Trump accuses Biden of running a ‘Gestapo administration’ while attacking prosecutor: Live updates

At Republican National Committee donor retreat in Palm Beach, Florida on Saturday, Mr Trump went so far as to assert that President Biden was “running a Gestapo administration,” according to an audio recording of the event obtained by the New York Times.

He was speaking to a crowd of wealthy donors — who needed to have contributed at least $25,000 to get into the retreat in the first place.

Mr Trump continued, “And it’s the only thing they have. And it’s the only way they’re going to win, in their opinion, and it’s actually killing them. But it doesn’t bother me.”

Not only did he suggest that Mr Biden orchestrated the various indictments against him — he faces 88 counts criminal charges — but he also attacked one of the top prosecutors pursuing federal charges.

“He’s unattractive both inside and out,” Mr Trump said of special counsel Jack Smith. “This is one unattractive dude.”

The former president also claimed that he was softer on Mr Biden before he faced any lawsuits.

“You have to respect the office of the presidency,” Mr Trump said. “And I never talk to him like this.”

Unironically, however, Mr Trump entered the event to the tune of “Justice for All,” a song featuring the former president and the J6 Prison Choir — those imprisoned due to their involvement in the Capitol attack on January 6.

She initially remained friendly with the Trumps and visited them at Mar-a-Lago.

But the relationship soured after she was subpoenaed to give evidence to the House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack in October 2022.

She recalled Mr Trump saying: “Nobody will care about my legacy if I lose… the only thing that matters is winning.”

The committee also discussed text messages sent by Ms Hicks pertaining to the riot that were highly critical of the president’s conduct. These angered both Mr Trump and his daughter Ivanka.

Ms Hicks went on to found a strategic consultancy firm of her own. She is currently engaged to Goldman Sachs banker Jim Donovan, 57, according to the Daily Mail.

But as for the frosty relationship with the man who supercharged her ascent to one of the most prominent jobs in politics, a former administration official who remains close to Ms Hicks told the Washington Post: “She still has warm feelings toward the president and a lot of admiration for him.”

A rather vulgar nickname for Donald Trump has now been formally entered into the public record at the former president’s hush-money trial, after his own defence attorney read out the moniker to the court.

“Von S****InPantz” debuted in court on Thursday after Mr Trump’s legal team complained to New York Justice Juan Merchan that the gag order against their client was unfair.

“Everybody can say anything they want, except for President Trump,” his attorney Todd Blanche explained to the judge.

Mr Blanche then continued to show a series of posts by Michael Cohen, Mr Trump’s former personal attorney, to the courtroom that mocked the former president and labelled him with insulting names.

The attorney read aloud a particular post by Cohen, while Mr Trump sat and listened to the crude mockery of himself at the defence table.

Moments before a second week of witness testimony began on Tuesday morning, New York justice Juan Merchan issued a brief order from the bench finding the former president in contempt of court and ordering $1,000 fines for nine offending Truth Social posts where he attacked witnesses in the case.

In his written order, the judge warned that Mr Trump could face an “incarceratory punishment” if he continues his “wilful violations” of the court’s order, if “necessary and appropriate under the circumstances”.

Ms Hicks says she found out about the Access Hollywood tape on the afternoon of 7 October 2016 after she “received an email from The Washington Post asking for comment” while she was in her office on the 14th floor of Trump Tower.

“I was concerned. Very concerned. Um… yeah. I was concerned about the contents of the email, concerned about the lack of time to respond, concerned that we had a transcript and not a tape. There was a lot at play,” she said.

She went to a conference room where Trump and others were doing debate prep and motioned for other aides to come over.

“The sight of the five or six of us gathered out there was a sign that something was afoot. Trump called us in at some point and told us to share what was happening,” she added.

“I shared the email with Mr Trump sort of verbally and we were at the time … trying to get a copy of the audio of the tape, to assess the situation further, and we weren’t sure how to respond yet.”

Trump said, “That didn’t sound like something he would say.”

He saw the tape within a matter of minutes after it was live.

Ms Hicks said she was “Just… a little stunned,” by the tape.

“Just… yeah, it’s hard to describe. It was definitely concerning. And I had a good sense that this was going to be a massive story and sort of dominate the news cycle for the next several days, at least,” she added.

“Obviously it wasn’t helpful …There were a lot of layers to it, for where we were trying to go with the campaign and this was kind of pulling us backwards. And it was going to be difficult to overcome,” she said.

How was the discussion with Trump about how the campaign would respond?

“I don’t really have a strong recollection of that conversation,” but Trump said it was “two guys, discussing privately, locker room talk.”

“I think he felt like it was pretty standard stuff for two guys, you know, chatting with each other.”

They acknowledged that it was “not good,” she said.

South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem wrote about her dead dog in an upcoming book, facing enormous backlash for the remarks she made about her wirehaired pointer puppy.

But that may not have been the worst news she received this week. Politico reported that six people with knowledge of the matter said she has been “cast aside as a likely running mate” — even long before the dog scandal.

In case you missed it, in her forthcoming book, Ms Noem explained the killing of her former dog, Cricket.

“I hated that dog,” she added, detailing that Cricket was “untrainable”, “dangerous to anyone she came in contact with” and “less than worthless … as a hunting dog”.

“At that moment,” Ms Noem continued, “I realized I had to put her down.”

She conceded that while “it was not a pleasant job… it had to be done”.

Still, Ms Noem was invited to attend as a “Special Guest” at Mr Trump’s event at Mar-a-Lago this weekend, where she and other VP hopefuls will likely be vying for the GOP presidential candidate’s attention.

A portion of the recording – secretly recorded by Michael Cohen while Mr Trump was in the middle of his 2016 campaign for the presidency – was played inside a Manhattan courtroom on Thursday, giving the jury a brief but crucial look into how his “fixer” kept his boss up to date with a scheme that is now central to the criminal case against him.

“I need to open up a company for the transfer of all that info regarding our friend, David, you know, so that – I’m going to do that right away,” Cohen can be heard saying on the recording.

“And I’ve spoken to Allen Weisselberg about how to set the whole thing up,” Cohen says, referencing the now-convicted former chief financial officer for the Trump Organization.

“So, what do we got to pay for this?” Mr Trump can be heard saying. “150?”

That “David” appears to be David Pecker, the former National Enquirer publisher.

In his trial testimony, Mr Pecker admitted to an agreement with Cohen and Mr Trump in August 2015 to buy the rights to politically compromising stories about Mr Trump’s affairs – with no intention of publishing them, a practice known as “catch and kill.”

Alex Woodward has the full story…