Sign up for the daily Inside Washington email for exclusive US coverage and analysis sent to your inbox
Get our free Inside Washington email
Donald Trump has widened his lead over Ron DeSantis in a hypothetical 2024 primary match-up according to new polling by Fox News. The former president and Florida governor are both also clear ahead of a number of other notable Republicans.
Meanwhile, Mr Trump is fighting back against a court order that requires Mark Meadows and other former aides to testify before a federal grand jury investigating the January 6 Capitol riot.
Earlier this month, US Court Judge Beryl Howell ruled that former chief of staff Mr Meadows and other top aides including Dan Scavino and Stephen Miller must give testimony – rejecting Mr Trump’s claims of executive privilege. The former president’s team appealed the decision on Wednesday.
This came the same day that it emerged that the Manhattan grand jury investigating Mr Trump’s supposed role in a hush money payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels is set to go on a month-long break, delaying any potential criminal indictment.
The jury won’t hear any evidence in the proceedings for several weeks because of an already-scheduled hiatus. A schedule change is possible, but any indictment of Mr Trump will now come late next month at the earliest.
Trump widens advantage over DeSantis in latest Fox News poll
A Fox News poll released on Wednesday shows a widening gap between former president Donald Trump and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis in a hypothetical Republican Party primary race.
Mr Trump was listed as first choice by 54 per cent of respondents, while Mr DeSantis — who is yet to officially declare his candidacy — came in a distant second with 24 per cent of the vote.
The latest polling was conducted from 24-27 March and had 1,007 respondents nationwide.
In the Fox News poll from late last month, Mr DeSantis did slight better with 28 per cent to Mr Trump’s 43 per cent.
Former vice president Mike Pence came in third with six per cent (down one); former Rep Liz Cheney and former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley were in joint fourth place with three per cent each (up one and down four points respectively). Texas Governor Greg Abbott held steady at two per cent.
A slew of other notable Republicans, including Kristi Noem, Mike Pompeo, and Chris Christie — some once regarded as possible top contenders for the 2024 candidacy — hover around the one per cent mark.
Trump loses bid to narrow rape accuser E Jean Carroll’s defamation case
A US judge on Tuesday denied Donald Trump’s bid to throw out E Jean Carroll’s defamation claim from next month’s high-profile trial over whether Trump raped the former Elle magazine columnist in the mid-1990s.
US District Judge Lewis Kaplan in Manhattan rejected Trump’s claim that “absolute litigation privilege” immunised the former president for allegedly defaming Carroll last October 12 on his Truth Social media platform by denying the rape occurred.
Lawyers for Trump did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
A Manhattan judge rejected Mr Trump’s claim that ‘absolute litigation privilege’ immunised the former president for allegedly defaming Ms Carroll
Trump appeals order for Mark Meadows to testify in Jan 6 probe
Attorneys for former president Donald Trump have asked a federal appeals court to toss a District of Columbia judge’s order forcing his last White House chief of staff and other former White House aides to give evidence before a grand jury investigating his attempt to overturn his 2020 election loss to Joe Biden.
Andrew Feinberg has the latest.
A three-judge appeals court panel recently rejected Mr Trump’s bid to keep one of his lawyers from testifying in another matter
Watch: Bizarre static electric shock Trump 2024 campaign video
Why is everyone being electrocuted? Why choose the aesthetic of a turn-of-the-century disaster movie probably found deep in Netflix?
Watch here:
GOP strategists worry about down ballot effect of Trump indictment
Republican strategists have spoken with ABC News about the challenge of former president Donald Trump’s legal woes and possible upcoming indictment(s) for down-ballot GOP candidates, who will likely be inundated with questions about it as they seek office or reelection.
The challenge of course is finding an effective message, being able to articulate it, and then sticking to it.
“Any Republican who's not prepared to answer a question about the indictment, if it should come, and not prepared to pivot away from questions about Trump and back to the economy, crime and Biden's shortcomings is going to have a really hard time,” said one GOP strategist who has worked on Senate campaigns.
Said another, currently working on down-ballot races: “You're gonna get asked about it. You need to decide what your position is on it. And you need to articulate it and stick to it.”
They added: “If you waffle on it, you're not going to pick up any votes on the other side, and you're gonna frustrate your voters.”
Trump claims China wouldn’t send spy balloon over US during his presidency, contradicting US intelligence
Donald Trump has again claimed that China wouldn’t have sent a spy balloon over the United States during his presidency, despite the US air force revealing that they had.
In an interview with Sean Hannity, Mr Trump was asked how he would have handled the discovery of the Chinese spy balloon, which traversed across the country before being shot down in February over the Atlantic Ocean.
“I wouldn’t have done anything with the balloon because it wouldn’t have happened under me,” the former president claimed.
Mr Trump asserted there would have never been a Chinese spy balloon under his presidency despite evidence there was
Mike Pompeo dismisses Trump’s claim he could solve war in Ukraine
Mike Pompeo has dismissed Donald Trump’s bold claim that he could solve the war in Ukraine within 24 hours if he was reelected president.
On Monday, Mr Trump told Fox News’ Sean Hannity that he would be able to orchestrate a “very easy negotiation” for peace because of his relationships with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“And there’s a very easy negotiation to take place. But I don’t want to tell you what it is because then I can’t use that negotiation. It’ll never work. But it’s a very easy negotiation to take place,” he claimed.
“I will have it solved within one day, a peace between them.”
“So you’d prefer if you were president, you think you would have a negotiated settlement?” Mr Hannity asked.
Mr Trump replied: “Within 24 hours.”
Mr Pompeo, who served as secretary of state in the Trump administration, scoffed at the idea on Tuesday.
“I don’t know what he’s talking about,” he said.
Trump goes after DeSantis on medicare and and social security
Mr Trump criticised Ron DeSantis in a post on Truth Social, saying that “people are beginning to find out that Ron DeSanctimonious wanted to destroy Social Security and raise its minimum age to at least 70 — and he fought very hard to do it. He also had strong plans for cutting Medicare and still does”.
“You know, when they have policy in their head, they never change, they may say they change, but they always go back t it,” Mr Trump said in a video shared on the platform.
Trump and Pence expected to speak at NRA event, likely their first meeting after two years
Donald Trump and Mike Pence are scheduled to speak at the National Rifle Association (NRA) convention in Indianapolis in April, putting the former president and his vice president into the same room likely after two years.
Mr Pence has been vocal in recent times in his criticism about his former boss, who has lashed out as well. The ex-vice president is expected to officially challenge Mr Trump and throw his hat in the ring for the 2024 presidential elections.
One of the last reported meetings between the two Republicans had taken place in January 2021, almost a week after the Capitol riots where a pro-Trump mob had chanted “Hang Mike Pence!” That meeting had reportedly lasted for 90 minutes.
Read the full story here:
The two Republicans last headlined the annual NRA convention in 2019
Former Republican Strategist says Christie can be ‘useful in taking down Trump'
Former Republican Strategist Steve Schmidt, who woked on John McCain’s 2008 presidential campaign, has said that former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie can be “useful in taking down Trump”.
“Chris Christie wants to be the leader of the Republican party for the purposes of taking out Trump. It’s not particularly noble, but it may be useful,” he said.