Trump news latest today: Trump spreads White House cocaine conspiracy as DeSantis pledges interviews on policy

The campaign is due to release official fundraising numbers by the end of the month, per an upcoming Federal Election Commission (FEC) deadline. But a campaign official familiar with the matter provided the eye-popping sum to Politico: $34m, a haul that puts him firmly on top of the GOP primary field, dollars-wise, and depicts a campaign picking up steam as Mr Trump apparently solidifies his support base within the GOP primary voter population.

When CBS News’ Face the Nation host Margaret Brennan asked Utah Republican Governor Spencer Cox whether one of the many Republican governors running in the 2024 race could defeat Mr Trump in a primary election, Mr Cox said he hoped his party could move on from the former president.

His words revealed one thing: While GOP voters may have yet to sour on the former president, more and more elected officials are doing so.

Former President Donald Trump has inadvertently revealed that he’s not a frequent visitor of the ice cream chain Dairy Queen.

During a stop at a Dairy Queen in Iowa, Trump appeared perplexed by requests for a Blizzard — the most famous item on the ice cream store’s menu.

“Everybody wants a Blizzard. What the hell is a Blizzard?” Trump asked while throwing his hands in the air, prompting laughter from the crowd.

Donald Trump wanted to “tap the phones” of White House aides who he suspected of leaking information, according to bombshell claims made by a former Trump administration official.

Miles Taylor, who served as the Department of Homeland Security’s chief of staff under Mr Trump, has claimed in his new book Blowback that the then-president floated the idea “to pursue leakers by tapping phones” at some point in 2018.

The idea was quickly shut down by then-White House Chief of Staff John Kelly who warned Mr Trump he would be breaking the law.

While the scuffles may be verbal as leading Republicans jostle to become the party’s 2024 presidential nominee, down at the state level things have actually turned physical — at least in Michigan, and not for the first time.

Tensions boiled over within the Michigan Republican Party on Saturday resulting in an altercation at a hotel to which the police were called.

It all took place as the GOP’s state committee came together for a meeting at the Doherty Hotel in Clare as members have been feuding over the party’s direction and the leadership approach of the new chairwoman, Kristina Karamo.

Donald Trump took to Truth Social on Monday to comment on the row over a small bag of cocaine discovered at the White House, in a lobby on the West Wing during a period of time when Joe Biden and his family were absent from the residence.

The former president claimed (without evidence) that the president and his son, Hunter Biden, were somehow involved, and further insisted that the Secret Service was covering it up as the agency has apparently been unable to centre in on a suspect in the investigation into who transported the drugs into the building.

“The White House has Security Cameras (far more than Mar-a-Lago!) all over the place, especially the location in question. THEY 100% KNOW WHO IT IS. If they don’t release information, it means they destroyed the tapes & the Cocaine was for use by Hunter, & probably Crooked Joe, in order to give this total disaster of a President a little life and energy!” wrote Mr Trump.

Former Vice President Mike Pence was in Sioux City this past week when he was asked by a voter about why he didn’t participate in Donald Trump’s efforts to halt the certification of Joe Biden’s victory on 6 January, 2021.

Read what Mr Pence said in response:

Former president Donald Trump reportedly further strained his relationship with Republican party leadership in Iowa after failing to show up for senator Joni Ernst’s annual “Roast and Ride” charity.

Except for Mr Trump, eight of the GOP 2024 presidential election hopefuls were present at the senator’s charity event last month – a combination of barbecue-rally and motorcycle rides that kick off a busy summer campaign season heading into the first-in-the-nation caucuses.

Things are not going well for the former president as he attempts to maintain his dominance in the state:

In a motion to delay a pretrial conference on Classified Information Procedures Act matters scheduled for Friday 14 July, Mr Nauta’s lawyer, Stanley Woodward, writes that the hearing should be postponed because he is unavailable due to a trial commitment in Washington, DC.

The Independent has more:

Just days after failed Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake said she was considering a Senate run, Donald Trump’s advisers revealed that the former president has become disenchanted with her in recent months.

According to The Daily Beast, the former president specifically found Ms Lake’s attempts to get attention distasteful. “She’s a shameless, ruthless demagogue who wants power and will do whatever she has to do to get it,” a Trump adviser told the publication.

Ms Lake has tried to position herself as a potential contender to become Mr Trump’s pick for vice president—a tactic the former president also apparently did not appreciate.