Trump news - live: President posts ‘most important’ 46-minute speech filled with false voter fraud claims

Nearly the entire US is a Covid-19 hot spot, a leaked government map reveals.

Yahoo! News obtained an internal 28 November chart from the US departments of homeland security and health which show nearly the entire country blanketed in red, denoting counties which are “sustained hotspots.”

These pandemic zones, which swallow up nearly the entire state in places like Arizona and the hard-hit Midwest, are “communities that have had a high sustained case burden and may be higher risk for experiencing healthcare resource limitations,” according to the chart.

President Trump has declared on multiple occasions that the virus will disappear.

Read more by Josh Marcus here:

Hillary Clinton says Donald Trump will remain in the public eye after Joe Biden’s inauguration and predicted he would run again in 2024.

Ms Clinton told actor Dax Shepard’s podcast: “Trump's not going away, he may have to finally have to leave the White House, but he's going to turn around the next day and say he's running for president again.'

“And then he's going to be out there, he's going to have rallies, because it's like lifeblood to him.

“He's probably going to be owning some kind of media outlet where he's going to be peddling his stuff everyday."

Read more from Graeme Massie here:

The US justice department is investigating if there was a secret scheme to lobby White House officials for a pardon.

A heavily redacted court document, released by US District Judge Beryl Howell on Tuesday, does not name President Donald Trump or any other specific individuals.

Prosecutors said they had obtained evidence of a bribery scheme in which someone "would offer a substantial political contribution in exchange for a presidential pardon or reprieve of sentence."

Mr Trump tweeted Tuesday night: "Pardon investigation is Fake News!"

Donald Trump does not intend to go to Joe Biden’s inauguration as president in January, according to a report.

Mr Trump was invited to the White House by then president Barack Obama after his surprise defeat of Hillary Clinton in 2016.

But the outgoing president does not intend to invite Mr Biden or his wife Jill Biden to the White House prior to January 20, as reported by NBC News.

Read more from Graeme Massie here: 

President Donald Trump said he would veto a $740 billion National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) unless it includes a measure eliminating a federal law protecting tech companies such as Facebook and Twitter.

On Twitter Mr Trump said: "If the very dangerous & unfair Section 230 is not completely terminated as part of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), I will be forced to unequivocally VETO the Bill when sent to the very beautiful Resolute desk."

Mr Trump is upset about Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which Democrats won’t agree to repealing. 

Section 230 protects tech companies from liability over content posted by users, and has been under attack from Trump and Republican lawmakers, who have accused them of stifling conservative voices.

The NDAA sets policy for the Department of Defense and governs a number of key policy areas such as how many aircraft can be purchased. It has been passed annually for the past six decades.

The president has admitted for the first time in public that he will be running again in 2024, according to a video of a White House Christmas event last night.

Full details below:

“I watched [Mueller investigation attorney] Andrew Weissman come out and literally say ‘oh, Biden’s AG needs to go after Donald Trump,’” Sean Hannity said. 

“And I’m like, the president out the door needs to pardon his whole family and himself, because they want this witch hunt to go on in perpetuity … I assume that the power of the pardon is absolute, and that he should be able to pardon anybody that he wants to.”

Legal experts, however, have reiterated that presidents cannot pardon themselves, reports Andrew Naughtie.

For Independent Voices,  Alexander Heffner writes Joe Biden’s inaugural address presents an opportunity to calm a combustible nation and define his leadership.

“There are four presidential transitions and resulting inaugural addresses that he should bear in mind while preparing his own: Ford-Carter, Eisenhower-Kennedy, Hoover-Roosevelt, and Johnson-Grant.”

Centrist Democrat Joe Manchin has accused his left-wing colleague Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of being "more active on Twitter" than in Congress.

Mr Manchin, a West Virginia senator, claimed Ms Ocasio-Cortez, representative for New York's 14th congressional district, is not that "active in bills or in committee".

“I guess she put the dagger stare on me,” Mr Manchin, 73, told The New York Times in an interview published on Monday.

“I don’t know the young lady — I really don’t. I never met her. I’m understanding she’s not that active with her bills or in committee. She’s more active on Twitter than anything else,” he added.

Matt Mathers has the story.

Jimmy Kimmel has spoofed Melania Trump’s Christmas decorations in a new skit.

The spoof video includes ornaments with messages such as “get the f*** out of here”, “I hate him” written across a photo of Donald Trump, and “this is bulls***”.