Trump news today: Ex-president’s fans hopeful of Twitter comeback after Elon Musk takeover

The Republican Accountability Project, a campaign group of anti-Trump GOPers that’s targeting incumbents who toe the ex-president’s line, has launched an attack on House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, putting up billboards in his congressional seat that attack him over the newly released recordings revealing what he really thought of the Capitol attack.

On the latest audio to emerge, Mr McCarthy can be heard suggesting that extreme members of his own House caucus should have their Twitter accounts removed – criticising specific representatives like Mo Brooks Louie Gohmert for their “incendiary” remarks around the time of the Capitol riot.

Andrew Feinberg watched the second part of Piers Morgan’s interview with Donald Trump last night – and in case you had something else to do, he’s put together this summary of what was discussed.

Read Eric Garcia’s full report

Former US president Donald Trump cast himself as a master of “The Art of the Deal,” but his old buddy, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, may be taking over that title.

On Monday, Mr López Obrador became one of the few foreign leaders to say he genuinely liked Mr Trump.

“We understood each other, and it was good for both countries,” López Obrador said of Trump’s time in office.

The Biden administration has reversed a Trump-era rule and is shutting down almost half of a pristine Alaskan wildnerness area to fossil fuel drilling.

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM), an agency under the Department of Interior, announced on Monday the closure of 48 per cent of the federally-owned National Petroleum Reserve, located on the edge of Arctic Ocean, to oil and gas projects.

The new guidelines reverse a December 2020 rule, issued in the waning days of the Trump administration, which saw 82 per cent of the 36,000-square mile tract opened to oil and gas development.

Ethan Freedman has the story.

Top US House Republican Kevin McCarthy told colleagues he feared members of his party, including Representatives Matt Gaetz and Mo Brooks, would put other lawmakers at risk with their comments following the assault on the U.S. Capitol, according to a New York Times Report.

In his call with other Republican leaders days after the 6 January, 2021, riot, Mr McCarthy raised concerns about comments made by members closely aligned with Donald Trump after the then-president’s supporters stormed the Capitol.

“Calling out other members, that stuff’s got to stop,” Mr McCarthy said in a recording of the call published by the Times. “Tension is too high, the country is too crazy. I don’t want to look back and think we caused something and someone got hurt.”

Representative Steve Scalise, the No 2 House Republican, suggested Mr Gaetz’s comments could be illegal, according to the Times.

The offices of Mr McCarthy, Mr Scalise, Mr Gaetz and Mr Brooks did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The newspaper quoted Mr Brooks on Tuesday as dismissing the criticism, saying “Kevin McCarthy spoke before knowing the facts.”

The audio was obtained through reporting for a book by Times reporters Alexander Burns and Jonathan Martin.

Mr McCarthy has denied previous similar allegations.

The committee investigating the riots in the US Capitol is considering to send a second request GOP leader Kevin McCarthy to appear for an interview after he previously declined to voluntarily appear before the panel.

The panel is also looking at summoning a widening group of House Republicans for interviews, chairman Bennie Thompson said, as more information is emerging about their private conversations with the Trump White House in the run-up to the Capitol siege.

“We will probably look at engaging some of the lawmakers by invitation at this point, and we’ll go from there,” Mr Thompson said at the Capitol.

Mr Thompson said that the earlier invitation to Mr McCarthy was sent “before this latest revelation that was reported on tape.” He told reporters that “in all probability” Mr McCarthy would get another invitation.

Republican representative Matt Gaetz slammed Republican leader Kevin McCarthy and GOP Whip Steve Scalise after their leaked audio revealed concerns of a Florida man inciting violence on 6 January.

“Rep McCarthy and Rep. Scalise held views about President Trump and me that they shared on sniveling calls with Liz Cheney, not us,” Mr Gaetz wrote. “This is the behavior of weak men, not leaders.”

“While I was protecting President Trump from impeachment, they were protecting Liz Cheney from criticism,” he argued. “On the bright side, you no longer have to be a lobbyist with a $5,000 check to know what McCarthy and Scalise really think. You just have to listen to their own words as they disparage Trump and the Republicans in Congress who fight for him.”

Earlier on Tuesday, a New York Times report revealed details of a call of Mr McCarthy with GOP leadership on 10 January. Mr McCarthy said that Gaetz was “putting people in jeopardy”. He referred to Mr Gaetz and Mo Brooks of Alabama for endangering the security of other lawmakers and the Capitol complex.

The House of Representatives Select Committee that is investigating the 6 January 2021 riots on Capitol Hill is to likely hold public hearings in June before they will issue a final report, the chairman of the committee said on Tuesday.

The committee’s members previously said they were aiming for hearings in early spring.

Representative Bennie Thompson said that the panel is “still looking at probably early fall” for releasing the final report in the case.

The revised timeline would allow the panel to release the findings before the midterm elections that would be held on 8 November and would determine who would control the Congress for next two years.

The panel is investigating then-president Donald Trump’s role in the riots when thousands of his supporters attacked police and stormed into the building.

The Biden administration plans to implement an “aggressive application of immigration law” as part of a government-wide plan to blunt an expected surge of migrants at the US-Mexico border after expiration of a Trump-era policy which closed the border to most migrants on public health grounds.

A memorandum authored by Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas outlines the Department of Homeland Security’s role in leading a “whole-of- government plan to prepare for and manage increased encounters of noncitizens” starting on 23 May, when the Centers for Disease Control’s order barring most migrants from entering the country will no longer be enforced.

Andrew Feinberg has the story.