Trump news live: President ‘hijacked’ America’s 250th birthday to serve his own ego, Democrats claim

In the wake of financial disclosures showing that President Donald Trump made more than $1 billion while in office from his family’s cryptocurrency businesses, the president is defending his ethics record.

“I could know about it,” Trump told CNBC on Thursday during an Oval Office interview. “I didn’t. I mean, there’s nothing illegal. There’s nothing wrong with it.”

Since returning to office, the president says his businesses have been managed by a trust controlled by his children without his involvement.

Prior to the election, President Trump and his current special envoy Steve Witkoff were among the founders of the Trump family’s crypto firm World Liberty Financial.

Former special counsel Jack Smith, appearing in his first on-air interview since Donald Trump was reelected, told MS NOW’s Nicole Wallace that “we are facing an attack on the rule of law that is different in kind and scope to anything I’ve seen in my lifetime.”

He said he wanted to appear on air to “celebrate the public servants who do this work” ahead of America’s 250th anniversary, including prosecutors and other federal law enforcement officials who were fired or pushed out of their jobs under the Trump administration.

“It angers [me] to see them victimized, demonized, for doing their jobs,” he said. “I think it’s really important that we stand up for them and let them know there are a lot of people out there who back them, who are with them.”

Prosecutors targeted by the administration’s “retribution” campaign — including prosecutors in Minnesota who left office after refusing to go after the family members of Renee Good — “gave up a lot.”

“Part of this campaign is to make people feel isolated and feel like they don’t have people backing them up,” he said. “I want to express my support.”

More context on the Good investigation here.

During an interview on Thursday, President Donald Trump mocked his Iranian counterparts, despite the U.S. still struggling to reach a final peace deal to end the Iran war.

“They’ve had their own way for 47 years, like if you’re a spoiled child and you’ve had your way for many years with your parents, and all of a sudden they come down hard on you,” Trump told CNBC. “It takes you a little while to get used to.”

“They pushed the countries around, and they pushed the United States around,” Trump added of Iran’s role in the Middle East, name-checking the Obama administration, which achieved largely the same conditions with its Iran deal as the Trump White House is pursuing now.

Here’s more on the state of play:

President Trump admitted on Thursday he sometimes feels bad about how his presidency has impacted his sons’ business career, as critics regularly have accused Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump of profiting off their connections to the White House.

“I feel badly in a way for my kids,” Trump said during an Oval Office interview with CNBC.

“I tell my kids, stay away from as much as you can stay away from, but they also have a life, you know,” he added.

The Trump sons appear not to have entirely heeded their father’s advice.

They have been involved in a string of deals impacted by federal policy and financing in areas including crucial minerals and military contracts.

On Wednesday, Fox News dropped polls out of a host of states, including for the governor’s races in Iowa and Georgia.

The numbers should not inspire confidence for Republicans in states Trump won in 2024, particularly Iowa, which he turned from a perpetual swing state to blood red in the span of a decade.

Read more from Eric Garcia:

The documents, first reported by NOTUS, reveal that Leavitt’s campaign for a House of Representatives seat in New Hampshire still has $326,370.50 in debts and obligations, mostly to donors owed refunds for making donations exceeding federal contribution limits.

The Independent has contacted the White House for comment.

Right-wing MAGA firebrand Anna Paulina Luna blasted Senate Majority Leader John Thune for not passing the SAVE America Act, President Donald Trump’s top legislative priority.

The House adjourned on Tuesday this week after a vote to set up debate for the National Defense Authorization Act, which sets policy for the Pentagon, failed to pass in a 198-224 defeat.

“THUNE is VERY disrespectful,” Luna began.

Attorneys for Davey Hearn, the former Olympian charged with destroying property for allegedly vandalizing the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.

“Davey Hearn is innocent. These charges are outrageous and should be alarming to every American. This indictment reflects the administration’s effort to shift blame for their own failures,” Hearn’s counsel said.

“On the eve of our nation’s Independence Day, Americans should be deeply concerned by the misuse of government power against an ordinary citizen based on a concocted narrative. The justice system exists to determine facts, not to provide political cover.”

The attorneys include Norm Eisen, co-founder and executive chair of Democracy Defenders Fund and Mary Dohrmann, Senior Counsel at Washington Litigation Group.

A former Olympic athlete has been charged with destruction of property after he was arrested for reaching into the recently renovated Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.

David Hearn, a two-time whitewater racing world champion who competed in the canoe slalom at three Olympic Games, was indicted Thursday in D.C. Superior Court on one felony charge, according to court records.

Hearn has repeatedly denied vandalizing the monument, which has been plagued by algae blooms with the recently applied “American flag blue” sealant peeling from the basin.

Read more from Alex Woodward here: