Nikki Haley condemns Trump’s Nato comments; Finnish president says Europe has to make sure ‘we do our part’ – live | Donald Trump

Donald Trump is in Florida today for a court hearing in the criminal case that accuses the former president of mishandling classified information, the Guardian’s Hugo Lowell reports:

Trump is attending a court hearing on Monday where his lawyers will present their defense theories to the judge presiding in the criminal case over his retention of classified documents and obstruction of justice, according to two people familiar with his plans.

The presence of the former president in the courtroom could raise the stakes for the US district judge, Aileen Cannon, as she decides whether prosecutors in the office of special counsel Jack Smith should be permitted to withhold or redact certain classified documents that will be turned over in discovery.

The hearing taking place behind closed doors at federal district court in Fort Pierce, Florida, started at 9.30am and is being conducted “ex parte”, meaning prosecutors and Trump’s lawyers will have separate sessions to make their arguments to the judge.

Read the Guardian’s full report:

Finland’s newly elected president, Alexander Stubb, has said Nato’s newest member should “remain calm” in the face of Donald Trump’s criticism of the alliance, the Guardian’s Jon Henley reports:

Stubb, a conservative former prime minister who on Sunday narrowly won the presidential election with 51.5% of the vote, said US election campaigns were “very different from Finnish elections, and the rhetoric used is quite a lot stronger”.

He told a press conference on Monday: “I think at this stage it is best to remain calm and focus on building our Nato membership.” Finland won admission to Nato in April after a historic policy U-turn following decades of military non-alignment.

But Stubb said Trump was right to say Nato’s members had pledged to spend 2% of GDP on defence. “We have to make sure we in Europe do our part in Nato,” he said, noting that Finland – which shares an 832-mile border with Russia – had exceeded that target last year.

He said he wanted Finland to have a decisive role in Nato, “in the core of decision-making, sitting around the tables where decisions are made”, adding that Helsinki “can’t have a relationship [withMoscow] until Russia ends its war and aggression” in Ukraine.

“We don’t have a political relationship with Russia right now. I don’t see it improving anytime soon,” Stubb – who officially take up his new offic on 1 March – said. He said he aimed to continue with his predecessor Sauli Niinistö’s the line in continuing to offer “decisive support” to Ukraine.

Joe Biden has reportedly been venting his frustration with Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in private conversations with campaign donors.

According to NBC News, Biden has privately said that Netanyahu is “giving him hell”, criticizing the Israeli leader for refusing to agree to a ceasefire in Gaza. Three people familiar with Biden’s comments said the US president has described Netanyahu as an “asshole”.

“He just feels like this is enough,” one anonymous source told NBC News. “It has to stop.”

The report comes as Biden has started voicing more public criticism of Netanyahu’s actions in Gaza, where more than 28,000 people have been killed in Israeli airstrikes. Speaking to reporters on Thursday, Biden said he considered Netanyahu’s response to the Hamas attacks on 7 October to be “over the top”.

Biden and Netanyahu spoke over the phone yesterday, and the White House said in its readout of the call, “[The president] called for urgent and specific steps to increase the throughput and consistency of humanitarian assistance to innocent Palestinian civilians. And he reaffirmed his view that a military operation in Rafah should not proceed without a credible and executable plan for ensuring the safety of and support for the more than one million people sheltering there.”

Even as Biden speaks out against Netanyahu’s leadership, his administration continues to support financial aid for Israel. Biden had encouraged Congress to pass a border and national security bill that included $14bn in security assistance for Israel. That proposal failed in the Senate, but a separate bill with the same level of aid for Israel is now making its way through the upper chamber. Biden is expected to sign the legislation if it reaches his desk.

New York’s third congressional district will hold a special election tomorrow to determine who will serve out the remainder of George Santos’ term, after the Republican congressman was indicted on fraud charges and expelled from the House.

Former Democratic congressman Tom Suozzi is running against local politician Mazi Pilip, and much of the race has focused on the issue of immigration, as the Guardian’s Adam Gabbatt reported earlier this month.

Suozzi told MSNBC this morning, “If you want to fix things in Washington, DC, I’m offering you an antidote to try and come together and say, ‘Let’s stop all the BS and let’s actually talk about what the people care about.’”

If Suozzi can pull off a victory, his election will further cut into Republicans’ narrow House majority. As of now, Republicans hold 219 House seats, while Democrats hold 212.

The House speaker, Republican Mike Johnson of Louisiana, has already struggled to govern with his narrow majority, and that task could become even more difficult with a Suozzi victory.

Although a Republican won the seat in 2022, Suozzi told MSNBC that he was confident he could defeat the “Republican machine,” saying, “It’s a powerful machine, but I’ve beat them before, and we’re going to beat them again tomorrow.”

Defense secretary Lloyd Austin has been admitted to the critical care unit at Walter Reed medical center, according to a statement released by the Pentagon last night.

Austin’s doctors said the cabinet secretary was being treated for “symptoms suggesting an emergent bladder issue”, but they noted that his overall prognosis remains encouraging.

“At this time, it is not clear how long Secretary Austin will remain hospitalized,” said Dr John Maddo and Dr Gregory Chesnut of Walter Reed medical center.

“The current bladder issue is not expected to change his anticipated full recovery. His cancer prognosis remains excellent. Updates on the Secretary’s condition will be provided as soon as possible.”

While Austin remains hospitalized, his deputy, Kathleen Hicks, has assumed his duties, as my colleague Ed Helmore reports:

Greetings from Washington, live blog readers.

Donald Trump continues to attract widespread outrage in response to his disparaging comments about Nato over the weekend. Speaking at a rally in South Carolina, Trump complained that some Nato members were not contributing enough money to the alliance and suggested he would allow Russia to “do whatever the hell they want” to those nations.

The comments shocked and alarmed leaders on both sides of the Atlantic. Nato secretary general Jens Stoltenberg said Trump’s outburst “undermines all of our security, including that of the US, and puts American and European soldiers at increased risk”. A White House spokesperson attacked the comments as “appalling and unhinged”.

But perhaps the most surprising reaction came from fellow Republicans, a number of whom echoed the criticism of Trump’s comments. Speaking to CBS News, Nikki Haley, Trump’s rival in the Republican presidential primary, accused the former president of embracing “a thug who kills his opponents”, referring to Russia’s President Vladimir Putin. Former Republican presidential candidate Chris Christie told NBC News that the comments proved Trump is “unfit to be president of the United States”.

Even some of Trump’s allies on Capitol Hill refused to defend him. According to Politico, Senator Rand Paul, a Republican of Kentucky, said Trump’s comments were a “stupid thing to say”. Senator Lisa Murkowski, a Republican of Alaska, argued the criticism of Nato members was “uncalled for”.

But even as some Republicans sharply criticized Trump’s comments, other members of the party tried to downplay the remarks. Senator Lindsey Graham, a Republican of South Carolina, told the New York Times, “Give me a break — I mean, it’s Trump … All I can say is while Trump was president nobody invaded anybody.” Senator Marco Rubio, a Republican of Florida, similarly told CNN that he had “zero concern” about Trump’s comments.

With the Senate continuing work on its foreign aid package and the House returning to session tomorrow, more Republicans will likely soon be asked to Trump’s comments, forcing them to choose between criticizing the leader of their party and defending US allies abroad.

Here’s what else is happening today:

• The Senate is expected to hold another procedural vote on its $95bn foreign aid package. The bill, which includes billions of dollars for Ukraine and Israel, cleared another procedural hurdle yesterday in a vote of 67 to 27, and a final vote is currently expected on Wednesday.

• Defense secretary Lloyd Austin is back in the hospital. The Pentagon said yesterday that Austin was brought to Walter Reed medical center in connection to “symptoms suggesting an emergent bladder issue”.

• Joe Biden will welcome the king and queen of Jordan to the White House. Biden and King Abdullah II will deliver remarks to the press following a meeting this afternoon.

There’s much more coming up, so stay tuned.