Donald Trump is set to be sentenced by Judge Juan Merchan in Manhattan Criminal Court on Friday morning after he was found guilty on all counts at his hush money trial last year – just 10 days before his second inauguration to the presidency.
The Supreme Court declined to stop the sentencing on Thursday, its justices ruling 5-4 in favor of allowing Judge Merchan to proceed.
The president-elect will therefore appear virtually for the sentencing hearing at 9.30am ET today, with an “unconditional discharge” sentence expected after he was convicted for falsifying business records to hide a payment to the porn star Stormy Daniels in October 2016 to ensure her silence ahead of Election Day about an extramarital sexual encounter she alleges they had a decade earlier.
Trump called the SCOTUS decision “fair” on Thursday but insisted he would be filing a fresh appeal.
Also yesterday, the president-elect attended the funeral of former president Jimmy Carter in Washington DC, sitting alongside fellow commanders-in-chief Joe Biden, Barack Obama, George W Bush and Bill Clinton.
He has otherwise been promoting his dreams of acquiring Canada and Greenland and attacking California Governor Gavin Newsom over the Los Angeles wildfires.
Biden to start last week of term with speech on foreign policy legacy
President Joe Biden will begin his final week in the White House with a major address aimed at summing up what he considers his administration’s critical work on restoring American alliances and leadership that he will deliver at the State Department on Monday.
A senior administration official described what he viewed as the bleak situation the United States faced on the world stage as Biden grabbed the reins of government from the outgoing Trump administration, during which US alliances “had been badly damaged” by the then former president (now president-elect) Donald Trump’s decision to walk away from “agreements that made America safer.”
Biden aims to “describe how we reclaimed America’s global leadership as a force of stability, put our adversaries in a position of weakness, effectively navigated turbulence around the world and made America stronger,” the official said.
Joe Sommerlad10 January 2025 13:15
Hours earlier, the US Supreme Court declined to stop Trump’s sentencing hearing in his hush money case, after he argued that the closure of the trial – and the preservation of a jury’s unanimous guilty verdict – would infringe on his presidency.
The hearing comes nearly eight months after the verdict and has been scrambled several times with Trump’s ongoing claims of “immunity” from prosecution.
New York Justice Juan Merchan ultimately decided the only remaining path forward that keeps the verdict intact before Trump’s inauguration is to issue an “unconditional discharge” – a sentence without jail, probation or fines.
But after weeks of using the courthouse hallways to stump for his campaign and attack prosecutors and the judge, Trump will appear virtually today.
His defense attorneys – now Trump’s nominees to top positions at the Justice Department – are expected to appear.
Joe Sommerlad10 January 2025 11:35
All the interactions between the presidents at Carter’s funeral
Instances when all five living Amerian presidents come together are rare.
But for Jimmy Carter’s funeral on Thursday, they were all there.
President-elect Donald Trump was the first to arrive alongside former and future first lady Melania Trump.
Barack Obama, the Clintons, Bushes and Bidens were also in attendance.
Michelle Obama was the only living first lady who was absent, with reports claiming she was in Hawaii.
Outgoing Vice President Kamala Harris and Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff were the last to take their seats among a sea of lawmakers and members of previous administrations. G
iven the funeral’s proximity to the election — and the heated rhetoric over the past few years — some notably awkward moments were spotted by those watching the service.
Here’s more from Gustaf Kilander.
Joe Sommerlad10 January 2025 11:15
Elon Musk admits DOGE won’t find $2 trillion worth of cuts in federal budget
The world’s richest man, who is set to co-lead Trump’s new advisory Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), has admitted the agency likely won’t make the $2 trillion in federal budget cuts he originally promised, which feels like a fairly major admission.
Katie Hawkinson has this report.
Joe Sommerlad10 January 2025 10:15
