Trump news: Trump to give ‘big political speech’ today after awkward error in E Jean Carroll deposition

Donald Trump says he will make a “big political speech” today at his Miami golf course, Trump Doral. He hits back at the “fake news media” for saying he is “not campaigning very hard”, calling them “stupid and corrupt”.

Mr Trump has barely left Mar-a-Lago since the lacklustre launch of his 2024 campaign on 15 November 2022, shortly after the midterms handed the Republican Party a disappointing marginal win in the House of Representatives and a loss in the Senate.

The former president promises “MANY GIANT RALLIES” and other events and that it will be “wild and exciting”.

The Capitol riot was the culmination of weeks of preparation and a moment of triumph for the Oath Keepers, a federal prosecutor said Wednesday in closing argument in the second seditious conspiracy trial against members of the far-right extremist group.

Prosecutor Louis Manzo told jurors that Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes, who was convicted in an earlier trial, began pushing to stop the transfer of power from then-President Donald Trump to Democratic challenger Joe Biden almost immediately after the 2020 election, and that members of Rhodes’ group took up the cause.

The man who propped his feet on Nancy Pelosi’s desk as a mob stormed the halls of Congress has testified in his own defense after facing eight counts, including felony charges, tied to his widely photographed role in the Capitol riots.

Richard “Bigo” Barnett – whose defense attorneys compared him to “everyone’s crazy redneck uncle from out of town” – admitted to the jury on 19 January that he “probably shouldn’t have put my feet on the desk”.

Alex Woodward is following the trial.

As the 2024 race for the White House gets underway, the former president is set to once again use some of the largest and most influential social media platforms after he was booted from them following the January 6 insurrection, according to NBC News.

Gustaf Kilander has the story.

Donald Trump Jr has come under fire for his “hateful” reaction to Alec Baldwin’s Rust charges.

Gustaf Kilander reports on what he said and how people reacted.

His new book, Never Give an Inch: Fighting for the America I Love, contains several passages in which Mr Pompeo disparages his former colleagues including Nikki Haley, Donald Trump’s former ambassador to the United Nations. Excerpts of the book were obtained by The Guardian ahead of its publication next week.

John Bowden took a look at what Mr Pompeo wrote.

The Florida governor was asked by a reporter for his reaction to the ongoing story resulting from the finding of White House records dating back from when Joe Biden was vice president at two separate locations – his house in Delaware, and at a DC think tank.

Mr DeSantis responded with a statement seemingly swiping at both of his potential 2024 rivals, decrying any mismanagement of classified material as wrong while claiming that Democrats and Mr Biden’s supporters were trying to hold the current president to a lower standard.

In a new campaign-style video address, former president Donald Trump bemoans what he sees as two standards of justice in the US — one for him and the general public, and one for the “corrupt political class”.

Mr Trump trotted out many of the gripes he has voiced about the investigation into the trove of classified documents recovered from his Palm Beach home (which he maintains is “ultra-secure” despite operating as a members club) and what he sees as the “white-glove” treatment of President Joe Biden after the discovery of a small number of documents at an office and in his garage (”which was probably very wet and damp as many garages are”).

The former president also criticised special counsel Jack Smith who is investigating on behalf of the “Injustice Department” claiming Mr Biden has weaponised the department against him.

Investigators working for Justice Department Special Counsel Jack Smith have reportedly questioned multiple ex-Trump administration officials about the fate of a large tranche of classified documents pertaining to the FBI probe into Russia’s campaign of interference in the 2016 election.

A report by Murray Waas, a freelance investigative reporter and former National Journal staff writer, wrote on Wednesday that “at least three” figures in Mr Trump’s inner circle have been pressed by prosecutors on whether Mr Trump took “thousands of pages” of documents from the White House — including many bearing classification markings — with an eye towards making them public in attempt to discredit the Justice Department’s probe into alleged ties between his 2016 campaign and the Russian Federation.

Andrew Feinberg has the details.

The United States hit the debt limit on Thursday, which triggered the US Treasury Department to take “extraordinary measures” to ensure that the country could fulfill its debt obligations.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen sent a letter to House Speaker Kevin McCarthy on Thursday warning that her department would begin taking “extraordinary measures.” She told Mr McCarthy in her letter that she will be “unable” to fully invest the portion of the Civil Service Retirement and Disability Fund that is not immediately required to pay beneficiaries.

She also told him that she would begin a “debt suspension period” starting on Sunday and continuing into 5 June 2023.

Eric Garcia has the details.