Trump posts $175m bond as judge expands gag order in hush money case: Live

After a blockbuster debut on the Nasdaq last week, the share price of Trump’s tech company plummeted in trading on Monday after post-merger financial statements revealed new details of the company’s business.

Trump Media & Technology Group, the parent company of social media platform Truth Social, was down as much as 27 per cent in value by lunchtime, having opened at $61.92.

A regulatory filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) early yesterday showed the company had only achieved revenue of $4.1m in 2023, with net losses reaching $58.2m.

Oliver O’Connell has more.

The judge in the Republican presidential candidate’s hush money trial has moved to tighten his gag order in accordance with a request from Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg over Trump’s continued and “vitriolic” attacks on the justice’s family.

New York Supreme Court judge Juan Merchan said that the defendant’s statements represented a “very real” threat to the integrity of the trial.

Here’s more from Io Dodds.

The former president secured his bond yesterday through the Knight Specialty Insurance Company.

Here’s a little introduction.

Donald Trump posted the $175m bond in his New York civil fraud case late on Monday, temporarily halting enforcement of the full $464m in penalties the former president faces after his company was found guilty of misrepresenting the value of its assets over a ten-year to swindle banks and insurers.

The belated bond payment came as state officials were preparing to seize Trump’s properties to fulfill the judgement.

Josh Marcus has the full story.

According to NBC News, former Trump administration aide Hope Hicks could be called as a witness at her former boss’s New York hush money trial, which is due to get underway on Monday 15 April.

Hicks was interviewed by prosecutors in the case last year about her role as Trump’s campaign secretary in 2016, the very period during which the payments were allegedly made to porn star Stormy Daniels and ex-Playboy model Karen McDougal on the candidate’s behalf to stay quiet about the affairs they are understood to have had with him a decade earlier.

Trump is accused by Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg of falsifying his business records to hide the payouts and has 34 felony counts to answers. He has already pleaded not guilty to all charges.

Since the final quarter of 2023, Biden has seen brutal poll after brutal poll showing his numbers tanking. The reasons for his decline have been manifold: people continue to worry about his age, young Democratic voters are dissatisfied about his support for Israel and people still blame him for high inflation.

But the president’s numbers now seem to be improving to some degree.

A recent CNBC All-America Economic Survey showed Biden about even with Trump and a Quinnipiac University poll released last week also showed the race virtually unchanged from February but still too close to call.

Trump still has numerous advantages, given that his supporters seem more enthusiastic. At the same time, Biden has started to gain some structural advantages.

Here are three reasons why Biden is improving – and one reason why he still trails Trump – from Eric Garcia.

Donald Trump has been uncharacteristically quiet on what is likely to be one of the biggest foreign policy issues of his second term, should he win in November.

But in the few interviews and statements he has given on Israel and the war in Gaza, the former president has shown signs that he may be cooling in his support for the longtime US ally.

In a recent interview, the former president spoke about how he had been disturbed by images and videos showing civilians bearing the brunt of the onslaught and called for an end to the war.

President Biden and Trump both issued social media posts on Sunday in which they wished their followers a Happy Easter, though their messages differed somewhat in tone.

Biden’s, written on Twitter/X, was short and simple, stating: “To all those gathering in churches and homes around the world today: Happy Easter. May God bless and keep you.”

In his own message, posted on his social media platform Truth Social, Trump also wished a “Happy Easter to all,” although he included an attack on those seeking to “put me in prison”.

Mike Bedigan reports from Los Angeles.

“The Bible does not need Donald Trump’s endorsement and Jesus, in the very last week of his life, chased the money changers out of the temple, those who would take sacred things and use them as cheap relics to be sold in the marketplace,” Reverend Raphael Warnock told CNN on Sunday.

Gustaf Kilander has more.

In case you missed this over the weekend, Saturday Night Live set its sights on Trump once again – this time over his ridiculous attempts to sell Bibles.

Days after late-night hosts skewered the former president for his unconvincing pivot to Bible salesmanship, the US sketch show lampooned him in a cold open during its latest episode, which was hosted by Ramy Youssef.

Last week, Trump released an infomercial in which, ahead of Easter Sunday, he endorsed a “God Bless The USA” Bible – a special version inspired by the patriotic Lee Greenwood anthem of the same name – worth $60.

Jacob Stolworthy has the story.