Prosecutors file a motion to seize Trump assets. Joe Biden continues to increase donations. More information in the news blog.
The most important things at a glance
The USA will elect a new president in November. The party primaries are currently underway, at the end of which one candidate will be nominated. It is considered likely that the Democrats will become the incumbent Joe Biden and the Republicans put up the former president Donald Trump will be sent into the race. Here you will find an overview of the polls and the US electoral system; you can read all new developments here:
RepublicanDemocrats
Candidates’ percentage approval ratings refer to the electorate within their own party, not to all voters. Source: RealClearPolling (03/13/2024, selected applicants, results rounded to whole numbers)
Prosecutors inform about possible seizures of Trump estate
3:10 a.m.: The New York Attorney General’s Office has made initial submissions to seize it in Westchester County, where former President Donald Trump’s golf resort known as Seven Springs is located. Related documents were filed with the Westchester County District Attorney’s Office on March 6, public records show.
They are related to a three-digit million sum that Trump will have to deposit after a verdict. In a fraud trial he was sentenced to pay a fine of more than 350 million dollars – the equivalent of around 325 million euros. Trump appealed, but has to deposit the penalty amount in court, which is apparently difficult for him.
Shortly before the deadline: Congress presents a budget proposal
12:10 a.m.: One day before the end of the voting deadline to avoid a “shutdown” in the USA, the US Congress published a budget compromise negotiated between Democrats and Republicans worth 1.2 trillion dollars (around 1.1 trillion euros) on Thursday.
The draft, which runs to more than a thousand pages, concerns funding for the Departments of State, Defense, Treasury, Labor and Health, as well as the Department of Homeland Security and Congress – and thus the largest and most controversial part of federal funding. The deadline for voting is Friday night at midnight.
Biden surpasses Trump in donations
4:28 p.m.: US President Joe Biden’s campaign team expanded its fundraising lead in February and plans to run a flood of ads against former President Donald Trump. This is reported by the US broadcaster NBCnews. An official $21 million was added to the campaign account in February, according to the report submitted to the Federal Election Commission late Wednesday.
However, things are looking worse for his competitor Donald Trump: According to a report by the news channel CNN, Trump’s campaign team collected $10.9 million in donations in February. A gap is also opening up among the parties: Biden’s Democrats collected over 16 million dollars in donations in February, Trump’s Republicans almost eleven million.
According to the report, there is a total of $71 million in Biden’s coffers. That left the campaign and the Democratic National Committee with a combined $97.5 million in cash at the end of February, more than double the $44.8 million that Trump’s campaign and the Republican National Committee had in the bank. These totals do not include the joint fundraising committees of both sides.
“Guilty of rape”: Trump sues journalists
12:28 p.m.: Donald Trump is suing the TV station ABC News and the journalist George Stephanopoulos. The moderator mentioned several times during his broadcast on March 1 that Trump had been found guilty of rape in a New York court.
These statements are “deliberately false and defamatory,” Trump’s lawyers write in their complaint. The ex-president, who is running again for the Republicans in the fall, was only found guilty of sexual abuse, not rape, of E. Jean Carroll. You can read more about Trump’s legal problems here.
