Donald Trump unleashed a furious rant against the Department of Justice on Monday, and appeared to indicate that he believed charges were imminent in the case of his dispute with the National Archives over his retention of presidential records.

In a Truth Social post, he also revealed that two other attorneys on his payroll, James Trusty and John Rowley, had also met with the Justice Department on Monday.

“HOW CAN DOJ POSSIBLY CHARGE ME, WHO DID NOTHING WRONG, WHEN NO OTHER PRESIDENT’S WERE CHARGED, WHEN JOE BIDEN WON’T BE CHARGED FOR ANYTHING, INCLUDING THE FACT THAT HE HAS 1,850 BOXES, MUCH OF IT CLASSIFIED, AND SOME DATING BACK TO HIS SENATE DAY WHEN EVEN DEMOCRAT SENATORS ARE SHOCKED. ALSO, PRESIDENT CLINTON HAD DOCUMENTS, AND WON IN COURT. CROOKED HILLARY DELETED 33,000 EMAILS, MANY CLASSIFIED, AND WASN’T EVEN CLOSE TO BEING CHARGED! ONLY TRUMP - THE GREATEST WITCH HUNT OF ALL TIME!” wrote the former president.

Ron DeSantis has presented his definition of his favourite word - “woke” - days after Donald Trump said “half the people” can’t define it.

“Look, we know what woke is, it’s a form of cultural Marxism,” Mr DeSantis told NBC News journalist Dasha Burns on a campaign stop in Iowa on Saturday.

“It’s about putting merit and achievement behind identity politics, and it’s basically a war on the truth. And as that has infected institutions, and it has corrupted institutions. So, you’ve got to be willing to fight the woke, we’ve done that in Florida, and we proudly consider ourselves the state where woke goes to die.”

Two days earlier, Mr Trump took a veiled shot at the Florida governor by criticising overuse of the Republican buzzword at his own campaign event in Iowa on Thursday.

“I don’t like the term ‘woke’ because I hear, ‘Woke, woke, woke.’ It’s just a term they use, half the people can’t even define it, they don’t know what it is,” Mr Trump said at the Westside Conservative Club in Urbandale, Iowa.

The news signals that Special Counsel Jack Smith’s probe into the former president may be moving closer to a possible indictment, according to NBC News.

The grand jury has been hearing evidence and witness testimony for several months, but had been on a recent hiatus, according to the report.

Mike Pence, the ex-Indiana governor who spent four years as then-president Donald Trump’s loyal vice President until he became persona non grata in MAGA circles for certifying their defeat in the 2020 election, has officially declared himself a candidate for the GOP nomination in next year’s Republican presidential primary.

Mr Pence on Monday filed paperwork with the Federal Election Commission to register his candidacy for the 2024 presidential election, capping months of speculation over whether Mr Trump’s former right-hand man would challenge his old running mate, who is seeking to reclaim his former place at the head of the executive branch amid multiple criminal probes into his conduct.

Read more in The Independent:

Two members of Donald Trump’s legal team were spotted by Politico entering the Washington DC headquarters of the Department of Justice late Monday morning as the agency continues to lead a pair of investigations into the former president.

The two attorneys spotted were Evan Corcoran and Lindsey Halligan, according to Politico, who primarily work on the ex-president’s legal defence against an investigation into his handling of presidential records, including classified materials.

A former WWE wrestler who had a fling with Lauren Boebert’s mother in the 1980s has taken a second DNA test to conclusively prove he is not the congresswoman’s biological father.

Stan Lane, 69, was accused by the Colorado Republican’s mother Shawn Roberts Bentz decades ago of fathering the child while he was working for Championship Wrestling in Florida.

He submitted to a court-ordered DNA paternity test in the 1980s to settle a child support dispute, which found that he and the 36-year-old lawmaker were not related.

However, doubts persisted after a lab technician who took Mr Lane’s DNA was later convicted of taking a bribe to switch samples in a separate case.

Bevan Hurley picks up the story.

Presidential candidate Nikki Haley is facing strong resistance from the left over her assertion during a CNN town hall that the acceptance of transgender persons could be contributing to rates of suicide among teenage girls.

“My daughter ran track in high school. I don’t even know how I would have that conversation with her. How are we supposed to get our girls used to the fact that biological boys are in their locker rooms?“ Ms Haley asked.

“And then we wonder why a third of our teenage girls seriously contemplated suicide last year,” the former governor continued.

The remarks earned criticism from Chasten Buttigieg, among others, for the shocking and baseless assertion that the small segment of American children were somehow to blame for their fellows’ deaths.

“Nikki Haley suggesting that 1/3 of American teenage girls are contemplating suicide because of the existence of trans people is an unserious, untrue, and hateful thing to say. But hate is the point, isn't it?” wrote Mr Buttigieg on Monday.

Texas has become the most populous state to ban gender-affirming care for minors after governor Greg Abbott signed legislation on Friday.

Texas joined at least 18 other states that have enacted similar bans.

Every major medical organisation, including the American Medical Association, has opposed the bans and supported the medical care for youth when administered appropriately.

Lawsuits have been filed in several states where bans have been enacted this year.

Joe Biden vowed in 2020 to work “like the devil” to energise Hispanic voters and flew to Florida seven weeks before Election Day to do just that.

But, as he stepped to the podium at a Hispanic Heritage Month event near Disney World, Biden declared, “I just have one thing to say”, and used his phone to play part of “Despacito.”

It was meant to salute the singer of the reggaeton hit, Luis Fonsi, who had introduced him.

But the gesture triggered online backlash from some Hispanics who saw it as playing to belittling stereotypes — proof that while outreach is important, failing to strike the right tone can undermine it.

“The details actually matter for people because it’s respecting their background, respecting their history, respecting their culture,” said Grecia Lima, national political director of the progressive activist group Community Change Action.

President Biden isn’t the first politician to strike a sour note trying to connect across cultural lines but the blowback he encountered illustrates a bigger challenge he faces while seeking a second term.

President Joe Biden is welcoming Denmark and Britain’s prime ministers to Washington this week for talks that will focus heavily on what lays ahead in the war in Ukraine – including the recently-launched effort to train, and eventually equip, Ukraine with American-made F-16s fighter jets

Here’s everything you need to know about the president’s diplomatic schedule.