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Trump and DeSantis trade verbal blows as battle for Republican nomination gathers speed
Good morning, and welcome to the US politics live blog.
With the debt ceiling standoff already in Washington’s rearview mirror – the Senate passed a bill raising the limit until 2025, and Biden is expected to sign the bill today – the spotlight is now on the 2024 Republican primaries.
Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis gave a preview of what is to come over the next year and a half as the 2024 election rolls in. The two Republican candidates held dueling campaign events, one in Iowa and the other in New Hampshire, key states in the primaries.
DeSantis in his speeches has been throwing soft punches at Trump, not mentioning the name of the former president, but instead trying to highlight his youth (DeSantis is 44 while Trump is 76) and saying that he can fully serve two terms unlike some people – who should not be named.
But some sparring happened later in the day when Trump responded to this by saying that he could shape things up in six months, not eight years.
“When he says eight years, every time I hear it, I wince, because I say if it takes eight years to turn this around, then you don’t want him. You don’t want him as your president,” Trump said. “It’ll take me six months to have it totally the way it was, we’ll have it fast.”
Off-stage, DeSantis responded to a reporter’s question on Trump’s comeback with: “Why didn’t he do it in his first four years?”
The dynamic that plays out between the two as the election gets closer will be interesting to watch. DeSantis used to be a staunch Trump supporter, which ultimately helped him build a national profile, making it hard for him to come out of the gate with attacks against him. But DeSantis appears to have much of the Republican establishment behind him, as donations to his campaign are showing. He’s still trailing Trump in the polls, but there’s still a year left to change things.
Stay tuned for more live updates.
Key events
House Republicans looking into FBI investigation into Trump classified documents
House Republicans are looking into the FBI’s investigation into the classified documents that were found in a raid of Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home last year.
The House judiciary committee chair, Jim Jordan, a Trump ally, sent a letter yesterday to the attorney general, Merrick Garland, demanding information about the FBI’s involvement in a special counsel investigation into the documents.
“The extent of the FBI’s bias and reckless disregard for truth … is nothing short of scandalous,” Jordan wrote in the letter, citing a separate special counsel investigation from John Durham that criticized the FBI’s handling of the raid. The report, released in May, said that the agency relied on raw and uncorroborated information when conducting the inquiry. It also said the department of justice and FBI did not conspire to investigate Trump’s ties to Russia in 2016, but Republicans are focusing on the report’s criticism of the FBI.
With their majority in the House, Republicans are now emboldened to prod investigations into the former president. Jordan’s letter shows how Republicans are likely to use Durham’s report to counter the FBI’s investigation into the classified documents.
The US economy added 339,000 jobs in May, far surpassing economists’ forecast for the month, which predicted about 190,000 jobs. This is all despite the fact that the Federal Reserve has raised interest rates to its highest levels in over a decade, in an attempt to cool inflation and gently slow the economy.
In a statement on the jobs numbers, which was released this morning, Joe Biden said that “today is a good day for the American economy and American workers”.
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“The Biden economic plan is working. And due to the historic action taken by Congress this week, my economic plan will continue to deliver good jobs for the American people in communities across the country,” Biden said, referring to the debt ceiling bill that he will sign today.
Biden also touted the unemployment rate, which rose 0.3% to 3.7%, but has still been under 4% for the last 16 months, the longest stretch since the 1960s.
Still, the jobs figures hold a bit more complexity for the economy than Biden’s rosy picture paints it out to be. Fed officials have implied an interest rate hike pause could be coming, but it all depends on whether they are satisfied with how much the economy has slowed. And this new jobs report shows that things, in the job market at least, are still hot.
DeSantis still trails Trump in polls despite early flood of cash
Nine Republicans so far have declared their candidacy for the 2024 election, and a handful more will likely announce their runs over the next few weeks, but the election is already shaping out to be a “Ron v Don” battle – and it is still very unclear who will come out on top.
Florida governor Ron DeSantis has behind him a flood of cash from the conservative establishment, who find Donald Trump hard to control and a continued political liability with his various legal troubles. Within the first 24 hours of his official campaign launch, DeSantis raised $8.2m, his campaign says. And this was despite the embarrassing technical issues Twitter was experiencing when he made his announcement on the social media site. Trump, in comparison, raised about $9.5m in the first six weeks after he announced his campaign in November.
Money doesn’t always guarantee a win, but it does mean that DeSantis will have an arsenal to put up his best fight against Trump. Even with the cash, it may be an uphill battle. Trump has been leading DeSantis in the polls by about 30 points. Trump has consistently polled just above 50 points, while DeSantis has been around 20 points. Still, DeSantis is far above any of the other candidates who have announced their campaigns, which includes the former Trump UN ambassador Nikki Haley and the South Carolina senator Tim Scott. Other Republicans who are gearing up for campaign launches include former Trump VP Mike Pence and former New Jersey governor Chris Christie.
Trump and DeSantis trade verbal blows as battle for Republican nomination gathers speed
Good morning, and welcome to the US politics live blog.
With the debt ceiling standoff already in Washington’s rearview mirror – the Senate passed a bill raising the limit until 2025, and Biden is expected to sign the bill today – the spotlight is now on the 2024 Republican primaries.
Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis gave a preview of what is to come over the next year and a half as the 2024 election rolls in. The two Republican candidates held dueling campaign events, one in Iowa and the other in New Hampshire, key states in the primaries.
DeSantis in his speeches has been throwing soft punches at Trump, not mentioning the name of the former president, but instead trying to highlight his youth (DeSantis is 44 while Trump is 76) and saying that he can fully serve two terms unlike some people – who should not be named.
But some sparring happened later in the day when Trump responded to this by saying that he could shape things up in six months, not eight years.
“When he says eight years, every time I hear it, I wince, because I say if it takes eight years to turn this around, then you don’t want him. You don’t want him as your president,” Trump said. “It’ll take me six months to have it totally the way it was, we’ll have it fast.”
Off-stage, DeSantis responded to a reporter’s question on Trump’s comeback with: “Why didn’t he do it in his first four years?”
The dynamic that plays out between the two as the election gets closer will be interesting to watch. DeSantis used to be a staunch Trump supporter, which ultimately helped him build a national profile, making it hard for him to come out of the gate with attacks against him. But DeSantis appears to have much of the Republican establishment behind him, as donations to his campaign are showing. He’s still trailing Trump in the polls, but there’s still a year left to change things.
Stay tuned for more live updates.
