Donald Trump doubles down on anti-immigrant rhetoric after Supreme Court decision
Donald Trump marked Christmas Day by sharing a video compilation of his festive presidential speeches after spending hours ranting about the 2024 election, his legal woes and posting a seasonal greeting that his opponents “rot in hell”.
“Merry Christmas to all, including Crooked Joe Biden’s ONLY HOPE, Deranged Jack Smith, the out of control Lunatic who just hired outside attorneys, fresh from the SWAMP (unprecedented!), to help him with his poorly executed WITCH HUNT against ‘TRUMP’ and ‘MAGA,’” the former president wrote.
The holiday greeting was also aimed at world leaders, “both good and bad”, and the “sick” thugs at home “looking to destroy our once great USA. MAY THEY ROT IN HELL. AGAIN, MERRY CHRISTMAS!”
Looking ahead to next year, Mr Trump will be juggling four criminal trials that carry a total of 91 felony counts as well as his presidential campaign.
Mr Trump’s legal team is making concerted efforts to try to delay or dismiss the cases. On Saturday, his lawyers asked an appeals court to throw out the 2020 federal election interference case against him on presidential immunity grounds.
ICYMI: Trump moans about Biden ruining Christmas with ‘madness and doom’
Donald Trump, like Charlie Brown before him, simply cannot get into the Christmas spirit.
On Monday — Christmas Day — Mr Trump expressed he was having a difficult time enjoying the holiday. The reason? Joe Biden.
“It’s hard to have a truly great Christmas when you have a Crooked and Incompetent President who wants to put his Political Opponent in jail, and who has been working hard (for a change!), illegally using all of the levers of Law Enforcement, to do so,” he wrote on Truth Social. “We are in the fight of our lives to save our Country from MADNESS & DOOM. MAGA 2024!!!”
Mr Trump’s sour sentiment was not posted in isolation. The former president spent most of Christmas Eve posting through his frustration at the various criminal cases he’s facing, the 6 January committee, and a recent Colorado decision to kick him off the state’s ballot.
Graig Graziosi reports for The Independent.
Trump moans about Biden ruining Christmas with ‘madness and doom’
It’s called election interference. Merry Christmas
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Trump shares his own word cloud: ‘Power,’ ‘revenge’ and ‘dictatorship’
Amidst his day-after-Christmas posting spree on Truth Social on Tuesday, Donald Trump shared a word cloud based on his own name.
Smack in the middle are the words economy, power, revenge and dictatorship.
Trump and his allies have either laughed off or embraced his support for a “day one” dictatorship, or have cast criticism against him as an overreaction.
The word cloud was the result of a poll performed for DailyMail.com, which asked 1,000 likely voters for one word to describe Trump and his rival Joe Biden.
Trump didn’t offer up any context for sharing the post.
Trump’s rhetorical projection throws ‘insurrectionist’ accusations back at Biden
President Joe Biden said there is “no question” that Donald Trump was responsible for fuelling an insurrection at the US Capitol on January 6. “It’s self-evident. You saw it all,” he told reporters on Wednesday.
“I’m not an insurrectionist,” the former president wrote on his Truth Social the next day. “Crooked Joe Biden is!!!”
He didn’t elaborate, but it’s the latest attempt from the frontrunner for the Republican nomination for president in 2024 to spin, or project, accusations against him towards those doing the accusing.
It’s a rhetorical device he has weaponised for years, and the projected accusations have only become more severe as the several criminal prosecutions and campaign-threatening lawsuits against him develop.
Alex Woodward reports.
In which states is Trump facing 14th Amendment challenges?
Lawsuits challenging Donald Trump’s eligibility to appear on the 2024 presidential primary ballots have sprung up in several states.
Individuals and left-wing organisations have claimed that Mr Trump violated Section Three of the 14th Amendment – known as the insurrection clause – citing his involvement in the January 6 attack on the US Capitol.
Section Three of the amendment prohibits those who take part in insurrections or aid enemies of the US government from taking office.
To date, such challenges have been brought in both federal district and state courts across at least 16 states.
So far only one state, Colorado, has removed Mr Trump from the ballot under the 14th Amendment. The state’s Supreme Court ruled on 19 December that the former president is ineligible to appear on the state ballot and cannot be considered an option for the White House.
While Mr Trump says he plans to appeal the Colorado decision, likely taking the case up to the US Supreme Court, he is also preparing for challenges, appeals and decisions in other states.
Trump says ‘deranged’ Jack Smith should ‘go to hell’
In the middle of a posting spree the day after Christmas on his Truth Social, Donald Trump lashed out at special counsel Jack Smith (”Biden’s flunky” and “deranged”) and suggested his appointment in the Justice Department role is unconstitutional.
The post follows a filing to the US Supreme Court last week from former Ronald Reagan-era Attorney General Edwin Meese, who claimed that the special counsel was illegally appointed.
Meese has also defended other Trump figures like former assistant attorney general Jeffrey Clark, who is being prosecuted in Georgia for his attempts to overturn election results – charges that Meese called a “major affront to federal supremacy.”
“Biden’s Flunky, Deranged Jack Smith, should go to HELL,” Trump wrote on Tuesday.
Trump’s attorneys asked the Supreme Court to reject the special counsel’s request to fast track a hearing on whether Trump can claim “presidential immunity” as a legitimate defence in his federal election conspiracy case. The Supreme Court turned down the request, and the “immunity” question will play out at the appeals court, as scheduled.
Meanwhile, a group of 24 GOP officials urged the high court to consider the question:
“Former President Trump’s alleged effort to usurp the presidency presents an especially weak case for extending the doctrine of presidential immunity to a criminal case,” they wrote earlier this month.
“The last thing presidential immunity should do is embolden presidents who lose re-election to engage in criminal conduct, through official acts or otherwise, as part of efforts to prevent the vesting of executive power … in their lawfully-elected successors.”
Team Trump is preparing to return to the Supreme Court to ask the justices to take up an appeal of a Colorado Supreme Court decision that disqualifies him from appearing on the state’s ballots in 2024.
More on Trump’s future at the nation’s highest court:
Trump tries to back away from Hitler comments
After Donald Trump made a series of shocking comments which drew comparisons to Adolf Hitler, he has now claimed that he knows “nothing about” the Nazi leader.
Over the past few weeks, the 2024 GOP frontrunner has been accused of pulling phrases from Hitler’s playbook.
One such remark was made last week at a rally in New Hampshire, in which he said immigrants are “poisoning the blood of the country”. The statement prompted President Joe Biden’s campaign to slam his 2024 rival for having “parroted Adolf Hitler”.
In a radio interview with Hugh Hewitt on Friday, the former president addressed the scandal, claiming that his remarks did not stem from the former German dictator and asserting that he “is not a student of” the Nazi leader.
Kelly Rissman reports…
Trump now claims he ‘knows nothing about Hitler’
As well as addressing his anti-immigrant rhetoric, Mr Trump also wildly claimed to radio host Hugh Hewitt that he had peacefully transferred power to President Joe Biden after the 2020 election
…but, he’s also mulling idea of Haley as VP?
After spending months lashing out at his closest Republican rival in the 2024 race, Donald Trump is now said to be considering her as his second in command if he retakes the White House.
Multiple insiders told Politico and CBS News that the former president has been asking allies what they think about him picking Nikki Haley as vice president if he secures the GOP nomination.
“What do you think of Nikki?” Mr Trump has reportedly asked.
The suggestion, however, has been widely panned by his inner circle, with the sources saying that Mr Trump’s allies and advisors are trying to warn him off the idea – arguing that Ms Haley does not fit with his Maga base.
Trump calls positive Haley polling a ‘scam’
The 21 December poll conducted by the American Research Group indicated that 33 per cent of likely New Hampshire GOP primary voters support the former president while 29 per cent support Ms Haley.
“Fake New Hampshire poll was released on Birdbrain,” Mr Trump said on Truth Social, referring to his former UN ambassador by his less-than-endearing nickname for her.
“Just another scam! Ratings challenged FoxNews will play it to the hilt. Sununu now one of the least popular governors in the U.S. Real poll to follow,” he continued.
Kelly Rissman reports…
Trump fumes about ‘scam’ New Hampshire poll showing Haley closing gap
Mr Trump’s dwindling lead in the state comes amid numerous anti-Trump efforts from megadonors, who have shifted to supporting Ms Haley
Joe Rogan corrected on-air for misattributing Trump gaffe to Biden
The controversial podcast host went on a rant on his show this week, mocking the Democratic president for making “no sense at all” and questioning his mental competence – a favourite pastime of conservative figures.
In the segment, during an interview with MMA fighter Bo Nickal, Rogan claimed that Mr Biden had recently incorrectly claimed that the US lost the Revolutionary War because “they didn’t have enough airports”.
As the two men cracked up laughing, Rogan even went as far as to say that Mr Biden should be “done” in his role as leader of the country for making the comments.
Just one problem with that…
Joe Rogan left red-faced as he incorrectly blames Trump gaffe on Biden
Controversial podcast host was fact-checked and schooled by his own team in embarrassing on-air moment
