The Latest: Trump agrees to have his super PAC, not taxpayers, pay for his ads

In response to a major backlash, President Donald Trump says he will stop using taxpayer funds for television advertisements glorifying himself and instead tap his super PAC to cover such costs going forward. Trump defended the use of at least $1.5 million in federal funds to pay for the ads, saying Monday that they were “positive promotion for our Great U.S.A.” Trump on Monday criticized election officials in Arizona’s Maricopa County after about 3,000 ballots were mistakenly mailed six days early to voters. The vendor error will have no effect on the ballots or the process, the recorder’s office said.

Maricopa County has about 2.5 million registered voters. Trump has approved the execution by firing squad of Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan for a 2009 shooting rampage at Fort Hood, Texas.

military has not carried out the death penalty since 1961. The Army secretary will decide its time and place, Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell wrote in a post on X. The Latest: Trump draws cheers, then criticism for musing about Iran taking out US cities During his rally Monday night in Nebraska, Trump was going through his usual insistence that gas prices are only temporarily high and worth it as part of his war on Iran.

Then he added a new wrinkle, floating the idea that Tehran could “take out” two major American cities. “They could take out a city,” he said. Let ’em take out San Diego.” He continued as the crowd laughed and cheered: “This is a very small price to pay, and it’s going to be over with very soon.” California Gov.

Gavin Newsom, a Democrat who may run for president in 2028, answered on X, calling Trump “deranged and dangerous.” Trump has a history of denigrating U.S. cities, especially the largest ones that lean heavily Democratic. Los Angeles was among the cities where Trump deployed federal military personnel for what he said was a crackdown on crime, despite local authorities not wanting the troops.

At a recent North Carolina campaign rally, Trump said the state’s cities are “blood-soaked killing fields.” North Carolina’s violent crime rate ranks in the middle third of states, according to FBI statistics. Cold War memories stir Rubio in Iceland as he hails diplomacy for conflict resolution U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio hailed the role of diplomacy in resolving conflicts as he began a three-nation tour of NATO al…