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Trump and former loyalist Marjorie Taylor Greene trade jabs as Maga split over Iran widens – US politics live | US news
Trump finds time to pursue social media feud with Marjorie Taylor Greene
Before Donald Trump stepped into his meeting with Nato secretary-general Mark Rutte, and as the ceasefire with Iran seemed to be falling apart on its first day, the president found time to continue a social-media feud with his former close ally Marjorie Taylor Greene.
Trump, whose pre-presidential career was animated by similar social-media spats with celebrities, gloated on his own platform over the success of his hand-picked candidate to replace Greene in Congress.
“Marjorie ‘Traitor’ Brown’s (GREEN TURNS TO BROWN UNDER STRESS!) seat in Congress has been taken over by a wonderful and talented man, Clay Fuller, who won convincingly,” Trump wrote after Fuller won a special election to retain Greene’s seat for the Republicans in a conservative district of Georgia. “Congratulations to Clay Fuller, a very large improvement over his deranged predecessor!” the president added.
Trump also noted that he had won the heavily Republican district by almost 37 points in the 2024 presidential election, but that only served to underscore the size of the swing to the Democrats, whose candidate in Tuesday’s special election, came within 12 points of the Trump-endorsed Republican, Clay Fuller.
As voters went to the polls on Tuesday, Greene had replied to Trump’s threat to erase Iranian civilization by calling on the cabinet and Congress to remove the president through the 25th Amendment to the US Constitution. “25TH AMENDMENT!!! Not a single bomb has dropped on America. We cannot kill an entire civilization. This is evil and madness,” the recently resigned congresswoman wrote on X.
Greene’s replacement, Fuller, is a former judge advocate general in the US air force, who joins Congress in the wake of the president’s threat to destroy Iran’s civilian infrastructure, which is a clear war crime according to many of his former colleagues.
Minutes after Trump’s post on Wednesday, Greene responded by pointing out that, despite Trump’s boast about the value of his endorsement of Fuller, her former district “was never in danger of flipping” to the Democrats, and noted that while she had defeated the Democratic candidate Shawn Harris by nearly 29 points in 2024, Fuller only beat Harris on Tuesday by less than 12 points.
“Trump flipping MAGA from America First to America Last, covering up for the Epstein files, and betraying key campaign promises of no more foreign wars has been the best help for the Democrats,” Greene wrote. “Sad!”
Key events
Trump renews threats against Nato and Greenland after meeting Nato secretary-general
After an unusual private meeting at the White House on Wednesday with Mark Rutte, the Nato secretary general, Donald Trump seemed to renew his threats against the defensive military alliance for not helping fight the US-Israeli war on Iran, and hinted that he could again try to seize Greenland from Nato member Denmark.
Trump, who normally revels in conducting public meetings with visiting dignitaries on television, initially made no statement on what was discussed with Rutte, but after the former Dutch prime minister who leads the military alliance went on CNN to cast the discussion as a “frank and open” discussion “between friends”, the president issued a blistering, all-caps social media post aimed at further unsettling Nato.
“NATO WASN’T THERE WHEN WE NEEDED THEM, AND THEY WON’T BE THERE IF WE NEED THEM AGAIN. REMEMBER GREENLAND, THAT BIG, POORLY RUN, PIECE OF ICE!!!” the president wrote in a manner that did little to dispel concerns that he might try to withdraw from the military alliance.
Rutte, who has drawn criticism in Europe for seeming to endorse Trump’s decision to launch a war of choice against Iran without consulting Nato allies, and then scolding them for not helping to deal with its consequences, told CNN that “some” Nato members had failed in their response to Trump’s angry demand that they take part in the war on Iran by forcing open the strait of Hormuz.
After no Nato country responded to Trump’s demand for help, he announced that the US did not want or need any such help.
“I really admire his leadership,” Rutte also said of Trump, while refusing to say whether he left the meeting reassured that the US would remain in Nato, or alarmed that Trump might try to withdraw from it.
Asked if he believed NATO countries were tested and failed, Rutte said: “Some of them yes, but a large majority of European countries, and that’s what we discussed today, have done what they promised before in a case like this.”
Earlier on Wednesday, Trump’s press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, told reporters that withdrawing from Nato is something the president “has discussed” and would likely raise with the secretary general.
Before his meeting with Trump, a jovial Rutte posed with the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, at the state department.
While Trump has spoken as if he has the power to pull the US out of Nato, a 2023 law, co-sponsored by then senator Rubio, requires Senate approval, or an act of Congress before a president can suspend, terminate or withdraw US membership in Nato.
At the time, Rubio said the law would “ensure that current and future U.S. Presidents cannot leave NATO without rigorous debate and consideration by the U.S. Congress with the input of the American people”.
Reporter attacks ‘low-quality lawyering from Trump’s DOJ’ in complaint against whistleblower
Seth Harp, a journalist who based parts of his book, The Fort Bragg Cartel: Drug Trafficking and Murder in the Special Forces, on interviews with Courtney Williams, an army veteran who worked with US special forces, condemned the Trump administration’s arrest of Williams on Wednesday on social media.
“The FBI is incapable of solving real crimes, like all the murders on Fort Bragg involving elite soldiers trafficking drugs, so they settle for retaliating against courageous whistleblowers like Courtney Williams, whose only ‘crime’ was telling the truth about Delta Force,” Harp just wrote in response to an X post from Kash Patel, the FBI director, about the arrest.
“Typical low-quality lawyering from Trump’s DOJ,” Harp wrote in another post, which showed a page from the criminal complaint against Williams filed on Wednesday in federal court in North Carolina which referenced him arranging for his source to mail him a computer drive.
“The jump drive ‘likely contained classified NDI’?” the journalist wrote in reference to the assumption by prosecutors that the drive had secret national defense information on it. “That’s the standard for indicting someone?”
“News flash,” he added, “the drive contained an incredibly boring and tedious 100% public EEOC complaint THAT WAS TOO BIG TO SEND VIA EMAIL”.
FBI arrests former special forces employee for allegedly leaking classified information to a journalist
The US justice department announced on Wednesday that the FBI has arrested Courtney Williams, a military veteran who later worked in support of Delta Force, a covert US commando unit, after she was indicted for her “alleged transmission of classified national defense information to individuals not authorized to receive it, including a journalist”.
The criminal complaint against Williams, filed in federal court in North Carolina, details communication between Williams and a journalist who is not named, but, as the legal journalist Chris Geidner notes, the reporter Seth Harp wrote about Williams in his book, The Fort Bragg Cartel: Drug Trafficking and Murder in the Special Forces, and in an excerpt from the book published by Politico last year.
According to complaint, investigators found that someone using Williams’s phone had spoken with a journalist for nearly five hours, and “exchanged approximately 180 text messages with the Journalist between 2022 and 2025.”
Harp provided the following statement on the charging of Williams to WRAL, a North Carolina news station:
“Courtney Williams is a brave whistleblower and truth-teller. Former Delta Force operators disclose ‘national defense information’ on podcasts and YouTube shows every day, but the government is going after Courtney for the sole reason that she exposed sexual harassment and gender discrimination in the unit. This is a vindictive act of retaliation, plain and simple.”
The arrest was celebrated on social media by the FBI director, Kash Patel.
“Let this serve as a message to any would-be leakers: we’re working these cases, and we’re making arrests,” Patel wrote. “This FBI will not tolerate those who seek to betray our country and put Americans in harm’s way.”
Vance claims not to know Vatican ambassador reportedly reprimanded by Pentagon
Speaking to reporters in Hungary on Wednesday, the US vice-president, JD Vance, claimed not to recognize the name of the Vatican ambassador to the United States when he was asked about reports that a Pentagon official had reprimanded the Catholic diplomat, Cardinal Christophe Pierre, over the American-born pope’s opposition to US militarism.
Vance, whose new book is about his conversion to Catholicism, then acknowledged that he had met the cardinal, who has represented the church in Washington DC since 2016, and hosted a prayer breakfast that Vance spoke at last year, but the vice-president suggested that he had no idea if the reporting, that a senior Pentagon official, Elbridge Colby, had indeed summoned the cardinal in January.
According to reporting from the conservative Free Press, confirmed on Wednesday by the newsletter Letters From Leo, Colby and his aides were enraged by Pope Leo’s January declaration that “a diplomacy that promotes dialogue and seeks consensus among all parties is being replaced by a diplomacy based on force.”
“America,” Colby and his colleagues reportedly told the cardinal, “has the military power to do whatever it wants in the world. The Catholic Church had better take its side.”
According to Letters From Leo, “some Vatican officials were so alarmed by the Pentagon’s tactics that they shelved plans for Pope Leo XIV to visit the United States later this year.”
As close observers of Vance’s career have pointed out, it was hard to believe that he had not heard about the reported meeting before being asked about it, given the central role Catholicism plays in his public persona, and the fact that he personally introduced his friend Colby at the Pentagon official’s Senate confirmation hearing last year.
Colby, also a Catholic, is the grandson of William Colby, a devout Catholic who served as CIA director for Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford. William Colby’s daughters celebrated their first communions at St Peter’s Basilica in Rome while he was posted there for the CIA during the 1950s.
The journalist Seymour Hersh said in a 2011 documentary by Carl Colby, one of the CIA director’s sons, that the late CIA director had been a source for Hersh’s reporting in the 1970s that revealed illegal domestic spying by the CIA.
Trump finds time to pursue social media feud with Marjorie Taylor Greene
Before Donald Trump stepped into his meeting with Nato secretary-general Mark Rutte, and as the ceasefire with Iran seemed to be falling apart on its first day, the president found time to continue a social-media feud with his former close ally Marjorie Taylor Greene.
Trump, whose pre-presidential career was animated by similar social-media spats with celebrities, gloated on his own platform over the success of his hand-picked candidate to replace Greene in Congress.
“Marjorie ‘Traitor’ Brown’s (GREEN TURNS TO BROWN UNDER STRESS!) seat in Congress has been taken over by a wonderful and talented man, Clay Fuller, who won convincingly,” Trump wrote after Fuller won a special election to retain Greene’s seat for the Republicans in a conservative district of Georgia. “Congratulations to Clay Fuller, a very large improvement over his deranged predecessor!” the president added.
Trump also noted that he had won the heavily Republican district by almost 37 points in the 2024 presidential election, but that only served to underscore the size of the swing to the Democrats, whose candidate in Tuesday’s special election, came within 12 points of the Trump-endorsed Republican, Clay Fuller.
As voters went to the polls on Tuesday, Greene had replied to Trump’s threat to erase Iranian civilization by calling on the cabinet and Congress to remove the president through the 25th Amendment to the US Constitution. “25TH AMENDMENT!!! Not a single bomb has dropped on America. We cannot kill an entire civilization. This is evil and madness,” the recently resigned congresswoman wrote on X.
Greene’s replacement, Fuller, is a former judge advocate general in the US air force, who joins Congress in the wake of the president’s threat to destroy Iran’s civilian infrastructure, which is a clear war crime according to many of his former colleagues.
Minutes after Trump’s post on Wednesday, Greene responded by pointing out that, despite Trump’s boast about the value of his endorsement of Fuller, her former district “was never in danger of flipping” to the Democrats, and noted that while she had defeated the Democratic candidate Shawn Harris by nearly 29 points in 2024, Fuller only beat Harris on Tuesday by less than 12 points.
“Trump flipping MAGA from America First to America Last, covering up for the Epstein files, and betraying key campaign promises of no more foreign wars has been the best help for the Democrats,” Greene wrote. “Sad!”
Here’s a recap of the day so far
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Chuck Schumer, the Senate minority leader, said Democrats in the upper chamber would force a vote on a war powers resolution to limit the administration’s military campaign in Iran when Congress returns from recess next week. “This war has made us worse off today than before it started,” Schumer said at a press conference in New York, noting the cost of the war and the effect on gas prices. “This is one of the very worst military and foreign policy actions that the United States has ever taken.”
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During a White House press briefing, Karoline Leavitt chided the press for allegedly “misreporting” that Donald Trump is working from the original 10-point plan put forward by Tehran. She offered a muddled explanation about which proposal the administration agreed to, but said that Iran actually put forward a “more reasonable and entirely different and condensed plan to the president”. Leavitt also confirmed that the ceasefire deal with Iran does not include Lebanon, noted that JD Vance would lead negotiating talks with the Iranian regime in Islamabad over the weekend, defended the president’s social media threats to eradicate a “whole civilization”, and warned that any further disruption to the strait of Hormuz is “completely unacceptable”.
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The House oversight committee has signaled it will continue to seek testimony from former attorney general Pam Bondi after she was ousted from her role last week. A committee spokesperson said the justice department informed the panel Bondi would no longer appear for a 14 April deposition, since she was subpoenaed as in her capacity as attorney general. The top oversight Democrat, Robert Garcia, said in a statement on Wednesday that Bondi was “trying to get out of her legal obligation to testify”. If Bondi defies the subpoena, Garcia added, “we will begin contempt charges in Congress”.
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At a Pentagon press conference, Pete Hegseth said that Iran “begged for this ceasefire”, and claimed that Operation Epic Fury “decimated” Iran’s military. He went on to extol that the two-week ceasefire signals a decisive victory, and listed several Iranian officials who have been killed since the war began at the end of February. “The new Iranian regime was out of options and out of time, so they cut a deal,” Hegseth said.
Despite the ongoing congressional recess, House Democrats will ask unanimous consent to pass a war powers resolution during tomorrow’s pro forma session, according to a source familiar.
Representative Glenn Ivey, of Maryland, will lead the effort, and invite all members who are in Washington tomorrow to join.
The motion is unlikely to succeed, since a single objection would block unanimous consent and require Democrats to pursue a formal vote on the resolution.
In a short while, Donald Trump will hold a meeting with Mark Rutte, the Nato secretary general.
Rutte has arrived at the White House, but as of now sit-down is still closed to the press.
Earlier, Karoline Leavitt told reporter that withdrawing from Nato is something the president “has discussed” and will likely discuss further with the secretary general. This comes after Trump has routinely criticized the alliance for the reluctance of member countries to offer support for the US military campaign in Iran.
During her press briefing today, the press secretary confirmed that the ceasefire deal with Iran does not include Lebanon, where Israel continues to launch strikes, and that has “been relayed to all parties”.
In a concurrent address, the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, echoed the news from Washington, as his country continues its attacks against Hezbollah. According to Lebanon’s civil defence, Israeli attacks have killed at least 254 people across the country today.
Leavitt also noted that Trump is dispatching his negotiating team, led by JD Vance, and special envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, to Islamabad for talks this weekend.
“The first round of those talks will take place on Saturday morning local time, and we know we look forward to those in-person meetings,” she said.
White House defends Trump’s comments threatening to wipe out a ‘whole civilization’
During today’s press briefing, Karoline Leavitt defended the president’s comments on Truth Social that a “whole civilization” would die if a deal with Iran was not reached.
“[Trump’s] very tough rhetoric and his tough negotiating style is what has led to the result that you are all witnessing today,” Leavitt said. “It was the Iranians who backed down, not President Trump.”
The press secretary went on to say that Trump “absolutely has the moral high ground over the Iranian terrorist regime”.
The toddler’s mother Denise Fergus says she is “devastated” by the vandalism at Kirkdale Cemetery.
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Key events
Championship fixtures
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QPR v Bristol City
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Coventry City v Sheffield Wednesday
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Norwich City v Ipswich Town
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Oxford United v Watford
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Leicester City v Swansea City
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Stoke City v Blackburn Rovers
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Southampton v Derby County
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Middlesbrough v Portsmouth
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Sheffield Untied v Hull City
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Charlton Athletic v Preston North End
It’s also another big day in the Championship as Coventry City look to take another huge step towards promotion. They face already-relegated Sheffield Wednesday in one of the early games.
David Estherby has messaged in to say:
“Have to agree with godfrey007 (8.33); it’s clear Ange prioritised a cup over league position last year, theres no way he would’ve let them slide to 17th or worse again. More importantly, there’s not a chance Spurs would be where they are if Vertonghen and Alderweireld were still there, let alone Kane. Club’s a mess but until the board prioritise Tottenham Hotspur over the Jacksonville Jaguars/Beyonce/the karaoke singer from the Bricklayers not a jot will change.
“S**t runs downhill, folks.”
Some more on Spurs…
I think the problems at Spurs go deeper than the coach. But saying that – the decision making at the club has certainly contributed – especially with the choices of coach post Ange.
Frank inherited a squad built for the front foot, proactive football. We were promised flexibility from Frank after Ange’s mostly myopic approach, but instead we kind of got a non-football under Frank which seemed to leave the players confused. Spurs didn’t really have problems scoring goals under Ange. But that became difficult under Frank – with a focus on set piece play for a team that used to like to press from the front, have possession, play the ball on the floor and dominate games. With Frank Spurs started to launch it long (with a keeper who couldn’t) – and that was the start and downhill from there. Historically bad xG’s occurred game after game, players pölayed out of position or simply mis profiled. Frank’s tenure was absolutely awful. Injuries played their part (when don’t they at Spurs?) – and the club selling two season’s in a row top scorers who weren’t replaced certainly added bluntness in front of goal to the mix.
De Zerbi sees players in this Spurs team that can play the game in his style -or at least to his principles . As we’ve seen with West Ham – they are getting out of this mess by trying to win games. Spurs need to be more positive in their intent and they actually have the players to do this. Let’s see if De Zerbi can raise the confidence levels.
The firing of Ange – after delivering a trophy – and with most of the season having a depleted squad as we have now (for context) – was an achievement. This talk of Spurs getting used to losing is denied by the EL win – an ultimate in winning. There was a sense of togetherness between players, fans and coach after Bilbao. The club decided to end that abruptly and the club hasn’t recovered.
Today’s Premier League fixtures
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Arsenal v Bournemouth
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Brentford v Everton
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Burnley v Brighton
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Liverpool v Fulham
Arteta also admitted he is proud to be coming up against former team-mate Andoni Iraola, who is also from the Basque Country.
He said: “Yes, it’s amazing what he has done together with the club. The consistency that they’ve shown, the manner that they’ve done it and the amount of players they’ve sold – how they’ve then reinvented themselves. The run that they are on is incredible because we know how tough the Premier League is. When it comes to pride, it’s huge, when it comes to rivalry on matchday, it’s even bigger – it goes out the window.”
Mikel Arteta urged Arsenal fans to bring the noise at the Emirates Stadium this afternoon as the Gunners look to go 12 points clear at the top of the table.
He said: “We know the meaning of every match here and the opportunity that we have, especially when we play at home. We need to maximise every result. It’s about each individual and how we turn up there. It’s actually impacting the game, the atmosphere and energy in the stadium. Whoever comes tomorrow, I ask them to be with that mindset, energy and commitment, because the team is going to respond beautifully to that.”
It should be a good match between Arsenal and Bournemouth this afternoon, although I don’t think anything could beat this game… the DRAMA!
Now from one end of the table to the other… Arsenal will look to extend their lead at the top of the Premier League table with a win over Bournemouth at lunchtime. The Gunners currently lead by nine points, although second-placed Manchester City have a game in hand.
This could be a huge weekend for the title race, with Pep Guardiola and Co facing a difficult clash with Chelsea at Stamford Bridge tomorrow.
Speaking of “Ange-ball” – Roberto De Zerbi wants to bring it back as he attempts to prevent Tottenham’s first relegation in 49 years.
Another question for Tottenham fans, do you think the club would be in this position if Ange Postecoglou had stayed?
De Zerbi to bring back Angeball. Along with the majority of other Spurs fans, I can’t help thinking that the club should never have sacked Ange in the first place! A terribly run club
With Burnley and Wolves looking pretty much certain to go down, the battle to avoid that last relegation place is heating up. Tottenham slipped into that spot last night following West Ham’s 4-0 win – and they face a challenging game away at Sunderland tomorrow.
Nottingham Forest and Leeds United are also down there. The question is, who will face the drop? Let me know what you think!
Thank you, James, for getting this Matchday live up and running while I battled through train delays to make it into London! I just about made it… eventually!
Anyway, Premier League football is back and we have four games to look forward to later today. Arsenal will look to extend their lead at the top of the table when they face Bournemouth at the Emirates Stadium. Brentford then host Everton, with Brighton travelling to face Burnley at Turf Moor.
And in the late game, Liverpool will look to bounce back from defeats to Manchester City and Paris Saint-Germain when they take on Fulham at home.
Friday night’s European roundup
Real Madrid had to settle for a 1-1 draw against mid-table Girona in La Liga, extending the hosts’ winless run to three games in all competitions and giving leaders Barcelona the chance to stretch their advantage at the top.
Federico Valverde put Madrid ahead six minutes after half-time but Girona levelled in the 62nd minute through Thomas Lemar. Álvaro Arbeloa’s side are six points behind with league leaders Barça, who have a game in hand against Espanyol on Saturday and could move nine clear with seven games to play.
West Ham’s rout of Wolves sends Spurs into bottom three
Jacob Steinberg
Two-nil up in a must-win game, Nuno Espírito Santo’s side looked unrecognisable from the doomed bunch who dropped seven points off 17th place in early January. This is a different West Ham. This is a West Ham with a punch in attack and, if this daring escape act does end with Premier League football secured for another season, a key part of the story will be how Nuno strengthened his squad in January.
While Axel Disasi has brought order in defence, the best way to compliment Castellanos and Pablo Felipe is to call them the modern equivalent of John Hartson and Paul Kitson.
West Ham, after all, have form in this department. They were fired to safety in 1997 after signing Hartson and Kitson halfway through a difficult campaign and, 29 years on, have given themselves a fighting chance thanks to the mid-season arrivals of Pablo and Castellanos.
Preamble
Emillia will be here shortly. In the meantime, here’s what happened in east London last night …
We’ve another stacked lineup today, including Coventry’s push for the Premier League and Arsenal’s latest test as they close on the top-flight title, along with much, much more. Let us know if you’re at a game anywhere today or how you’ll be following from around the world, just drop us an email via the link in the standfirst.
Four people in a minibus were also taken to hospital, Leicestershire Police say.
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