Biden derides ‘feeble, confused and tired’ Trump for comparing himself to Jesus

As Donald Trump approaches his $464m bond payment deadline on Monday, social media users have come together to coin yet another nickname for the former president: “Don Poorleone.”

The meme uses an image of the iconic Marlon Brando character, Vito Corleone, from “The Godfather“ and adapts his famous line.

While Vito Corleone vowed to “make him an offer he can’t refuse”, the Trump meme states: “I made an offer everyone refused.”

READ MORE

Republican Representative Lauren Boebert defended bragging about bringing home $20m for water and infrastructure projects to her Colorado district in the recent spending bill that passed – despite having voted against the bill’s final passage.

The right-wing Republican put out a press release last week touting the funding for projects in her state’s 3rd district.

“These include important federal resources for new water storage, improving water quality, funding water treatment plants, building new water supply lines, reducing congestion on I-70, and building roads and bridges,” Ms Boebert said in a press release.

“I’m grateful to all the local stakeholders who brought these important projects to my attention and that worked with my team and I throughout this process to ensure that 10 out of 10 of our requests were successfully funded in public law. Can’t wait for the ribbon cuttings and to see these priorities come to fruition.”

But Ms Boebert voted against the spending bill on 8 March. The legislation was the first of six spending bills that passed this month to fund the government through the end of the current fiscal year, which expires on 30 September. Last week, the House and Senate passed the second round of spending bills to keep the government open.

Ms Boebert bragged about bringing the money back to Colorado last week to The Independent.

“Sure did, I fought to get it in there, did I not,” she said. “If I wasn’t working on it, then it wouldn’t have been in there.”

But when asked about why she voted against its final passage, she said she disliked the process.

“I didn’t agree to the swampy way it came to the floor but I fought to get the stuff in the bills and it’s there,” she said. “And Colorado is going to benefit from it.”

READ MORE

Lisa Murkowski’s future in the Republican Party is now publicly in question as the Alaska senator says she is grappling with the reality that her party is set to nominate the twice-impeached former president who faces 91 criminal charges for the presidency.

Donald Trump’s continued control of the GOP and the dominance of his Maga faction is not sitting well with the centrist Republican who has broken with her party’s base several times in recent years, including in the second impeachment trial of Donald Trump and the 2017 failed vote to repeal the Affordable Care Act.

Ms Murkowski was interviewed by CNN’s Manu Raju on Capitol Hill and said that she wouldn’t be endorsing Mr Trump for president — as most other Republicans on Capitol Hill have already done — in 2024. She further added that she was “independently minded”, and was asked whether that meant she was considering dropping her party affiliation.

“I am navigating my way through some very interesting political times. Let’s just leave it at that,” she responded.

READ MORE

Donald Trump said he would “put up the cash” as he was granted more time to pay part of the $464m bond in his New York civil fraud case on Monday, 25 March.

An appeals court granted the former president a 10-day extension to pay $175m in a reprieve on the day the full amount against him had been due.

In rambling remarks at 40 Wall Street after appearing in Manhattan criminal court, Mr Trump said: “This is all about election interference. This is all Biden-run things.

“We’ll put up securities, cash, or bond, whatever it is, very quickly.”

Donald Trump has been granted a lifeline after an appeals court slashed his fraud trial bond and granted him a 10-day reprieve mere hours before his deadline expired.

Judge Arthur Engoron ruled last month that Mr Trump must pay $354m in fines and a further $110m plus interest ($464m, all in) after being found liable by a jury of inflating the value of Trump Organization assets between 2011 and 2021 in order to obtain favourable loans from banks and insurers.

With interest ticking ever-upwards at 9 per cent or $120,000 a day, the exact total he owed as of Monday 25 March was closer to $468.1m, with his lawyers arguing that finding a bond company to support such a huge amount has proven a “practical impossibility” after approaching more than 30 surety firms through four separate brokers.

Despite that appeal from his attorneys as they sought the delay, Mr Trump had insisted in a social media post on Friday that he has $500m on hand in ready cash but wants to use it on his presidential campaign instead.

READ MORE

Tammy Murphy, the first lady of New Jersey, said she is suspending her campaign to replace indicted Senator Bob Menendez in a video posted to social media.

After four months of campaigning against Representative Andy Kim, Ms Murphy will depart from the race, saying she did not want to participate in “waging a very divisive and negative campaign.”

“I’ve been genuine and factual throughout but it is clear to me that continuing in this race will involve waging a very divisive and negative campaign which I’m not willing to do,” Ms Murphy said on Sunday.

Upon entering the Senate race in November, Ms Murphy was favoured to win given her political ties to major donors and organisations as well as her husband’s status as governor of New Jersey. However, her lack of political experience made her a target.

Meanwhile, Mr Kim criticised Ms Murphy for her ties to politicians and claimed she was being backed by donors and local leaders purely due to her status. He filed a lawsuit challenging the state’s primary ballot design which generally favours the candidate with the most endorsements.

READ MORE

Last week, Ohio Republican voters nominated Bernie Moreno to run against Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown. As Ohio has moved from being a swing state to a solidly pro-Donald Trump Republican outpost in the Midwest, Brown remains the only statewide elected Democrat there.

Democrats will need to spend mountains of cash to help his campaign in a state Trump won twice. But Brown has also received some additional help in the form of the two spending bills that passed this month, thanks to “earmarks”.

Earmarks are the part of the appropriations process that allow for members to request spending for specific projects in their home state or district. For many years, Congress included earmarks as a way to get members onboard must-pass legislation such as spending bills. A little money toward a pet project can soften the blow of a bill someone does not like — and it gives members something to point to when they face re-election.

After the 2008 financial crisis, earmarks — or, as they are formally known, congressionally directed spending — gained a bad reputation. Sarah Palin famously said “thanks but no thanks” to the so-called “Bridge to Nowhere” her Republican congressman pushed to include. And when Republicans took control of the House of Representatives in 2011, they banned earmarks entirely.

READ MORE