Former US President Donald Trump speaks at the Turning Point USA Student Action Summit in Tampa, Florida. This follows a congressional inquiry being told that Trump watched last year’s Capitol riot on TV at the White House, ignoring his children and aides who “begged him” to rebuke the mob. The hearing was told Mr Trump did not make a single call to law enforcement or national security staff. He was motivated by “his selfish desire to stay in power”, the inquiry alleged.

On Thursday night, the House of Representatives select committee used its eighth hearing of the summer to draw a timeline of Mr Trump’s activities over 187 minutes on 6 January 2021 as a mob of his supporters raided Congress. The panel is seeking to build a case that Mr Trump, a Republican, acted illegally in a bid to overturn his defeat by Joe Biden, a Democrat, in the November 2020 presidential election. Mr Trump, who has been hinting he may run again for president in 2024, has dismissed the inquiry as a “kangaroo court” designed to distract Americans from the “disaster” of Democratic governance.