challenger is unlikely to be decided until 6 December, as strict state laws require a run-off if no candidate reaches 50%.
‘Democrats had strong night’
Mr Biden said the Democrats “had a strong night” despite losing seats.
“We don’t know all the results yet, but here’s what we do know, the press were predicting a giant red wave and it didn’t happen,” he said.
“You were somewhat miffed by my obsessive optimism, but I thought we were going to do fine.”
He said that the “future of America is too promising” for it to be “trapped in endless political warfare”.
While he would not compromise on healthcare or abortion, he said: “I’m going to do everything within my power to unite the country.
“I’m going to continue to work across the aisle to support the American people. Regardless of what the final tally of these elections show, I am prepared to work with my Republican colleagues.
Daughter of former United States (US) president, Donald Trump, and her fiancé, Michael Boulos, are reportedly set to tie the knot on November 12, 2022.
The bride-to-be, Tiffany Trump, and her Nigerian-bred fiancé, Michael Boulos, according to reports, will hold their lavish wedding at Donald Trump’s palm beach in Florida with an expected 500 guests.
“There has been a lot of planning and a lot of staging. This is Tiffany’s big moment, and it will be lavish. It is going to be a huge and beautiful affair,” the source said.
The couple got engaged on January 19, 2021, at the White House rose garden a few hours to the end of Trump’s tenure as US president.
Boulos was said to have engaged Tiffany with a 13-carat emerald-cut diamond from Dubai, worth $1.2 million.
Michael Boulos’ background
Boulos was raised in Lagos although he is of Lebanese and French descent.
Per reports, he moved to Nigeria at a young age where his family’s business is based and while in Nigeria, he studied at the American International School of Lagos.
He is the son of Massad, the Chief Executive Officer of SCOA Nigeria, and his mother, Sarah, is the founder of the Society for the Performing Arts in Nigeria.
According to a ‘Page Six’ report, Boulos was studying project management at City University of London when he met Tiffany, a law student at Georgetown, while she was on vacation in Mykonos, Greece, with Lindsay Lohan in 2018.
Chris Redd has shed more light on Kanye West’s infamous pro-Donald Trump rant that took place during the 2018 season premiere of Saturday Night Live.
After performing on the September 2018 episode of SNL, Kanye launched into a pro-Trump rant, which didn’t make it on-air but saw the audience shower Ye with boos.
In a new interview with the Daily Beast, the SNL alum shared his thoughts about Kanye’s appearance on SNL, revealing that he delivered a similar speech during dress rehearsal.
“I remember the dress rehearsal where he tried his dress rehearsal version of that, and I heard it, but there was music playing still so people were like sitting there and vibing,” Redd shared. “But I was listening to his words, and I was like, bro, he’s about to pull some bullshit. And I’m not about to be on stage for that. I’m not going to entertain this. Like, I’ve been a fan of Kanye my whole life. And I miss the old Kanye.”
Redd added, “He came in there wanting to shoot everybody—verbally—and I just felt that was disrespectful, because we’re all grown adults. And now all of us don’t like you. He just came in there with a chip on his shoulder, ready to talk shit.”
Kanye’s original speech fell in line with his pro-Trump rhetoric at the time. “The Blacks want always Democrats… you know it’s like the plan they did, to take the fathers out the home and put them on welfare… does anybody know about that? That’s a Democratic plan,” West said while wearing a red MAGA hat. “There’s so many times I talk to, like, a white person about this and they say, ‘How could you like Trump? He’s racist.’ Well, uh, if I was concerned about racism I would’ve moved out of America a long time ago.”
In other Kanye-related news, the rapper has been slapped with a lawsuit over his Andre 3000 collaboration “Life Of The Party.”
TMZ reports KRS-One’s Boogie Down Productions has sued Kanye, claiming he didn’t ask for permission to sample the group’s iconic 1986 diss track “South Bronx.”
The lawsuit alleges Ye and his partner, Alex Klein, “sold around 11K Stem Players within the first 24 hours of its release, raking in around $2.2 million dollars … but claims they [Boogie Down Productions] never got permission to use the sample even though the company says Ye’s team initially reached out to try to license it.”
Boogie Down Productions is requesting that the song be blocked from streaming services, with Kanye handing over any profits that he’s received from “Life Of The Party.”
Representative Elissa Slotkin has won her US House race in Michigan, defeating Republican challenger Tom Barrett, a state senator who denies the results of the 2020 presidential election.
The race was considered a bellweather for Democrats, as Slotkin was running in a largely redrawn district.
It comes after Hillary Scholten, an immigration lawyer, bested Trump-backed candidate John Gibbs, a former official in the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
The victory flipped the seat for Democrats. In the primary, Gibbs had defeated Republican Congressman Peter Meijer, who had voted to impeach Trump.
I just received a call from Tom Barrett conceding the election. I’m so grateful to the people of mid-Michigan for their support. Tonight, voters here made clear that the politics of division are not what they want for our families or our state. 1/
Senior election officials in Georgia are now saying there will almost certainly be a run-off race for the Senate seat in early December.
That’s because under the state’s law, if no candidate gets more than 50% of the vote, it triggers a run-off between the top two candidates.
Former American Football star Herschel Walker, who’s received the backing of Donald Trump, is battling incumbent Raphael Warnock, who preaches at Martin Luther King Jr’s former church in Atlanta.
While county officials are still doing the detailed work on counting the votes, we feel it is safe to say there will be a runoff for the US Senate here in Georgia slated for December 6. #gapolpic.twitter.com/uwMF2EoDzO
Georgia is a key seat that could be pivotal for either the Democrats or Republicans to control the Senate.
Election official Gabriel Sterling has tweeted that while “detailed work on counting votes” is continuing “we feel it is safe to say there will be a runoff for the US Senate”.
Donald Trump may not have been on the ballot during these midterm elections, but he still cast a shadow over them.
Earlier in the evening, the former president made a brief speech from his Mar-a-Lago home and claimed an overwhelming victory for his endorsed candidates.
The truth, however, is more complicated.
In the highest profile contests where he backed candidates over more mainstream Republican options, his picks have struggled.
Mehmet Oz lost his Senate race in Pennsylvania. Herschel Walker appears headed for a run-off in Georgia. Blake Masters is trailing in Arizona. Only JD Vance in Ohio pulled out a clear win, albeit by a more narrow margin than the trending-conservative state would suggest.
Republicans are going to be second-guessing his political instincts after Tuesday night. And if he does launch a new bid for the presidency next week, he will be on the back foot.
Arkansas, Maryland, Missouri, North and South Dakota voters will decide whether to approve recreational marijuana measures.
On election day, voters in five US states will decide whether to legalize recreational cannabis, a move that could signal a significant shift toward legalization in even the most conservative parts of the country.
The initiatives are on the ballot in Arkansas, Maryland, Missouri, North Dakota, and South Dakota, and they follow President Joe Biden’s efforts to decriminalize marijuana.
Last month, Biden announced that he would pardon thousands of Americans convicted of simple possession of cannabis under federal law.
Recreational marijuana is legal in 19 states, and polls have shown opposition to legalisation softening. All of the states with recreational marijuana on the ballot, except for Maryland, voted for Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election.
The five states also currently have legal medical cannabis programmes.
That includes Arkansas, which in 2016 became the first Bible Belt state to approve medical cannabis. The state’s dispensaries opened in 2019, and more than 91,000 patients have cards to legally buy marijuana for medical conditions.
Criticism from opponents
The legalisation campaigns have raised about $23m in the five states, with the vast majority in Arkansas and Missouri. More than 85 percent of contributions in those two states have come from donors associated with companies holding medical cannabis licences, according to an Associated Press analysis of the most recent campaign finance reports.
In Arkansas, supporters have been running upbeat ads touting the thousands of jobs they say will be created by the measure. Opponents have run more ominous spots, warning voters to “protect Arkansas from big marijuana”.
The initiative has drawn the criticism of traditional legalisation opponents as well as some medical cannabis advocates, who said the Arkansas proposal places too many limits and would only benefit a handful of dispensaries.
Missouri’s proposal would legalise recreational cannabis for adults 21 and older and expunge records of past arrests and convictions for nonviolent marijuana offences, except for selling to minors or driving under the influence.
Maryland’s proposal would also make changes in criminal law and create automatic expungements of past marijuana possession convictions.
North Dakota’s measure would allow people 21 and older to legally use cannabis at home as well as possess and cultivate restricted amounts of cannabis. It also would establish policies to regulate retail stores, cultivators, and other types of marijuana businesses.
South Dakotans, including a sizable number of Republicans, voted to legalise marijuana possession in 2020, but that law was struck down by the state Supreme Court in part because the proposal was coupled with medical marijuana and hemp.
This year, recreational cannabis is standing by itself as it goes before voters.
In Colorado, where recreational cannabis has been legal for nearly a decade, voters on Tuesday are taking up a proposal that would allow the use of certain psychedelic substances. If approved, it would make Colorado the second state to take such a step.
Elon Musk says Twitter users engaging in impersonation without clearly specifying it as a parody account will be permanently suspended.
Twitter previously issued a warning before suspending accounts, but there would now be no warning, he announced in a series of tweets.
The company’s new owner laid off around half of the company’s workforce at the end of last week.
He also confirmed plans to allow users to buy blue-tick verified status.
Detailing the new policy on parody accounts, Mr Musk tweeted: “Previously, we issued a warning before suspension, but now that we are rolling out widespread verification, there will be no warning.”
He added that “any name change at all will cause temporary loss of verified checkmark”.
Going forward, any Twitter handles engaging in impersonation without clearly specifying “parody” will be permanently suspended
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.View original tweet on Twitter
Several accounts that had changed their name to Elon Musk and mocked the billionaire have been suspended or placed behind a warning sign, including those of US comedian Kathy Griffin and former NFL player Chris Kluwe.
Other accounts, including one parodying former US President Donald Trump by comedian Tim Heidecker, are yet to be suspended.
Mr Musk has previously said he opposed permanent bans on Twitter, including that of Mr Trump’s official account. Mr Musk said last week that banned accounts would not be reinstated until there was “a clear process for doing so”.
The New York Times reported on Sunday that Twitter was delaying the rollout of verification check marks to subscribers of its new service until after Tuesday’s US midterm elections. At the weekend, the social media site’s website app began offering an update that will charge $8 (£7) a month for its blue, verified checkmark.
On Friday, the billionaire said Twitter was losing more than $4m per day, insisting that this gave him “no choice” over culling around half the company’s 7,500-strong workforce.
The cuts – as well as Mr Musk’s fierce advocacy of free speech – have caused speculation that Twitter could water down its efforts on content moderation.
However, Mr Musk has insisted that the firm’s stance towards harmful material remains “absolutely unchanged”. UN human rights chief Volker Turk wrote him an open letter, warning that Twitter had a responsibility to avoid amplifying harmful content.
It is rare for Donald Trump to deliver the same message as Barack Obama and Joe Biden – but it happened when the Republican and two Democrats campaigned in Pennsylvania on the same day.
The political foes all urged Americans in the crucial state: go vote.
Mr Biden and Mr Obama cast the election as a battle for democracy, while Mr Trump said the country’s safety and security were on the line.
Tuesday’s US midterm elections will determine control of Congress.
All 435 seats in the House of Representatives are being contested, while 35 are up for grabs in the Senate.
In Pennsylvania a razor-thin margin separates Democratic Senate candidate John Fetterman, 53, from Republican Mehmet Oz, 62. The appearances of two ex-presidents and President Biden on the last weekend before the election signalled the state’s importance.
Mr Trump’s victory in Pennsylvania helped deliver him the White House in 2016, when his message of populist anger struck a chord with blue-collar votersin the state.
An opposing sentiment of pragmatism and liberal politics in urban centres gave it back to Democrats in 2020, when Mr Biden won his home state by a margin of less than 2%.
Speaking in Philadelphia on Saturday, Mr Biden declared that it was “good to be home” as he stumped for Mr Fetterman and Josh Shapiro, the Democratic candidate for governor.
He warned the crowd that failing to return Democratic majorities in the House of Representatives and the Senate would mean further restrictions to abortion rights and cuts to public healthcare.
Though Democrats currently hold both chambers of Congress, they are expected to lose the House and are in a dead heat for control of the Senate, according to polls.
“Here in Philadelphia, a place that defines the soul of America, today we face an inflection point,” Mr Biden said. A vote for Democrats would be a vote for women’s health, gun control and healthcare, he said.
Outside the rally, voters queued early to see two presidents – Mr Biden and his Democratic predecessor Mr Obama – on the same stage.
One Pennsylvanian, Steve Phillips, told the BBC’s Sarah Smith he hoped it would get people out to vote, regardless which party they supported.
But some of the crowd admitted it was really Mr Obama they had come to see, and they might not have turned up if Mr Biden had been here alone.
Midterms are often seen as a referendum on the sitting president, and with Mr Biden’s approval hovering at 40%, Republicans have found plenty to criticise as Americans worry about high inflation, guns and immigration.
Some 250 miles (402km) west of Philadelphia, Mr Trump warned Pennsylvanians in the small town of Latrobe that continued Democratic control in Washington would lead to more crime and unfettered immigration.
Supporters there, too, gathered hours early to see Mr Trump.
“If you want safety and security for your family, you need to vote every single Democrat out of office,” he said.
“There’s only one choice – if you support the decline and fall of America then you must vote for the radical Democrats. If you want to stop the destruction of our country then you must vote Republican in a giant red wave.”
The former Republican president also hinted again at the possibility of running for office in 2024 – even as he has continued to make false claims that the US election system is fraudulent. “The election was rigged and stolen – it’s a shame,” Mr Trump said.
One attendee told RSBN, a conservative network, that he was there to support Mr Trump because the former president had helped ensure that people could “live a life without suppression and being told what we need to do”.
Fears and false claims of fraud have haunted these midterms, with many arguing that the 8 November vote will be a test of the fidelity of the election system.
Back in Philadelphia, taking the marquee speaking slot after Mr Biden, Mr Obama warned: “Truth and facts and logic and reason and basic decency are on the ballot. Democracy itself is on the ballot – the stakes are high”.
Before the council meets, no major decisions or account reinstatement will be made, according to the outspoken billionaire businessman.
Elon Musk has announced his intention to form a “content moderation council with widely diverse viewpoints” at Twitter in his first policy actions since taking over the social media company on Friday while emphasising that no changes to the platform’s moderation policies have been implemented thus far.
“No major content decisions or account reinstatements will happen before that council convenes,” the outspoken billionaire businessman said amid concerns that former US President Donald Trump’s account might be reinstated.
“To be super clear, we have not yet made any changes to Twitter’s content moderation policies,” he added in a later tweet.
Twitter formally became the private property of Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, on Friday, steering the platform down an uncertain path under the stewardship of one of its most vocal critics.
Scrutiny quickly turned to how the platform will operate under a self-proclaimed free-speech absolutist who some users fear will turn Twitter into a global stage for hate speech and disinformation.
To be super clear, we have not yet made any changes to Twitter’s content moderation policies https://t.co/k4guTsXOIu
Musk’s sealing of the on-again, off-again $44bn deal ended a months-long soap opera of corporate chicanery, involving insults, threats, and lawsuits.
“The bird is free,” tweeted the billionaire Tesla founder and space pioneer in reference to the company’s logo. “Let the good times roll.”
The deal drew contrasting reactions, with former US president Donald Trump cheering the change of leadership on a platform that had banned him, while activists warned of a surge in harassment and misinformation.
European politicians were quick to signal to Musk that the continent had regulations for social media companies.
“In Europe, the bird will fly by our rules,” tweeted Thierry Breton, the EU internal marketcommissioner.
Musk had promised to dial back content moderation and was expected to clear the way for Trump to return to the platform.
The then-president was blocked over concerns he would ignite more violence like the 2021 deadly attack on the US Capitol to overturn his election loss.
Taking to his own Truth Social platform, Trump said he was “very happy that Twitter is now in sane hands” – but gave no commitment to rejoin if allowed.
Far-right users were quick to rejoice at Musk’s ownership, posting comments such as “masks don’t work” and other taunts, under the belief that moderation rules would now be relaxed.
‘A huge responsibility’
Yale University philosophy professor Jason Stanley, who has characterised Trump’s rise as a sign of mounting fascism in the United States, said he would alter his approach to posting.
“For the moment I am staying on Twitter. But I am going to try to be much more careful about what I say now that Elon Musk is in charge. Cascading hate speech targeting can destroy your week,” he said.
Right-wing political commentator Ben Shapiro said he gained 40,000 Twitter followers on Friday, while the actor Mark Hamill, a liberal, said he had lost almost 6,000 followers over the last three days.
Musk reportedly fired Twitter chief executive Parag Agrawal and other senior officials – though the company did not reply to a request for comment and Agrawal still listed himself as CEO on his Twitter profile.
But Ned Segal, Twitter’s chief financial officer since 2017, announced his departure.
“At its best, (Twitter) democratizes communication and knowledge, ensuring accountability and equal distribution of info,” Segal said. “It’s a huge responsibility for everyone that shares in the work. I wish them strength, wisdom, and foresight.”
Musk, who is using a combination of his own money, funds from wealthy investors, and bank loans to finance the deal, has conceded he is overpaying for a company that has regularly posted eye-watering losses.
How to monetize?
Twitter says it has 238 million daily users – dwarfed by the likes of Facebook’s nearly two billion – and has not been able to monetise in the same way as its rivals.
However, it holds an outsized influence on public debate because it is the favoured platform for many companies, politicians, journalists and other public figures.
Though he has promised that Twitter will not become a “free-for-all hellscape,” Musk reportedly plans deep staff cuts that would gut teams that oversee content.
Despite Musk posting a letter to advertisers saying he wants Twitter to be a forum where rival viewpoints can be debated in a “healthy manner”, US auto giant General Motors said on Friday it has “temporarily paused” paid ads on the platform.
“We are engaging with Twitter to understand the direction of the platform under their new ownership,” said a GM spokesman.
Media watchdog Media Matters for America sounded the alarm over the future of a Musk-led Twitter, particularly the effect on imminent US midterm elections.
The platform “is now on a glide path to becoming a supercharged engine of radicalization” and a “fever swamp of dangerous conspiracy theories, partisan chicanery, and operationalized harassment,” the organisation’s head Angelo Carusone said.
Donald Trump has stated that he is “very happy that Twitter is now in sane hands” following Elon Musk’s acquisition of the company.
Musk’s $44 billion purchase of Twitter was completed on Thursday, and he reportedly fired the company’s CEO and two other top executives.
The world’s richest man tweeted “the bird is freed” and “let the good times roll”.
He’s promised to overhaul the service by getting rid of fake accounts and ensuring it’s a place where a “range of beliefs can be debated in a healthy manner”.
Donald Trump – arguably once Twitter’s most famous user – was banned after the siege on the US Capitol in January 2021 for allegedly inciting violence with two of his posts.
His banishment could be about the end, however, as Musk has previously said the ban was a “mistake” and “morally wrong”.
Trump celebrated the takeover on TruthSocial, a conservative social media platform he created, by posting that Twitter “will no longer be run by Radical Left Lunatics and Maniacs that truly hate our country”.
Many on the right of the political spectrum have long argued that Twitter and other social media sites are biased against their views and quick to ‘deplatform’ them.
Musk’s approach to Twitter could allay some of those accusations as he’s described himself as a “free speech absolutist”.
Image:Musk has big plans for his new purchase
However, he also assured advertisers Twitter would not become a “free-for-all hellscape, where anything can be said with no consequences”.
The former president said the service would become “smaller but better” and that it must “work hard to rid itself of all the bots and fake accounts”.
He also claimed his own TruthSocial had become a “phenomena” that last week had “bigger numbers” than TikTok, Twitter, and Facebook.
It’s unclear what figures he’s referring to, but the claim is likely to be false given the huge user base of those services.
Musk’s purchase of Twitter was completed a day before the 28 October deadline to avoid the deal going to court. The company had taken legal action to force the deal through after Musk backed out in July over the number of fake and spam accounts.
Earlier this week, Musk posted a bizarre video of himself entering Twitter’s San Francisco headquarters carrying a sink alongside the message: “Entering Twitter HQ – let that sink in”.
He’s also now updated his Twitter bio to “Chief Twit”.
According to reports, Musk told staff during his visit it was not true he was planning on cutting up to 75% of Twitter staff after acquiring the company.
It was previously reported that Musk told investors he was hoping to cut around three-quarters of the firm’s 7,500 employees.
He has told investors he plans to sell users premium subscriptions to reduce reliance on ads, allow content creators to make money, and enable payments, according to Reuters news agency.
The congressional panel investigating last year’s Capitol riot has issued a legal summons ordering former President Donald Trump to testify to lawmakers.
Addressing him, the document reads: “You were at the center of the first and only effort by any US President to overturn an election.”
It goes on: “You knew this activity was illegal and unconstitutional.”
A lawyer for Mr Trump accused the lawmakers on the committee of “flouting norms”.
The former president has lambasted the inquiry as a ruse designed to distract voters from the “disaster” of Democratic governance with US midterm elections looming next month.
Mr Trump could face criminal charges if he does not comply with the subpoena.
He has until 4 November to provide documents to the 6 January committee, and must appear for deposition testimony on or about 14 November.
If Mr Trump refuses to testify to Congress or hand over the requested material, the committee could refer the matter to the Department of Justice – potentially triggering criminal proceedings.
The subpoena was issued just hours after former Trump strategist Steve Bannon was fined $6,500 (£5,800) and sentenced to four months in jail for contempt of Congress.
He was convicted after refusing to give the committee testimony or documents.
Another Trump aide, Peter Navarro, is due to stand trial for contempt of Congress next month after refusing to co-operate with a similar subpoena.
The select committee is looking into Trump supporters’ violent storming of the US Capitol building on 6 January, 2021.
The panel’s seven Democrats and two Republicans unanimously voted last week to force the Republican to testify about his role in the riot.
Lawmakers say Mr Trump egged on his supporters to reject the 2020 presidential election result, leading them to storm the halls of Congress in an effort to prevent Joe Biden from being certified as the winner.
In a letter that accompanied the subpoena, chairman Bennie Thompson and vice-chairwoman Liz Cheney said the committee had “assembled overwhelming evidence, including from dozens of your former appointees and staff, that you personally orchestrated and oversaw a multi-part effort to overturn the 2020 presidential election”.
“You took all of these actions despite the rulings of more than 60 courts rejecting your election fraud claims and other challenges to the legality of the 2020 presidential election, despite having specific and detailed information from the Justice Department and your senior campaign staff informing you that your election claims were false, and despite your obligation as President to ensure that the laws of our nation are faithfully executed,” the letter added.
Mr Trump’s legal team slammed the subpoena.
“We understand that, once again, flouting norms and appropriate and customary process, the Committee has publicly released a copy of its subpoena,” said lawyer David Warrington.
“As with any similar matter, we will review and analyse it, and will respond as appropriate to this unprecedented action.”
If Republicans retake control of the House of Representatives after November’s midterm elections – which is widely expected – the 6 January committee’s work will come to an end and the panel will be disbanded.
Ms Cheney – the top Republican on the panel and the daughter of former Republican vice-president Dick Cheney – will leave in January after losing a primary race in August to a Trump-backed challenger. The committee’s only other Republican member, Adam Kinzinger, plans to retire at the end of this congressional session.
