Trump news today: Aides showed Trump tweets by AOC and Andrew Yang to psyche him up during break in town hall

The former president spoke to The Messenger about his wide-ranging media strategy, while the governor has mostly spoken to friendly conservative outlets.

“I think the media has said he’s doing a terrible job and he doesn’t know what he’s doing,” Mr Trump claimed. “You know, the media has not been friendly to him. They’re saying that he’s a rank amateur. And you know, he started off fine, but then he hasn’t done very well. You look at the polls.”

While the governor has yet to announce his 2024 campaign, Mr Trump has repeatedly called Mr DeSantis “disloyal” for supposedly preparing to run against him after Mr Trump endorsed him in the 2018 GOP gubernatorial primary in the Sunshine State.

Mr Trump said he realised that Mr DeSantis was running against him “when he wouldn’t comment on whether he would run … when he said I had, ‘I have no comment.’ … having no comment means he’s going to run”.

Donald Trump claimed to have been praised from all over the political spectrum following his CNN town hall.

Asked by The Messenger if the event was “a win” for him, Mr Trump said, “Well, I don’t want to say. But everyone else says it was … I’ve never been so credited with the successes the way I have with this. Everybody — the radical left, fascists, Marxists, communists, and normal people — have said that it was a total complete victory for Trump”.

“But CNN has taken tremendous hits. And I’m surprised they don’t really say that they had a very big ratings night. Truly surprising to me,” he added.

“I’m doing a lot of different media,” the former president said. “I was disappointed with Fox. I thought the firing of Tucker [Carlson] was a tremendous mistake. I was very disappointed. And of course, I was disappointed with the coverage of the [2020 presidential] election in particular, the early call in Arizona.”

The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to hear a Biden administration appeal to limit lawsuits filed by members of Congress against the federal government, in a case that stems from disputes over what was the Trump International Hotel in Washington.

The justices said they will review a federal appeals court ruling that allowed a suit by Democratic members of the House Oversight Committee to continue. They filed their complaint in 2017 over the Trump administration’s refusal to turn over information about the Trump Organization’s lease of the hotel on Pennsylvania Avenue, between the White House and the Capitol.

The family no longer owns the hotel, now a Waldorf Astoria, much of the information eventually was provided and six lawmakers who were part of the case no longer serve in the House.

The Biden Justice Department, however, told the court that it is important to wipe the appellate ruling from the books because it otherwise could lead to a flood of lawsuits from individual members of Congress.

Donald Trump has said that he was “amazed to see” that CNN was so “traumatized” by his controversial town hall event in New Hampshire.

Speaking to The Messenger, Mr Trump was asked what most surprised him about the event.

“I was surprised by the level of hostility … I thought they would be neutral and even better than that so they could get the viewers back,” he said. “And they had one of the best [viewership] days in years. So you would think they would claim success. I was amazed to see that they were traumatized by what took place.”

“They were actually traumatized. I think that instead of acting the way they did, they should have said, ‘we had a tremendous ratings night, one of the best in years, many years,’ and spiked the football, right?” he added.

Saint Anselm College criticised both the comments of the ex-president and the reactions to his statements by the Trump-friendly audience in the auditorium.

CNN moderator Kaitlan Collins asked Mr Trump about the civil trial between him and writer and former advice columnist E Jean Carroll. Mr Trump was found liable for sexual abuse and defamation and has been ordered to pay her $5m. Mr Trump was not found liable for rape. His legal team is appealing the verdict.

Mr Trump denied Ms Carroll’s allegation, to laughter from the crowd in the room.

“A Manhattan jury found you sexually abused the writer E Jean Carroll and defamed her. You’ve denied this. But what do you say to voters who say it disqualifies you from being president?” Ms Collins said.

Presidential candidate and former South Carolina Nikki Haley declined to condemn Donald Trump on Sunday, after the former president was found liable this week of defaming and sexually abusing writer E Jean Carroll.

Asked about whether it tarnishes the Republican party that its leading figure was found liable of such crimes, Ms Haley responded that all sides should be heard in a legal proceeding, and that it was up to the American people to pass judgment.

“I have always said that anyone that feels like they have been sexually assaulted in any way should come forward and have their voice heard,” Ms Haley told CBS News’s Face the Nation on Sunday. “I also think that anyone that’s been accused should be able to defend themselves. I was not on the jury. I am not the judge. I think that both of them had their voices heard. There has been a verdict and there has been an appeal.”

Asked whether this meant Ms Haley was questioning the verdict, she declined.

“There’s a verdict and I think there’s been an appeal,” she said. “I think it stands where it stands and I think the American people need to make a decision based on that.”

As the US marks Mother’s Day, Donald Trump has posted a predictably oddly phrased message celebrating mothers, in particular those of his main foes.

Perhaps in his rush to stick it to the “Radical Left Fascists” he failed to mention his wife, Melania, mother to his youngest son, Barron.

The former president wrote on Truth Social: “Happy Mother’s Day to ALL, in particular the Mothers, Wives and Lovers of the Radical Left Fascists, Marxists, and Communists who are doing everything within their power to destroy and obliterate our once great Country.”

He continued: “Please make these complete Lunatics and Maniacs Kinder, Gentler, Softer and, most importantly, Smarter, so that we can, quickly, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!!!”

Many other public figures, notably former presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, took the opportunity to shower praise on their wives on Twitter.

Donald Trump shared a manipulated video of Anderson Cooper’s dark reaction to CNN’s town hall with the ex-president – using old clips to make it look like the anchor was talking about Joe Biden.

The video posted to Truth Social on Saturday begins with the monologue Cooper gave on Thursday addressing outrage over the event with Mr Trump before shifting to footage of a town hall that the CNN host held with Mr Biden in October 2021.

The town hall on Wednesday (10 May) featured Mr Trump in a loosely-moderated discussion with CNN host Kaitlan Collins, during which he made numerous false statements, advanced conspiracy theories about the 2020 election, and promised to pardon Capitol rioters charged with crimes for their participation in the insurrection attempt two years ago.

Cooper opened his show, Anderson Cooper 360, the next day by acknowledging that many viewers expressed “deep anger and disappointment” following the event.

In the altered video posted by Mr Trump, Cooper’s remarks were spliced to remove any direct references to the ex-president.

Back when Donald Trump was in office, there were a number of common refrains you’d hear. “What will be the first great piece of art about the Trump administration?” “Who will portray him in the inevitable biopics?” “Which actor will one day win an Oscar for playing US president Donald J Trump?” Well, it may not be the first great piece of art about the tumultuous Trump era, but with its antepenultimate episode, “America Decides”, Succession has produced one of the definitive artistic statements on the rise of Trump. And – what’s more – it didn’t mention his name once.

The episode picks up hours after the close of its predecessor. In the world of Succession, it’s election night, with bland liberal frontrunner Daniel Jiménez (Elliot Villar) coming up against right-wing firebrand Jeryd Mencken (Justin Kirk). We already know from last season’s “What it Takes” that Mencken is seriously bad news. He’s racist. Sexist. You name it, he’s probably said something depraved about it. He’s worked his way up to become the Republican presidential nominee, thanks in part to the backing of the late Logan Roy (Brian Cox) and his Fox News-esque right-wing TV network ATN. He enters election night as an underdog. By the morning, and against all odds and polling predictions, he’s been declared president. Sound familiar?

Mary Trump says that the only way to hold her uncle Donald Trump to account is by pitting him against a person who is willing to be “very blunt about who he is” and tell him “to shut up” when he is lying.

The niece of the former president made the remarks while appearing on a podcast with Molly Jong-Fast, following her uncle’s town hall on CNN last week. During his first appearance on the network since 2016, Mr Trump repeatedly lied about the 2020 election, as well as praising rioters who attacked police officers and damaged the Capitol during the January 6 insurrection.

Mr Trump, who lost the 2020 election to Joe Biden and whose supporters then attempted to prevent Congress from ratifying the result, was pressed on his election claims by moderator Kaitlan Collins.

Yet Mr Trump steadfastly refused to acknowledge the fact that he had lost, despite multiple corrections from Collins, who covered his former administration for CNN and previously worked at the conservative Daily Caller website co-founded by former Fox News star Tucker Carlson.

Mr Trump’s niece, who was among those criticising CNN for hosting the town hall, called the event “anti-American” and blamed the audience for enabling the former president, making it tough for Collins to shut him down.