Trump news – live: Trump tells Republican Jewish Coalition he ‘doesn’t see a reason’ to return to Twitter

Hours after Republican representatives were projected to win a slim majority in the House of Representatives, GOP lawmakers reviewed a swathe of planned investigations into President Biden and his family.

House Republicans made a number of claims, including that the president is connected to his son’s business dealings in as many as 50 countries.

A right-wing group that has supported anti-abortion litigation across the US, including the landmark Supreme Court case that overturned Roe v Wade, is suing the Food and Drug Administration to reverse its approval of a commonly used abortion drug.

Mifepristone is used in medication abortion, a procedure that accounts for a majority of abortions in the US. It is also commonly used to treat miscarriages.

The former president’s attacks against his former transport secretary and the governor of Virginia recall the kind of racist language he used during the Covid-19 pandemic, The Independent’s John Bowden writes:

Six years after its chair derided Trump as a “bigot, misogynist, fraud” and a “bully,” the former president appeared at the Republican Jewish Coalition’s Las Vegas event on Saturday, where he was greeted with a standing ovation.

He told the crowd that “Jewish people don’t appreciate Israel the way they should,” echoing comments he made last month in which he said that “our wonderful Evangelicals are far more appreciative” of his administration’s policies with Israel “than the people of the Jewish faith, especially those living in the US.”

Critics have accused the former president of trafficking antisemitic tropes by suggesting that American Jews are insufficiently deferential to his alliance with Israel, conflating support for the Israeli state with Judasim.

Speaking to the Republican Jewish Coalition event in Las Vegas, Donald Trump said he “always liked” Elon Musk when asked about his thoughts on the new owner of Twitter.

“He’s a character and I tend to like characters, but he’s smart,” he said.

But it doesn’t appear he’s ready to get back on the platform, where the “problems are incredible,” he said.

“I don’t see any reason for it,” he said.

He prefers his Truth Social, where he gets better “engagement.”

E Jean Carroll has spent years trying to sue Donald Trump for defamation after he publicly accused her of lying about allegations that he raped her in the 1990s.

Ms Carroll has filed a new lawsuit against the former president under a New York law that allows sexual assault survivors a chance to bring civil suits after the statute of limitations has expired on alleged offences. The new case accuses him of battery – and also adds a new defamation claim based on recent posts in which he called her a “con job”.

Who is Jack Smith? Why did Merrick Garland appoint him? And what is he investigating?

Your questions about the federal probes into Donald Trump, answered by The Independent’s Washington bureau chief Eric Garcia:

Following his re-election to Florida governor’s office, potential 2024 contended Ron DeSantis is slated to address the influential Republican Jewish Coalition on Saturday, among the first major GOP events in the wake of last week’s mediterm elections.

So will Donald Trump, days after he made his own entry into the 2024 race, after a wave of his endorsed candidates in midterm races failed in critical battleground races.

The event, and attempts to court big donors as the 2024 race begins, marks an early test for Mr Trump’s influence and political standing in a party fractured by his volatility, investigations and persistent lie that the 2020 election was stolen from him.

He is set to appear by video conference on Saturday evening.

Republican governor Chris Sununu of New Hampshire, who also was re-elected last week, told The Associated Press that it is unlikely that the party would unify around the former president as he faces a federal probe.

“Those are his issues to sort out,” he said. “Everyone’s gonna sit back and watch the show. And that’s not just his supporters – that’s his money, that’s donors, that’s fundraisers.”

Maryland’s Republican Governor Larry Hogan blasted Trump and other GOP leaders in his remarks to the Republican Jewish Coalition, saying that “excuses, lies and toxic politics will not win elections or restore America.”

He said Republicans only camanged to capture a “ripple” after party members and analysts expected a “huge red wave”, according to The Hill.

“Swing voters took a look at some of our less-than-stellar nominees and decided that it was just not what they were looking for,” he said.

A former anti-abortion activist with an influential lobbying group claims that he was told the outcome of a landmark US Supreme Court case before it was published in 2014.

In his letter obtained by The New York Times to Chief Justice John Roberts, the former activist suggests that Samuel Alito – who authored the leaked opinion that overturned Roe v Wade – had discussed the court’s decision in a Burwell v Hobby Lobby weeks before it was publicly revealed.