Trump lashes out on Truth Social after new indictment filed against him – as it happened
New indictment alleges Trump sought to pressure department of justice in his effort to overturn his 2020 election defeat; Trump calls new filing a ‘travesty’. This blog is now closed.
Trump calls new indictment a 'travesty' in Truth Social rant
Donald Trump has responded to the new indictment filed against him in the election subversion case, describing it as an “effort to resurrect a ‘dead’ Witch Hunt” and accusing the special counsel of election interference.
The former president unleashed a torrent of criticism and complaints about the superseding indictment, which keeps the same criminal charges against him that were filed last summer but removes allegations related to the justice department.
Trump says that RFK Jr is “somewhat friendly actually” and that he is “a very smart guy, a different kinds of a guy”.
An environmental group is calling for a federal investigation into the former presidential candidate for an episode in which he allegedly severed the head of a washed-up whale with a chainsaw – and drove home with it strapped to his car’s roof.
Donald Trump has appointed Robert F Kennedy Jr and Tulsi Gabbard, two former Democrats who have endorsed his bid for a second presidency, to the transition team that could shape his future administration.
Kennedy’s appointment came after he suspended his own presidential campaign as an independent candidate last week and threw his weight behind an erstwhile opponent who, just four months ago, branded him a “radical-left lunatic”.
Dr Phil asks if “they” would have been ok with Trump being shot. He says he doesn’t know, but that there is “a lot of hate”.
Comments about Trump being a threat to democracy “can get potential assassins going”, he says.
He claims that inflation was not mentioned at the DNC, which is not true.
A clip is played of Trump saying, “In four years we’ll have it fixed you won’t have to vote”. Trump claims that this was aimed at Christians, who he says don’t like to vote. He says it wasn’t claim about dictatorship.
He says he was joking about being a “dictator” on “day one”.
Sean Hannity asked Trump in an interview in December last year, “Under no circumstances, you are promising America tonight, you would never abuse power as retribution against anybody?”
“Except for day one,” Trump responded. Trump said on the “day one” he referred to, he would use his presidential powers to close the southern border with Mexico and expand oil drilling.
In case you’re wondering about Dr Phil’s politics: Media Matters wrote an article in 2022 headlined “CBS’ Dr Phil has become a safe space for right-wing media personalities to spread hate and misinformation”. That show was later cancelled.
The 2022 article reports:
The newest season of CBS’ Dr. Phil has regularly featured right-wing personalities, including anti-abortion activists, Fox News and PragerU personalities, and members of far-right student and parent groups, giving them platforms to share misinformation and hate.
This trend appears to be a distinct turn for the show in contrast to the previous season. Dr. Phil now tackles conservative culture war issues like critical race theory, transgender athletes, “cancel culture,” cultural appropriation, and abortion.
“Any time you have a mail in ballot there is going to be massive fraud”, Trump says, erroneously. It is a claim he has made before, referring to “cheating”.
More on this from my colleague Hugo Lowell:
Trump’s attacks are complicating efforts at the Trump campaign to convince Republicans to vote early, which advisers know is crucial to win the election given Democratic voters have no qualms about voting by mail or organizing ballot initiatives and have given their party a major advantage.
Just 28% of Republicans support allowing any voter to cast a ballot by mail, compared with 84% of Democrats, according to a study in February by the Pew Research Center. A large part of that thinking, sources close to Trump concede, has been driven by the former president’s criticism of early voting.
The problem has become multi-faceted, sources familiar with the situation say. The Trump campaign needs to convince Republicans who believe Trump’s every word that they can discount his fearmongering, while ensuring they do not anger Trump by undercutting his position.
In essence, the Trump campaign has the delicate task of persuading Republican voters to participate in early voting methods that Trump has falsely said were the reason why there was rampant fraud in the 2020 election that meant he lost to Joe Biden.
The undertaking is made difficult by the fact that Trump’s voters typically take him at his word. The fear instilled in them of early voting means that Trump and down-ballot Republican candidates are far more at the mercy of election day problems like bad weather, long lines or voting machine issues.
Trump talked about mail-in ballots, yet another personal bugbear of his.
In his question to Trump, Dr Phil used the pejorative term “ballot harvesting”, a term Republicans use to refer to absentee ballots.
In December he called for the end of mail-in voting entirely, before claiming in an interview last month that “any time the mail is involved, you’re going to have cheating”.
He talks about voting in person being a “family custom”.
He is repeating false claims about Harris wanting to defund the police and ban fracking. He both says that she still believes in policies she has since changed, and that “everything has changed”.
“At this moment she can do no wrong,” he says at one point. But he also claims that she will “destroy the country”.
He says he has nothing against her personally. She is getting “a free press”, he says.
At the 20 minute mark, we are onto taxes and immigration. He claims that Europe has 10% income tax.
From the Tax Foundation: “Among European OECD countries, the average statutory top personal income tax rate lies at 42.8 percent in 2024.”
The interview starts with Trump talking about the assassination attempt, he talks about the misleading graph on immigration that he credits with saving his life, because he turned to look at it as shots were fired.
He repeats the claim that he was saved by God, because God loves America. “It has to be God,” he says.
He says that maybe God wants him to do more than save America, “maybe it’s saving the world” and “I get along with all those guys”, appearing to mean the leaders of Iran, Russia, and Israel.
He takes umbrage with Biden dropping out, “you’re doing well against the opponent… and they give you a nice fresh opponent”.
NPR reports that Trump staff had a “verbal and physical altercation Monday with an official at Arlington National Cemetery” on Monday. Trump was at Arlington to take place in a wreath-laying ceremony.
In a statement, Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung denied that there was a physical altercation and said that an unnamed individual was “clearly suffering from a mental health episode” when he tried to prevent a member of Trump’s staff during the ceremony.
Here is part of that report:
The cemetery official tried to prevent Trump staffers from filming and photographing in a section where recent US casualties are buried. The source said Arlington officials had made clear that only cemetery staff members are authorized to take photographs or film in the area, known as Section 60.
When the cemetery official tried to prevent Trump campaign staff from entering Section 60, campaign staff verbally abused and pushed the official aside, according to the source.
Trump participated in an event to mark the third anniversary of a deadly attack on US troops in Afghanistan as U.S. forces withdrew from the country; 13 US service members were killed in the attack. The Trump campaign has blamed President Biden and Vice President Harris, now the Democratic presidential nominee, for the chaotic withdrawal.
In a statement to NPR, Steven Cheung, the Trump campaign’s spokesman, strongly rejected the notion of a physical altercation, adding: “We are prepared to release footage if such defamatory claims are made.
“The fact is that a private photographer was permitted on the premises and for whatever reason an unnamed individual, clearly suffering from a mental health episode, decided to physically block members of President Trump’s team during a very solemn ceremony,” Cheung said in the statement.
Donald Trump says he’s reached “an agreement” with Kamala Harris over rules for their debate next month, but Harris’ campaign says that’s not the case.
Trump said in a post on Truth Social on Tuesday that the parameters for the 10 September presidential debate would be “the same as the last CNN Debate.” During that debate with Joe Biden, the candidates’ microphones were muted except when it was their turn to speak.
But Harris’ campaign says Tuesday that specifics for the debate are still being worked with host ABC News. A Harris spokesperson noted: “Both candidates have publicly made clear their willingness to debate with unmuted mics for the duration of the debate to fully allow for substantive exchanges between the candidates - but it appears Donald Trump is letting his handlers overrule him. Sad!”
The back and forth over the debate has centred around the issue of microphone muting, which Biden’s campaign made a condition of his decision to accept any debates this year.
A Harris spokesperson said Monday that Harris wants microphones to be live all the time. Trump’s campaign alleged Harris’ representatives sought “a seated debate, with notes, and opening statements,” specifications the Harris campaign denied.
