Trump news - live: Trump calls US ‘nation in decline’ as Marjorie Taylor Greene mocked over secession tweet

Donald Trump’s campaign on Monday announced the hiring of key staff in Iowa, which is currently set to remain the site of the GOP’s first caucus of 2024.

Among the new hirings was Eric Branstad, son of the state’s former governor, Terry Branstad. The younger Branstad is joining the Trump campaign as a senior adviser.

James O’Keefe has resigned from Project Veritas.

Appearing in a tear-filled video, Mr O’Keefe informed his fellows that the board of Project Veritas had removed him as CEO, and that he had stepped down. Mr O’Keefe went on to vow to form another organisation similar in form to the conservative group famous for undercover interviews, some of which have faced allegations of deceptive editing.

Read more:

Former Republican congressman Trey Gowdy blasted failed Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake for attacking Florida governor Ron DeSantis.

Mr Gowdy, who now hosts a show on Fox News, served in the House of Representatives with Mr DeSantis and led the House’s probe into the attack on the US embassy in Benghazi. He left the House in 2019, around the same time Mr DeSantis became governor.

On Sunday, Mr Gowdy derided Ms Lake as a “failed” candidate as he criticised her for attacking the Florida governor.

Read more:

Hardline Republican members of Congress including Marjorie Taylor Greene blasted President Joe Biden’s visit to Ukraine as he met with the nation’s president Volodymyr Zelensky on Monday, arguing that it showed the president’s misplaced priorities.

Ms Greene and many other Republicans have frequently criticised US support for Ukraine. When Russian President Vladimir Putin began his onslaught on Ukraine a year ago, Democrats controlled the House of Representatives. Many Republicans in the Senate and in the House Republican conference voted for military assistance to Ukraine, and have vowed to continue that support in the new Congress.

Eric Garcia has more:

Fox News host Tucker Carlson, a leading purveyor of disinformation about the 2020 election at his network, will have access to a massive trove of unreleased footage from surveillance cameras around the US Capitol taken during the January 6 insurrection.

It’s a clear move by Speaker Kevin McCarthy to mend ties with the far right; Mr Carlson has long sought to minimise the severity of the attack on Congress and this effort will come as the Department of Justice considers whether to charge Donald Trump or his associates with obstruction of an official proceeding or other crimes.

"If there was ever a question that's in the public's interest to know, it's what actually happened on January 6. By definition, this video will reveal it. It's impossible for me to understand why any honest person would be bothered by that,” the Fox host told the news outlet in a statement.

Read more in The Independent:

Donald Trump presented his followers on Truth Social with one of his signature doom-and-gloom holiday messages on Monday as the US recognised President’s Day.

In the post, he referred to America as a nation in “serious decline” despite his four years at the helm while seemingly suggesting that another four years under his leadership would fix things.

Republican presidential candidates will be blocked from the debate stage this summer if they do not sign a pledge to support the GOP’s ultimate presidential nominee, according to draft language set to be adopted when the Republican National Committee meets next week.

The proposal sets up a potential clash with former President Donald Trump, who has raised the possibility of leaving the Republican Party and launching an independent candidacy if he does not win the GOP nomination outright. While RNC officials and Trump aides downplay that possibility, such a move could destroy the GOP’s White House aspirations in 2024 and raise existential questions about the party’s future.

“After the primary, it is imperative to the health and growth of our Republican Party, as well as the country, that we all come together and unite behind our nominee to defeat Joe Biden and the Democrats,” RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel said in a statement to The Associated Press when asked about the loyalty pledge.

As many as a dozen Republicans are expected to enter the 2024 presidential contest as the GOP braces for an all-out civil war in the months ahead.

Much of the party is eager to move past Trump and his divisive politics, but in reality, Republican leaders have few, if any, tools to control the former president given his popularity with the GOP’s most passionate voters. RNC leaders are hopeful that a loyalty pledge, while ultimately unenforceable, would generate some shared commitment to unity, albeit a fragile one, as the presidential primary season takes off.

Read more:

A small number of intelligence staff at the Pentagon were tracking several objects during the Trump administration. Those objects are now thought to have been balloons, according to a new report.

The existence of the objects wasn’t reported to the White House because it was unclear what they were, former staffers have told The Wall Street Journal.

The Biden White House chose to share previous incidents with the public after shooting down a Chinese spy balloon earlier this month. The Biden administration didn’t state where the previous objects had been flying and said they may have been undetected by the Trump administration.

But it now seems that some officials at the Pentagon during Donald Trump’s presidency were aware of the incidents and that they were connected to China, according to the Journal. The theory was that China was using the objects to test systems jamming radar near military sites in the US.

The information gathered regarding the incidents during the Trump administration was restricted to a simple assessment in the summer of 2020 and wasn’t distributed widely, the report said.

Read more:

Former Republican gubernatorial nominee Kari Lake suffered another legal defeat when the Arizona Court of Appeals rejected her attempt to overturn November’s election results.

Ms Lake, whom former president Donald Trump endorsed, refused to concede to Democratic Governor Katie Hobbs.

Like Mr Trump, the former news anchor has claimed election fraud and sought to have the election results overturned.

But Chief Judge Kent Cattani issued the ruling saying the court found no such evidence of fraud.

Read more:

Former president Donald Trump’s attorney retained an attorney as prosecutors ramp up their probe into Mr Trump’s handling of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago, two sources told Reuters.

Evan Corcoran reportedly retained Michael Levy, a white-collar lawyer based in Washington. Mr Corcoran’s firm Silverman Thompson Slutkin & White hired Mr Levy to represent Mr Corcoran. Mr Levy is a principal at Ellerman Enzinna Levy

Mr Corcoran appeared in January before a grand jury for US Special Counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into classified documents the former president took to his Palm Beach, Florida estate, a person familiar with the appearance told Reuters.

Read more: