Trump had us thinking mainstream Republicans were moderate. How naive | Emma Brockes

Mitt Romney and his ilk were once critics of the president. But now, when it suits them, they’re backing him again

One unlikely effect of Donald Trump being in office has been a rise in the reputation of more moderate Republicans. In 2012, when Mitt Romney was running for president, he seemed like the incarnation of monied interests – a man who would defend beyond all other principles the right of the American millionaire to be taxed at 13%. He was out of touch, and cynically motivat...

Trump says he will announce supreme court pick ‘Friday or Saturday’ – live

  • Democrats smash fundraising records after Ginsburg’s death
  • Who is Amy Coney Barrett, Trump’s likely court pick?
  • US Covid deaths near 200,000
  • Evidence shows mail slowdowns after Trump ally took over
  • Sign up for our First Thing newsletter

3.27pm BST

In the wake of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death, Democrats are framing the supreme court battle as a fight to protect ...

Ruth Bader Ginsburg: key Republicans under spotlight as fight to replace justice begins – live

  • McConnell vows Senate will push on with Trump’s pick
  • What does Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death mean for the supreme court?
  • Obituary: ‘Formidably clever with a superhuman capacity for work’
  • Sign up for our First Thing newsletter

3.08pm BST

Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death adds even more weight to November’s elections, with both Democrats and Republicans saying that voters will not only decide the presidency but the lo...

Why is a Trump official charging taxpayers thousands for a ‘girls’ night’?

In 2018, Seema Verma spent $2,933 on a girls’ night, according to a 17-month investigation by congressional Democrats – but it isn’t the worst of her claims

They say money can’t buy you happiness, but it can buy you a really expensive girls’ night – which is exactly what Seema Verma, the Trump administration’s top Medicaid official, has been spending on – and charging the taxpayer for it too.

In 2018, Verma spent $2,933 organizing a “girls’ night” at a reporter’s house and char...

US politics: virtual Democratic convention to start amid coronavirus crisis – live updates

  • Pelosi recalls House early to fight postal service election ‘sabotage’
  • Sanders says Trump’s attacks on mail-in voting a ‘crisis for democracy’
  • Virtual Democratic convention to kick off with emphasis on unity
  • Sign up to our First Thing newsletter

3.57pm BST

Eva Longoria, Tracee Ellis Ross, Kerry Washington and Julia Louis-Dreyfus will help em...

No Covid-19 stimulus package progress as Trump makes more false claims – live

  • Another 1.18m Americans file for unemployment
  • Deutsche Bank gave Trump records to New York prosecutors - report
  • Trump claims Covid-19 will ‘go away’ as Fauci warns long road ahead
  • Join us today at 5pm ET for an online event with Eric Holder to discuss voter suppression in the 2020 election. Register now
  • Sign up to our First Thing newsletter

3.13pm BST

Joe Biden made clear this morning that Se...

Healthcare is Trump’s Achilles heel. Republicans don’t get it | Lloyd Green

Five million Americans have lost their health insurance in a pandemic - yet Republicans are still trying to end Obamacare

Like Moloch, the ancient pagan god, Donald Trump is ever ready to demand that Americans sacrifice themselves for his greater good. He commanded that states open up early, and then this happened: Arizona, Florida, and Texas are looking like Wuhan redux. Come this fall, the president also expects that parents will put their children in harm’s way for the sake of his...

Trump administration asks supreme court to axe Obamacare

Democrats call legal push amid coronavirus crisis an ‘act of unfathomable cruelty’

  • Coronavirus – latest updates
  • See all our coronavirus coverage

The Trump administration has asked the US supreme court to invalidate the Obamacare lawthat added millions to the healthcare safety net but has been at the centre of political controversy.

The government advocate, Noel Francisco, argued in a filing late on Thursday that the Affordable Care Act (ACA), one of Ba...

Trump’s pick for federal court ‘too inexperienced’, Democrats say

Justin Walker, 37, is facing a Senate confirmation hearing as Mitch McConnell restarts push to confirm federal judges

A federal judge nominated to the nation’s second-most powerful court said on Wednesday that he was writing as an academic and commentator when he criticized as “indefensible” a supreme court ruling upholding the Affordable Care Act.

Justin Walker, a 37-year-old protege of the Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, and the supreme court Justice Brett Kavanaugh...

Coronavirus has destroyed the myth of the deficit | Yeva Nersisyan and L Randall Wray

No, federal government spending doesn’t have to be ‘paid for’. The crisis shows providing for our society is not a financial issue

Only a month ago, a stimulus bill of $2tn would have been unthinkable. Indignant deficit scolds would have asked how one planned to pay for it, and complained about burdening our grandchildren with debt and bankrupting our country. Bernie Sanders bent over backwards to explain how he was going to pay for a Green New Deal or Medicare for All. These program...