Trump likely to sustain continued criticism over stories about his past
GOP leaders: ‘People don’t care’ about Trump’s woman problem
Who supports Donald Trump? The new Republican center of gravity
3.36am BST
We’re going to wrap up our live blog politics coverage for the evening. Thanks for reading and join us tomorrow for primary day in Kentucky and Oregon and live coverage through the night as results come in.
3.31am BST
Politico reports that after months of pooh-poohing the work of political pollsters, the Trump campaign has brought one onboard:
Donald Trump's presidential campaign has hired veteran Republican operative @TonyFabrizioGOP as its pollster https://t.co/OSFmNqIUv6
Fabrizio is a longtime friend of top Trump adviser Paul Manafort and Trump backer Roger Stone, who had a falling out with the campaign in August as the campaign refused to hire a pollster. With Manafort’s hiring in March, a source said, Stone’s relationship with the campaign improved; and Manafort began advocating for the hiring of Fabrizio -- all three of whom cut their teeth in New York politics decades ago.
The other person Trump's listed as "pollster" this cycle? Wife, Melania. https://t.co/U0B0TFB6HD
pic.twitter.com/EEAaYNwxbl
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3.28am BST
An audio recording purportedly of Donald Trump denying having dated a model who said “I never met a more narcissistic person than Donald” has emerged. He’s discouraging a gossip publisher to write a story about his (he says false) liaison with the model, Victoria Zdrok.
The Daily Beast has posted the audio. From their story:
Judging by Trump’s liberal use of curse words and otherwise coarse misogynistic language in his pleadings with Hayden to not publish the interview with Zdrok, he was also—at least by the naïve standards of a simpler time—less than presidential.
“I don’t even know who the hell she is,” Trump insisted to Hayden, after boasting about the ratings of his reality television show. “It’s the biggest thing [NBC has] had sinceFriends.” [...]
3.26am BST
Does Donald Trump really speak for you?
That’s the tagline of a new ad from Priorities USA, a pro-Clinton outside political group, that features women wearing T-shirts with Trump’s head, mouthing the words as audio plays of some of Trump’s most infamous/ignominious quotes:
1.19am BST
Two South Boston brothers who were reported last August to have beaten a homeless Hispanic man with a metal pipe while saying “Donald Trump was right” and urinated on the men have pleaded guilty in the beating, the Boston Globe reports:
They cited Trump > South Boston brothers plead guilty to beating homeless man https://t.co/hJbBh8onCH via @BostonGlobe
12.38am BST
Alison Lundergan Grimes, the former senate candidate, is with Hillary Clinton in Kentucky in advance of the state’s Tuesday primary.
What will happen in Kentucky? The Democratic primary in the state appears to have been polled precisely once – one year ago.
Great crowd for @HillaryClinton back in Lexington! Let's bring this home tomorrow! #GoVoteKY #ImWithHer pic.twitter.com/qduFDoDnMS
12.23am BST
Take a look at @BernieSanders' evening San Juan crowd. Packed theater. pic.twitter.com/ZZtNkyw45i
12.03am BST
Whoops. A congressional candidate in Virginia may have unwittingly revealed porn-surfing by... someone... on a computer desktop of which the candidate posted a screenshot to make a point on Facebook about... well it’s difficult to discern his point. It appears to be about a rival’s possible conspiracy against him. You can read his post by clicking through below.
Here’s the screenshot, enlarged by Gawker:
The stuff of nightmares: https://t.co/d2GCBrFoRg
11.43pm BST
Donald Trump will meet with Henry Kissinger, the controversial former statesman who steered presidents Nixon and Ford’s foreign policies as secretary of state and whose influence on American conduct abroad, particularly in favorite Trump country China, is arguably unsurpassed among living “formers”.
Trump met with former secretary of state James Baker last Thursday (and there’s photographic proof of his meeting with at least one future SoS).
11.21pm BST
Donald Trump spent the weekend tweeting about the New York Times piece chronicling his relationships with women. He is still at it.
In the last five minutes he has tweeted four times about the story. Does that qualify as a tweetstorm? Judge for yourselves:
The failing @nytimes is greatly embarrassed by the totally dishonest story they did on my relationship with women.
No wonder the @nytimes is failing—who can believe what they write after the false, malicious & libelous story they did on me.
Over 50 women were interviewed by the @nytimes yet they only wrote about 6. That’s because there were so many positive statements.
The writer of the now proven false story in the @nytimes, Michael Barbaro, who was interviewed on CBS this morning, was unable to respond.
Only like, 12% of my former girlfriends & female employees had bad things to say about me as I am on verge of POTUShttps://t.co/LeUPQWK6MS
11.14pm BST
Bernie Sanders’ team in Puerto Rico told the candidate on his visit today that they suffered from a lack of resources, NBC News reports:
.@BernieSanders stopped by a field office in San Juan today. One worker lamented the office had "no resources." 1/2 pic.twitter.com/eUeBrEk3B4
One @BernieSanders supporter said he was "working very hard [for the campaign] with nothing" in PR. Sanders guaranteed the man resources 2/2
11.05pm BST
Donald Trump has said he would repeal protections Barack Obama has put in place for transgender people in the insurance marketplace – but he now tells reporters that the government must act to “to protect all people”.
Trump told the Washington Post that transgender people must be protected under the law and that he did not believe that the issue of discrimination against transgender people had been overblown.
He added, “Now, I may not know about it, but I do not think I have any exposure to it from the standpoint of knowing people.”
But Trump said he wants to learn more about the transgender experience in America.
10.19pm BST
The Koch brothers, longtime megadonors to Republican causes and the movers behind freelance civic efforts such as don’t-get-out-the-vote legislation and don’t-control-guns initiatives, are tapering back spending on national elections, according to a National Review report:
The meeting, reported here for the first time, confirmed what some Koch insiders had begun to suspect: That the brothers’ political decision-making was increasingly being influenced by their business and public-relations interests, and that as a result, their investments in electoral politics at the federal level were diminishing. While the vote-taking that day was unexpected, several of those present say, the outcome was not.
Recent buzz inside Koch World about streamlining of departments, consolidation of offices https://t.co/nd9GnSfcQg pic.twitter.com/yqUZppXvHU
10.01pm BST
Who’s first in line to read Corey Lewandowski’s book?
UPDATE: Lewandowski denies book.
Despite false reports to the contrary, I am not writing a book. I am under a strict confidentiality agreement with Mr. Trump.
Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski is working on a book, according to 2 sources. https://t.co/z0oJAwZjOj
8.25pm BST
Ohio governor John Kasich has ruled out a potential third-party run for the White House, telling CNN that such a campaign “doesn’t feel right”.
8.09pm BST
The small, private liberal arts college once helmed by the wife of Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders is shutting its doors for good, citing the “insurmountable” tens of millions of dollars in debt accrued during her tenure as the school’s president.
Burlington College, a tiny liberal arts college on the shores of Lake Champlain in Burlington, Vermont, was headed by Jane Sanders from 2004 to 2011, during which she led the charge in acquiring 32 acres of lakefront property from the Archdiocese of Burlington for the school, the Burlington Free Press reports.
7.59pm BST
Buzzfeed News’ Chris Geidner is interviewing President Barack Obama in the Roosevelt Room at the White House regarding his stalled supreme court nominee and the plan for the nomination - watch it here live:
7.36pm BST
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton hasn’t made any announcements about the identity of a potential running mate, much less any cabinet appointments, but at a campaign stop in Bowling Green, kentucky, today, she ruled out at least one potential appointment.
“No,” Clinton said, shaking her head, when asked if her husband, former president Bill Clinton, would serve as a member of her cabinet.
Will Bill Clinton serve in Hillary Clinton's cabinet? "No," she says, shaking her head. pic.twitter.com/KciYx7dydJ
7.22pm BST
Wisconsin senator Ron Johnson is pushing back against claims by his opponent that he compared the 2016 general election to the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
On Saturday, the Associated Press reported that Johnson compared the general election this year to the hijacking of United Flight 93, the so-called “fourth plane” which crashed in rural Pennsylvania.
6.49pm BST
Rowanne Brewer Lane, onetime girlfriend of presumptive Republican frontrunner Donald Trump, doubled down on claims she made earlier today in which she declared that a New York Times piece, featuring her, detailing Trump’s history of offensive comments and actions towards women was unfair.
“I was not happy with the way that the article was written and I was promised that it wouldn’t be done that way and it absolutely was,” Brewer lane said. “I don’t think it’s fair to me and I don’t really think it’s fair to him ... it seems to me like they must have some sort of agenda.”
6.08pm BST
More tidbits have emerged in preview of Megyn Kelly’s highly anticipated interview with presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, in which the real estate tycoon says that victims of bullying “gotta get over it.”
5.53pm BST
A candidate for the Republican senate nomination in Florida is facing heated criticism for calling President Barack Obama “an animal” during a party committee meeting last Thursday.
“Unfortunately, for seven and a half years, this animal we call president - because he’s an animal, OK? - for seven and a half years has surgically, with thought and in a very smart, intelligent manner, has destroyed this country and dismantled the military under not one, not two but three secretaries of defense,” said Carlos Beruff, a one of five candidates seeking to replace retiring senator Marco Rubio. “They’ve all written books about it.”
5.40pm BST
Hillary Clinton has said she wants her husband to play a role in her presidency should she secure the nomination and win in November, but it won’t be from the perch of her cabinet.
Asked during a campaign stop in Kentucky if the former president would have a role in her cabinet, Clinton shook her head. “No,” she replied, amid a crush of journalists and diners at a restaurant in Paducah, Kentucky.
5.25pm BST
In a sign of how unpredictable the US supreme court has become since justice Antonin Scalia’s death left the bench short-handed, the eight remaining justices on Monday failed to reach a final conclusion in a significant religious challenge to the Affordable Care Act’s contraception mandate.
Related: Supreme court punts on challenge to Obama's contraception mandate
5.09pm BST
Angelina Jolie said this morning she was “very disheartened” by the US response to the global migration crisis, particularly from Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee.
The actor and special envoy for the United Nations refugee agency said she feared countries would adopt increasingly isolationist policies instead of acting together to tackle the challenge.
4.49pm BST
At the Nebraska Republican convention on Saturday, a resolution condemning “degrading remarks toward women, minorities and other people by Republican elected office holders or party officials, including candidates for president of the United States” was quashed.
Related: Nebraska Republicans drop resolution meant as rebuke to Trump
4.30pm BST
Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders is holding a town hall in San Juan, Puerto Rico - check it out live here:
4.17pm BST
Retired pediatric neurosurgeon, former presidential candidate and current campaign surrogate ben Carson told CNN this morning that, contrary to a report from the Washington post this weekend, he has zero interest in serving as presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump’s vice president - or in any other kind of public office.
“This is something that is extremely undesirable to me, as is any government post, quite frankly,” Carson told CNN. “I have no intention of running for office. I believe that citizen statesmen can work from outside the government in a capacity where they contribute to the well-being of the country.”
Being Donald Trump's running mate "extremely undesirable to me, as is any government post" -- @RealBenCarson https://t.co/VXvyOoITWe
3.55pm BST
Barack Obama delivered a stinging rebuke to a culture of isolationism and falsehood, and an adamant defense of facts and science, in his commencement address to the Rutgers University graduating class of 2016 on Sunday.
Related: Obama delivers commencement speech at Rutgers: 'Ignorance is not a virtue'
3.45pm BST
One of the women quoted in a New York Times investigation into Donald Trump’s history with women has taken to the cable news circuit to dispute how she was portrayed in the article, telling Fox & Friends this morning that the paper “spun it to where it appeared negative.”
3.34pm BST
Ben Carson, retired pediatric neurosurgeon, onetime presidential candidate and currentl Trump campaign surrogate, revealed to the Washington Post this weekend that former half-term Alaska governor Sarah Palin is on the short list of potential vice presidential candidates that the Trump campaign is currently vetting.
According to Carson, the list is composed of Palin, Ohio governor John Kasich, Florida senator Marco Rubio, Texas senator Ted Cruz, New Jersey governor Chris Christie and himself. Considering that only Carson, Kasich and Palin have even endorsed the presumptive nominee, the realistic short list appears to be, well, even shorter.
3.22pm BST
Donald Trump has said he might not have a “very good relationship” with David Cameron, after the prime minister described his proposal to ban Muslims from the US as “stupid”.
The US presidential hopeful also sniped at the new London mayor, Sadiq Khan, for comments he made after being elected and warned him: “I will remember those statements.” He challenged Khan to “take an IQ test” after the mayor called him ignorant.
1.55pm BST
Good morning and welcome to the Guardian’s politics live blog. We have a full slate of major campaign events on the docket today, but first, a quick catchup on some important and emerging political stories from over the weekend.
The failing @nytimes wrote yet another hit piece on me. All are impressed with how nicely I have treated women, they found nothing. A joke!
Everyone is laughing at the @nytimes for the lame hit piece they did on me and women.I gave them many names of women I helped-refused to use
Why doesn't the failing @nytimes write the real story on the Clintons and women? The media is TOTALLY dishonest!
The media is really on a witch-hunt against me. False reporting, and plenty of it - but we will prevail!
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