Trump family Christmas photos fuel Melania speculation: Live – The Independent

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‘Nobody knows where she is. It’s like a mystery. It’s certainly talked about,’ author says
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Donald Trump doubles down on anti-immigrant rhetoric after Supreme Court decision
Donald Trump was pictured with family members on Christmas Day at his Florida residence, Mar-A-Lago, but there was no sign of his wife Melania.
In fact, the former first lady is so rarely sighted at Mar-a-Lago that members of the Palm Beach private club are openly speculating about her whereabouts, according to a local author.
“Nobody knows where she is,” Laurence Leamer, author of Mar-A-Lago: Inside the Gates of Power at Donald Trump‘s Presidential Palace, told the Telegraph. “It’s like a mystery. It’s certainly talked about.”
In November, Ms Trump made a rare public appearance when she joined the other former first ladies at Rosalynn Carter’s memorial service in Atlanta.
Mr Trump marked Christmas Day by sharing a video compilation of his festive presidential speeches amid rants about the 2024 election, his legal woes, and posting a seasonal greeting that his opponents “rot in hell”.
Looking ahead to next year, Mr Trump will be juggling four criminal trials that carry a total of 91 felony counts as well as his presidential campaign.
Donald Trump has suggested that fellow candidate Vivek Ramaswamy is set to drop out of the 2024 race after it was revealed that his campaign is ceasing all its TV ad spending.
“He will, I am sure, Endorse me. But Vivek is a good man, and is not done yet!” Mr Trump wrote on Truth on Tuesday night.
His post linked to a story about the Ramaswamy campaign stopping its spending on TV ads and slot reservations, according to the campaign and ad-tracking company data, NBC News reported.
Data from AdImpact reveal that during the first full week of December, the campaign spent $200,000 on TV ads; last week, that number was down to $6,000.
Campaign officials told NBC that they are spending money on ads, but not on TV.
“We are focused on bringing out the voters we’ve identified — best way to reach them is using addressable advertising, mail, text, live calls and doors to communicate with our voters on Vivek’s vision for America, making their plan to caucus and turning them out,” a spokesperson told the network. “As you know, this isn’t what most campaigns look like. We have intentionally structured this way so that we have the ability to be nimble and hypertargeted in our ad spending.”
A new image of Donald Trump using what was described on social media as “toe pads” have sparked yet another frenzy around the former president.
X users speculated that they were used “to prevent himself from tipping over” among other wild speculations.
Kelly Rissman has the full story:
Speculation has erupted over why the former president uses two black rectangular pads under his feet
Donald Trump will remain on the 2024 presidential primary ballot in Michigan after the state’s Supreme Court rejected to rule on the challenge to Mr Trump’s eligibility.
The high court said it was “not persuaded that the questions presented should be reviewed by this Court” and upheld a lower court ruling allowing the former president to remain on the ballot.
It is the latest in a string of attempts to prevent the former president from appearing on primary ballots in several states by invoking Section Three of the 14th Amendment otherwise known as the “insurrection clause.”
Several individuals and left-leaning organisations have claimed Mr Trump’s actions leading up to the January 6 attack on the Capitol were efforts to aid an insurrection – violating the clause of the 14th Amendment that bars those from seeking an official position.
Four registered voters in Michigan initially brought the lawsuit forward in September. But in November, a Michigan district judge ruled that Mr Trump was allowed to remain on the state’s ballot, arguing that neither the Michigan Secretary of State nor the courts had the authority to determine when a person is eligible to run for office or remove candidates.
The Michigan Court of Appeals upheld the lower court’s ruling earlier this month.
Trump’s “immunity” defence isn’t going to the Supreme Court just yet.
The DC Circuit Court of Appeals will hear oral arguments on 9 January.
But Trump’s lawyers could soon be returning to the nation’s high court this week for a completely different case, one that questions whether Trump is eligible to appear on 2024 ballots in the state of Colorado or elsewhere.
His attorneys are expected to prepare to make their case to the nation’s highest court after a brutal court ruling in the state this month.
His legal team is seeking to overturn the Colorado Supreme Court’s decision that renders him ineligible for the presidency under the text of the 14th Amendment of the US Constitution, which prohibits candidates who “engaged in insurrection or rebellion” from holding public office.
The former president’s legal team is expected to challenge a landmark Colorado ruling at the highest court
Section 3 of the 14th Amendment plainly outlines what makes a candidate ineligible for public office:
“No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof.”
A final clause, however, adds that Congress may, “by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.”
Section 3’s authors argued during congressional debate that the rules apply to anyone who took an oath of office, including the president, which attorneys for Trump and right-wing legal analysts have disputed, by pointing to language that he is neither “an “officer under the United States” nor an “officer of the United States”.
Amidst his day-after-Christmas posting spree on Truth Social, Donald Trump shared a word cloud based on his own name.
Smack in the middle are the words economy, power, revenge and dictatorship.
Trump and his allies have either laughed off or embraced his support for a “day one” dictatorship, or have cast criticism against him as an overreaction.
The word cloud was the result of a poll performed for DailyMail.com, which asked 1,000 likely voters for one word to describe Trump and his rival Joe Biden.
Trump didn’t offer up any context for sharing the post.
Kimberly Guilfoyle, partner of Donald Trump Jr, shared a large group shot to her Instagram story.
Pictured were Ivanka Trump, her husband Jared Kushner and their three children Arabella, Joseph and Theodore along with Barron Trump, Don Jr, Ms Guilfoyle and the former president.
A Christmas picture of the Trump family, in which Melania Trump does not appear
Ivanka Trump also posted a picture of her husband, children and her father to her Instagram story. Melania did not feature.
Here is Donald Trump’s 2023, by the numbers, from The Independent’s Kelly Rissman:
Here is a deep dive into Mr Trump’s year in court proceedings
At his campaign rallies, Trump has revealed a radical vision for overhauling the nation’s immigration laws, from implementing “the largest deportation operation in American history” to “ideological screenings” for people arriving at the southern border.
If elected, the next Trump administration would upend asylum protections for thousands of people who are legally in the US; round up undocumented people living in the US and detain them at camps before they’re expelled; and prohibit children born in the US to non-citizen parents from being granted citizenship.
The frontrunner for the GOP nomination is plotting a draconian expansion of his first-term immigration plan
Federal law enforcement is working with police in Colorado to investigate alleged threats to state Supreme Court justices who found Donald Trump ineligible to appear on the state’s 2024 presidential ballots.
Social media threats included “significant violent rhetoric” against the justices and Democratic officials, often in direct response to Trump’s posts about the ruling from his Truth Social platform, according to an analysis of social media posts in the wake of the state Supreme Court ruling.
It’s a familiar pattern that has followed Mr Trump’s indictments and courtroom challenges as he seeks the Republican nomination for president in 2024: his outrage fuels vague calls for civil war and violence among his supporters online, while law enforcement monitors threats of real-world action.
Violent rhetoric targeting judges and leaks of personal information found on pro-Trump forums
In the middle of a posting spree the day after Christmas on his Truth Social account, Donald Trump lashed out at special counsel Jack Smith and suggested his appointment in the Justice Department role is unconstitutional.
The post follows a filing to the US Supreme Court last week from former Ronald Reagan-era Attorney General Edwin Meese, whose spurious argument claims that the special counsel was illegally appointed.
Meese has also defended other Trump figures like former assistant attorney general Jeffrey Clark, who is being prosecuted in Georgia for his attempts to overturn election results – charges that Meese called a “major affront to federal supremacy.”
“Biden’s Flunky, Deranged Jack Smith, should go to HELL,” Trump wrote on Tuesday.
Trump’s attorneys asked the Supreme Court to reject the special counsel’s request to fast track a hearing on whether Trump can claim “presidential immunity” as a legitimate defence in his federal election conspiracy case. The Supreme Court turned down the special counsel’ request, and the “immunity” question will now play out at the appeals court next month.
Now Team Trump is preparing to return to the Supreme Court to ask the justices to take up an appeal of a Colorado Supreme Court decision that disqualifies him from appearing on the state’s ballots in 2024.
More on Trump’s future at the nation’s highest court:
The GOP frontrunner has relied on his criminal indictments and lawsuits to fuel his 2024 campaign. Two major questions heading to the highest court could derail it
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Melania Trump has not appeared in any family Christmas photos
AFP via Getty Images
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