Trump indictment: US going to hell, says ex-president

The US is “going to hell”, Donald Trump has said in a defiant address after pleading not guilty to falsifying business records to hide damaging information ahead of the 2016 election.

The former president was charged with 34 counts in a Manhattan court in New York on Tuesday.

These relate to a hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels, who says they had an affair.

Mr Trump is the first US president in history to face a criminal trial.

“The only crime that I have committed is to fearlessly defend our nation from those who seek to destroy it,” the 76-year-old told supporters gathered at his Mar-a-Lago home in Florida after he appeared in court.

He said that the “fake case” was simply part of a Democratic conspiracy to interfere with next year’s presidential election, in which he is running.

Earlier, he sat stony-faced and silent for the nearly hour-long proceedings before Judge Juan Merchan, speaking out loud only in response to the judge’s questions and to enter his plea of not guilty. Mr Trump said nothing to reporters as he left court.

The case against the former president hinges on a hush-money payment of $130,000 (£104,000) made before the 2016 presidential election.

While such a payment is not illegal, spending money to help a presidential campaign but not disclosing it violates federal campaign finance law.

His former lawyer, Michael Cohen - who turned against his former boss - has said he made the payment at Mr Trump’s direction.

Each of the charges carries a maximum of four years in prison, although a judge could sentence Mr Trump to probation if he is convicted.

The likelihood of his being found guilty is so far unclear, but the case has pulled the country into uncharted political territory.

Mr Trump’s trial could begin as early as January 2024, Judge Merchan said, meaning the Republican could be back in court just as primaries begin to select the party’s nominee for the presidential election.

While the charges relate to the payment to Stormy Daniels, prosecutors also released background documents which they say point to a pattern of trying to suppress potentially politically damaging stories.

They listed two other payments they say were made via the National Enquirer, a US tabloid whose publisher is a long-time ally of Mr Trump.

They allege $30,000 was paid to buy the silence of a doorman at Trump Tower who claimed Mr Trump had a lovechild.

And $150,000 was paid to Karen McDougal, a former Playboy model who said she had a sexual relationship with Mr Trump.

Prosecutors said both payments were made by the National Enquirer. While a criminal conviction would not prevent Mr Trump from either running for president or from reclaiming the Oval Office, the prolonged legal fight could prove a major distraction for the Republican front-runner and may add a new layer of turmoil to his party’s primary.

Mr Trump is the focus of three other investigations, related to efforts to overturn the 2020 election results, the attack on the Capitol as it was certifying Joe Biden’s victory, and over the former president’s handling of classified documents after leaving the White House.

Macron and von der Leyen: Europe’s good cop and bad cop to meet Xi Jinping

AsEmmanuel Macron and Ursula von der Leyen meet Xi Jinping, they will be sending a message of unity - even as China seeks to exploit potential cracks in Europe’s alliances.

The French president and the head of the European Commission flew into Beijing on Wednesday and will be welcomed by the Chinese president on Thursday.

Their joint trip is the latest in a noticeable push from European leaders to engage with China, which has seen German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Spanish PM Pedro Sánchez paying visits in recent months.

Like them, Mr Macron and Ms von der Leyenwill be pressing Mr Xi on taking further steps to halt the Ukraine war, while also finessing the increasingly fraught trade relationship between the European Union and China, its biggest trading partner.

European watchers expect them to work as a tag team on the Chinese.

With his attempts at engaging Vladimir Putin, the French president is likely to play the good cop. An Élysée Palace spokesman told reporters that Mr Macron found “points of convergence with Chinese proposals” on ending the war.

Meanwhile, some have called Ms von der Leyen the “bad cop from Brussels”, given her strong relationship with US President Joe Biden and vocal support for Nato’s position.

Days before her arrival, Ms von der Leyen gave a strongly-worded speech criticising Mr Xi for maintaining his friendship with Mr Putin. In a reference to China’s 12-point peace plan, she stressed that any plan consolidating Russian annexations was “simply not viable”.

She also pushed the concept of “de-risking”, a more moderate version of the US idea of decoupling from China, where Europe would talk tougher in diplomacy, diversify its trade sources, and protect its trade and technology.

Together, the leaders represent two “fairly different strands of European thinking on China”, said Dr Andrew Small, a senior fellow with thinktank the German Marshall Fund.

“One is on China deepening support for Putin on the war, especially on the question of lethal aid. They will want to say at a minimum that it will be damaging to the entire relationship with Europe.”

But with Mr Macron coming with a large delegation including business leaders, “there is also the commercial and economic relationship that continues even in the middle of this… the message is that Europe and France still want to do business”.

Crucially, Ms von der Leyen is in China at Mr

Macron’s invitation.

This would provide reassurance that they would hold the line, noted Dr Small, not only to EU member states sceptical of Mr Macron’s approach to Russia and China, but also to the Americans who would be watching closely.

The US has yet to meet the Chinese leadership since Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s muchanticipated trip to Beijing was called off during the spy balloon row. This trip may be the closest the Americans get to facetime with Mr Xi for now, and just before leaving France Mr Macron spoke to Joe Biden where they discussed plans to engage China.

Mr Macron and Ms von der Leyen’s show of unity is also an attempt to put paid to any Chinese hopes of exploiting differences within Europe. Some observers believe this is one goal of Beijing as it tries to woo parts of Europe away from the US orbit.

But with member states maintaining relationships of varying degrees of closeness to China, the EU has yet to come up with a clear consensus on how to handle Beijing. Some, like France and Germany, are more keen to preserve trade ties while others, particularly former Soviet bloc states nervous about Russia looking to claim other territories after Ukraine, will want to go harder on China.

The danger is that China may be emboldened to use its relationship with Russia as leverage over Europe, warn observers.

Rather than just follow the US and Nato’s lead, Europe must clearly draw their own red line and lay out the consequences of China overstepping it, said Janka Oertel, director of the Asia programme at the European Council on Foreign Relations.

“This Chinese really need to understand what the stakes are. This is an opportunity for Europeans to say, ‘This is your problem, you could have stayed away like in 2014 [during Russia’s annexation of Crimea], but you chose not to - so you own this’,” said Dr Oertel.

So how would China likely respond?

Ms von der Leyen would be greeted with wariness. Her speech last week needled the Chinese, eliciting a swift retort from their ambassador to the EU, Fu Cong, who said it contained “a lot of misrepresentations and misinterpretations” and it “deliberately distorted Chinese positions”.

China would not be keen on her concept of “de-risking”, but it may have no choice but to accept it, say experts. In any case, it may be hard for China to protest given its own efforts to become more economically self-sufficient, with Mr Xi championing his own “dual circulation” strategy.

“The Chinese also do not want to be caught in a situation where they are too dependent on the US or the Russians,” said Reuben Wong, an associate professor in political science who studies Asia-Europe relations at the National University of Singapore.

Stoked by the war, the growing unity among Western allies - underscored by Finland joining Nato on Tuesday - represents a “serious development in foreign relations” for China, leaving “very little room for them to take an unyielding position”, said Wu Qiang, a Beijing-based independent political consultant.

Increasingly, he noted, the only route Beijing could take is to be more co-operative in working out, such as lifting trade sanctions. A recent Chinese move to block imports to Lithuania, over its decision to allow Taiwan to open a de facto embassy, did not go down well with the Europeans, who in response developed their own tools to block what they see as economic coercion.

Watch: One year of war in Ukraine in 87 seconds

Keen on burnishing his credentials as an interlocutor, Mr Macron has favoured personal talks with key players. But the opacity of the Chinese leadership has meant there is little available evidence Mr Xi can be easily influenced with such an approach.

Mr Macron is also mounting his Chinese campaign right after Mr Xi’s visit to Russia where, publicly at least, the two countries made it clear to the rest of the world that their “friendship with no limits” was still very much intact.

This could mean his visit to China “may end up like his visit to Russia and talks with Putin, where it has proven to be largely fruitless”, said Dr Wu.

“In the past month, we have also seen a high wind of foreign diplomacy from China, representing its return to the global stage. Under these circumstances China is confidently asserting its stance, so it will not easily change.”

But others believe this is precisely why China may be keen on working with Mr Macron to end the war Russia started - taking advantage of an opportunity to show the world it can do what the Americans have failed to accomplish so far.

In recent weeks it has promoted itself as an alternative peace broker, releasing concept papers and surprising the world with its hand in an agreement between Saudi Arabia and Iran.

Source: BBC