Trump live: Ex-president tells Piers Morgan he ‘threatened’ Putin, as court rules against him

After Elon Musk took over Twitter for a whopping $44 bn, Republicans pressed the billionaire to unfreeze former president Donald Trump’s account.

“Hey, Elon Musk, it’s a great week to free Donald Trump (sic),” House Republicans wrote on the social media platform.

“Bring back President Trump. Bring back my personal account. Bring back Dr Robert Malone. Bring back Alex Jones. Bring back Milo Yiannopoulos. Bring back the cancelled nation. Bring back freedom of speech. Bring back America,” congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene wrote.

“I am not going on Twitter, I am going to stay on TRUTH. I hope Elon buys Twitter because he’ll make improvements to it and he is a good man, but I am going to be staying on TRUTH,” Mr Trump told Fox News.

Vincent Gillespie, the son of renowned postwar American artist Gregory Gillespie, has been charged for taking part in the 6 January insurrection.

He was among a mob trying to force its way through a tunnel at the Lower West Terrace of the Capitol – an assault that almost succeeded by his own description, investigators said.“We were almost overpowering them,” Mr Gillespie with visible blood visible on his scalp, told Associated Press at the scene that day.

“If you had like another 15, 20 guys behind us pushing I think we could have won it.”Mr Gillespie added that he and others tried to burst through an opening.

“I was with some other guys. And then we were starting to push against them and they were beating us and putting that pepper spray stuff in your eyes. But there were a bunch of people pushing behind us,” he added.

Former president Donald Trump has not stopped fundraising since moving from Washington DC to his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, amassing a war chest of well over $100m.

He has been back out on the road this year ahead of the midterm elections, holding MAGA rallies in state after state with candidates he’s endorsed, insisting to crowds that he did not legitimately lose to Mr Biden and repeatedly hinting that he plans on avenging his defeat by running again.

Today, Mr Trump’s hold on the Republican party is overwhelming, and none of this year’s major candidates have broken from the former reality TV host.

Graeme Massie explains the legal struggles that could possibly hinder Donald Trump from running for a second term.

An array of text messages from former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows between the election day and president Joe Biden’s inauguration shows how former president Donald Trump’s allies went from pleading for a stop to the violence on 6 January to affirming their support.

The trove of over 2,300 texts offers a glimpse into how Mr Trump’s inner circle, Republican lawmakers and Fox News hosts worked behind the scenes to overturn the election results, CNN reported.

On 6 January, congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene wrote to Mr Meadows: “Mark I was just told there is an active shooter on the first floor of the capitol please tell the president to calm people This isn’t the way to solve anything.”Other House members also texted Mr Meadows to call for a stop to the Capitol riots.

Former White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus said: “TELL THEM TO GO HOME!!!”

Former president’s son Donald Trump Jr sent: “This one you go to the mattresses on. They will try to f*** his entire legacy on this if it gets worse.”

The Independent’s Holly Baxter watched it so you don’t have to.

“And I can confirm that the Piers/Donald interview is the most toe-curlingly embarrassing TV you’ll ever see in your life. If you’re the kind of person who has to turn away during the worst parts of Borat, you won’t even get through the opening sequence.”

Former President Donald Trump stuck to his claim that he could have prevented the Russian invasion of Ukraine in an interview broadcast Monday as part of the inaugural episode of Piers Morgan’s new show.

Mr Trump, combative as ever, insisted to Mr Morgan during the interview that he had “threatened” Russia’s Vladimir Putin during his time in office, warning that Moscow would face severe consequences for invading Ukraine.

The Independent’s John Bowden has the story.

The former US president made the revelation on the debut episode of the Good Morning Britain presenter’s new show “Uncensored”, on Monday night.

Donald Trump has said he will not return to Twitter following the news that Elon Musk has bought the platform the former president was banned from.

Mr Trump made the announcement that he would not rejoin twitter despite the Tesla boss’s $44bn purchase, and instead said he wold use his own platform TRUTH Social.

Graeme Massie has the story.