Trump claims record donations after verdict

Donald Trump claimed his election campaign had raised a record amount since his criminal conviction in a hush-money trial on Thursday, in a rambling press conference yesterday that criticised everyone from the judge to the US president, Joe Biden.

- Robert Tait

In a speech peppered with lies and conspiracy theories, Trump said: "This is a case where, if they can do this to me, they can do this to anyone ... The judge was a tyrant."

He then changed the subject to immigration. "These are bad people. These are, in many cases, I believe, sick people. When you look at our country, what's happening, where millions and millions of people are flowing in from all parts of the world, not just South America, from Africa, from Asia, from the Middle East, and they're coming in from jails and prisons, and they're coming in from mental institutions and insane asylums."

Trump's legal team embarked on a counteroffensive almost immediately after he became the first ex-US president and presidential candidate to be convicted of a felony. With the 2024 presidential election campaign propelled deep into uncharted territory, Todd Blanche, Trump's lawyer, vowed to lodge an appeal against the verdict.

The jury in a Manhattan courtroom found Trump guilty on all 34 counts of falsifying documents related to hush money paid to the adult film actor Stormy Daniels, shortly before the 2016 presidential poll.

In his press conference, Trump said: "I'm willing to do whatever I have to do to save our country and to save our constitution," he said. "So we will continue the fight. We're going to make America great again."

He added: "It all comes out of the White House. Crooked Joe Biden, the worst president in the history of our country. He's the dumbest president we've ever had."