Donald Trump news live: DeSantis met with 2024 chants after Florida win as ‘rattled’ Trump vows to leak dirt on him

Trump cast his ballot in Palm Beach, Fla., on Tuesday.

The former president, along with his wife Melania, spoke briefly to reporters as he left the polling place, revealing that he had voted to re-elect his challenger Ron DeSantis.

“I think we’re going to have a great night, it’s going to be great for the country,” he said of the ongoing election.

“It doesn’t matter who you vote for, you have to vote. It is so important. It will be a very important election.

“We hope the right thing happens.”

Trump also coyly answered a question about his own electoral ambitions in 2024, dropping another clue about when he will announce his presidential bid.

“I think Tuesday [15 November] it’s going to be a very exciting day for a lot of people, and I hope to see you at Mar-a-Lago,” he said.

That of the Independent Gustaf Kilander has more:

Whatever the overall results, many of Trump’s personal allies have thrived in today’s vote.

Marco Rubio, Matt Gaetz, JD Vance and former Trump PR aide Sarah Huckabee Sanders enjoyed strong showings, writes my colleague John Bowden in Washington DC.

After casting his vote in Florida, Donald Trump unleashed a flurry of election-related posts on Truth Social.

In one, he described every candidate he has endorsed this election cycle, touting those endorsements as “TRUMP’S UNPRECEDENTED SUCCESS.”

He then wrote: “Reports coming in from Arizona that voting machines are not working properly in predominately Republican/Conservative areas. Can this be true when a large majority of Republicans waited today to vote? Here we go again? The people will not stand for it !!!”

In another post, the former president added: “GET OUT EVERYONE AND VOTE. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”

Then came: “Pennsylvania just announced it could take days to determine the winner. This is outrageous!”

“Another big voter tabulation issue in Arizona. Sound familiar???”

“The absentee voting situation in Detroit is VERY DOUBLE. People are showing up at Vote only to be told, ‘Sorry, you’ve already voted.’ This is happening in large numbers, elsewhere, too. Protest, protest , protest!”

“Maricopa County in Arizona looks like a complete voter integrity DISASTER. Likewise, Detroit (of course!), Pennsylvania, and elsewhere. Don’t be covered by the fake media!”

Who will be the true Wizard King after tonight’s dust settles? my partner Andrew Buncombe explores the growing rivalry between Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis.

“Two clear indications emerged this week of how Trump may feel threatened by the younger, Yale-educated DeSantis,” Andrew writes.

“He tried a grumpy nickname for the Florida governor on Saturday: ‘Ron DeSanctimonious,’ the kind of thing he did when he felt threatened by ‘Crooked Hillary’ Clinton, ‘Little Marco’ Rubio and ‘Lying Ted’ Cruz …

“Todd Belt, a professor of political science at George Washington University, says that when DeSantis refused in his debate with Crist to commit to serving a full second term if elected, he underscored the widespread belief that he plans to run to the presidency”.

Former President Donald Trump has quietly settled a lawsuit against him by protesters who were allegedly beaten by his private security staff in the days after he announced his first presidential campaign in 2016.

Lawyers for both Mr. Trump and the protesters told NBC News that the case had been settled just as a jury was being selected for the trial in a Brooklyn courtroom.

The attorney who represented the protesters, Benjamin Dictor, said the settlement represented “an incredible day” for his clients, whom he described as “lifelong community activists … who stood up to defend the right to free speech on the public sidewalk and have litigated for seven years.”

“Today, the matter has been resolved on terms that they are very, very happy with,” he added.

Andrew Feinberg themes.

The mood has turned bitter pro-Trump online communitieswhere users are already blaming voter fraud for the GOP’s weaker-than-expected results.

“These results are a farce,” wrote one poster on The Donald, which models itself as a successor to Reddit’s banned TheDonald board. “There’s no rhyme or reason to it. You don’t get a burst of counties in Florida and then magically cross state lines into ‘highly competitive’ territory in Georgia.”

Pennsylvania, Arizona, Georgia and New York state were singled out as hotbeds of alleged cheating (to be clear, there is no evidence of widespread voter fraud in today’s voting).

“They keep finding votes for Fetterf*** in rigged Pennsylvania,” said one user, referring to Democratic Senate candidate John Fetterman. “They are 100% out to steal Georgia [Raphael] Warnock,” said another.

One user was shocked by New York State Governor Kathy Hochul’s apparent victory, saying: “There is no fucking way on God’s green earth. [Kathy] Hochul won…the whole damn map is red except for like three counties.” (Most of New York’s counties are actually Republican, but nearly 43 percent of the state’s population lives in the city of New York York of an intense blue. .)

Many users blamed establishment Republicans for squandering the radical energy unleashed by Mr. Trump.

“RNC/GOP, McConnell, McCarthy got the results they wanted,” said one. “Tonight was about dividing the party and strangling the populism of the party. And they succeeded. Trump is going to run, but maybe he shouldn’t after tonight.”

Another said: “Trump has given the GOP a winning message since 2015. Instead of working with him, they have worked against him every step of the way. This election showed even more than how they did more to stop the America First candidates than they. radical Democrats did.”

Donald Trump has blamed the apparent defeat of the New Hampshire US Senate candidate Don Bolduc for his insufficient zeal for the so-called Big Lie.

“Don Balduc was a very nice guy, but he lost tonight when he denied, after his big win in the primary, his longstanding position on voter fraud in the 2020 presidential primaries,” Trump said in Truth Social right now. (“Primary” seems to be a typo for “election”).

“Had he stayed strong and faithful, he would have won easily. Lessons learned!”

Mr. Bolduc, a former U.S. Army brigadier general, was seen by some as a potential winner, but now looks likely to lose to Democratic incumbent Maggie Hassan.

During the Republican primaries, Bolduc had falsely claimed that Trump won the 2020 presidential election, but reversed his position after winning the nomination.

For anyone wondering, Trump has yet to say anything about Ron DeSantis winning in Florida.

Senator from South Carolina and Trump ally Lindsey Graham has said the former president will have the 2024 race to himself, no matter what Ron DeSantis decides to do.

Asked about the blossoming Don-Ron rivalry NBC news right now, Mr. Graham said: “That’s what I think. President Trump, if he announces next week, which I think it’s likely he will, he’ll have about six months to himself.

“He has a chance to get a wall of money, a [lot] support, and shut this thing down. And if he doesn’t, I think a lot of people will.

“But he’ll have his shot for four or five months, where he’ll have that to himself, and we’ll see how he does.”

Commenting on the wider results for Republicans, which were not as strong as some polls had suggested, Mr Graham said: “It’s not a wave for sure, but I think it’s going to be a very good night.”

Former President Donald Trump ended an hours-long rehashing of old grievances at a rally for Ohio Senate candidate JD Vance on Monday without announcing his intention to run for president in 2024.

The twice-impeached former president has not declared his candidacy in a presidential election that won’t happen for another two years, despite allies and confidants spending most of the day ahead of the 2022 midterm elections fueling rumors and promoting a possible 2024 announcement by Mr. Trump. .

A staunch ally of the former president, Florida representative Matt Gaetz, even took to Twitter to encourage Mr Trump to pull the trigger on a third presidential run, writing: “Trump should announce tonight “.

Read Andrew Feinberg’s full report:

Mr. Trump appears not to have mentioned Ron DeSantis at all in his speech at Mar-a-Lagoinstead praising several other Republican candidates he had endorsed.

“You know, JD Vance now leads 52-47. We had an incredible rally last night in Ohio,” he said.

“And in Florida, Marco Rubio, we had an incredible rally for Marco, the night before, in the heaviest rain I’ve ever been in.”

(He spent some time describing the “massive buckets of water” and other inclement weather he endured while in Florida.)

“But Marco had a fantastic evening,” Trump continued. “This is really tremendous.

He has praised Katie Britt, who just won Alabama’s US Senate election, and Herschel Walker, who is currently neck and neck with incumbent Sen. Raphael Warnock in Georgia.

He also offered a little praise to the media, saying: “They’re not the nicest people in the world, but they’re financially brilliant…thank you all for being here. Have fun.” Greetings, Don.