Trump news – President complains about daytime TV amid claims he will hold spoiler event during inauguration

All the latest from the White House and beyond

Trump says he'll leave the White House if the Electoral College formalises Biden's victory

Donald Trump is reportedly weighing whether to launch a 2024 re-election bid on the day of Joe Biden’s inauguration.

On Saturday, The Daily Beast cited three sources who confirmed he is considering a 2024 run, and two of them said he had floated the idea of holding an event on 20 January.

According to two sources with direct knowledge of the matter, the president has privately bragged that he would still remain in the spotlight, even if Mr Biden is in the Oval Office, because the media finds Mr Biden “boring.”

The report comes after the Trump campaign suffered a humiliating court defeat in Pennsylvania, where Republican-appointed judges unanimously ruled to toss out the campaign’s attempt to challenge the election result there.

“Charges require specific allegations and then proof. We have neither here,” judge Stephanos Bibas wrote in the court's ruling.

By Saturday evening the Pennsylvania Supreme Court had also dismissed a case brought by Congressman Mike Kelly and others to disallow millions of mail-in ballots in the state. 

Key Points

• Biden gains vote in county where Trump demanded recount
• President appears to reverse pledge to leave White House
• Trump ‘considering 2024 bid launch on inauguration day’
• Former security officials warn Donald Trump won’t keep state secrets

[28 November 2020 14:24 · Tom Embury-Dennis]

Trump ‘fears getting prosecuted’ more than losing election

Donald Trump fears investigations and prosecution more than he feared losing the election, former official and CNN contributor Miles Taylor says allies of the president have told him.

[28 November 2020 14:36 · Tom Embury-Dennis]

Former security officials warn Donald Trump won’t keep state secrets

American security experts are concerned that Donald Trump will be unable to keep state secrets when he leaves the White House, and should be barred from receiving future intelligence briefings, according to reports.

The US president, who has routinely broken with precedent in the past and revealed American secrets, would be in line to receive briefings even when he leaves the White House.

But, as security experts told NBC News this week, the president could also prove vulnerable to selling those secrets to the country’s adversaries, and on that basis, should not have access to anymore briefings.

[28 November 2020 15:03 · Tom Embury-Dennis]

Trump ‘considering announcing 2024 campaign on day of Biden’s inauguration’

Donald Trump is considering launching his 2024 election campaign on the day of Joe Biden's inauguration, it has been reported - weighing up how to keep the spotlight on him in his post-White House life.

Mr Trump, who is yet to concede defeat, and may not ever, was asked on Thanksgiving whether he would attend Mr Biden's inauguration on 20 January.

“I don't want to say that yet,” he replied. “I mean, I know the answer.  I'll be honest, I know the answer.”

[28 November 2020 15:22 · Tom Embury-Dennis]

The Daily Show posts video of Trump’s coroanvirus handling

The Daily Show, which is often critical of Donald Trump, has posted a video showing the US president’s handling of coronavirus. 

Safe to say the satirical late-night talk show is not impressed with his performance.

[28 November 2020 15:37 · Tom Embury-Dennis]

Opinion: Biden is in a tricky position when it comes to Trump being investigated

There are 73 million reasons why Joe Biden may think the Justice Department prosecuting Donald Trump would not be a good idea, and it would be far better to let the departed president get away with any alleged crimes he may have committed, writes The Independent’s Kim Sengupta.

Despite losing comprehensively in both the popular and electoral college votes, there is no denying that the outgoing president has expanded his voting base, with a significant number of his followers believing his claims of the election being stolen.

There is an obvious danger in these circumstances that these supporters will see the pursuit of their man through the courts as a provocation, and this could reignite highly-combustible divisions in the country.

[28 November 2020 15:54 · Tom Embury-Dennis]

Law professor condemns Republican’s attempts to overturn election in Pennsylvania

Steve Vladeck, a law professor at the University of Texas, has condemned the “nakedly, indefensibly anti-democratic” attempts by Republican Pennsylvania state senator Doug Mastriano to overturn the election result in the state.

Mr Mastriano has published wildly inaccurate figures to try and suggest electoral fraud, and now is attempting to ignore Joe Biden’s victory there and have the state’s electoral college votes given to Mr Trump.

“It’s not going to matter, but this is insane — and anyone not condemning this nonsense is complicit in it,” Mr Vladeck writes.

[28 November 2020 16:00 · Tom Embury-Dennis]

Trump praises ‘brave’ Republicans attempting to overturn Biden victory

Donald Trump has tweeted for the first time on Saturday morning, praising the “brave” Republicans in swing state legislatures who are attempting to overturn victories there by Joe Biden. 

“So much credit to all of the brave men and women in state houses who are defending our great Constitution. Thank you!” Mr Trump tweeted. 

There is no evidence of unconstitutional election malfeasance in any states, and the vast majority of Trump campaign lawsuits attempting to demonstrate fraud have been thrown out of court.

[28 November 2020 16:16 · Tom Embury-Dennis]

Biden plans swift moves to protect and advance LGBTQ rights

As vice president in 2012, Joe Biden endeared himself to many LGBTQ Americans by endorsing same-sex marriage even before his boss, President Barack Obama

Now, as president-elect, Mr Biden is making sweeping promises to LGBTQ activists, proposing to carry out virtually every major proposal on their wish lists. Among them: Lifting the Trump administration’s near-total ban on military service for transgender people, barring federal contractors from anti-LGBTQ job discrimination, and creating high-level LGBTQ-rights positions at the State Department, the National Security Council and other federal agencies.

In many cases the measures would reverse executive actions by President Donald Trump whose administration took numerous steps to weaken protections for transgender people and create more leeway for discrimination against LGBTQ people, ostensibly based on religious grounds.

[28 November 2020 16:35 · Tom Embury-Dennis]

Trump golfs for third straight day

Donald Trump has arrived at his private golf club in Sterling, Virginia. It marks his third straight day playing golf.

As CNN reporter Betsy Klein reports, it is the 307th day Mr Trump has spent at a golf course since becoming president - almost one day in every four. 

[28 November 2020 16:45 · Tom Embury-Dennis]

With no action by Washington, states race to offer virus aid

Faulting inaction in Washington, governors and state lawmakers are racing to get pandemic relief to small business owners, the unemployed, renters and others whose livelihoods have been upended by the widening coronavirus outbreak.

In some cases elected officials are spending the last of a federal relief package passed in the spring as an end-of-year deadline approaches and the fall Covid-19 surge threatens their economies anew. 

Democrats have been the most vocal in criticizing President Donald Trump and the GOP-controlled Senate for failing to act, but many Republican lawmakers are also sounding the alarm.