Trump news latest: Trump claims he had ‘absolute authority’ to declassify files found at

In an interview with right-wing radio host Hugh Hewitt this morning, Donald Trump was given a chance to riff on the Mar-a-Lago search and its aftermath.

Aside from boasting about his poll numbers and saying that “the people are not going to stand for” the search, he also fixated on John Durham’s fading probe into the Russia invesitagtion, insisted that “alternate slates” of electors submitted to overturn presidential are “common” rather than illegal, confirmed he had not been asked to appear before a grand jury (it was not clear which one), and also insisted a president has the “absolute right” to declassify classified documents.

This is inaccurate, and is also not the only matter at issue in the Mar-a-Lago case.

He also said that were he indicted, he “would have no prohibition” on running for president – and warned of “big problems” thanks to the uproar that would result. Asked if he was inciting violence, he replied: “I’m just saying what my opinion is”.

When Donald Trump floated the controversial idea to buy Greenland in 2019, it was not because of conversations with administration officials, as he said at the time. It was the by-product of a suggestion posed by one of his billionaire friends, a new book reports.

In August 2019, the former president compared the purchase of Greenland to a “large real estate deal”, stating that the notion had been planted in his head after ongoing conversations with members within his cabinet.

“The concept came up and….strategically it’s interesting,” he told a group of reporters on board Air Force One at the time. Later, a report from The Wall Street Journal would claim that the former real estate mogul became fixated on the semi-autonomous territory of Denmark after learning about its vast natural resources and geopolitical importance.

“First we have to find out whether or not they have any interest,” he said.

Johanna Chisholm has the story.

Bennie Thompson, chair of the House January 6 committee, has said the panel has obtained “thousands of exhibits” from Secret Service agents in relation to the panel’s investigation.

Mr Thompson told reporters on Wednesday that the materials obtained by his committee were a combination of different communications including “text messages, radio traffic … thousands of exhibits”, as Axios reported.

The receipt of “thousands” of materials comes three months after the committee issued a subpoena for Secret Service communications from the day of the assault on the US Capitol and the day before.

It remains unclear what, if any, new information has been obtained by the panel, which has recently announced a second round of hearings for September.

Pennsylvania’s gubernatorial race has gotten plenty of attention thanks to GOP candidate Doug Mastriano, an outright Christian nationalist who attended the 6 January rally that preceded the attack on the US Capitol.

Mr Mastriano, an election conspiracy theorist who currently trails in the polls, has previously said he would order a purge of the state’s voter rolls if elected – and given that Pennsylvania’s secretary of state is appointed by the governor, not elected, he would have more leeway than most governors in the nation to reshape the way elections in his state are carried out.

Eric Garcia looks at what a Mastriano win could mean for the next election.

As Republican Herschel Walker struggles in his challenge to incumbent Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock, polling indicates that even as the contest features two Black men, the gendered and racial gaps in whom voters are supporting are extremely stark:

Mr Warnock’s campaign has been hampered from the off by his history of domestic abuse, his steady stream of bizarre and rambling public statements, and his habit of repeating outright false claims – including lies about his professional and educational history.

Donald Trump’s wife, Melania, was reportedly so disturbed by her husband’s handling of the Covid-19 pandemic that she took to characterising his response as “screwing up”.

The news of one of the former president’s closest confidants, among others, expressing doubts in his ability to handle critical geopolitical issues comes from a forthcoming book from New York Times chief White House correspondent Peter Baker and New Yorker staff writer and CNN global affairs analyst Susan Glasser. CNN obtained an early copy of the book.

In one of the book’s more damning passages, the pair of veteran reporters cite interviews with Trump insiders who were able to confirm that the one-term president’s partner was concerned with how his administration was responding to the pandemic, which he was claiming as late as 27 February – after the US had retroactively confirmed its first death and the World Health Organisation had declared it a global health emergency – would disappear “like a miracle”.

Johanna Chisholm reports.

Donald Trump appears to be on something of a tear this morning, sharing various news clips and Fox News segments about John Durham’s probe into the origins of Robert Mueller’s investigation into connections between Trump’s team and Russian agents.

Mr Trump claims that the Durham probe proves that his 2016 campaign and administration was spied on thanks to a conspiracy masterminded to some extent by Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and compromised law enforcement officials. There is no evidence for this.

Most of what Mr Trump has shared is focused on Igor Danchenko, a Russia analyst who has been indicted for lying to federal investigators. However, that indictment was handed down by a grand jury last year.

Mr Trump has most likely been triggered by a New York Times story that described the three-year-old Durham investigation as entering its final stages with no major revelations on the horizon: