List of All Articles with Tag 'us politics'

The Trump Organization has been ordered to hand over records related to foreign real estate deals made since Donald Trump entered the White House – as the investigation into the former president’s handling of classified documents continues to heat up. Two sources told the New York Times that Special Counsel Jack Smith’s office has subpoenaed the business empire for documents on real estate licensing and development dealings made in seven countries since he was sworn into office in 2017. The countries are: China, France, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and Oman. It is not clear what Mr Smith’s office is expecting to find in the records, when the subpoena was issued or what material may have been turned over as a result. However, a source said that several of the classified documents found at Mr Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate were related to Middle Eastern nations. During his time in office, the Trump Organization swore off any foreign business deals. After Mr Trump left the White House, he struck a deal with Saudi- backed golf venture LIV Golf – a deal that the Times previously revealed Mr Smith’s office had subpoenaed the Trump Organization for records over. Now, the latest move from federal prosecutors reveals they are expanding the probe into the handling of classified documents and suggests they are looking into whether there are any connections between Mr Trump’s foreign business dealings and the particular documents he took with him when he left office, the Times reported. It’s the latest sign that the investigation into the classified documents Mr Trump took to Mar-a-Lago is heating up. Last week it emerged that the National Archives had found a trove of records proving the former president knew he shouldn’t have taken classified documents to Mar-a-Lago. The National Archives sent a letter, obtained by CNN, to Mr Trump revealing that it had found 16 presidential records showing he and his top advisers were aware of the correct declassification process when he was in the White House. “The 16 records in question all reflect communications involving close presidential advisers, some of them directed to you personally, concerning whether, why, and how you should declassify certain classified records,” wrote archivist Debra Steidel Wall. Those records will now be turned over to Mr Smith by 24 May. Mr Trump has repeatedly falsely claimed that he was allowed to take classified documents with him when he left the Oval Office. He has also falsely claimed that the documents “automatically” became declassified when he took them with him from the White House. “I had every right to under the Presidential Records Act,” he said just last week, during the disastrous CNN town hall. “You have the Presidential Records Act. I was there and I took what I took and it gets declassified.” He later added: “And, by the way, they become automatically declassified when I took them.” In reality, under the Presidential Records Act, the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) has legal control of all presidential records as soon as a president leaves office. Now, this trove of presidential records appears to pour cold water on Mr Trump’s claims that he doesn’t think he did anything wrong by taking the documents – instead suggesting that he was fully aware of the protocol but chose to disregard it. Mr Trump’s attorney Jim Trusty insisted that he had the “constitutional authority” to take the documents. “At the end of his presidency, he relied on the constitutional authority as commander-in-chief, which is to take documents and take them to Mar-a-Lago while still president as he was at the time, and to effectively declassify and personalise them,” he told CNN. “He talked about declassifying them, but he didn’t need to.” Meanwhile, the letter also revealed that Mr Trump’s legal team had tried to block NARA from handing over the records to Mr Smith’s office, citing “constitutionally based privilege”. Mr Smith had issued NARA with a subpoena in January for records relevant to the grand jury investigation. Notwithstanding any legal action to stop the handover, the special counsel will likely receive the records in question this week. News of the damning evidence comes amid trouble inside Mr Trump’s leagl team after one of his attorneys Tim Parlatore representing him in the probe resigned earlier this month – amid in-fighting in the team. The National Archives had first contacted Mr Trump in 2021 not long after he left office asking for documents that they had found to be missing from its records. His team handed over boxes of documents – some including classified papers – but held onto troves more. On learning, the FBI executed a raid on Mar-a-Lago in August 2022, seizing 27 boxes including 11 containing classified information. Some of the information was of the highest possible top secret classification, meaning it should never have left the custody of the government. Read More Trump news – latest: Trump to appear in court by video in hush money case as E Jean Carroll seeks new damages E Jean Carroll sues Trump over CNN town hall insults Ron DeSantis news – live: Florida governor slams NAACP ‘stunt’ travel advisory as 2024 campaign launch nears Donald Trump faces virtual hush money appearance as E Jean Carroll sues again – live Who is Tim Scott? 5 things to know about the newest 2024 GOP presidential candidate Is Ron DeSantis running for president in 2024?

Donald Trump will make a virtual appearance in court today for the second hearing in his landmark criminal case – so that a New York judge can warn him about posting evidence on social media. The former president will appear via video in Manhattan Criminal Court on Tuesday afternoon where Judge Juan Merchan can make sure he understands the terms of the protective order issued in the case. The judge imposed the order after Mr Trump took aim at Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and Judge Merchan himself after being charged with 34 felonies for falsifying business records during the 2016 race for the White House. The order, issued on 8 May, bars Mr Trump and his attorneys from publishing information in the case and the names of certain Manhattan DA personnel that is not already public once the information is handed over to his legal team. It even limits Mr Trump’s access to some of the information – with some evidence only to be shared with Mr Trump while he is in the presence of his attorneys and the former president banned from making copies, photographing or transcribing the documents. While Mr Trump’s legal team have slammed the order – claiming it is “a muzzle” on the former president – Judge Merchan stopped short of issuing a gag order, meaning it does not bar Mr Trump from speaking about the case. While his lawyers and prosecutors in the case must appear in person, Mr Trump can join remotely – avoiding the sensationalism and heightened security when he surrendered to New York authorities back on 4 April and became the first US president in American history to ever be arrested and charged with a crime. Though he can avoid showing up in person, the judge is taking the extra step of personally instructing Mr Trump about the terms of the protective order – after he made a series of social media posts attacking the investigation, Judge Merchan and DA Bragg. In a historic day for America, Mr Trump was arrested and arraigned on 34 criminal charges in New York back on 4 April. According to Manhattan prosecutors, Mr Trump and his former fixer anf attorney Michael Cohen carried out a “catch and kill” scheme in the lead-up to the 2016 election. Cohen allegedly made hush money payments on Mr Trump’s behalf to suppress negative information about him by silencing individuals over alleged affairs he had with women. Mr Trump “repeatedly and fraudulently falsified New York business records to conceal criminal conduct that hid damaging information from the voting public during the 2016 presidential election,” the charging documents read. Three specific alleged affairs and hush money payments were mentioned in the charging documents – a $130,000 payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels, a $150,000 to former playboy model Karen McDougal and a $30,000 payment to a doorman at Trump Tower who claimed he had information that Mr Trump had fathered a child with a woman while married to Melania Trump. Mr Trump then allegedly reimbursed Cohen but falsely recorded the payments as legal fees. Each of the 34 criminal charges relates to an individual entry in the Trump Organization’s business records. Cohen has already served jail time for his part in the hush money case and has now become prosecutor’s star witness in the case against Mr Trump. Read More Trump news – latest: Trump to appear in court by video in hush money case as E Jean Carroll seeks new damages Trump Organization ordered to hand over foreign real estate deal records as part of classified documents probe E Jean Carroll sues Trump over CNN town hall insults Ivanka and Jared split over attending Trump 2024 launch – follow live Why was Donald Trump impeached twice during his first term? Four big lies Trump told during his 2024 presidential announcement

Donald Trump will appear in court by video today for his second hearing in his criminal case after he became the first US president in American history arrested and charged with a crime. The former president will appear virtually in Manhattan Criminal Court on Tuesday afternoon so that Judge Juan Merchan can make sure he understands the terms of the protective order in the case. The judge imposed the order after Mr Trump took aim at Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and Judge Merchan himself as he was charged with 34 felonies for falsifying business records while making hush money payments to cover up alleged affairs with women. This comes as Mr Trump’s other legal troubles are also heating up. On Monday, author E Jean Carroll amended her remaining defamation lawsuit against Mr Trump to include the derogatory remark she made about her at a CNN town hall. Attorney Roberta Kaplan filed a proposed update to the $10m Manhattan civil court complaint to include the comments which were made by Mr Trump after he was found liable for the sexual abuse and defamation of Ms Carroll by jury trial in New York. Read More E. Jean Carroll adds Trump's post-verdict remarks to defamation case, seeks at least $10M Trump bashes DeSantis as he shares surprisingly positive response to another 2024 challenger: ‘Good luck Tim!’ A timeline of Donald Trump’s rivalry with Ron DeSantis Trump Media files $3.78bn defamation lawsuit against Washington Post over Truth Social reporting

The clock is ticking for President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy to come to agreement to avoid a first-ever default on the nation's debt. And although there are some positive signs suggesting they're closer to a consensus, there is still no deal.

Donald Trump will appear in court by video today for his second hearing in his criminal case after he became the first US president in American history arrested and charged with a crime. The former president will appear virtually in Manhattan Criminal Court on Tuesday afternoon so that Judge Juan Merchan can make sure he understands the terms of the protective order in the case. The judge imposed the order after Mr Trump took aim at Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and Judge Merchan himself as he was charged with 34 felonies for falsifying business records while making hush money payments to cover up alleged affairs with women. This comes as Mr Trump’s other legal troubles are also heating up. On Monday, author E Jean Carroll amended her remaining defamation lawsuit against Mr Trump to include the derogatory remark she made about her at a CNN town hall. Attorney Roberta Kaplan filed a proposed update to the $10m Manhattan civil court complaint to include the comments which were made by Mr Trump after he was found liable for the sexual abuse and defamation of Ms Carroll by jury trial in New York. Read More E. Jean Carroll adds Trump's post-verdict remarks to defamation case, seeks at least $10M Trump bashes DeSantis as he shares surprisingly positive response to another 2024 challenger: ‘Good luck Tim!’ A timeline of Donald Trump’s rivalry with Ron DeSantis Trump Media files $3.78bn defamation lawsuit against Washington Post over Truth Social reporting

The judge presiding over Donald Trump's criminal falsifying business records case in Manhattan is expected to inform the former president Tuesday on what he can and cannot say publicly about the case and evidence his legal team will get from prosecutors to prepare for trial.

Emirati leaders extended a long-sought invitation to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to attend the U.N climate conference, known as COP28, in November. The United Arab Emirates' President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan and Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum also invited Israel's figurehead President Isaac Herzog and dozens of other leaders including Syrian President Bashar Assad to COP28, in Dubai. The Israelis did not immediately accept the invitation, but Netanyahu thanked the Emiratis for the gesture. The invitation falls short of the high-profile bilateral visit Netanyahu has sought. But a trip to the Gulf Arab country would nonetheless give an important boost to the Israeli leader who has established official ties with the UAE as part of the 2020 Abraham Accords, normalizing relations between the two countries. Netanyahu has repeatedly called for closer ties with Arab countries across the region, but has yet to pay the UAE an official visit since the accords were signed. Netanyahu, Israel’s longest-serving leader, has sought to return to the world stage. to the world stage. Since returning to office late last year, he has made official visits to Italy, Germany and Britain. He had hoped to visit the UAE shortly after his right-wing government took office, but the plan was postponed after national security minister and ultranationalist Itamar Ben-Gvir last January visited the compound known to Jews as the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. The same site is home to the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound to Muslims. Such visits are widely viewed as provocations that could lead to new clashes between the Israelis and Palestinians. The UAE condemned Ben-Gvir's actions at the time. He visited the site again on Sunday, declaring Israel “in charge” and drawing renewed criticism from the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Turkey, Qatar, Jordan, Egypt and the United States. Netanyahu's alliance with far-right figures like Ben-Gvir has drawn repeated criticism from close allies. He remains uninvited to visit U.S. President Joe Biden in Washington, which some interpret as a White House snub. The U.S. administration has criticized Israel's settlement policies in the occupied West Bank, Ben-Gvir's visits to the disputed compound and the government's push to overhaul Israel's judiciary system. The administration has said he's likely to receive an invitation at some point. Syrian President Bashar Assad, who has been internationally ostracized during his country’s civil war, has also been invited after returning to the Arab League following a 12-year suspension. The annual U.N. climate talks are designed to keep countries accountable to their pledges to cut down on carbon emissions. In November, the talks in Dubai will be hosted by Sultan al-Jaber, the chief executive officer of the Emirates’ state oil company. Choosing the oil-rich emirate as well as al-Jaber to host the climate conference has drawn criticism from various environmental groups and activists. Read More Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide

The driver of a U-Haul who crashed into a security barrier in Lafayette Square near the White House Monday night was arrested on multiple charges, including threatening to kill or harm a president, vice president or family member, according to US Park Police.

No one will be watching more keenly than Donald Trump this week as Florida governor Ron DeSantis finally makes the long-awaited announcement that he will seek the Republican nomination for the presidency in 2024. During his own tenure in the White House in 2018, Mr Trump loudly cheered Mr DeSantis’s bid for the governor’s mansion, throwing his weight behind the former congressman and appearing at rallies to stump for him, playing an important role in the candidate’s narrow defeat of Democratic rival and Tallahassee mayor Andrew Gillum. Since then, however, a great deal of water has passed beneath the bridge and the two men are now increasingly antagonistic towards each other. Mr Trump has launched a stream of insults and barbed nicknames yelled across the state from Mar-a-Lago, the majority of which Mr DeSantis has wisely allowed to pass without public comment. Here is a timeline of their disintegrating relationship. 17 November 2018 Ron DeSantis is elected governor of Florida, defeating Democrat Andrew Gillum. Then-president Donald Trump, who had campaigned for Mr DeSantis in person and on Twitter, loudly celebrates his victory as the latest demonstration of his own power and influence. 11 March 2020 After a relatively quiet first year in the governor’s mansion, Mr DeSantis faces a major crisis when the US Centers for Disease Control announces that Covid-19 is spreading in his state. Within days, the entire world is going into lockdown to control the spread of the contagious respiratory disease. While Mr Trump bungles the federal response to the crisis, making empty promises as to when society can reopen, openly speculating that injecting bleach might provide a cure and eventually contracting the coronavirus himself one month before Election Day, Mr DeSantis recognises opposition to masks and social restrictions as a culture war flashpoint and uses the mood to his political advantage. “We’re not shutting down, we’re gonna go forward, we’re gonna continue to protect the most vulnerable,” he said in a speech in June. “Particularly when you have a virus that disproportionately impacts one segment of society, to suppress a lot of working-age people at this point I don’t think would likely be very effective.” 20 January 2021 Joe Biden succeeds Mr Trump as president, the latter leaving Washington two weeks after his two-month campaign to prove the false contention that the 2020 presidential election was rigged had ended with the Capitol riot in which his misled supporters laid siege to the legislative complex baying for blood and threatening to lynch vice president Mike Pence and kidnap House speaker Nancy Pelosi. Disgraced, discredited, twice-impeached and banned from social media, Mr Trump slinks off back to his Palm Beach estate, while the same state’s governor continues to make a name for himself, capitalising on his pandemic popularity among Republicans by eventually taking on LGBT+ rights and the might of the Walt Disney Corporation, cheered on by a movement looking for a less contaminated and compromised alternative to Mr Trump, who can only look on with envy. 29 April 2021 Mr Trump tells Maria Baritromo on Fox Business Network: “He’s a friend of mine. I endorsed Ron, and after I endorsed him, he took off like a rocket ship.” On the suggestion that Mr DeSantis might make a good successor to Mr Pence as a running mate, Mr Trump answers: “A lot of people like that – you know, I’m just saying what I read and what you read – they love that ticket. But certainly, Ron would be considered. He’s a great guy. 4 October 2021 Addressing the prospect of having to square up against Mr DeSantis in a future election race, rather than their joining forces, Mr Trump tells Yahoo! Finance he would beat the governor with ease. “I don’t think I will face him. I think most people would drop out, I think he would drop out,” he says. “If I faced him, I’d beat him like I would beat everyone else. If I do run, I think that I’ll do extremely well.” For his part, Mr DeSantis tells Fox News: “I’m not considering anything beyond doing my job. We got a lot of stuff going on in Florida.” 21 June 2022 Increasingly bothered by Mr DeSantis’ rise, Mr Trump begins to insist that the former owes his success entirely to his support. On the prospect of the governor running for the White House, as discussed at length in The New Yorker, its former occupant tells Newsmax: “I don’t know that he wants to run, you know, I have a good relationship with Ron. But I was very responsible for him getting elected, as you know… We’ll see what happens.” 14 September 2022 Mr DeSantis engages in a distinctly Trumpian stunt by sending approximately 50 Venezuelan asylum seekers by air from San Antonio, Texas, to Crestview airport in Florida and then on to the island of Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts, a Democratic stronghold. A piece of provocative political theatre, Mr Trump gripes that he thought of it first. 24 September 2022 While that episode brought liberal condemnation, including from President Biden, who called it “inhumane”, Mr DeSantis wins praise soon after by declaring a state of emergency when Hurricane Ian strikes his state. He would later be praised for his swift and decisive response to the natural disaster. 8 November 2022 The two men hold competing rallies in Florida in the final days before the midterm elections, with Mr Trump debuting his prized “Ron DeSanctimonious” nickname at his. But the governor goes on to win re-election in commanding fashion, beating Democrat Charlie Crist by a nearly 20-point margin and drawing in previously untapped support from Latinos and suburban voters. By contrast, Mr Trump’s preferred candidates lose races across the country from Pennsylvania to Arizona as the widely predicted “red wave” fails to materialise, causing the GOP to miss out on the Senate and only narrowly win a majority in the House of Representatives and prompting many to question the former president’s continued stranglehold over their party and begin to look elsewhere for alternative leadership. 11 November 2022 The fallout from the midterms really sets the rivalry simmering, with Mr Trump resorting to suggesting he had deployed the FBI to secure Mr DeSantis’ win over Mr Gillum in 2018. Taking to Truth Social, Mr Trump calls his rival an “average Republican governor with great public relations” who was “politically dead” until he helped turn his fortunes around. He writes: “I was all in for Ron, and he beat Gillum, but after the Race, when votes were being stolen by the corrupt Election process in Broward County, and Ron was going down ten thousand votes a day, along with now-Senator Rick Scott, I sent in the FBI and the US attorneys, and the ballot theft immediately ended, just prior to them running out of the votes necessary to win. I stopped his Election from being stolen…” The post, inevitably, invites calls for the matter to be investigated urgently. 16 November 2022 Mr Trump announces his intention to run again for the US presidency in a low-key televised address from Mar-a-Lago that many feel lacks the energy of his earlier political speeches. Doubts remain over whether the myriad civil and criminal investigations into his affairs could yet derail him. 29 January 2023 Continuing to obsessively re-litigate Mr DeSantis’s 2018 gubernatorial win in order to bolster his own role in it, Mr Trump accuses his rival of “trying to rewrite history” over his record in responding to Covid, claiming he had “changed his tune a lot” on the introduction of vaccine mandates. Speaking to reporters while campaigning in New Hampshire and South Carolina, Mr Trump griped: “Ron would have not been governor if it wasn’t for me. When I hear that he might [run] I think it’s very disloyal… There are Republican governors that did not close their states. They’re trying to rewrite history.” 8 February 2023 Clearly preparing to get nasty, Mr Trump resorts to amplifying a nasty, unfounded claim about Mr DeSantis on Truth Social relating to his short-lived career as a high school teacher in Georgia as a younger man. 18 February 2023 A new nickname, “Meatball Ron”, is reported to have been trialled by Mr Trump, still seeking a way to trash-talk his likely opponent, as he had done so many times before, but this time he unexpectedly denies it is his coinage. “I will never call Ron DeSanctimonious ‘Meatball’ Ron, as the Fake News is insisting I will,” he raves on Truth Social. “Even though FoxNews-killing lightweight Paul Ryan is revered by him, Low Energy Jeb Bush is his hero and always at his side, his beaches and State were closed for long periods of time, his testing, testing, testing for the China Virus didn’t work out too well, and his loyalty skills are really weak, it would be totally inappropriate to use the word ‘meatball’ as a moniker for Ron!” 8 March 2023 Another new nickname, “Tiny D”, is reported by Bloomberg as being workshopped by Mr Trump, this time either a lewd reference to the governor’s manhood or an allegation that he had been spotted wearing heeled cowboy boots in order to increase his height. 30 April 2023 Responding to Mr DeSantis setting out on a global tour, visiting the UK and Japan in the interest of looking statesmanlike on the world stage, Mr Trump tries a new attack line, saying he “couldn’t care less” if the governor runs against him. “I couldn’t care less if Ron DeSanctus [sic] runs, but the problem is the Bill he is about to sign, which allows him to run without resigning from being Governor, totally weakens Election Integrity in Florida,” he posted. 16 May 2023 Still searching for that killer attack line, Mr Trump tells The Messenger his political opponent is a “rank amateur”. “I think the media has said he’s doing a terrible job and he doesn’t know what he’s doing. 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.” Returning to the disloyalty argument, Mr Trump manages so sound genuinely wounded as he complains: “He’s very disloyal. He was a dead man walking. He was dead, dead as a doornail. And I revived him. “I’m a loyal person. If that happened to me, I would never run against the guy that did that. He’s got plenty of years left. And I think if he runs, he’s gonna lose MAGA votes forever. That’s my opinion. And the MAGA votes are almost everything in the Republican Party, far bigger than you think.” Mr Trump added that it was “too early” to say if he would endorse Mr DeSantis if he won the GOP primary. “So far, I’m not a fan of the way that he’s running. First of all, he shouldn’t be running right now because he hasn’t filed. The guy’s doing ads. He’s acting as a candidate, but he doesn’t have to play by the rules because he hasn’t filed, which is a total violation. I mean, this guy’s doing interviews as a candidate, but he hasn’t filed, which is really not appropriate.” In the same interview, he said Florida’s new six-week abortion ban was “too harsh” and likely to alienate voters. Unusually, Mr DeSantis did respond to that one by arguing: “Protecting an unborn child when there’s a detectable heartbeat is something that almost 99 per cent of pro-lifers support. As a Florida resident, you know, he didn’t give an answer about, ‘Would you have signed the heartbeat bill that Florida did, that had all the exceptions that people talk about?’” Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung came back with: “Ron DeSantis is flailing in the polls and is closer to the bottom of the pack than he is to President Trump, who is dominating in every single poll.” The feud continues as Mr Trump claims “Ron’s magic is GONE” after two candidates endorsed by Mr DeSantis suffer embarrassing election defeats within a week: Daniel Davis fails to become mayor of Jacksonville and Kelly Craft loses out on the Republican nomination to be the next governor of Kentucky. Read More Ron DeSantis news – live: Florida governor slams NAACP ‘stunt’ travel advisory as 2024 campaign launch nears Trump news – latest: E Jean Carroll targets Trump again after his derogatory CNN town hall smears Who is Tim Scott? 5 things to know about the newest 2024 GOP presidential candidate Ivanka and Jared split over attending Trump 2024 launch – follow live Why was Donald Trump impeached twice during his first term? Four big lies Trump told during his 2024 presidential announcement

Ron DeSantis is expected to officially enter the 2024 presidential race this week following months of speculation. The Florida governor is tipped to file formal paperwork with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) on Thursday 25 May, coinciding with his candidacy declaration after a donor meeting in Miami, Reuters reported last week. This comes just days after the NAACP issued an advisory warning travelers that Florida is “openly hostile” towards Black people, people of colour and LGBT+ people following a series of laws implemented by the governor in recent months. Mr DeSantis, 44, is seen as Donald Trump’s biggest rival for the Republican vote and has been expected to throw his hat into the ring for some time. Following the GOP party’s disappoining midterms – where the “red wave” failed to appear and Mr Trump-endorsed candidates fell flat – several Republican lawmakers and right-wing media have rallied behind Mr DeSantis. However, the latest polls show Mr DeSantis trailing Mr Trump, with the RealClearPolitics polling average giving the former president a 36-point lead. Mr DeSantis will join an already crowded race, with Nikki Haley, Asa Hutchinson, Vivek Ramaswamy, Larry Elder and Tim Scott already announcing bids. Read More College student who tracked Elon Musk’s private jet is now following Ron DeSantis Who is Casey DeSantis? What we know about Florida governor Ron’s wife who could become America’s first lady DeSantis responds to NAACP call for tourists to boycott Florida

Lauren Boebert hit out at unsubstantiated claims that she was in a romantic relationship with a pro-Trump country singer following her divorce from her longtime husband. The hard-right congresswoman told The Daily Beast that there was "absolutely nothing romantic" between her and Christian strummer Sean Feucht, nor had there ever been. "How can I be with a man with better hair than me?" she quipped, referring to Mr Feucht's chest-length mane of blond curls. For his part, Mr Feucht called the claims "false and defamatory", threatening to sue anyone making the accusation. Ms Boebert, a staunch conservative and outspoken Christian who represents Colorado in the US House of Representatives, filed for divorce from her husband Jayson Boebert last week after more than 15 years together. Rumours immediately began circulating on Twitter that she had begun romancing Mr Feucht, but those peddling the claim gave no evidence to support it. Asked for comment on Monday, Ms Boebert said: "“There is absolutely nothing romantic between Sean Feucht and I, nor has there been. "He is a wonderful friend, and he and I have done a lot of events together. His wife is wonderful, and we have had worship in the [US Capitol] rotunda... "I have been very, very transparent with my personal life since I started campaigning. And I think there are a lot of politicians who are not transparent. "They just give the sweet, pretty pieces of their life – and I have been raw in the details of my upbringing and what I have been through, and the challenges my husband and I have faced over the years." Since 2020, Mr Feucht has campaigned vigorously against Covid lockdown measures, leading a protest movement called Let Us Worship and running as a Republican for one of California's seats in the US House. He is a strong supporter of former president Donald Trump, whom he believes has been unfairly persecuted and who once signed an American flag guitar for him. According to the Beast, Ms Boebert also blamed the rumours on "the Left" and said there were no skeletons in her closet. Read More GOP Rep Clay Higgins filmed shoving activist who questioned Lauren Boebert’s divorce Lauren Boebert denies claim husband flew into rage after being served divorce papers E Jean Carroll targets Trump again after his derogatory CNN town hall smears E Jean Carroll targets Trump again after his derogatory CNN town hall smears Nebraska senators shield sick colleague brought from hospital to pass abortion ban Pride events cancelled across Florida due to ‘climate of fear’ after anti-LGBT+ laws

Pride organisers in Florida have called off events that were to take place during the Pride Month in the wake of the latest anti-LGBT+ laws signed by Florida governor Ron DeSantis. Organisers based in the town of St Cloud outside Orlando announced on Thursday that they have cancelled the upcoming 10 June event, saying they are aware that it is “unsafe to hold the event”. “As you know, Florida has recently passed a number of laws that target the LGBTQIA+ community. These laws have created a climate of fear and hostility for LGBTQIA+ people in Florida,” the organisers said. “We believe that holding an LGBTQIA+ event in this environment would put our community at risk.” Officials and organisers in Port St Lucie city announced the cancellation of Pride parades last month and limitation of other activities for those who are 21 years or older. Mr DeSantis, a 2024 presidential hopeful, has signed several bills last week that banned gender-affirming care for minors, restricted pronoun use in schools and forced individuals to use restrooms corresponding with their biological sex – an expansion of the “Don’t Say Gay” bill enacted into law last year. The laws have been dubbed as a “slate of hate” by activists and opponents. The new laws will target drag shows in the state, limit the use of preferred pronouns for pupils in schools, and ban trans people from using public bathrooms that do not match with their gender assigned at birth. NAACP, a civil rights group, issued a formal travel advisory for Florida, stating that the state has become “openly hostile toward African Americans, people of colour and LGBTQ+ individuals”. It denounced the state’s "aggressive attempts to erase Black history and to restrict diversity, equity, and inclusion programmes in Florida schools”. LGBT+ advocacy group Equality Florida also issued a similar advisory after Mr DeSantis signed the “Don’t Say Gay” bill into law. "That law, along with additional proposals being considered, has turned the state’s classrooms into political battlefields and is telegraphing to LGBTQ families and students that they are not welcome in Florida," the group said. Florida’s Lake County Pride, however, pushed back against the laws, saying: “No unconstitutional law will keep us from celebrating our PRIDE event”. “Lake County Pride will never back down, and we stood firm and united in fighting against the "Drag Ban,” it said. Read More E Jean Carroll targets Trump again after his derogatory CNN town hall smears MLK’s daughter backs call for tourists to boycott ‘racist’ Florida and blasts Cruz Founder of student aid startup Frank pleads not guilty to fraud Haley vs. Scott: From South Carolina allies to 2024 rivals Who is Tim Scott? 5 things to know about the newest 2024 GOP presidential candidate Two fishermen bitten by sharks just hours apart in the Florida Keys