Trump and Biden tied in new poll as mug shot merch under scrutiny: Live updates

Donald Trump offered another jab at his primary rival, Ron DeSantis, on Sunday as the governor continues to appear uncomfortable with punching back at the popular leader of his party.

“Wow! Ron DeSanctimonious has seen a Polling CRASH like no other. People have gotten to know him. Also, really bad Social Security votes, and would decimate Medicare. That doesn’t play well in America!” wrote Mr Trump in a Truth Social-ed statement Sunday evening.

His remarks came following a Wall Street Journal poll finding Mr Trump cleaning up the primary contest with the support of nearly 60 per cent of Republican voters.

The future of Donald Trump’s Truth Social platform has been thrown into financial purgatory as a company created to help take the ex-president’s social media site public battles with financial regulators and is cited for deceiving investors.

Mr Trump first announced plans to transform his Truth Social enterprise into a publicly-traded company in late 2021. But the effort has stalled time and time again, thanks to near-constant issues including the firing of its former CEO and the arrest of a board member on insider trading allegations.

Now, The Washington Post reports that the transformation faces a key hurdle in the upcoming weeks: a vote by shareholders of the special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) created to take Truth Social public. That vote will determine whether the acquisition company, Digital World, continues the acquisition effort or instead winds down all business and shutters operations.

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President Joe Biden, who often says he’s the most pro-union president in history, is heading to Philadelphia on Monday for the annual Tri-State Labor Day Parade.

The Democratic president is expected to speak about the importance of unions in the United States and how the economy is recovering from the crippling coronavirus pandemic.

Labor Day, a holiday honoring workers, comes as the U.S. has added jobs and more people have begun looking for work, the most since January, all news Biden is eager to highlight as he seeks reelection in 2024.

The Republican governor of New Hampshire, Chris Sununu, says he is not sure if Joe Biden or Donald Trump will actually be their parties’ respective nominees in 2024.

“Look, I think there’s a good shot that neither of them are actually on that ballot,” Mr Sununu told NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday.

He joined a number of Republican voices questioning whether or not Mr Trump can win in 2024 if Mr Biden runs for re-election.

“I think Trump can very much lose if they winnow it down to one on one,” he said. “I think there’s a lot of issues that are going to come to bear with President Biden over the next year and a lot of opportunity for the Democrats to find another — another candidate. But to the No Labels point, there’s an opportunity there like never before. It would have to be the right candidate. It has to be somebody very energizing, positive.”

A new poll from The Wall Street Journal has both parties’ likely 2024 nominees tied in a dead-even heat among voters nationally, with Donald Trump leading by a hair when third-party candidates are included.

It’s a troubling sign for Joe Biden for sure, but one that comes on the heels of other polls indicating that Mr Biden holds slim leads in some key swing states he will need to secure reelection.

But it could also encourage Mr Trump’s supporters at a time when the ex-president is attempting to cement his dominance within the Republican Party and fight off several challengers for the presidential nomination.

Yes, the American public (and presumably a sizeable international audience) will be able to gather around their phones, tablets, and flat screens and watch the entirety of Donald Trump’s trial for allegedly attempting to subvert the presidential election in Georgia.

Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee announced on Thursday that he would allow all hearings and trials in the case to appear on a YouTube stream. The court will operate the stream.

The judge will also allow pool coverage for television, photography and radio, he announced.

Get. The. Popcorn. Ready.

Former Maryland Governor Larry Hogan, a Republican, has said that there are too many candidates in the Republican primary, and said some should drop out.

“If you don’t make the debate stage, you likely should consider getting out,” he told CBS’s “Face the Nation.” “If you’re unwilling to challenge Donald Trump, you should get off the stage.”

He specifically mentioned anti-woke businessman Vivek Ramaswamy, who he called a “cheerleader and fill-in” for the former president who was “applying for a job.”

“If you’re in there running for vice president or you’re trying to be a cabinet secretary or you’re trying to become famous or write a book or get on television, you should get the heck out of the race,” the former governor said. “We need to narrow it down to find a leader who can get the Republican Party back on the right track and that can get us back to winning elections again. And it’s not going to happen with 11 people in the race.”

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Donald Trump continue to rail against his indictments, taking to Truth Social on Sunday for his latest rants.

The Crooked Joe Biden Campaign has thrown so many Indictments and lawsuits against me that Republicans are already thinking about what we are going to do to Biden and the Communists when it’s our turn. They have started a whole new Banana Republic way of thinking about political campaigns. So cheap and dirty, but that’s where America is right now. Be careful what you wish for!

In another post, he wrote:

Has anyone checked the background of Fani Willis, who lets Murderers go free to roam the streets of Atlanta and KILL, but wastes time, energy, and money on LETS GET TRUMP, who has done NOTHING wrong. RINO Governor Brian Kemp has lost control of violent crime in Atlanta, and Fulton County as a whole. To walk the streets is a death sentence, it has NEVER been worse, yet he wants to protect this incompetent prosecutor. Number 1 in violence per capita in U.S. Sad days for the Great State of Georgia!

A right-wing network’s phone interview with Donald Trump went so poorly that social media users are speculating the voice on the line was an AI impersonator.

Real America’s Voice aired an “exclusive” interview with the former president on Thursday – but it didn’t exactly go to plan.

The 17-minute call with hosts John Soloman and Amanda Head was plagued by consistent cut-outs as the stiff voice purported to be Mr Trump shifted dramatically.