First Thing: Trump most popular Republican despite indictment
Hours after his court appearance, it was clear ex-president's political calculus remained unchanged. Plus, can ChatGPT make me a healthier, happier, more productive person?
Good morning.
When the indictment against him was read out in a courtroom in New York City on Tuesday, the former US president Donald Trump gained a new title: criminal defendant.
Who is Karen McDougal, the other woman in Trump's hush money case? McDougal, a former Playboy model, told CNN in 2018 that she had an affair with the former president that began in 2006. Trump, who denies the affair ever occurred, married his third wife, Melania Trump, in 2005. Despite his denials, the New York prosecution team has cited evidence of payments made to McDougal by Trump.
Trump boasts about great family" amid legal troubles - but where's Melania? The former US president cut a solitary figure when he was photographed entering his Trump Tower skyscraper on Monday evening. And as he flew back on his private jet to Florida on Tuesday after pleading not guilty, Melania Trump was also nowhere to be seen. She was not even mentioned in his rambling but defiant speech, prompting people to wonder: Where's Melania?"
What could this mean? These two significant consequences show how Democrats may have finally been able to catch up to Republicans when it comes to focusing on so-called down-ballot races - little-known contests for offices like state legislatures and supreme courts that can have huge policy consequences.
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