Trump news - live: Trump to testify in E Jean Carroll defamation case as feds raid Pence home

GOP congressman Matt Gaetz was confronted at the State of the Union by an activist he previously body-shamed.

Twenty-year-old Olivia Julianna, director of politics and government affairs for the nonprofit Gen-Z for Change, took to Twitter to share her exchange with the Florida Representative at President Joe Biden’s second State of the Union.

Last summer, Ms Julianna criticised Mr Gaetz’s fatphobic remarks during a rally in which he said that “disgusting” women who “look like a thumb” have the “least likelihood of getting pregnant” and have no reason to support abortion rights. The Republican politician responded by sharing a Newsmax article that described his remarks as “sure to raise [the] dander of his political opponents” and included a photo of Ms Julianna, then tweeting “Dander raised...”

Ms Julianna, whose video decrying Mr Gaetz’s distasteful comments garnered more than a million views on TikTok, then launched a campaign for abortion funds that raised more than $2m — a sum she reportedly brought up when she ran into Mr Gaetz on Tuesday.

“Just want everyone to know I just shook @mattgaetz hand and thanked him for helping me raise two million dollars,” Ms Julianna wrote on Twitter. “His response was to say ‘heard you had trouble spending it.’ And to quickly walk away in the opposite direction. What a loser lol.”

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Perhaps no series of remarks angered Republicans during President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address on Tuesday evening than when he referenced how some Republicans want to let Social Security and Medicare expire.

Mr Biden and Democrats have hammered Republicans for supposedly wanting to cut the two entitlement programs which offer money and health insurance to senior citizens and are wildly popular.

“Instead of making the wealthy pay their fair share, some Republicans -- some Republicans want Medicare and Social Security to sunset,” he said.

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A whistleblower has revealed that Donald Trump asked Twitter to take down a tweet from Chrissy Teigen because he felt it was “derogatory” towards him.

In 2019, Mr Trump had tweeted about the model and TV personality, calling her the “filthy-mouthed wife” of her husband John Legend.

Teigen famously responded calling the then-president a “pussy a** b****.”

During testimony at a House Oversight and Accountability Committee on Wednesday, former Twitter employee Anika Navaroli said that the Trump White House had contacted the social media platform requesting Teigen’s post be removed.

“In that particular instance, I do remember hearing that we had received a request from the White House to make sure that we evaluated this tweet and that they wanted it to come down because it was a derogatory statement directed toward the president,” she said.

The revelation came as the House committee kicked off its hearings into Twitter’s role in restricting access to a New York Post story on Hunter Biden’s laptop – something Mr Trump and other Republicans have slammed as censorship.

The testimony indicated that the Trump White House actually engaged in efforts at censorship.

Democratic US Rep Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez criticised Twitter for its refusal to permanently suspend an influential account linked to anti-LGBT+ smears and threats of violence, including bomb threats at children’s hospitals.

During a House Oversight Committee hearing on 8 February, the New York congresswoman questioned former executives at the social media platform why “Libs of TikTok” was allowed to falsely suggest that Boston Children’s Hospital was performing hysterectomies on transgender children, claims that allegedly fuelled threats and harassment towards the hospital and its staff.

Ms Ocasio-Cortez asked Twitter’s former head of safety Yoel Roth why the account was not suspended “despite inspiring a bomb threat due to the right-wing incitement of violence against trans Americans.” Mr Roth said that “regrettably” the account remained active.

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Donald Trump was very active on Tuesday as his 2020 rival Joe Biden delivered his second State of the Union speech from Capitol Hill.

The former president (and current 2024 candidate) attempted to capture headlines and public attention with a long thread of live commentary meant to accompany his political foe’s address. Few saw it, however, as the former president remains inactive on Twitter after being unbanned by Elon Musk.

“Having a hard time getting the words out, even though the Fake News will credit him with one of the Great Speeches of all time. I really want to see him improve. Come one Joe, you can do it!” he wrote in one Truth Social post.

But that was far from the extent of the ex-president’s attempts to hug the spotlight on Tuesday. While Mr Biden spoke, his 2024 campaign released a flurry of press releases — eight in total — touting various accomplishments and goings-on of the Trump presidency.

Mr Trump also attacked Mr Biden and his campaign for supposedly coordinating with social media companies to censor conservatives — though there’s no evidence that’s true, beyond some instances where the Biden campaign sought to have explicit images of the president’s son removed from Twitter.

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Donald Trump has amplified a social media post suggesting Florida governor Ron DeSantis “groomed” teen girls and drank with his students while the Republican state leader was a high school teacher.

In a series of statements on his Truth Social platform on Tuesday, Mr Trump responded to a post from a user showing a low-quality photo of a man with a resemblance to Mr DeSantis standing with a group of young women with blurred out faces, one of whom appears to be holding a beer bottle.

“Here is Ron DeSanctimonious grooming high school girls with alcohol as a teacher,” a caption on the user’s post reads.

Mr Trump, resharing the image multiple times, responded, “No way?” and, “That’s not Ron, is it?”

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Mr Trump posted an astonishing 48 Truth Social posts over the course of Mr Biden’s State of the Union address.

The speech lasted about one hour and 13 minutes, meaning Mr Trump shared a post every 90 seconds on average.

The former president boasted about his commentary performance on Wednesday morning, claiming “millions and millions” of people tuned in to hear what he had to say.

“Big night for ‘TRUTH’ last night. Tremendous numbers of people signed on to hear my ‘Play by Play’ of the SOTU Speech…Like I mean Millions and Millions of people, and TRUTH handled the Traffic well,” he wrote.

“Congrats to Devin Nunes and all of those great technicians and others who make TRUTH Social work. Despite all of the obstacles put in our path by the SEC, others in Government, and the Fake News Media, it is a giant success that reaches massive numbers of people, both Friend & Foe! Thank you!” he added.

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In one part of his State of the Union on Tuesday night, President Joe Biden’s rhetoric took on a populist tone that would have been equally appropriate coming from the mouth of his predecessor, former president Donald Trump.

Mr Biden lamented how the American middle class has been “hollowed out” over a period of decades, while “good-paying manufacturing jobs moved overseas” and “factories at home closed down”.

Referring back to the theme of his 2020 campaign, Mr Biden said his “vision for country” has always been to “restore the soul of America” to “rebuild the backbone ... of the middle class,” and to “unite the country”.

In what looked to be a preview of his 2024 reelection theme, Mr Biden exhorted both sides of the aisle to take up the unfinished parts of his agenda.

Donald Trump‘s former lawyer Michael Cohen said he was meeting yet again Wednesday with New York City prosecutors who have spent years examining the former president’s financial dealings.

Cohen stopped briefly to talk with reporters as he entered the Manhattan district attorney’s office. He said it was the 15th time he had met with prosecutors.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg recently convened a new grand jury to hear evidence related to payments Cohen helped arrange in 2016 to two women who claimed to have had sexual encounters with Trump.

“I don’t know why I’m here yet. We’ll find out as soon as I get upstairs,” Cohen said.

Cohen was previously one of Trump’s top lieutenants, acting as a liaison with the media and handling some of his legal and business affairs. But after federal prosecutors charged Cohen with tax evasion and criminal campaign finance violations, the two have become enemies.

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