Trump sparks fury by claiming Black people like him because of his mugshot: Live

“That’s right,” Kimmel exclaimed. “The forecast is cloudy with a chance of Meatball Ron.”

Gustaf Kilander has the story:

On Friday evening, during the Reagan Dinner, Bishop Joseph Strickland, the former bishop of Tyler, Texas addressed the topic Republican elected officials have hoped to avoid: the Alabama Supreme Court’s ruling that frozen embryos could be considered children under state law, saying that conservatives needed to guide Republicans politicians to support the “sanctity of life.”

“This decision by Alabama’s court was correct according to our Catholic faith,” he said addressing the conservative faithful and donors after an auction that included selling off portaits of Donald Trump and Jesus Christ and before a speech by failed presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy.

Bishop Strickland, whom Pope Francis relieved last year from his position, called upon conservative activists to push Republican elected officials to stand steadfast behind the Alabama court ruling.

Read more from Eric Garcia:

Donald Trump claimed Black voters like him because of his many indictments and mug shot during a speech at the Black Conservative Foundation gala on Friday evening.

“I got indicted for nothing. They were doing it because it’s election interference. And then I got indicted a second time, a third time and a fourth time,” Mr Trump said. “And a lot of people said that that’s why the Black people like me, because they have been hurt so badly and discriminated against. And they actually viewed me as I’m being discriminated against. It’s been pretty amazing.”

The former president is currently facing 91 charges across several cases against him. Mr Trump gave the speech in South Carolina just hours before polls opened for the state’s presidential primary.

“The mug shot, we’ve all seen the mug shot, and you know who embraced it more than anybody else? The Black population,” he said later in the speech. “It’s incredible. You see Black people walking around with my mug shot, you know?”

A federal judge in California will consider whether a former FBI informant charged with lying about a multimillion-dollar bribery scheme involving President Joe Biden’s family must remain behind bars while he awaits trial.

US Magistrate Judge Daniel Albregts in Las Vegas earlier this week allowed Alexander Smirnov to be released from jail on electronic GPS monitoring. But US District Judge Otis Wright II ordered Smirnov to be returned to custody after prosecutors asked Wright to reconsider the earlier ruling releasing him.

Wright has set a hearing for Monday in Los Angeles on prosecutors’ request to keep Smirnov in jail.

Jonathan Capehart of MSNBC called Donald Trump’s Friday night speech, in which he claimed Black voters liked him because of his many indictments and mug shot, “unbelievably racist.”

“Please, please share [these clips] with your Trump-loving friends,” Mr Capehart told his viewers. “These clips, well, they actually might like it. Well, have them understand why what we just heard is so unbelievably racist, but also problematic for a democracy. That man should never be President of the United States again.”

Mr Capehart also played a clip of Mr Trump saying the “lights” at the gala were “too bright,” meaning he could “only see the Black ones.”

Court officials have formally approved a final judgment against Donald Trump and his co-defendants in the sprawling fraud case in New York.

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The former president, his adult sons, two former Trump Organization executives and the entities associated with the brand-building properties in the Trump real estate empire are now on the hook for more than $464m.

A total judgment against Trump alone is nearly $455m.

Post-judgment interest is accruing daily at the rate of 9 per cent per annum, or more than $114,000 for all defendants – including nearly $112,000 just for Trump.

With the Republican presidential primary all but decided for former president Donald Trump, Friday at the Conservative Political Action Conference served as an audition to become Mr Trump’s running mate.

Being Trump’s running mate is an inherently dicey prospect. For one, the last person who served in the job, the unflappable and pious Mike Pence, famously broke with Trump for the efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election, which resulted in Trump supporters threatening Pence’s life.

By the same token, Trump will be 78 come 20 January 2024 and will be capped at serving only four more years. If Trump wins this person will essentially be his heir, with all the benefits and drawbacks. If Trump loses, they will be the person to pick up the pieces for the party in a wholly dysfunctional GOP. If Trump is convicted of a crime on the campaign trail or dies while in office, this person will become the standard bearer for the Republican Party.