Donald Trump issued one of his typically aggressive holiday greetings on Sunday as he wished his followers on Truth Social a happy Mother’s Day.

“Happy Mother’s Day to ALL, in particular the Mothers, Wives and Lovers of the Radical Left Fascists, Marxists, and Communists who are doing everything within their power to destroy and obliterate our once great Country. Please make these complete Lunatics and Maniacs Kinder, Gentler, Softer and, most importantly, Smarter, so that we can, quickly, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!!!” wrote the former president.

ES Family Trust, an obscure financial entity tied to a Caribbean bank known for taking payments from the adult entertainment industry, could become a prominent shareholder in a Trump media company, The Washington Post reports.

The trust, whose owners are still unclear, reportedly offered Trump Media and Technology Group an $8m loan in exchange for eventual shares in the company once it completed a still-stalled merger.

The opaque identity of ES Family Trust, or the fact it reportedly never disclosed to regulators it would assume partial ownership of the Trump company, may be why the former president’s planned special purpose acquisition company merger hasn’t been approved.

Eric Trump has reportedly threatened to sue MSNBC‘s Rachel Maddow for pointing out that he will appear alongside anti-Semitic speakers during a ReAwaken America Tour stop at Trump National Doral in Miami this weekend.

Donald Trump‘s younger son is scheduled to speak this weekend along with his wife, former Fox News contributor Lara Trump, alongside right-wing influencers Scott McKay and Charlie Ward, who have been accused of spreading anti-Smitic conspiracy theories and praising Adolf Hitler, according to The Daily Beast.

Maddow made note of the speaker schedule and expressed shock that one of Mr Trump’s sons would publicly appear alongside them.

Graig Graziosi has the full story.

The Republicans in the audience laughed when former President Donald Trump mocked a woman who accused him of rape. They cheered when he defended his role during the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol. And they applauded again after he said he was “honored” to “terminate Roe v. Wade.”

Trump’s defiant performance at the CNN town hall on Wednesday may ultimately hurt his standing with key groups of voters in next fall’s general election, especially women, suburbanites and independents. But the reaction of those who attended also demonstrated his extraordinary grip on the conservative voters who will soon decide the fight for the GOP presidential nomination.

The magnitude of the challenge ahead for Trump’s Republican rivals was clear as the former president repeatedly turned his greatest political liabilities into jokes and applause lines for the GOP base. On Thursday, a day after the town hall, Trump’s Republican critics conceded they don’t know how to stop him.

More details in our full story.

When Joe Biden was running for president three years ago, he flew on a white private jet with his campaign logo painted on the side.

Now he has a larger, more recognizable ride as he seeks a second term. Like his predecessors, he’ll be crisscrossing the country on Air Force One.

Every president blends their governmental and political duties, but never more than when they’re running for reelection. “Official” events can sound especially political, while “political” events can delve deeply into the policy initiatives of the day. And decisions on how to divvy up the costs of a president’s travels between taxpayers and the campaign is no simple task.

More details in our full story.

Ms Carroll was awarded $5m earlier this month by the jury in the civil trial in Manhattan.

The appeal was filed not long after Judge Lewis Kaplan entered the judgement in the case, according to CNN.

Gustaf Kilander has the full story.

Cassandra Nuñez and her grandmother cast their first ballots in a U.S. presidential election in 2016. She was a first-year college student; her grandmother, a newly minted citizen. They both hoped to elect the first woman president over a man who bragged about grabbing and kissing women at will.

But Donald Trump became president, and it would be nearly seven years before a Trump accuser could press her claims at trial. This week, jurors in a New York civil case said they believed that Trump sexually assaulted writer E. Jean Carroll in a dressing room in the 1990s — making him the first U.S. president found liable by a jury in a sexual battery case. The panel awarded her $5 million in damages.

“It’s a victorious moment, but why did the people of the United States let this happen?” said Nuñez, now 25, of Los Angeles, noting the number of sexual misconduct accusations against Trump during the campaign and since his election. “It’s kind of late.”

More in our full story.

The Trump campaign used stock footage of a man sitting in a basement, claiming that it was an American unable to afford a home while it was actually filmed in Ukraine 25 miles from the frontline.

The dramatic footage shows a man working on his laptop as he shelters from the shelling of the Russian invasion in Zaporizhzhya, Ukraine last year, according to the New York Post.

In the ad released on Wednesday, the Trump campaign slammed President Joe Biden for the effect inflation has had on Americans during his time in the White House.

Gustaf Kilander has the full story.

What does this teach us? That once again, women’s accounts of what happens to them – to their bodies – are all too easily dismissed as false and invalidated. Want to keep women quiet? It’s easy: call us “crazy” or “hysterical”.

Read Pragya Agarwal’s full column for Voices.

Pundits and critics have been pretty much united in denouncing CNN’s disgusting Donald Trump town hall. The former president predictably spread his usual lies about the 2020 election. He also again insulted E Jean Carroll, a journalist he was found liable of sexually assaulting.

CNN’s Anderson Cooper tried to defend the debacle by insisting that the network had helped people get out of their “silo” and see the danger Trump posed. But no one was impressed. “I don’t believe the choices are between hosting live a firehose of falsehood and ‘staying in your silo,’” NYU journalism professor Jay Rosen tweeted. Former George W Bush speechwriter Matthew Dowd summed up the general sentiment, saying that CNN “failed journalism and our country.”

All of the vilification is well deserved. CNN’s Trump town hall did harm the country. But there’s been little discussion of those perhaps most directly damaged by the event: Trump’s Republican opponents. Just as in 2016, the media is convinced that Trump can boost ratings. And just as then, their fascination with him is likely to give him a big boost not in the general, but in the GOP primary.

Noah Berlatsky unpacks the scandal in his latest Voices column.