Trump news today: Former president regrets endorsing Sasse, says ‘he’s bad news’

Former president Donald Trump says he regrets endorsing Ben Sasse in the 2020 Nebraska Senate race.

“He’s bad news, Ben Sasse. He begged for my endorsement, the day after he started hitting me and we hit much harder than he knows how to hit. He’s bad news,” Mr Trump said during a rally held for Nebraska gubernatorial candidate Charles Herbster.

“Should have never given him the endorsement. He was horrible at the beginning. And then he was so good … and then the following day, literally, he started hitting back,” he added.

The US Supreme Court’s Chief Justice John Roberts called the leak of a draft opinion written by conservative Justice Samule Alito in the case of Dobbs vs Jackson Women’s Health Organization “absolutely appalling” on Thursday.

This week’s reporting the expected ruling, set to overturn constitutional protections for abortion care established by Roe v Wade and Planned Parenthood v Casey, has prompted an investigation inside the court.

“If the person behind it thinks that it will affect our work, that’s just foolish,” Justice Roberts told a judicial conference in Georgia on Thursday, according to NBC News.

The ex-president’s oldest son compared the arrest of a far-right figure who pleaded guilty to helping people break into the US Capitol to “Gestapo tactics.”

Brandon Straka stood outside an entrance to the Capitol on 6 January 2021 and urged a crowd of intruders inside, shouting “go, go, go,” and later encouraged rioters to grab a Capitol Police officer’s shield.

TV personality and Republican senate candidate Mehmet Oz will be joined by Trump and recently nominated Ohio GOP Senate candidate JD Vance at a rally in Pennsylvania on Friday.

After speaking at a Senate Budget Committee on union-busting efforts and federal contracts for companies like Amazon that allegedly flour federal labor law, Amaon Labor Union president Christian Smalls joined a White House meeting with Kamala Harris and Labor Secretary Marty Walsh as well as Starbucks union workers and other organizers.

Mr Smalls – in a red, yellow and black jacket with “eat the rich” printed on the front – also met Joe Biden.

Truth Social – Trump’s platform to “stand up to the tyranny of Big Tech,” as he described it – is the most high profile among several newer platforms to launch as a direct challenge to mainstream social media platforms, viewed among right-wing figures and users as too constrictive or conspiring to remove their views after they were kicked off for flouting rules about Covid-19 misinformation, violence and harassment.

Despite billing itself as a platform for “free expression” against the alleged tyranny of companies like Twitter, Truth appears singularly devoted to the Trump universer and right-wing media ecosystem.

The 26-year-old far-right congressman – the youngest member of the House – has faced a slow-drip leak of embarrassing videos and photos over the last month, after telling a right-wing broadcaster that about alleged “orgies” among his Washington colleagues.

He claims the leaks are aimed to discredit him, punishment for speaking out about members of Congress. His standing in an upcoming primary election – in which polls show him falling behind – has one life raft: Donald Trump.

The Independent’s John Bowden has more:

Karine Jean-Pierre will be stepping into the role of White House press secretary this month.

She will be the first openly LGBT+ and first Black person to serve as a president’s top spokesperson, after serving Ms Psaki’s top deputy since Joe Biden took office last year. She joined the Biden campaign in 2020 after serving as chief public affairs officer for MoveOn.org and as an NBC News political analyst.

The much-hated Capitol Hill fencing, used last year to secure the area around the Capitol for months after Jan 6, is back and reinstalled around the Supreme Court amid tensions over the Court’s assumed plans to overturn Roe V Wade in the coming weeks or months.

Videos of the perimiter showed that an entire city block, including one of the Capitol Hill neighborhood’s nicest green spaces, was cordoned off by the black metal barricades as of Thursday.

Read more from The Independent’s Bevan Hurley: