Former President Donald Trump will head to Minnesota on a day off from his hush money trial for a Republican fundraiser Friday night in a traditionally Democratic state that he boasts he can carry in November.
Trump will headline the state GOP’s annual Lincoln Reagan dinner, which coincides with the party’s state convention, after attending his son Barron’s high school graduation in Florida. Trump attended the graduation Friday morning with his wife, Melania Trump, and her father, Viktor Knavs.
Trump will use part of the day granted by the trial judge for the graduation to campaign in Minnesota, a state he argues he can win in the November rematch with President Joe Biden. No Republican presidential candidate has won Minnesota since Richard Nixon in 1972, but Trump came close to flipping the state in 2016, when he fell 1.5 percentage points short of Democrat Hillary Clinton.
Power outages could last weeks in parts of Houston after thunderstorms with hurricane-force winds tore through the city, an official said Friday, knocking out electricity to nearly 1 million homes and businesses.
Houston Mayor John Whitmire said four, and possibly five, people were killed after storms Thursday swept through Harris County, which includes Houston. Officials warned residents that it would be a slow cleanup and that some residents should brace to be without electricity for days, if not longer.
Russian President Vladimir Putin concluded a two-day visit to China on Friday, emphasizing the countries’ burgeoning strategic ties as well as his own personal relationship with Chinese leader Xi Jinping as they sought to present an alternative to U.S. global influence.
Putin praised the growth in bilateral trade while touring a China-Russia Expo in the northeastern city of Harbin. He met students at the Harbin Institute of Technology, known for its defense research and its work with the People’s Liberation Army.
Abby Madsen can be reached at mads3817@stthomas.edu.