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Donald Trump, for the first time in his presidency, is limping. Republicans are putting a brave face on it - blaming the series of embarrassing election defeats on Tuesday night on them being in traditionally Democrat cities and states, even though many of them went to Donald Trump a year ago. And Trump, apparently spooked by the possibility that he might actually have to spend the second half of his last term in office without Republicans in charge of the House or Senate, is starting to suggest ways he can speed up his takeover agenda even further - scrapping the filibuster, pushing through more redistricting and voter ID laws. Whatever it takes to seize control of Congress for as long as it takes. Meanwhile, in Trumpworld Here's everything you need to know... Turns out Zohran Mamdani, Keir Starmer and Jeremy Corbyn have something in commons after all. They're all arsenal fans. Te newly minted mayor of New York revealed his team affiliation at his first press conference as Mayor-elect - telling Sky News he'd been "very exited" to call on them for a question, because as a kid he'd watched Sky in the run up to transfer deadline day. So excited was he, in fact, that he forgot what the question was and had to get them to repeat it. Arsenal Trump gave an interview to Brett Baier of (who else?) Fox News in Miami, where he asked the President for his response to Mamdani's victory speech, "It was a very angry speech," Trump said. "Certainly angry towards me and I think he has to be very nice to me. I'm the one who sorta has to approve lots of things coming to him." He was asked about Mamdani saying "If you come for one of us, you have to come through all of us." Trump said that was "A very dangerous statement for him to make...He has to be very respectful of Washington," he added. "because if not he's not going to get anything," And asked if he'd reach out to Mamdani's administration in New York, Trump shot back: "I would say he should reach out to us..." Gianni Infantino, the boss of FIFA and a total Trump toadie has invented a new peace prize, apparently in order to give it to Donald Trump. The Football governing body will launch the prize to recognise individuals who have helped to unite people all over the world in peace” with the winner to be crowned at the World Cup draw in Washington DC on December 5. I know we keep saying it, but this is how people behave in dictatorships. Seriously. Trump has had the words "The Oval Office" painted on the wall outside the Oval Office in huge gold cursive writing. You know, just in case someone got it confused with one of the other curved-wall rooms in the building. Trump laid out his devious plan to ram sweeping changes to American laws through congress by changing Senate rules to abolish the filibuster - a major check against the abuse of power in Congress. A filibuster is where one party can block another party's bill getting to a vote by literally standing up and talking without stopping. It's a bad look for the party trying to push the law through, because it calls attention to it. And you need 60 votes in the Senate to break a filibuster, and the Republicans only have 51. They can change the rules with a simple majority to ban the filibuster, but that would risk Democrats tearing up loads of laws that they like with no way of stopping them next time they get in. It's like mutually assured destruction but for Congress. Anyway, Trump wants rid, and in his interview with Baier, he explained why. He said: "I think if we got rid of the filibuster, we would approve so many good things - common sense things, wonderful things - that it would be hard to beat us." Now that can be read two ways - other that he genuinely thinks all his ideas are so universally popular nobody will ever vote for anyone else ever again...or he's talking about rewriting American laws to rig elections and ensure nobody other than Repubicans can ever win. Trump claimed to Brett Baier that if he hadn't started his campaign of haphazardly slapping or threatening countries with tariffs for having the temerity to want to sell Americans their widgets, then the entire globe would be in a depression. It is entirely unclear how he reached this conclusion. It really makes no sense at all. But it's possible it's at the top of his mind because the Supreme Court was today hearing oral arguments in a case claiming his tariffs regime was introduced illegally, with powers that are reserved tor Congress. Trump denies this claim. But if he loses, he might have to pay back a lot of tariffs. Trump gave a speech to business leaders and for some reason some footballers at a conference in Miami today. It was the usual fare, aside from a little detour he went on where he claimed that there are a lot of people in Miami who fled Communist tyranny in South Africa. While it's true Miami does have a larger than average South African Diaspora, it would be pretty weird to describe the South African government as 'communist'. Best anyone can make out is that Trump was supposed to talk about South America and tried to style it out. He then leaned into it so hard he declared South Africa shouldn't even be in the G20, and that he wouldn't be going to the G20 summit in South Africa.
