Trump latest news: Trump rages at CPAC empty seats mockery as he posts about Murdoch at 3am on Truth Social

The latest Conservative Political Action Conference outside of Washington DC proved that former President Donald Trump remains firmly in control of the Republican Party going into the 2024 election.

The latest CPAC gathering was the first in the nation’s capital since the Covid-19 pandemic began. The gathering has long been a cattle call for potential Republican presidential nominees and other rising stars in the party. And it sets the tone for what conservatives will likely focus on in the next election.

Eric Garcia breaks down what we can learn from this year’s Trumpfest:

Donald Trump went on the defensive bright and early on Monday morning as he chafed over coverage of his speech to the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Washington DC over the weekend.

The former president contended that “you couldn’t get into the building” as he insisted that seating for his speech was filled and that his supporters had flocked to CPAC to see him.

In reality, any delays getting in to the massive Gaylord hotel and convention centre were likely caused by the security screenings put in place by the US Secret Service — while the main ballroom notably filled up moreso than it had for smaller-name speakers like Mike Pompeo and Nikki Haley, it was far from a “standing room only” event like the rallies Mr Trump became known for in 2016 and, to a lesser extent, in 2020.

Read more in The Independent for an exclusive on-the-ground look into CPAC 2023:

Where else on earth but the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) can you see a pillow salesman treated like royalty, with his own security detatchment? Or see Sebastian Gorka, former White House official, yelling at The Bulwark’s Tim Miller that he was “f***ing fake news” and should “go to hell”?

Take a trip to National Harbor, Md, and catch up on the rage that infects the right-wing media sphere following Donald Trump’s unsuccessful attempt to overturn the 2020 election.

Actor Russell Brand ranted against MSNBC and claimed that the left-leaning network is an equal source of “propaganda” to Fox News, the conservative news network which now faces a massive defamation lawsuit over amplifying Donald Trump’s election lies in 2020.

The episode of Real Time with Bill Maher on which Mr Brand made his remarks aired on Saturday evening, after which the clip was spread widely around social media, largely by conservatives celebrating Brand’s comments.

Michelle Obama has reflected on former US President Donald Trump’s Inauguration Day and revealed why she was sobbing after it.

The former first lady discussed her and her husband’s, former President Barack Obama, time in the White House during the first and upcoming episode of Michelle Obama: The Light Podcast.

Learn more in The Independent:

Marjorie Taylor Greene’s “Happy Purim” message was greeted on Twitter Monday with reminders of her past statements which have drawn accusations of antisemitism.

The Jewish holiday commemorates Jews from Persia being saved from annihilation following a decree put in place by Haman, an Achaemenid Empire official. The story was outlined in the Book of Esther, the third book of the Jewish Tanakh – the Hebrew Bible.

Ms Greene is one of a handful of members of Congress who have met publicly with Nick Fuentes, one of America’s most infamous white nationalists. She has defended her presence at his past events by claiming she did not know who he was.

Read The Independent for more:

Democratic members on the House Oversight Committee asked their Republican colleagues to sign a two-sentence statement that plainly rejects white supremacy, white nationalism, and a far-right conspiracy theory that suggests politicians are intentionally seeking to displace white Americans by loosening immigration.

All 26 Republicans on the GOP-led committee have signalled that they will not sign the statement, which a committee spokesperson characterised in a statement to The Independent as a distraction.

Some Republican members of Congress (to varying degrees) have been accused of using rhetoric similar to that espoused by “Great Replacment” theory advocates in their own anti-immigration messages. The accusation has drawn strong backlash from some of those same Republicans, like House Republican caucus chair Elise Stefanik.

Former Donald Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort has agreed to pay $3.15m to settle a lawsuit brought by the US Department of Justice.

The case stems from Mr Manafort’s failure to report the ownership of bank accounts in other countries in a timely fashion. It’s just the latest legal snafu Mr Manafort since he was pardoned by Donald Trump for crimes uncovered during the Mueller investigation.

The DOJ sued Mr Manafort last year in US District Court in Southern Florida for $2.9m, alleging that he did not report money he made from his consulting work in Ukraine in 2013 and 2014 that was deposited into bank accounts opened on his behalf in Cyprus, St Vincent and the Grenadines, and the United Kingdom.

Democratic Representative Maxwell Frost criticised his home state Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida, saying the potential Republican presidential candidate is engaging in “fascism”.

The freshman Democratic congressman, who is currently the youngest member of the House of Representatives, spoke on CNN with Jim Acosta about Mr DeSantis’s plan to ban the use of preferred pronouns and gender studies in the state of Florida.

“He isn’t acting on education, we have to be clear,” Mr Frost said. “He’s acting on scapegoating vulnerable communities due to his failures.”

Former President Donald Trump was up late into the night — or perhaps very early in the morning — seething at FoxCorp founder Rupert Murdoch over the continued fallout from the massive lawsuit filed by Dominion Voting Systems.

Testimony and evidence uncovered by the lawsuit and made public as a result has been astonishingly embarassing for Mr Trump, who continues to insist that the 2020 election was stolen from him even after failing to produce any hard evidence in his multiple legal fights to overturn state results and his own attorney admitting that his team didn’t have any to speak of.