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In Eating Behind Bars, author Leslie Soble details how food is used to further punish incarcerated people in the USAt best you get mystery meat". Or sour-smelling heaps" of macaroni. In the worst cases, it's undercooked chicken, spoiled milk and maggot-infested produce.In prisons and jails across the US, people are routinely fed unhealthy, tasteless or inedible meals. Many are left hungry and malnourished, with devastating long-term health consequences. The hidden crisis affecting millions of incarcerated people is the subject of Eating Behind Bars, a new book offering a disturbing account of how correctional institutions punish their residents through the food they provide and withhold. Continue reading...

Bylaws that would limit voting to Trump-appointed trustees appears to reveal long-held renaming planThe Kennedy Center reportedly adopted bylaws earlier this year that would limit voting to Donald Trump-appointed trustees - a controversial move that appears to reveal the long-held plan to install Trump's name to the center.The bylaws, in a possible breach of the institution's charter, were revised in May and specified that board members appointed by Congress, known as ex-officio members, could not vote or count towards a quorum, according to the Washington Post. Continue reading...

Costs, insurance delays and difficult-to-obtain mental health treatment plague the US health systemA record 23 % of Americans believe the United States healthcare system is in a state of crisis" and 47% think it has major problems," according to a recent poll from the West Health-Gallup Center on Healthcare in America.The poll also revealed that a record 29% of Americans see cost" as the most urgent health problem facing the US. Experts note that these two perceptions - that the healthcare system is in a state of crisis and that costs are an urgent health problem - are related. Continue reading...

Democrat Muhammad Akbar Ali joins the Georgia state house as a legislator representing an Atlanta suburbMuhammad Akbar Ali, a 21-year-old recent college graduate, won a runoff election for a state house seat in Atlanta's suburbs earlier this month, becoming the youngest Georgia state legislator serving today - perhaps the youngest ever.The key to the young Democrat's victory and his strategy moving forward? Experience. Continue reading...

The Body Coach app, launched in pandemic, will advertise on ITV's channels and video platform ITVX under dealThe broadcaster ITV has agreed to invest up to 3m into the health and fitness app The Body Coach, created by Joe Wicks, who shot to fame by getting people exercising in their living rooms during the Covid pandemic.It is the latest deal made through the group's media for equity investment fund ITV AdVentures Invest. As part of the agreement, The Body Coach will advertise on ITV's channels and its video platform ITVX. Continue reading...

The Danish American who doubted Covid shots is meant to lead drug regulation - but has focused on vaccinesAs the US continues making unprecedented changes to its vaccination recommendations, one figure appears unexpectedly: Tracy Beth Hoeg, a Danish American sports physician and epidemiologist who first made her name casting doubt on Covid vaccines in the pandemic and has focused upon possible deaths after Covid vaccination in her short tenure at the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).Health officials planned to announce radical changes to the childhood vaccine schedule earlier this month, aligning the US with Denmark's immunization schedule, sources say - a major change that would put the US out of step with much of the world with no evidence for benefit. The announcement has been postponed until the new year. Continue reading...

The US president and his allies spent 2025 attacking the Federal Reserve amid a rollercoaster year for the US economyIn the bowels of the US Federal Reserve this summer, two of the world's most powerful men, sporting glistening white hard hats, stood before reporters looking like students forced to work together on a group project.Allies of Donald Trump had spent weeks trying to manufacture a scandal around ongoing renovations of the central bank's Washington headquarters and its costs. Now here was the US president, on a rare visit, examining the project for himself. Continue reading...

US-made device planned by end of year hit by recent government shutdown affecting shipmentsTrump Mobile, the phone company launched by Donald Trump's family business, has pushed back plans to deliver a $499 (371) gold-coloured smartphone by the end of the year.The Trump Organization licensed its name to launch a mobile service and the device in June, in the latest monetisation of his presidency by a family business empire now run by Trump's sons. Continue reading...

Forty-seven men killed by states operating death penalty - almost double last year's numberUS executions have surged in 2025 to the highest level in 16 years, as Donald Trump's campaign to reinvigorate judicial killings, combined with the US supreme court's increasing refusal to engage in last-minute pleas for reprieve, have taken a heavy toll.A total of 47 men - they were all male - have been killed by states operating the death penalty in the course of the year. That was almost double the number in 2024, amounting to the greatest frenzy of capital punishment bloodletting in America since 2009. Continue reading...

It was a tough year (again) and we met it all with a shrugIt's the end of another year, which means a deluge of dire looks back on the various atrocities of the last go around the sun. As is my duty, I have to add to the pile. But does it all have to be quite so sad? Do we have to dutifully trawl through the muck to find some elusive meaning to what we've been forced to endure? Unfortunately, yes. It was a tough year (again) and we met it all with a shrug. As we've all been made punishingly aware, Dictionary.com's word of 2025 is 6-7," a viral meme slogan which is technically two words. Pretty cheeky of the Dictionary to cheat on their own assignment.How tragically emblematic of the year we just witnessed. We're all too apathetic to even complain about getting swindled by a gaggle of word snobs. Apathy" would have been a better choice for word of the year, considering how we've collectively shrugged at every dispiriting development of the last 12 months. Nicki Minaj popped up at the Turning Point USA conference to kiki with Erika Kirk and the most I could muster was I guess she'll do a concert at the Trump-Kennedy Center soon."Dave Schilling is a Los Angeles-based writer and humorist

As the millennial superstars near the end, an international generation reshapes the league. The question is whether an American can still carry the crownThat the NBA is reckoned in seasons is apt. To measure a legacy this way is as much existential as it is symbolic. Martin Heidegger argued that time is not something we pass through, but the condition of our being - less a pathway than a pressure. Heavy stuff, yes, but the NBA has always operated under similar weight.The millennial superstars who stabilized the league for two decades are now entering their twilight: LeBron James (who turned 41 on Tuesday), Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, James Harden and Chris Paul. In their wake comes something genuinely new. For the first time, the league's next dominant generation is unmistakably international. The NBA's gen Z elite now emerge from Slovenia, Serbia, Greece, Canada and France. Continue reading...

Officials claim to find rampant fraud' in childcare funding, but prosecutions began in Biden era and Tim Walz says we've spent years cracking down on it'The Trump administration announced on Tuesday that it is freezing federal funding for childcare programs in Minnesota after allegations of fraud - first exposed and prosecuted during the Biden administration - recently became the focus of conservative influencers and media outlets.Jim O'Neill, the deputy secretary of health and human services, said in a video statement that the funding freeze was in response to what he called blatant fraud that appears to be rampant in Minnesota and across the country ... We have turned off the money spigot and we are finding the fraud." Continue reading...

More musical acts pull out of performances after Trump slaps his name on the building - key US politics stories from 30 December at a glanceThe list of musical artists canceling gigs at the Kennedy Center, which Donald Trump has attempted to rename the Trump-Kennedy Center", in Washington DC continues to grow.A second jazz band has pulled out of a New Year's Eve gig, giving just two days' notice before the event was set to take place. Continue reading...

A pity that Trump, or one of the 18 intelligence agencies reporting to him, did not trace the image back to its sourceEven while on holiday at his Florida resort, Donald Trump has refused to take a break from his unrelenting war on wind energy.Late Tuesday, the US president posted an image of a dead bird beneath a turbine on social media, accompanied by the lament: Windmills are killing all of our beautiful Bald Eagles!" Continue reading...

Water stored as snow during the winter months feeds waterways in the summer and supplies cities and farmsA series of December storms delivered a welcome boost to California's snowpack, scientists said on Tuesday in a closely watched assessment of the state's water resources for the year ahead.The snowpack survey recorded a snow depth of 24in (61cm), said Angelique Fabbiani-Leon, state hydrometeorologist at the California department of water resources' snow surveys and water supply forecasting unit. The survey was conducted at the Phillips station in the Sierra Nevada, a mountain range that covers the eastern part of the state. Continue reading...

One person had made an emergency call after companion fell 500ft, but rescue copter couldn't land due to high windsA man and two of his companions are dead after high winds prevented rescue crews from responding to a report of an injured hiker near a southern California mountain trail, the San Bernardino county sheriff's department announced on Monday.The three bodies were discovered Monday evening along the Devil's Backbone trail at Mount Baldy, which rises more than 10,000ft and sits just east of Los Angeles, according to a statement from the San Bernardino county sheriff's department. Continue reading...

Lawyers for Brian Cole argue he should be released ahead of trial for allegedly planting devices in DC in 2021The man accused of planting pipe bombs outside the headquarters of both the Democratic and Republican national committees the night before the January 6 insurrection at the US Capitol appeared at a federal detention hearing before a magistrate judge on Tuesday.Earlier this month, authorities arrested Brian Cole Jr of Woodbridge, Virginia. He has yet to enter a plea. Cole's lawyers argued that he should be released while he awaits trial, as he does not present any danger. They also noted that Cole had agreed to home detention enforced by GPS monitoring, and would live under the supervision of a relative. The defense rebuked federal prosecutors who pushed for the suspect to remain in custody. Continue reading...

Schlossberg, 35, revealed in November diagnosis of mutation of cancer of blood and bone marrowTatiana Schlossberg, granddaughter of the 35th US president, John F Kennedy, died on Tuesday after revealing in November she had been diagnosed with a rare form of leukemia. She was 35.Her passing was announced in a social media post by the John F Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum. Our beautiful Tatiana passed away this morning. She will always be in our hearts," the post said. It was signed George, Edwin and Josephine Moran, Ed, Carolina, Jack, Rose and Rory". Continue reading...

Emergency request by several of the country's nationals and an immigrants rights group was granted by the courtA federal judge on Tuesday blocked plans by the Trump administration to end temporary protections from deportation that had been granted to hundreds of South Sudanese nationals living in the United States.US district judge Angel Kelley in Boston granted an emergency request by several South Sudanese nationals and an immigrant rights group to prevent the temporary protected status they had been granted from expiring as planned after 5 January. Continue reading...

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is at risk after Donald Trump vowed to shutter it since his return to officeA federal judge has ordered that the Trump administration must allow funding for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) to continue.The watchdog, which supporters say protects US consumers from financial harm by powerful banks, lenders and corporations, is at risk of collapsing after Donald Trump vowed to shutter it since he returned to office this year. Continue reading...

Mamdani to take oath of office on New Year's Eve in gilded age subway station beneath city hallWhile tens of thousands of New Yorkers will be in Times Square for the countdown to 2026, the city's mayor-elect, Zohran Mamdani, has said he will be sworn into office in an underground midnight private ceremony at an abandoned subway station built during the gilded age.Mamdani, 34, plans to take the oath of office on New Year's Eve in a disused subway station beneath city hall that acts as turnaround for the local 5 train. The unusual choice of venue for the ceremony, Mamdani said, is symbolically resonant of the inauguration of a new era". Continue reading...

Over the holiday period, the Guardian leader column is looking ahead at the themes of 2026. Today, how US foreign policy has dramatically - and alarmingly - turned towards Latin America and the CaribbeanDonald Trump is not generally noted as a student of history. Yet over the past year, his decisive reorientation of US foreign policy towards the Americas has revived a playbook dating back two centuries, to the fifth president, James Monroe. Now the 47th is doubling down. An anti-interventionist is having second thoughts. Remarks that sounded at first like bad jokes or random outbursts from the presidential id have become more sinister through repetition or accompanying actions. Only a fool would take all of Mr Trump's comments literally - but they should certainly be taken seriously.He has refused to rule out using military force to take control of Greenland and repeatedly floated the idea of making Canada the 51st state. He threatened to seize the Panama canal. He has imposed swingeing tariffs on key partners, and says he might abandon the Canada-Mexico trade pact signed in his first term. He has meddled outrageously in elections in Honduras and Argentina, and sought to interfere with Brazilian justice. He imposed sanctions on Colombia's president in October. He has launched deadly attacks on alleged drug boats in international waters - extrajudicial killings that the administration has sought to legitimise by arbitrarily designating traffickers as terrorists - and threatened military strikes on Mexico, Venezuela and any other country he blames for drugs consumed in the US.Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here. Continue reading...

Frigid temperatures in Great Lakes, north-east and midwest as tens of thousands face power outages and icy travelA wild winter storm brought strong winds, heavy snow and frigid temperatures to the Great Lakes and north-east on Tuesday, a day after a bomb cyclone barreled across the midwest and left tens of thousands of customers without power.The storm hit parts of the Plains and Great Lakes on Monday with sharply colder air, strong winds and a mix of snow, ice and rain, leading to treacherous travel. Forecasters said it intensified quickly enough to meet the criteria of a bomb cyclone, a system that strengthens rapidly as pressure drops. Continue reading...

In cities and towns across the US, murals, statues and performances brought a focal point to collective action Continue reading...

The Cookers on Monday pulled out of a New Year's Eve jazz gig at the controversially renamed Trump-Kennedy' centerA second jazz band has pulled out of performing at the controversially renamed Trump-Kennedy" center in Washington DC, giving just two days notice before their New Year's Eve gig was set to take place.The Cookers, described as a Grammy-nominated, all-star septet of legendary post-bop jazz musicians, have not given an explicit reason for their decision but in a statement posted on their website said: Jazz was born from struggle and from a relentless insistence on freedom: freedom of thought, of expression, and of the full human voice." Continue reading...

The US president has been fooled into seeing Israel as a reliable ally and Tehran as the enemy. We say he should consider the evidence and rethink

After the far-right US representative's resignation, Harris wonders who his opponent for Georgia's 14th district will beRetired brigadier general Shawn Harris had been all geared up for a campaign to defeat Marjorie Taylor Greene next November, and then the far-right representative quit the field. Now he's wondering what Republicans will throw at him.In November, Greene announced she would resign from Congress rather than face a challenger backed by the president after she began disagreeing with Donald Trump's policies on Iran, healthcare and the release of the Epstein files, opening the field for a successor. Continue reading...

Aspirant Americans tell of exclusions from ceremonies by sudden policy introduced on security' groundsThe occasion should have been marked by the joy of reaching the destination of US citizenship following the long odyssey of immigration.Instead, the ceremony at Boston's Faneuil Hall - renowned as a cradle of liberty" for its role as a protest hub in the run-up to the American revolution - felt like a nightmarish end of the road for some aspirant new Americans who had turned up full of hope. Continue reading...

We enter 2026 with radical uncertainty about the fate of the US - but also with the clarity that people have the power to determine what it will beWhen we talk about opposition in politics, sometimes it's just a policy disagreement - but in the current political crisis in the US, the opposition has become the opposite of the Trump administration in meaningful ways. It had to because this is not only a policy conflict.Between the administration and the opposition are actual opposites of principle: among those committed to inclusion and those to exclusion; truth and lies; kindness and cruelty; the protection and destruction of systems that in turn protect the climate or public health. Continue reading...

If the DNC isn't open and transparent about why they lost, then how can we be sure they will learn their lesson this time?The Democratic National Committee's decision to block the release of its own autopsy report on the 2024 election is stunning but not surprising. Averse to unpleasant candor, the Democrats' governing body functions more like a PR firm than a political organization devoted to grassroots capacities for winning elections. The party's leaders pose as immune from critique, even if they have led the party to disaster.Unwilling to depart from the party establishment's culture of conformity, the DNC has remained under the Biden-Harris shadow throughout 2025. Release of an official autopsy might have shown that party leaders actually want to encourage public discourse about the missteps that enabled Donald Trump to become president again. But the DNC is proceeding as if there's nothing to be learned from the tragic debacle of 2024 that its leaders don't already know - and they don't need to share their purported wisdom with anyone else.Voter disenchantment: Losing 6.8 million voters who supported Joe Biden in 2020 proved pivotal in the close 2024 election. Harris's inability to mobilize those pro-Biden voters was a massive failure.Biden's betrayal: Biden's stubborn decision to seek re-election, and his refusal to step aside until very late in the process, robbed Democratic voters of open primaries and undermined Democrats' chances.Abandoning the working-class base: With millions of Americans feeling desperate because of rising costs, the Harris campaign lost this Democratic base by bowing to corporate donors' interests and failing to challenge the impact of corporate greed in escalating inflation.The Gaza effect: Harris lost many voters - especially young people, Arab-Americans and Muslim Americans, with sizable consequences in Michigan and other swing states - due to her refusal to indicate any openness to shifting her policy position on Israel and Palestine.Losing young voters: Extensive evidence shows a huge drop-off in Democratic support among young voters aged 18-29.Norman Solomon is the director of RootsAction and executive director of the Institute for Public Accuracy. His latest book is The Blue Road to Trump Hell: How Corporate Democrats Paved the Way for Autocracy Continue reading...

Elite junior tennis players are flocking to online schools. The model offers flexibility and focus - but raises deeper questions about growth, pressure and childhoodIn a major study released recently in Epidemiology, conclusions were drawn - yet again - regarding how shutdowns and online learning were ultimately very damaging to kids' emotional and mental health (obviously some cohorts of kids were more affected than others with financial security a big part of the calculation). This is no major surprise as parents and students alike weren't happy with the remote learning environment.Yet despite this general consensus about online schooling not being as healthy as regular school, a new trend has exploded since Covid: the rapid growth of online schooling for tennis players and other athletes. Parents and their junior athletes feel that by being able to play several hours in the day instead of after school it will accelerate their progress in the sport while still leaving room for academics. And from my perspective, as a parent of a competitive tennis player who attends a regular" school, it appears to be the rule, not the exception, that most advanced junior players are in online school and not in a physical building. I often find myself bonding with the few other parents whose kids remain in regular school as we're a rapidly dwindling species. Continue reading...

For decades, he existed beyond comparison. As he turns 50, even golf's most dominant figure confronts the one opponent he could never overpowerTalk to any golfer who played against Tiger Woods and there is sure to be at least one story about one shot so sublime they were certain it could not be hit by them or anyone else.He was just different. Better. Continue reading...

The best and worst of 2025 - featuring devotion in DC, late-night tweeting and the fly that sank a birdieThe White House, issuing a communique to reporters covering April's global market meltdown over tariffs as US losses hit $6.6tn (4.9tn) in two days. The President won his second round matchup of the Senior Club Championship today in Jupiter, FL, and advances to the Championship Round tomorrow." Continue reading...

Two men killed in Hegseth-led attack on boat suspected of carrying drugs in international waters, Pentagon saysThe US military announced the killing of another two men in a lethal kinetic strike"on a boat suspected of carrying drugs in international waters in the eastern Pacific Ocean on Monday.The Pentagon released video of the strike, which brings the total number of known naval attacks on suspected drug smugglers to 30 since September, and raises the death toll to at least 107 people, according to US military figures. Continue reading...

US president hosted Israeli prime minister to discuss stalled Gaza peace plan, Iran and an award for Trump

Israeli prime minister's Florida trip included announcement that he will award Trump with Israel prize - key US politics stories from 29 December at a glanceDonald Trump has warned that Hamas will have hell to pay" if it fails to disarm while offering full-throated support to Benjamin Netanyahu during a meeting with the Israeli prime minister in Florida.In a bravura display of mutual admiration, Netanyahu announced that the US president would be awarded the Israel prize, the country's highest civilian honour, which since its inception in the 1950s has never before been given to a non-Israeli person. Continue reading...

Grammy-winning artist joins husband Jay-Z and artists like Taylor Swift following the success of Cowboy Carter tourBeyonce is now a billionaire, according to a report from Forbes - becoming the fifth musician to obtain the status.The Grammy award-winning artist, 44, has joined the world's wealthiest people following the success of her Cowboy Carter tour, which grossed more than $400m in ticket sales, and an additional $50m in merchandise sales. Her previous Renaissance world tour brought in about more than $579m. Continue reading...

Israeli prime minister said he will award Trump with Israel prize, highest civilian honor, while visiting Mar-a-LagoDonald Trump has warned that Hamas will have hell to pay" if it fails to disarm while offering full-throated support to Benjamin Netanyahu during a meeting with the Israeli prime minister in Florida.In a bravura display of mutual admiration, Netanyahu announced that the US president would be awarded the Israel prize, the country's highest civilian honour, which since its inception in the 1950s has never before been given to a non-Israeli person. Continue reading...

Trump also repeated false claims about renovation costs for the Fed headquarters during a Monday press conferenceDonald Trump launched another attack against Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell on Monday, calling the central banker a fool" and once again suggesting he would like to fire him.Trump launched his latest attack on Powell during a press conference with Israel's prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, repeating false claims about the cost of a renovation of the central bank headquarters, and told reporters that he might file a lawsuit against Powell for gross incompetence". Continue reading...

This live blog is now closed.Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to tell Donald Trump on Monday that Hamas must return the remains of the last Israeli hostage left in Gaza before the next stages of the stalled ceasefire can be implemented, Israeli officials and analysts say.The trip comes amid a new push by officials in Washington to force concessions from Israel to allow progress towards a second stage of the ceasefire in Gaza, which began in October after two years of devastating war.He feels he has a number of cards to play yet and the remains of Gvili is the easiest one to play now but there are others.Netanyahu knows exactly what he wants for Christmas - more of the same. Israeli troops stay in 51% of Gaza, periodically striking Hamas ... without the shadow of withdrawal looming over him. None of this requires a denunciation of the [Trump] plan itself and Trump can very easily justify Israel's extended stay on Hamas's unwillingness to disarm. Continue reading...

Kenneth Kirsch, 65, and Michael Greenberg, 71, died after the Sunday middair collision near Hammonton airportTwo men who died after their helicopters collided midair in New Jersey over the weekend both earned their private pilot licenses over a decade ago and would often have breakfast together at a cafe near the crash site before taking to the skies from the local airport.Authorities on Monday identified the two New Jersey men as Kenneth Kirsch, 65, and Michael Greenberg, 71. Witnesses told police that the two helicopters they were piloting Sunday were flying close together just before they crashed in a farm field near the airport in Hammonton, about 35 miles (56km) south-east of Philadelphia. Continue reading...

Greene gives lengthy interview with New York Times days before stepping down as congresswoman for GeorgiaMarjorie Taylor Greene, now just days away from stepping down as a congresswoman for Georgia, has said in her latest mea culpa interview that she was just so naive" for believing that Donald Trump was a man of the people.In a lengthy interview with the New York Times that examines her break with the president after years of devotion, Greene explained that a series of minor ruptures with the president culminated in a total breach after conservative influencer Charlie Kirk was killed in September. Continue reading...

Gaza not covered in announcement and will be handled on separate track, says US state department officialThe United States on Monday pledged $2bn in assistance to tens of millions of people facing hunger and disease in more than a dozen countries next year, part of what it said was a new mechanism for the delivery of life-saving assistance following major foreign aid cuts by the Trump administration.The US slashed its aid spending this year, and leading western donors such as Germany also pared back assistance as they pivoted to increased defense spending, triggering a severe funding crunch for the UN. The billions of dollars in assistance pledged by Washington on Monday will be overseen by the UN office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs, the state department said, under what it described as new model of assistance agreed with the UN that aims to make aid funding and delivery more efficient and increase accountability for the spending of funds. Continue reading...

Erica Fox's remains were found after nearly weeklong search, marking a rare shark-related fatality for CaliforniaCalifornia firefighters have found the body of a California triathlete on a beach north-west of Santa Cruz, almost a week after she went missing amid speculation that she was killed by a shark.The remains of Erica Fox were found on Saturday, her father and husband confirmed to local news outlets. Fox, 55, was part of a group of more than a dozen swimmers who left from Lovers Point near Monterey, California, on 21 December, but she never returned to shore. A witness driving by the area reported to authorities that they saw a shark with what appeared to be a human body in its mouth emerge from the water, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. Continue reading...

Kash Patel claims $250m Covid aid fraud scheme is tip of iceberg' and blames state's Somali populationThe FBI has deployed additional personnel and investigative resources to Minnesota to dismantle large-scale fraud schemes exploiting federal programs", director Kash Patel said on social media on Sunday.Amid the Trump administrations attacks on the state and its Somali immigration population, the FBI director said the agency had already dismantled a $250m fraud scheme that stole federal food aid meant for vulnerable children during the Covid pandemic in a case that led to 78 indictments and 57 convictions. Continue reading...

Trump alleged that US forces hit very hard' in what would mark his team's first land strike on Venezuela if confirmedDonald Trump has claimed that US forces struck a big facility" in Venezuela last week - but the president did not specify what it was, or where, and the White House has not commented further.We just knocked out - I don't know if you read or you saw - they have a big plant, or a big facility, where the ships come from. Two nights ago, we knocked that out. So we hit them very hard," Trump told Republican donor and New York supermarket owner John Catsimatidis on Friday. Continue reading...