Trump mocked over new NFT trading cards as he rails against Elon Musk – live

Donald Trump released a second iteration of his NFT trading cards, leading to mockery online.

The former president announced on Tuesday 18 April that he was selling another series of the NFT trading cards he released this past December.

“I am pleased to inform you that, due to the great success of my previously launched DIGITAL TRADING CARDS, we are doing it again, SERIES 2, AVAILABLE RIGHT NOW,” Mr Trump wrote on his social media platform, Truth Social.

The second series of cards consists of eight different NFTS, all priced at $99. But on Twitter, people mocked the new illustrations.

George Santos is officially running for re-election in 2024, even as he faces multiple investigations headed up by the House Ethics Committee, the FBI and local authorities.

And he’s marking his bid for a second term with a bill named in honour of Nicki Minaj, the New York-born rapper whose comments expressing skepticism about vaccines clearly resonated with the congressman as he seeks to prevent the federal government from mandating administration of any vaccine that hasn’t been on the market for a decade.

It would, however, carve out an exception for cases of a public health emergency – like the Covid-19 crisis.

Read more about New York’s scandal-plagued pro-Trump congressman:

Two nonprofit groups — including the group that challenged several GOP House members’ eligibility to serve because of their support for the January 6 attack on the Capitol — are looking to use the same provision of the US Constitution to keep Donald Trump off the ballot next year.

Mr Trump’s support for the attack, the groups say, would fall under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution, which prohibits any “officer of the United States” who has “engaged in insurrection or rebellion against” the country — after previously taking an oath to support the Constitution — from serving in any federal office.

It’s a longshot bid by the groups, but spells out the kind of resistance Mr Trump is going to face from even centrist-aligned organisations heading in to 2024, thanks to the chaos that was 2020 and early 2021.

Read more from Andrew Feinberg:

Disney announced it will hold its first ever “Pride Nite” event, a move that will no doubt drive a further wedge between the entertainment titan and Florida’s Governor Ron DeSantis.

Hours before the announcement, Mr DeSantis held a press conference where he laid out a menu of potential retaliatory schemes he could undertake to get back at Disney for using an obscure property law to retain its self-governance.

Those plots included raising the park’s taxes, building a prison next door, or selling the land surrounding Disney to another theme park. The governor also highlighted proposed legislation that would impose new inspection regulations on Disney.

Graig Graziosi has the story:

The White House may be on track for a political victory over the debt limit as the GOP Speaker of the House looks at least somewhat unwilling to threaten America’s credit by blocking an increase to the debt limit.

But that didn’t stop Kevin McCarthy from hammering President Joe Biden on the issue of not negotiating with Republicans over spending decreases at all, as the White House has maintained that the president wants to see the GOP’s budget proposal in full before any such talks begin.

John Bowden reports from Washington, DC.

As he officially announces his bid for reelection, George Santos has already run into his first snag.

The campaign finances of the Republican, who’s come under scrutiny for exagerrating or inventing numerous details of his backstory, are in rough shape. He’s operating at a loss of $3,000 this year, Axios reports.

Donald Trump’s rape trial will begin next week as scheduled after a federal judge on Monday rejected his lawyer’s request for a one-month delay, saying the former president cannot make public statements to promote pretrial publicity and then claim it’s prejudicial to him and reason to delay a trial.

Judge Lewis Kaplan in Manhattan said the civil trial on claims against Trump by a longtime columnist, E Jean Carroll, will begin as scheduled on 25 April. Trump denies the rape happened or that he ever knew Carroll.

“Let the public in,” a group of protesters shouted from the hallway located directly outside of the room where Mr Jordan and the House Judiciary Committee held their meeting on Monday,

Outside of the Jacob Javits Federal Building in downtown Manhattan, another group of protesters chanted, “Hey hey, ho, ho, Jim Jordan’s got to go.”

Ariana Baio reports from New York City.

Donald Trump mocked Florida Governor Ron DeSantis on Tuesday for the recent debate over changes to the Reedy Creek Improvement District by suggesting Walt Disney World could retaliate against the Florida Governor.

Mr DeSantis held a press conference this past week threatening Disney should they not cooperate. The ideas he raised in retaliation included potentially raising the park’s taxes, building a prison next door, or selling the land around Disney to a different theme park.

Moments before opening arguments in one of the biggest defamation trials in US history were set to begin, Fox News agreed to settle a lawsuit from a voting machine company that accused the network of spreading false statements about its business in the aftermath of the 2020 presidential election.

Fox settled for $787.5m, about half of Dominion’s original demand of $1.6bn.

Alex Woodward has the story: