Trump latest news: Ex-president calls Putin ‘driven’ as he warns Ukraine invasion could lead to third world war

For all the talk of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis challenging Donald Trump in a 2024 Republican primary, NBC’s Mark Caputo writes that there is currently no contest between the two men in Mr DeSantis’s home state:

The Bulwark’s Amanda Carpenter, a thought-leader in the centre-right Trump critic community, offers up this analysis of how Donald Trump gave many in the GOP and on the right in general the confidence to publicly sympathise with Putin’s Russia.

Mainstream Republicans – anti-Trumpers in particular – have been pushing back on narratives coming from some quarters of US politics that echo Kremlin talking points on Ukraine. Here, Mitt Romney and Adam Kinzinger go after Tulsi Gabbard, the former Democratic congresswoman and presidential candidate who recently addressed right-wing Republicans at CPAC.

Guy Reffitt, the first 6 January rioter to face trial, was found guilty last week over his part in the attack on the US Capitol. While his son testified against him, confirming that he turned his father in after he threatened his family with violence should they commit “treachery” by contacting law enforcement, Mr Reffitt’s wife Nicole had a different message when she spoke outside the courtroom.

“The verdict today is actually against all American people,” she said. “If you’re going to be convicted on your First Amendment rights, all Americans should be wary. This fight has just begun.”

Asked by a reporter what she would say to other 6 January defendants, she added: “Don’t take a plea. Do not take a plea. They want us to take a plea. The reason that we have all guilty verdicts is they are making a point out of Guy, and that is to intimidate the other members of the 1/6ers.”

Ms Reffitt’s answer misses that none of the rioters who have been sentenced so far has been found guilty after a trial. Instead, all of them have pleaded guilty to at least one charge, whether as part of a deal or otherwise. And the number of pleas and sentencings is indeed rising fast…

Of all the weird and wild passages in Donald Trump’s speech in South Carolina on Saturday, two stood out: one in which he impored supporters to “lay down their very lives” in the fight against the teaching of “critical race theory” (the Republican catch-all term for curriculums that include the grim facts of American racial history) and another in which he promised “reforms making every executive branch employee fireable by the president of the United States”. (It was Mr Trump’s decision to fire James Comey as head of the FBI that kickstarted what became Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation.)

Watch more below from dedicated Trumpwatcher Aaron Rupar:

Donald Trump sounded on Saturday like he was already running for re-election, but speculation about other Republicans joining a primary against him – or perhaps even without him – is at a new high.

High up the list of potential contenders is Mike Pence, who has deviated from the Trump line on 6 January – while making sure not to contradict his former boss too explicitly on that or other core right-wing issues.

Meanwhile, others lining themselves up include members of the party’s thin anti-Trump ranks:

Former president Donald Trump mocked Rep Nancy Mace at a rally in the Republican congresswoman’s home state of South Carolina for posting a video of herself in front of the former president’s Trump Tower property in New York.

Ms Mace, who had earlier slammed Mr Trump after the 6 January insurrection, had posted a video in front of Trump Tower on 10 February, this year, highlighting her support for his 2016 and 2020 run.

Mr Trump, however, was not too pleased.

“She went to New York and stood in front of the magnificent Trump Tower – has anyone ever heard of Trump Tower – and did a commercial insinuating that I was endorsing her,” he said. “She’s standing over in front of Trump Tower in New York. I’m saying ‘can you believe this?’ It was untruthful just like everything else she does.”

Sunday Morning Features host Maria Bartiromo drew fire on Twitter after she claimed that some Americans were questioning whether President Joe Biden truly views Russia’s Vladimir Putin as an adversary.

Bartiromo made the comments on Fox and Friends, the network’s flagship morning show, on Sunday while interviewing Sen Lindsey Graham.

Mr Graham, a longtime loyalist of former President Donald Trump, has been a chief purveyor of the bizarre claim that Mr Trump’s administration was somehow putting up a stronger resistance to Mr Putin’s whims than does the Biden White House.

“I was on the phone all weekend with various people about this conflict right now. What I took away from all of my phone calls is the strategy of this administration has been underwhelming and not enough,” she told Mr Graham.

The anchor added: “Some people have told me over the weekend that they feel that at the end of the day this administration does not see Putin as the enemy, they see him as a partner on many issues.”

Former President Barack Obama announced that he has Covid-19 on Sunday, writing in a tweet that he was experiencing mild symptoms.

His wife, former first lady Michelle Obama, tested negative according to her husband’s announcement.

“I just tested positive for COVID. I’ve had a scratchy throat for a couple days, but am feeling fine otherwise. Michelle and I are grateful to be vaccinated and boosted, and she has tested negative,” he wrote.

The former president continued: “It’s a reminder to get vaccinated if you haven’t already, even as cases go down.”

Read details in this report by John Bowden: