Trump calls E Jean Carroll case ‘a made up and disgusting hoax’: Live

The Don has announced his temporary return to Florida for the funeral of his mother-in-law, Amalija Knavs, reporting that he will be back on the campaign trail in New Hampshire on Friday.

That means he won’t be back in New York today as E Jean Carroll resumes her testimony.

Speaking of Carroll, Trump has also repeated his familiar denials about her accusations, calling the whole affair “a made up and disgusting hoax”.

Elsewhere, he has reiterated his demand for absolute presidential immunity (in all-caps) and attempted to pressure House speaker Mike Johnson into standing firm in pursuit of a complete border shutdown.

Fresh from his tetchy appearance sitting in on E Jean Carroll’s testimony in New York, Trump was back out on the rally circuit in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, last night, drumming up votes ahead of next Tuesday’s Republican primary.

It was the usual rambling mess of pet grievances and wounded victimhood, a few highlights of which follow.

The conversation was captured in an audio recording, which Mediaite obtained and published last week.

Three years ago, in the wake of the Capitol riot and with his second impeachment under way, Donald Trump’s political future looked over once and for all. But Republicans, led largely by Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell, voted to acquit him, all but giving him permission to continue his dominance in the Republican Party.

Now, after a devastating win over his rivals in the first contest on the road to the White House, he once again holds the Grand Old Party in the palm of his hand. But even in his moment of victory, with some polls suggesting he could defeat Joe Biden in November, he had a stark reminder of the legal dangers facing him this year as he returned to a New York courtroom for just one of the cases he is embroiled in.

The Iowa caucuses officially kicked off the 2024 presidential contest in resounding fashion when the former president overwhelmingly won the contest in the Hawkeye State.

Donald Trump’s supporters continue to adopt his bogus narrative that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from him, with nearly 70 per cent of his Iowa caucus voters falsely believing President Joe Biden was illegitimately elected.

Asked whether they believed President Biden was legitimately elected to the presidency in 2020, more than two-thirds of Iowa caucus goers said no, according to entrance polls from last night’s caucuses.

That includes 69 per cent of Iowa caucus goers who supported Mr Trump. Only 11 per cent of his supporters in Iowa believe the president was legitimately elected.

Following her performance this week in court, social media users were quick to return to a clip of Ms Habba during a recent interview on a 4 January episode of the PBD podcast, in which she said she would “rather be pretty than smart.”

Read the full story here:

Mr Trump was Monday night’s overwhelming winner, picking up 51 per cent of the vote in the Hawkeye State and bringing him closer to securing the Republican presidential nomination as primary season finally got underway.

Maga Republican lawmaker Anna Paulina Luna lashed out at an immigration expert after he laughed at her defence of the Trump administration’s policies of separating migrant children from their parents.

During a House of Representatives hearing on Wednesday, Ms Luna contested that the policies had inflicted psychological trauma on the children.

Responding to Cato Institute immigration expert David Bier, she said: “You talk about intentional trauma and that the Trump administration caused intentional trauma by separating these children from their quote-unquote ‘parents’.

“The fact is, is that… you don’t know what these people are like.” Ms Luna then paused to ask: “Mr Bier why are you laughing?”

Mike Bedigan reports on how he replied:

Republican candidates for president landed in New Hampshire this week after the bitterly cold Iowa caucuses ended in a landslide victory for Donald Trump early Monday evening.

Mr Trump’s two remaining competitive rivals, Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley, are now set up for their second showdown with the frontrunner in New Hampshire, which votes in a “semi-open” primary style which allows the state’s sizable population of independent voters to participate in the respective major party primaries.

This is the second chance for either of them to prove that this entire exercise isn’t just one long, drawn-out coronation.