Trump suggests cutting social security, medicare, prompting Biden criticism: Latest

Jury selection for a criminal trial on charges connected to hush money payments to an adult film star ahead of the 2016 presidential election is scheduled for 25 March. It is the first criminal proceeding against the former president – and the first ever against any former president – among the four criminal cases he faces in four jurisdictions.

The nation’s highest court will hear Mr Trump’s arguments on his “immunity” defence on 25 April, the final day for oral arguments in this year’s session, and one month after his trial in New York is scheduled to begin. A federal judge and appeals court have already shot down his attempts to evade criminal prosecution on charges connected to his attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election.

A ruling from the Supreme Court is likely to follow several weeks later.

In a filing on Monday, Mr Trump’s attorneys argued that statements that Mr Trump made on Twitter and to news networks about his former attorney Michael Cohen in 2018 “implicate the concept of official acts for purposes of presidential immunity,” but the filing does not address the alleged repayment scheme that is central to the case – and took place months before Mr Trump entered the White House.

His Twitter account was “an official communications channel during his Presidency, to communicate with the public regarding matters of public concern,” according to Mr Trump’s attorneys Todd Blanche and Susan Nechles.

Donald Trump has requested that the judge in charge of his criminal business fraud case in connection to hush money payments to an adult actress delay the upcoming trial until the US Supreme Court has finished reviewing his immunity claim in another case.

The hush money is currently scheduled to start on 25 March.

Donald Trump may have hit out at Jimmy Kimmel’s hosting of the Oscars, but he’s no stranger to lambasting the Academy Awards. In fact, Trump’s criticism of the show is something of an Oscar night tradition.

“Has there EVER been a WORSE HOST than Jimmy Kimmel at The Oscars,” Trump wrote. “His opening was that of a less than average person trying too hard to be something which he is not, and never can be.” In response, Kimmel joked: “Isn’t it past your jail time?”

In 2020, Trump became distracted during a rally and went on a rant about that year’s Best Picture prize being awarded to Bong Joon-ho’s celebrated class satire Parasite. “By the way, how bad were the Academy Awards this year, do you see?” Trump asked the crowd. “And the winner [was] a movie from South Korea. What the hell was all that about? We got enough problems with South Korea, on trade, and on top of it they give it the best movie of the year. Was it good?”

Then he complained that films were not as good as they used to be. “Can we get Gone with the Wind back, please? Sunset Boulevard! So many great movies.” He also added that he was not a fan of Brad Pitt, who won Best Supporting Actor that night for Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, dubbing him “a little wiseguy”.

“Look I’m not a young guy, that’s no secret,” he laughs in a new ad released Saturday.

Mr Biden, 81, appears laid-back in the new advertisement and counters the joke about his age with a benefit to his many years of experience: “But here’s the deal, I understand how to get things done for the American people.”

“I’ve passed the biggest law in history to combat climate change because our future depends on it,” Mr Biden says.

“Donald Trump took away the freedom of women to choose, I’m determined to make Roe v Wade the law of the land, again.”

The ad, aptly titled like the popular TikTok homepage, “For You”, is part of the president’s re-election campaign’s appeal to young voters – the same voting bloc that helped Mr Biden get elected in 2020.

In an interview with ABC News on Sunday, the congresswoman was repeatedly asked to square her support for Mr Trump against the jury’s findings, while she argued she was being “shamed” for her “political choices” as a rape survivor herself.

“Donald Trump has been found liable for rape by a jury. Donald Trump has been found liable for defaming the victim of that rape by a jury. It’s been affirmed by a judge,” ABC’s This Week host George Stephanopoulos told Ms Mace on Sunday.

“If you want to go ahead and defend a woman who made a mockery out of rape, then you go ahead and do that,” Ms Mace said at one point.

“Well, actually what you’re doing is defending a man who has been found liable for rape, Mr Stephanopoulos replied. “I don’t understand how you can do that.”

Ms Mace said the case of E Jean Carroll should not be seen as the same as a criminal conviction.