Trump sparks fury by claiming Black people like him because of his mugshot: Live

The continued presence of Donald Trump on the US political scene has longtime allies concerned over whether the US can be a reliable security partner, former National Intelligence Officer and Trump administration National Security Council official Fiona Hill has said.

Speaking at the Principles First summit, a gathering of anti-Trump and pro-democracy conservatives in Washington, Ms Hill was asked to opine on how Mr Trump would have reacted to the killing of Russian dissident Alexei Navalny on his watch.

She told attendees the twice-impeached, disgraced ex-president, whose performance during a 2018 Helsinki press conference alongside Russian leader Vladimir Putin was so bad that she considered pulling a fire alarm to end it, might actually have reacted negatively to Navalny’s death if he thought it made him look bad.

“It’s really about how it reflects on him,” she said.

With the Nevada debacle in the rear view window — an embarrassing defeat to “none of these candidates” in a primary in which Donald Trump declined to participate, it’s officially time for his sole remaining challenger for the GOP nomination to prove that she’s still competitive in the literal sense, rather that just on cable news.

South Carolina is the arena. It’s by no means an ace in the hole, but the state where Ms Haley was governor for eight years is the place where she theoretically should be strongest. It has an open primary, meaning that independent voters can participate. And she’ll be back across the state this week, hitting campaign stops in Myrtle Beach, the Charleston suburbs, and a former steel town.

But don’t be surprised if this is the end.

Donald Trump claimed he is a “proud political dissident” in his CPAC speech just days after he compared himself to Russian leader Alexei Navalny, who recently died in a Siberian prison under unclear circumstances.

Mr Trump said in National Harbor, Maryland on Saturday that “Joe [Biden] and his henchmen have you trapped and it’s an express train barreling toward servitude and to ruin – it’s moving at a speed that Joe doesn’t understand because Joe … I don’t think he knows what the hell’s going on, to be honest with you, but he’s surrounded by some very bad fascists”.

“A vote for Trump is your ticket back to freedom. It’s your passport out of tyranny,” he argued. “And it’s your only escape from Joe Biden and his gang’s fast track to hell. And in many ways, we’re living in hell right now.”

Gustaf Kilander has the story:

“That’s right,” Kimmel exclaimed. “The forecast is cloudy with a chance of Meatball Ron.”