Trump news today: Republican asks Supreme Court to overturn ‘immunity’ defence ruling and claims he made Nato ‘strong’: Live

Mitt Romney has told The Independent that Trump’s comments about urging Russia to attack Nato countries who don’t spend enough on defence makes US allies wonder if they can “rely on America”.

Romney’s comments come after Trump’s weekend rally in Conway, South Carolina, where he answered a hypothetical exchange with a leader of a Nato state behind on its dues to the alliance by saying: “No, I would not protect you. In fact, I would encourage them to do whatever the hell they want.”

Utah’s Senator Romney, the 2012 Republican presidential nominee and formerly the governor of Massachusetts, told The Independent on Monday: “He says outrageous things to get people riled up. It works at the rallies. Unfortunately, it also has an impact around the world where our friends wonder whether they can rely on America.”

Eric Garcia and Gustaf Kilander report.

The Republican is reportedly considering supporting his daughter-in-law Lara Trump for co-chair of the Republican National Committee (RNC), according to The New York Times.

This comes after reports that current RNC chair Ronna McDaniel is set to leave her post after the South Carolina Republican primary.

Gustaf Kilander has more.

A sprawling election interference case against Trump is set to veer into the private and professional life of the woman leading the prosecution against him during a hearing in an Atlanta courtroom this week.

And the former president reportedly plans to be there to see it.

The Georgia judge overseeing the case against the former president and more than a dozen others will preside over a misconduct hearing on Thursday scrutinising allegations against Fulton County district attorney Fani Willis.

Willis and prosecutor Nathan Wade could be called to testify after one of the former president’s co-defendants alleged that the attorneys financially benefited from the vast RICO case through their “personal, romantic relationship” with each other.

If stood up in court, accusations levelled against Willis and the chief prosecutor she hired to lead the case could result in her disqualification.

The tireless Alex Woodward reports.

Two judges in separate courtrooms just minutes down the street from one another in New York could deal serious blows to Trump, his business and his campaign schedule this week.

On Thursday, a judge in Manhattan criminal court will preside over a hearing that could set a course for the former president’s trial on charges stemming from hush-money payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels during his 2016 campaign.

The judge overseeing a separate civil fraud trial that could imperil his family business and brand-building empire is also imminently expected to issue a final judgment in that case, with potentially tens of millions of dollars in sanctions and the end of his real estate career in the Big Apple at stake.

Here’s more from Alex Woodward.

Oh boy, the Orange One was in rare old form on social media last night, angrily tapping out a series of tirades on miscellaneous grievances against everyone from Nikki Haley (whose husband is hiding out in Africa from sheer embarrassment at her polling, we are assured) to the Lincoln Project, whom he unwisely labelled “perverts”, a theme on which Rick Wilson and friends will very much enjoy getting back to him.

He also issued an exhausting three-post rant against New York attorney general Letitia James and Judge Arthur Engoron over his Big Apple fraud trial, which is surely not smart when $370m is on the line.

Finally, there was this hot-headed rebuke to his critics over the international backlash his comments about Nato have inspired.

Donald Trump has asked the US Supreme Court to block a ruling that struck down his “immunity” defence against prosecution for crimes allegedly committed in office, potentially teeing up the nation’s highest court to weigh in on another huge question hanging over his campaign.

Trump’s attorneys filed their request following last week’s appellate court ruling that rejected his “immunity” claim against charges connected to the attempt to overturn the 2020 presidential election.

“This threat will hang like a millstone around every future president’s neck, distorting presidential decisionmaking, undermining the president’s independence, and clouding the president’s ability ‘to deal fearlessly and impartially with’ the duties of his office,’” the Republican’s attorneys claimed.

“Without immunity from criminal prosecution, the presidency as we know it will cease to exist,”

The court met last week to hear opening arguments in another case to determine whether states have the power to exclude Trump from ballot papers under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution, which bars insurrectionists from returning to public office.

Alex Woodward has this report.

Donald Trump’s suggestion that the US would not protect Nato allies failing to spend enough on defence was “not a sensible approach”, the UK Foreign Secretary has said.

Lord David Cameron became the first Cabinet minister to explicitly criticise the remarks made by the Republican presidential frontrunner on Saturday.

Downing Street later insisted the Prime Minister is confident the US will continue to be a dependable ally regardless of who wins the country’s election later this year.

Of course we want all countries, like us, to spend 2% (of GDP), but I think what was said was not a sensible approach.

In 2012, Romney, then the Republican presidential nominee, famously called Russia “without question, our number one geopolitical foe.” Democrats dismissed him as daft in a world with al-Qaeda and China on the rise. Barack Obama chided him and said “the 1980s are now calling to ask for their foreign policy back, because the Cold War’s been over for 20 years.”

Russia’s annexation of Crimea, its meddling in the 2016 presidential election and its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 vindicated Romney and showed the threat of President Vladimir Putin. But by that point, the GOP had moved on from the Reagan-Bush-Romney worldview and embraced another businessman-turned-politician in Donald Trump.

This weekend, when he held a rally in South Carolina, Trump all but goaded Putin into invading European countries when he recalled that he told a head of state of a Nato country talking about Russia during his presidency that if the country did not pay its obligations “I would not protect you. In fact, I would encourage them to do whatever the hell they want.”