Trump news today: Trump rally cancelled in Iowa over weather and tornado threat as Ron DeSantis courts voters

Donald Trump has been forced to cancel his rally scheduled for Saturday evening in Iowa due to expected severe weather.

By mid-afternoon, a tornado watch was in effect from one side of the state to the other with De Moines at the centre.

At 3.30pm ET the former president posted on Truth Social: “Tornado Watch in Iowa. For safety of our great Patriots, we have been asked to delay or cancel today’s sold out Rally.”

He added: “I am near the Palm Beach Airport, ready to go, but we are on hold because of the very bad weather in Iowa. Please Seek Shelter or Safe Haven!”

Oliver O’Connell has the details.

Tucker Carlson discussed trying to steer the overall direction of Fox News in a more pro-Trump direction and threatening colleagues who didn’t go along with his vision following the 2020 election, according to text messages obtained as part of the now-settled Dominion Voting Systems defamation case against the network.

In the 19 November 2020 messages, obtained by The Daily Beast, Carlson reportedly responds to a message from producer Justin Wells regarding a story viewed as critical of Mr Trump, which featured references to “the growing number of coronavirus cases nationwide and the ongoing upheaval over President Trump’s refusal to concede the election to President-elect Joe Biden.”

“We’re not going to succeed if this continues,” Carlson allegedly said in the messages. “The brand will be too damaged. We should jump on a couple of examples just to send a clear message. Let’s start with this one. Can we find out who did this?”

I’m happy to start threatening people individually,” he added. “It’s too much. And again, it will hurt us badly if we let it continue.”

Get all the details in our full story.

Ron DeSantis is in Iowa today, a typical early stop on presidential campaigns where candidates meet voters face-to-face to build their profile in the important primary state.

That wasn’t the case with the Florida governor.

Mr DeSantis reportedly “made little effort to connect with voters one-on-one at a picnic fundraiser in Sioux Center as several hundred conservatives ate hamburgers,” according to the Associated Press.

Such details play into the Trump campaign’s narrative about Mr DeSantis.

The former president has been hammering his rival for being dull, calling on him to get a “personality transplant.”

The Trump-DeSantis Iowa showdown will have to be another day.

Donald Trump announced on Saturday afternoon he’s canceling his Des Moines rally today due to tornado warnings in Iowa.

“Stay tuned, we will reschedule soon,” Mr Trump wrote on Truth Social on Saturday. “Be safe out there!”

A squad of FBI agents, assisted by local police, carried out the raid on Thursday morning at the luxury beachfront high-rise, The Miami Herald reports.

The target of the search, Unit 4102, is owned by a shell company, MIC-USA LLC, which is controlled by Oleg Sergeyevich Patsulya and Agunda Konstantinovna Makeeva, accordion to state records.

On Friday, a spokesperson for the FBI’s Miami field office said the bureau “was conducting court-ordered law enforcement activity in the vicinity of that location”.

Oliver O’Connell has the full story.

Ron DeSantis, once touted as a serious rival for Donald Trump in 2024, may be losing the GOP race before he’s even formally entered.

A new profile in The New York Times details how Mr DeSantis hasn’t been able to capture the minds of donors and allies in politics the same way as Donald Trump.

Some argue this is because Mr DeSantis is in a bubble, in a conservative supermajority in Florida where his agenda passes quickly, and where he avoids interviews with a whiff of scrutiny.

“The Murdochs encapsulated him in a bubble and force-fed him to a conservative audience,” Steve Bannon, a former strategist for Mr Trump, told the paper. “He hasn’t been scuffed up. He hasn’t had these questions put in his grill.”

Others say the Florida governor is faltering because he’s waited too long to enter the 2024 race, miscalculating that a bag full of legilsative achievements would be a boost. The delay, this line of thinking goes, gave Donald Trump too much time to attack.

Ron DeSantis is in Iowa today, and he had some choice words for the Republican party, including what might be a not-so-subtle attack on his 2024 rival Trump.

“We must reject the culture that has infected our party in recent years,” Mr DeSantis told the crowd in Sioux Center. “The time for excuses is over. We’ve got to demonstrate the courage to lead and the strength to win.”

The Florida governor, who has not formally announced a presidential campaign but appears to be running one anyway, said the key to a 2024 win for the GOP is looking forward.

“If we make the 2024 election a referndum on Joe Biden and his failures, and if we provide a positive alternative for the future of this country, Republicans will win across the board,” he continued. “If we do not do that, if we get distracted, if we focus the election on the past or other issues, then I think the Democrats are going to beat us again.”

The remarks could be seen as a jab at Trump, who perenially focuses on gripes about the past, including repeatedly and falsely claiming he won the 2020 election, even three years later.

That’s the latest from The Guardian.

They secured his participation, multiple people close to the former president told the paper, because it was understood his presence would mean more pro-Trump guests on CNN.

The network denied any such quid pro quo.

Critics continue to hammer CNN for hosting an in-depth primetime Trump event.

On MSNBC on Saturday, host Joy Reid called the event a “MAGA version of the Jerry Springer show” and said those defending the network’s decision are making “straw man arguments.”

Watch her full monologue below.

This week, Donald Trump was found liable for sexually abusing writer E Jean Carroll, then defaming her by claiming she lied about it.

That hasn’t stopped Mr Trump or his children for going after the former Elle magazine columnist.

On Saturday, Donald Trump, Jr, claimed on Twitter the case was a “political hit job” because Ms Carroll once wrote on Facebook she was a fan of The Apprentice, the former president’s once-popular reality show.