Biden derides ‘feeble, confused and tired’ Trump for comparing himself to Jesus: Latest updates

The Republican presidential contender has called on Israel to “finish up” its war in Gaza because it is losing support around the world.

In an interview with Israeli newspaper Israel Hayom, the former president said he had watched images of bombs being dropped on residential buildings in Gaza every night, calling it a “big mistake”.

“You have to finish up your war… You gotta get it done. And I am sure you will do that. And we gotta get to peace, we can’t have this going on. And I will say, Israel has to be very careful, because you’re losing a lot of the world, you’re losing a lot of support,” he told the newspaper.

The former president has refrained from issuing running commentary on the war since the Hamas attacks of 7 October and the subsequent Israeli response.

The comments represent his most forceful intervention yet on the matter.

Here’s more from Richard Hall and Gustaf Kilander.

Tensions between the United States and Israel escalated further on Monday as Washington allowed the UN to pass a resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, prompting a furious response from Benjamin Netanyahu.

The US abstained from the United Nations Security Council vote, enabling the first ceasefire resolution since the 7 October Hamas attacks. Applause broke out in the chamber as the vote was passed.

Israel’s prime minister cancelled the planned visit of a high-level delegation to Washington, DC, in protest, and accused the US of “retreating” from what he said had been a “principled position”.

A statement from Netanyahu’s office said the new resolution “regrettably” calls for a ceaseire “that is not contingent on the release of hostages.”

It added that the decision “constitutes a clear departure from the consistent US position in the Security Council since the beginning of the war.”

Here’s more from Richard Hall and Andrew Feinberg.

Trump posted this on the aforementioned Truth Social yesterday, amid his time of trials.

It drew this delightfully withering response from the Biden campaign.

Incidentally, over on Fox News, it was Charles Manson, not Christ, to whom Trump was likened, unwisely, by pundit Marc Thiessen, who griped: “None of this would be happening if Donald Trump wasn’t running for president. They’ve issued 91 indictments against Donald Trump.

“Charles Manson faced 10… They’ve got multiple cases trying to bankrupt him.”

Attorneys for Donald Trump failed to convince a judge that the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office mishandled potential evidence in his criminal case stemming from an alleged hush money scheme to bury embarrassing stories of his affairs.

The former president arrived inside a 15th floor criminal courtroom in Manhattan on Monday morning for yet another pretrial hearing in the case, what was supposed to be the first day of jury selection for the first-ever criminal trial against a president.

Instead, New York Justice Juan Merchan presided over a hearing where Mr Trump’s attorneys levelled allegations of misconduct against Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office over the production of thousands of pages of documents surrounding Michael Cohen, Mr Trump’s former attorney and a key witness in the case.

The judge grew increasingly frustrated with the former president’s legal team, saying at one point that he found it “odd that we’re even here”.

Last week, Ohio Republican voters nominated Bernie Moreno to run against Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown. As Ohio has moved from being a swing state to a solidly pro-Donald Trump Republican outpost in the Midwest, Brown remains the only statewide elected Democrat there.

Democrats will need to spend mountains of cash to help his campaign in a state Trump won twice. But Brown has also received some additional help in the form of the two spending bills that passed this month, thanks to “earmarks”.

Earmarks are the part of the appropriations process that allow for members to request spending for specific projects in their home state or district. For many years, Congress included earmarks as a way to get members onboard must-pass legislation such as spending bills. A little money toward a pet project can soften the blow of a bill someone does not like — and it gives members something to point to when they face re-election.

After the 2008 financial crisis, earmarks — or, as they are formally known, congressionally directed spending — gained a bad reputation. Sarah Palin famously said “thanks but no thanks” to the so-called “Bridge to Nowhere” her Republican congressman pushed to include. And when Republicans took control of the House of Representatives in 2011, they banned earmarks entirely.

After four months of campaigning against Representative Andy Kim, Ms Murphy will depart from the race, saying she did not want to participate in “waging a very divisive and negative campaign.”

“I’ve been genuine and factual throughout but it is clear to me that continuing in this race will involve waging a very divisive and negative campaign which I’m not willing to do,” Ms Murphy said on Sunday.

Upon entering the Senate race in November, Ms Murphy was favoured to win given her political ties to major donors and organisations as well as her husband’s status as governor of New Jersey. However, her lack of political experience made her a target.

Meanwhile, Mr Kim criticised Ms Murphy for her ties to politicians and claimed she was being backed by donors and local leaders purely due to her status. He filed a lawsuit challenging the state’s primary ballot design which generally favours the candidate with the most endorsements.

With interest ticking ever-upwards at 9 per cent or $120,000 a day, the exact total he owed as of Monday 25 March was closer to $468.1m, with his lawyers arguing that finding a bond company to support such a huge amount has proven a “practical impossibility” after approaching more than 30 surety firms through four separate brokers.

Despite that appeal from his attorneys as they sought the delay, Mr Trump had insisted in a social media post on Friday that he has $500m on hand in ready cash but wants to use it on his presidential campaign instead.

Donald Trump said he would “put up the cash” as he was granted more time to pay part of the $464m bond in his New York civil fraud case on Monday, 25 March.

An appeals court granted the former president a 10-day extension to pay $175m in a reprieve on the day the full amount against him had been due.

In rambling remarks at 40 Wall Street after appearing in Manhattan criminal court, Mr Trump said: “This is all about election interference. This is all Biden-run things.

“We’ll put up securities, cash, or bond, whatever it is, very quickly.”

Lisa Murkowski’s future in the Republican Party is now publicly in question as the Alaska senator says she is grappling with the reality that her party is set to nominate the twice-impeached former president who faces 91 criminal charges for the presidency.

Donald Trump’s continued control of the GOP and the dominance of his Maga faction is not sitting well with the centrist Republican who has broken with her party’s base several times in recent years, including in the second impeachment trial of Donald Trump and the 2017 failed vote to repeal the Affordable Care Act.

Ms Murkowski was interviewed by CNN’s Manu Raju on Capitol Hill and said that she wouldn’t be endorsing Mr Trump for president — as most other Republicans on Capitol Hill have already done — in 2024. She further added that she was “independently minded”, and was asked whether that meant she was considering dropping her party affiliation.

“I am navigating my way through some very interesting political times. Let’s just leave it at that,” she responded.

Republican Representative Lauren Boebert defended bragging about bringing home $20m for water and infrastructure projects to her Colorado district in the recent spending bill that passed – despite having voted against the bill’s final passage.

The right-wing Republican put out a press release last week touting the funding for projects in her state’s 3rd district.

“These include important federal resources for new water storage, improving water quality, funding water treatment plants, building new water supply lines, reducing congestion on I-70, and building roads and bridges,” Ms Boebert said in a press release.

“I’m grateful to all the local stakeholders who brought these important projects to my attention and that worked with my team and I throughout this process to ensure that 10 out of 10 of our requests were successfully funded in public law. Can’t wait for the ribbon cuttings and to see these priorities come to fruition.”

But Ms Boebert voted against the spending bill on 8 March. The legislation was the first of six spending bills that passed this month to fund the government through the end of the current fiscal year, which expires on 30 September. Last week, the House and Senate passed the second round of spending bills to keep the government open.

Ms Boebert bragged about bringing the money back to Colorado last week to The Independent.

“Sure did, I fought to get it in there, did I not,” she said. “If I wasn’t working on it, then it wouldn’t have been in there.”

But when asked about why she voted against its final passage, she said she disliked the process.

“I didn’t agree to the swampy way it came to the floor but I fought to get the stuff in the bills and it’s there,” she said. “And Colorado is going to benefit from it.”