Trump tells fans: Vote for me once - after that ‘it’ll be fixed’
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Donald Trump has told his supporters that if he is reelected they would not have to vote again because ‘It’ll be fixed’.
In a speech to Christian voters in Florida, the Republican presidential candidate implored them to go out and vote “Just this time - you won’t have to do it any more.”
The former president’s comments were ambiguous at best, ominous at worst, with some interpreting them as a veiled threat to the integrity of democratic institutions.
Trump claimed when he was in office he had unfettered power to do as he pleased and was immune from any civil or criminal process.
His critics say that if he retakes the White House he will double down on efforts to stifle democracy and constitutional freedoms.
At the rally organised by the conservative group Turning Point Action in West Palm Beach, Trump said: “I love you Christians. I’m a Christian. I love you, get out, you gotta get out and vote. In four years, you don’t have to vote again, we’ll have it fixed so good you’re not going to have to vote,” Trump said.
The constitutional and civil rights attorney Andrew Seidel said the speech was “not subtle Christian nationalism.”
“He’s talking about ending our democracy and installing a Christian nation.”
Katie Phang, an NBC legal commentator, said, “In other words, Trump won’t ever leave the White House if he gets re-elected.”
05:26 PM BST
Comment: Why memes might not be enough for Kamala Harris
The US vice-president has received a surge in online support, but there are questions over whether she can translate her internet fame into votes, writes Andrew Buncombe.
One features Kamala Harris leading a long line of schoolchildren in a dance, kicking their legs in the air and banging drums as she doubles over.
Another shows her jiving on stage under an umbrella as the rain lashes down, a bright smile on her face.
And another simply has her rocking back and forth in hysterical laughter as confetti pours down around her.
Since Ms Harris entered the race to become president social media has been flooded with Kamala content.
The short clips and hasty edits of her at her most eccentric have been shared and shared again, and again, and again – suggesting an early boost in popularity among a crucial cohort: Generation Z.
But while Ms Harris enjoys a bump in support online, there are questions over whether memes can translate into votes – and, most importantly, in the battleground states where it matters most.
04:56 PM BST
Kamala Harris flattens Trump’s lead in first week, poll shows
Kamala Harris has virtually erased Donald Trump’s lead in the race for president, according to a new poll.
The battle for the White House is now effectively tied as Trump’s six-point lead over President Joe Biden this month was squashed to just two points, according to a Wall Street Journal poll.
Accounting for a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points, that puts Trump and Ms Harris neck and neck ahead of the November vote.
Harris is riding a wave of momentum after replacing Mr Biden, whose campaign was dogged by questions over his age and fitness for office.
According to the poll, she is also supported by 63 per cent of nonwhite voters, up from the 51 per cent Mr Biden had in the last WSJ poll.
She is also drawing a larger share of under 30 voters than Biden was earlier this month, though still lacks the same level of support from them that he had in his narrow 2020 victory.
While the poll shows Trump still in the lead, it will vindicate concerns in his camp that Mr Biden being replaced by a younger, more vigorous candidate for president, would make Trump’s route to the White House harder.
In a ballot test that included Robert F. Kennedy Jr and other independent and third party candidates, Harris pulls ahead of Trump with 45 per cent of the vote and he on 44 per cent. Mr Kennedy is backed by just 4 per cent and 5 per cent remain undecided.
On Friday, Trump launched into a diatribe against Ms Harris at a speech in Florida, calling her “a bum” and making wild allegations about her stance on abortion.
04:34 PM BST
Trump vows return to holding outdoor rallies with added security
Donald Trump said he will return to holding outdoor rallies with additional Secret Service protection, two weeks after he was injured in an assassination attempt at an open-air campaign event.
“I will continue to do outdoor rallies, and the Secret Service has agreed to substantially step up their operation. They are very capable of doing so,” Trump said on his Truth Social platform.
“No one can ever be allowed to stop or impede free speech or gathering,” he added.
His remarks came after the Secret Service reportedly encouraged Trump’s campaign to stop scheduling outdoor campaign events following his assassination attempt, opting instead for large indoor arenas.
03:50 PM BST
FBI confirms Trump hit by bullet during Pennsylvania shooting
The FBI has found that Donald Trump was indeed shot in the ear by a bullet or a bullet fragment during the attempt on his life earlier this month, after doubts expressed by its director.
The FBI’s Christopher A. Wray testified on Wednesday that the former president may have been wounded by shrapnel, drawing a furious response from Trump at the suggestion he was hit by anything other than a bullet.
“No wonder the once storied FBI has lost the confidence of America,” Trump said.
The FBI confirmed that, “What struck former president Trump in the ear was a bullet, whether whole or fragmented into smaller pieces, fired from the deceased subject’s rifle.”
03:19 PM BST
How Trump nearly paid the ultimate price for the Secret Service’s diversity targets
Following the attempt on the former president’s life, experts have called for the agency to focus on security – not inclusion, writes Ben Clerkin.
A rare thing happened following the attempted assassination of Donald Trump: agreement between the Democrats and Republicans. Namely, that the director of the Secret Service, Kimberley Cheatle, had to go.
After being mauled by both sides at a congressional hearing a day earlier, Cheatle resigned, albeit reluctantly, on July 23. But the entente cordiale over her fate was short-lived, with Republicans quickly apportioning blame for Cheatle’s perceived failings on her drive to reform the very make-up of the Secret Service.
“You are a DEI [diversity, equity, and inclusion] horror story,” Republican congressman Tim Burchett told Cheatle, 53, at Monday’s highly charged hearing.
His remarks added to a swell of criticism from the Right, with a slew of Republicans accusing the agency stalwart of being so concerned with diversity targets during her two-year tenure that she took her eye off the ball and failed at the only task that really mattered – keeping presidents and presidential candidates alive.
02:47 PM BST
Trump tells Christians they won’t have to vote after this election
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump told Christians on Friday that if they vote for him this November, “in four years, you don’t have to vote again. We’ll have it fixed so good, you’re not gonna have to vote.”
It was not clear what the former president meant by his remarks, in an election campaign where his Democratic opponents accuse him of being a threat to democracy, and after his attempt to overturn his 2020 defeat to President Joe Biden, an effort that led to the deadly insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to a request for clarification of his comments.
Trump was speaking at an event organized by the conservative group Turning Point Action in West Palm Beach, Florida.
02:19 PM BST
Harris campaign says ‘you wouldn’t want to sit near Trump in restaurant’ let alone be president
Kamala Harris’s campaign hit back at Donald Trump after his diatribe on Friday, calling him someone “you wouldn’t want to sit near at a restaurant” let alone be president.
Trump rained down insults and accusations on the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee in a speech to religious supporters in Florida, saying at one point she was a “bum” and suggesting that she was anti-semitic.
The Harris campaign has responded with a statement picking apart his speech and calling out his alleged lies.
“Tonight, Donald Trump couldn’t pronounce words, insulted the faith of Jewish and Catholic Americans, lied about the election (again), lied about other stuff, bragged about repealing Roe, proposed cutting billions in education funding, announced he would appoint more extremist judges, revealed he planned to fill a second Trump term with more criminals like himself, attacked lawful voting, went on and on and on, and generally sounded like someone you wouldn’t want to sit near at a restaurant—let alone be President of the United States,” campaign spokesperson James Singer said in a statement.
01:39 PM BST
US may ‘calibrate’ Venezuela sanctions policy post-election, officials say
The Biden administration will “calibrate” its sanctions policy towards Venezuela depending on how the high-stakes election unfolds there on Sunday, US officials said.
It signals that Washington could ease punitive measures if President Nicolas Maduro holds a fair vote, but the US also put Mr Maduro on notice that if he claims victory without providing concrete proof, it would “call into question” whether the international community should accept the outcome.
Mr Maduro is seeking his third term as leader of Venezuela, which is under heavy US sanctions. His challenger, opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez, has attracted significant support.
01:01 PM BST
Blinken conveys concern to Wang over ‘provocative actions’ on Taiwan, US official says
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken talked extensively with Chinese counterpart Wang Yi about Taiwan on Saturday and raised concerns about Beijing’s recent “provocative actions”, a senior official said.
Those actions included a simulated blockade during the inauguration of Taiwan President Lai Ching-te, the official said, adding that Mr Blinken and Mr Wang agreed to keep making progress on their countries’ military-to-military ties.
“In every discussion, Taiwan is the issue that they care most about. They see it as ... an internal China issue, so he (Wang Yi) always has a fair bit to say about Taiwan, as they always have a fair bit to say publicly,” the State Department official said.
China’s government considers democratically ruled Taiwan as inviolable Chinese territory, which Taiwan rejects
12:33 PM BST
Trump calls Kamala Harris a ‘far-left bum’
Donald Trump has called Kamala Harris a “far-left bum” and failed vice president.
At a speech in Florida to rally his religious base, the former president launched a tirade against his Democrat opponent.
“She was a bum three weeks ago,” Trump said. “She was a bum, a failed vice president.”
In the hour-long address hosted by Turning Point Action, Trump made appeals to his conservative supporters by making wild allegations against Ms Harris’ stance on abortion.
“If Kamala Harris has her way, they will have a federal law for abortion, to rip the baby out of the womb in the eighth, ninth month and even after birth - execute the baby after birth,” he claimed, in perhaps his most egregious calumny.
Trump went on to call Ms Harris out for missing a speech by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Congress.
“She doesn’t like Jewish people. She doesn’t like Israel. That’s the way it is, and that’s the way it’s always going to be. She’s not going to change,” he said.
Trump’s speech comes as polls show Ms Harris is closing the gap on Trump in an increasingly tighter race to when Mr Biden was still in the presidential running.
11:46 AM BST
Fred Trump III: ‘Donald was the kind of child who could drive almost anyone around the bend’
An explosive new memoir paints the Trump family as cruel and backstabbing, but Donald’s nephew, Fred Trump III, is ready to lay the past to rest.
I have a name – Trump – that is extraordinarily polarising, and keeps getting more so. Up until now, I have stayed quiet, even as those around me took their potshots. But silence is golden only when there is nothing that needs to be said.
So where did the cruelty in the Trump family come from? I’ve wrestled with that question for years. Who planted the seeds of narcissism? How did Trump loyalty become such a one-way street? Were all the outsized achievements in spite of these complicated relationships… or because of them? And what does all this mean for my generation of Trumps – my cousins Donald Jr, Ivanka, Eric, Tiffany, Barron, and David, my sister Mary, and me – and our children?
My father’s father, Fred Sr, was the Trump who first defined what it meant to be a Trump. He lived what could only be called a prosperous life. Having worked since he was a skinny 10-year-old, he’d risen to the pinnacle of the New York property world, ending up with a stunning portfolio that included scores of high-rise apartment buildings in Brooklyn and Queens. He had political juice and was known everywhere he went. But he had a terrible relationship with my father, who blamed him for ruining his life.
It was one of those can’t-live-together, can’t-live-apart situations. But it was my father, his namesake, who died just shy of his 43rd birthday. So, who paid the ultimate price?
Read Fred Trump III’s full piece
11:23 AM BST
Netanyahu works to mend ties with Trump at Mar-a-Lago
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu worked to mend ties with Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump on Friday and offered measured optimism about progress toward a cease-fire deal for Gaza.
At Trump’s Florida Mar-a-Lago estate, where the two men met face-to-face for the first time in nearly four years, Mr Netanyahu told journalists he wanted to see US-mediated talks succeed for a cease-fire and release of hostages.
“I hope so,” Mr Netanyahu said, when reporters asked if his US trip had made progress. While Netanyahu at home is increasingly accused of resisting a deal to end the 9-month-old war to stave off the potential collapse of his far-right government when it ends, he said Friday he was “certainly eager to have one. And we’re working on it.”
10:22 AM BST
Comment: Kamala Harris is the Meghan Markle of American politics
The similarities between the Vice President and the Duchess are truly uncanny, writes Camilla Tominey.
There had always been something strangely familiar about Kamala Harris. But I couldn’t quite put my finger on it – until she emerged from Joe Biden’s shadow after the US President announced his resignation on Sunday.
The penchant for spouting word salad; the slightly awkward misplaced laughter; the courting of chat show hosts; the celebrity iPhone moments; the loathing of Donald Trump; the unfortunate bullying allegations.
And then the penny dropped. Meghan! Kamala Harris reminds me of the Duchess of Sussex.
As she continues to spoon Montecito jam into jars, I wonder what Prince Harry’s wife is thinking right now. It has been suggested that Meghan one day dreamed of being the first mixed race, female President of the United States. Now Harris could beat her to it.
Read Camilla Tominey’s full piece
09:56 AM BST
Trump returns to Minnesota with Midwesterner Vance to try to swing Democrat-leaning state
Donald Trump is taking his campaign back to Minnesota, a state that has favoured Democrats but that the former president thinks could be in his reach this year.
Trump is set to hold a rally on Saturday night in St. Cloud, Minnesota, this time bringing along his running mate JD Vance and the expectation Trump will face Vice President Kamala Harris in November instead of President Joe Biden.
In May, Trump headlined a GOP fundraiser in St. Paul, where he boasted he could win the state and made explicit appeals to the iron mining range in northeast Minnesota, where he hopes a heavy population of blue-collar and union workers will shift to Republicans after years of being solidly Democratic.
09:40 AM BST
Trump accuses Harris of anti-Semitism in overblown speech
US presidential candidate Donald Trump falsely accused election rival Kamala Harris of being an anti-Semite who plans to allow the murder of newborn babies, in a speech meant to rally religious supporters on Friday that quickly went off the rails.
The vice president, who is married to a Jewish man, has gained ground on Trump in polling since she replaced Joe Biden on the top of the Democratic ticket just days ago.
Former Republican president Trump dedicated much of his address at a religious convention in southern Florida to assailing Harris’s record as a senator and as Biden’s number two, but many of his attacks were smears untethered to reality.
