Trump baselessly claims fraud trial against him is a ‘scam and a sham’
The judge overseeing the federal criminal case charging Donald Trump for his efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election will hear arguments today about potentially muzzling the former president.
Special counsel Jack Smith is asking for Mr Trump to be placed under a gag order because of his “continued use of social media as a weapon of intimidation in court proceedings”. US District Judge Tanya Chutkan will hear arguments from both the prosecution and the defence on Monday.
This comes as Mr Trump has made a series of controversial comments on other matters this week.
In a pre-taped video posted on Truth Social on Saturday, the former president bizarrely claimed that Republians “eat their young”.
This came after he was slammed for saying Hezbollah are “very smart” as he addressed the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas. After intense backlash from the White House and an Israeli minister, Mr Trump appeared to walk back his criticism of Benjamin Netanyahu and instead praised the Israeli Defence Force.
Meanwhile, Mr Trump’s campaign fundraising is being dwarfed by President Joe Biden’s, raising $46m in the past three months, with $38m cash-on-hand to Mr Biden’s $71m in the same time period.