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Story by Adam Lynch

Conservative Bulwark Editor Jonathan Last argued there are two groups of President Donald Trump's voters: Those who signed on to deport 20 million immigrants regardless of whether they had committed any crime, and those who signed on with Trump’s plan to remove only immigrants who were criminals.

“Because people are stupid, that first group of voters believed that there were 20 million undocumented immigrants who have committed felonies. This is not possible,” said Last. “The total number of people in jail in America today — this includes federal, state, local, and tribal land prisons — is just under 2 million. The number of undocumented immigrants who have committed serious crimes cannot be 10x the entire prison population of the United States. If it were, then daily life in America would look like Escape from New York.”

“So, some Trump voters were duped owing to their general ignorance and/or innumeracy. But others were not,” added Last. “Others signed up for Trump because of his second promise (the 20 million deportations) and viewed the first promise (about deporting only criminals) as the pap necessary to get the suckers onboard.”

The question Last wants to answer is how many “dupes” voted for Trump vs the avowed racists who simply want Brown people gone. To get his answer, Last reviewed an AP/NORC poll showing consistent 80 percent support for Trump’s immigration policies among Republicans. Then he compared that to a more recent YouGov poll showing 80 percent of Republicans still "approved" of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement even after they shot and killed 37 year-old U.S. citizen Renee Good in footage that reveals no threat to agents.
Story by Kristen Altus

California Gov. Gavin Newsom acknowledged that the state’s proposed wealth tax is "bad economics."

Newsom said he feels vindicated in opposing the proposed wealth tax after reports showed some of California’s wealthiest residents moving money and businesses out of the state, warning the measure would damage the economy and drive away investment.

"This is my fear," Newsom said in a POLITICO interview on Monday. "It’s just what I warned against. It’s happening."

"The evidence is in. The impacts are very real — not just substantive economic impacts in terms of the revenue, but start-ups, the indirect impacts of … people questioning long-term commitments, medium-term commitments," he continued. "That’s not what we need right now, at a time of so much uncertainty. Quite the contrary."

While the initiative has not yet qualified for the November 2026 ballot, the proposed measure — backed by the Service Employees International Union–United Healthcare Workers West — would impose a one-time 5% tax on the net worth of California residents with assets exceeding $1 billion. The tax would be due in 2027, and taxpayers could spread payments over five years, with interest, according to the Legislative Analyst’s Office.
Story by Jonathan Small

Grok is in the hot seat, and Elon Musk is lashing back. Governments and regulators from Europe to Asia have launched investigations into sexually explicit images created by Musk's xAI chatbot, including depictions of minors in minimal clothing.

In the UK, the Office of Communications opened a formal probe Monday, citing "deeply concerning reports" of Grok creating nonconsensual images and content involving minors. Musk fired back, calling the UK government "fascist."
New video released by TMZ shows Donald Trump appearing to mouth expletives and make an obscene gesture towards someone in the crowd during a stop in Detroit. The moment comes as Trump’s Justice Department continues to withhold Epstein files weeks after a legally required deadline. Rep. Ro Khanna joins The Weeknight to respond.
TAG24 NEWS

Washington DC - The Pentagon disguised a military aircraft as a civilian plane to wage its first attack on a boat in the Caribbean last year, killing 11, the New York Times reported Monday.

The alleged move would be in violation of international laws of armed conflict, which prohibit combatants from "feigning civilian status to fool adversaries...a war crime called 'perfidy,'" the Times reported.

The US strike was announced by President Donald Trump in a September 2, 2025, social media post that charged the targets were members of the Tren de Aragua criminal organization "operating under the control of Nicolas Maduro, responsible for mass murder, drug trafficking, sex trafficking and acts of violence and terror."

The aircraft was painted to look like a civilian plane, and its munitions were hidden inside the fuselage instead of being carried visibly under its wings, the Times reported.
Story by Rasmus Senator

ICE and the Trump administration have sparked furious reactions and received hefty criticism amid the dispatch of ICE agents inthe Minneapolis-Saint Paul area. Now, a video has gone viral where footage shows ICE agents allegedly dragging a disabled woman from her car.

The Trump Administration dispatched more than 2,000 agents in the Minneapolis-Saint Paul area in the last few weeks. The Department of Homeland Security has called it their largest operation ever as part of the Trump administration’s crackdown on undocumented migrants.

Last week, 37-year-old mother of three Renee Nicole Good was killed when trying to leave the scene where ICE agents had stopped her car. It sparked fury nationwide, while many, including members of the Trump administration, called the agent’s actions self-defense.

The killing of Renee Nicole Good sparked large protests in the Minneapolis-Saint Paul area. Speaking to Fox News, ICE official Charles Marcus said at least 60 protesters have been arrested and charged with assaulting or impeding ICE agents in the last five days.

“We will be arresting anybody that interferes or impedes in any of these enforcement actions,” he said. “We’ve already arrested 60… that have got in our way, impeded us or assaulted an officer.”

Footage shows ICE agents dragging a woman from her car
The video of the moment when Renee Nicole Good was shot dead spread worldwide. Now, six days later, another distressing video of a confrontation between a member of the public and an immigration enforcement officer has gone viral.
Story by S.V. Date

In a speech the White House billed as focusing on the economy, President Donald Trump spent most of his hour on a Detroit stage Tuesday repeating his various lies and grievances on just about everything else.

Only two minutes and 34 seconds into his remarks to the Detroit Economic Club, Trump veered off and returned to one of his favorite lies: that Democrats cheat in elections and that he has been a repeat victim.

“I won the popular vote all three times, too. But we’re not going to get into that,” he said, before doing exactly that ― notwithstanding the fact that he lost the popular vote by 3 million in 2016 and 7 million in 2020.

In his 64 minutes on stage, Trump also lied about having stopped eight wars, went on a familiar tangent about transgender athletes, personally insulted Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, used a racist smear against Minnesota’s Somali community generally and congresswoman Ilhan Omar in particular, bragged about his extrajudicial killing of more than 100 suspected drug smugglers on the high seas and attacked the late President Jimmy Carter for turning over the Panama Canal to Panama, as a treaty required him to do.

“Hydrogen, I don’t know about. I’m hearing it’s not testing so well. It’s fine, except when there’s an explosion. You’re a goner now. Have you heard that with hydrogen? One guy is trying to sell hydrogen?” he said on a detour about fuel-cell powered electric cars, apparently unaware of the explosive characteristics of gasoline vapor.
Story by Tierney Sneed, CNN

The Trump administration’s sweeping legal effort to obtain Americans’ sensitive data from states’ voter rolls is now almost entirely reliant upon a Jim Crow-era civil rights law passed to protect Black voters from disenfranchisement – a notable shift in how the administration is pressing its demands.

The Justice Department says it wants to use the registration records to “help” states “clean” their rolls by comparing it to other data sets held by the government, according to public comments from Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon, who was appointed by President Donald Trump to head the department’s civil rights division.

Voter advocates and election experts warn of the potential for sloppy purges that risk disenfranchising eligible voters instead. They have also raised concerns that the data will be shared with other agencies to be used for other purposes.

The Justice Department has been working with the Department of Homeland Security on plans to review state voter registration files for evidence of non-citizens on the rolls, according to a source familiar with Trump administration discussions.
Story by Atlanta Black Star News

An Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) prosecutor in Texas who reportedly operates a white supremacist social media account is still working in an immigration court despite calls for an investigation into his online activities.

According to the Texas Observer, James “Jim” Rodden has returned to work in a Dallas immigration court, almost a year after the outlet that first reported that Rodden was behind an X account that posted hateful, racist, anti-Semitic statements.

The account, named GlomarResponder, is now set to private, but was known for making a lengthy series of derogatory posts to its 17,000 followers.

Some of those posts included statements like:

“America is a White nation, founded by Whites … Our country should favor us.”

“All blacks are foreign to my people, dumb f***.”

“’Migrants’ are all criminals.”

An investigative report by the Observer examined Rodden’s social media history, courtroom activities, biographical information, and public documents, all of which linked the ICE assistant chief counsel to the page.
Story by Frank Landymore

Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents reportedly stole a teenage boy’s phone — and then seemingly pawned it afterwards for cash.

That detail comes from alarming new reporting from ProPublica that documents more than forty cases of ICE agents putting civilians in chokeholds and other moves that can block breathing.

One of these civilians was tenth grader Arnoldo Bazan, who was getting McDonald’s with his father, Arnulfo Bazan Carrillo, when they were pulled over by masked agents. According to Arnoldo, after several agents violently tackled his father — who is undocumented — to the ground, with one pressing a knee into his neck, another put the 16-year-old in a suffocating chokehold. When he told the agent that he was a citizen and a minor, the agent didn’t stop.

“I started screaming with everything I had, because I couldn’t even breathe,” Arnoldo told ProPublica. “I felt like I was going to pass out and die.”
Exclusive NBC News reporting found that some ICE officers were sent out into the field without proper training. The error was because an AI tool used to help ICE identify potential new recruits with law enforcement experience wrongly categorized some potential new officers, sources say. NBC News' Julia Ainsley explains the details of the reporting.
Story by The Kenya Times

Top Iranian officials, including the son of Ayatollah Khamenei, have reportedly transferred $1.5 billion to escrow accounts in Dubai over the past two days amid fears of political instability.

In a statement dated January,15,2026, Mike Huckabee, Trump’s ambassador, revealed that he shared his bank account with these officials to safeguard the funds, claiming they could trust him as the world could trust them.

“I’ve sent my account info to these Iranian officials so they can transfer those funds to me for safekeeping. They surely can trust me at least as much as the world can trust them,” read part of the Mike Huckabee statement.

The Iranian bank crisis hit at the same time as a 12-day war with Israel and the US in June 2025. In November, Israel and the US threatened to strike again if Iran tried to start up its nuclear or missile programs, further weakening the nation’s image.

Iranian Bank Collapse and $1.5 Billion Transfers
The collapse of Ayandeh Bank late last year triggered an economic crisis that has driven thousands to protest across cities, threatening the Islamic Republic’s control.

Ayandeh Bank, run by individuals connected to the Iranian regime, failed after incurring nearly $5 billion in losses from bad loans.
Story by Nicole Charky-Chami

An extremism expert accused the Trump administration of brazenly using white supremacist and Nazi propaganda as ICE ramps up its aggressive attacks across American cities.

Wendy Via, co-founder of the Global Project Against Extremism and Hate, described how as tensions have escalated following the ICE killing of 37-year-old mother Renee Good and that the administration has increased its "contentious messaging" as questions rise over the agency's aggressive immigration tactics, The Daily Beast reported.

“DHS, and now other departments, are hardly bothering with dog whistles anymore,” Via told The Beast.

“They’re using blatant white supremacist and Nazi references in their imagery and slogans in an attempt to recruit staff, and they don’t even try to defend their actions. Their shameful reincarnation of white America propaganda from decades ago perfectly illustrates this administration’s view on what America should look like.”

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has been criticized for standing at a podium last week, just a day after the fatal ICE killing, with the message "one of ours, all of yours." The phrase was reminiscent of a Nazi slogan.

"Observers and historians say the words on the podium echo the notion of collective punishment, which underpinned atrocities such as the World War 2 massacre in which Nazis killed civilians in retaliation after an SS officer’s assassination," according to The Beast.
Story by Analysis by Zachary B. Wolf, CNN

On the one hand, the state of Minnesota and the Twin Cities are suing to stop “a federal invasion” of immigration agents.

On the other hand, federal immigration authorities are adopting Uncle Sam to muster the internal national police for a kind of reverse invasion, in which a domestic army is needed to reclaim the country.

“America has been invaded by criminals and predators,” according to the recruiting poster pinned to the top of the Department of Homeland Security account on X. “We need YOU to get them out.”

Another social media recruiting poster is in the same nostalgic vein as Uncle Sam, but it relied instead on a phrase with ties to right wing extremism.

A cowboy on horseback, like the Marlboro Man seen from afar, streaks across a mountain valley with a Stealth bomber flying above.

“We’ll have our home again,” is the only text, along with “join.ice.gov,” a website where people can learn a little bit about working at ICE. It repeats the language from the recruiting poster and adds that no college degree is required.

An added message appeals to White nationalists
The wistful phrase “We’ll have our home again” seems likely to appeal to the far right, as it seems to suggest the replacement theory promoted by people such as former DOGE chief Elon Musk and also by White supremacist groups.
Story by Joe Sommerlad

President Donald Trump’s administration will keep the money generated from the sale of Venezuelan oil across multiple bank accounts, the largest of which is located in Qatar, according to a report.

Senior officials told Semafor that the U.S. has now completed its first sale of the South American country’s oil in a deal worth $500 million.

They justified the decision to hold some of the proceeds in the Gulf state, rather than in U.S. banks, by pointing out that it is a neutral location from which the funds could be freely and safely moved without risk of seizure.

Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, hit out at the strategy and said: “There is no basis in law for a president to set up an offshore account that he controls so that he can sell assets seized by the American military.

“That is precisely a move that a corrupt politician would be attracted to.”

Trump’s friendly relationship with Qatar was previously placed under the spotlight last May when he was heavily criticized for accepting a $400 million Boeing jet as a gift from the country.

The Independent has reached out to the White House and to the Treasury for comment.

The U.S. finds itself in control of Venezuela’s natural resources after its forces swept into Caracas in the early hours of Saturday, January 3, and abducted its then-president Nicolas Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, subsequently removing them to New York to answer federal drug trafficking charges.
Story by Jashandeep Singh

Another day, and yet another report of ICE’s brutal use of force surfaces. The victim this time is a 16-year-old boy. Arnoldo Bazan, a tenth grader, has accused ICE agents of choking him and confiscating his phone, which they later allegedly sold.

The incident took place in Houston, Texas, in October 2025. It was a usual day for Arnoldo, who was headed to school with his father, Arnulfo Bazan Carrillo, in their family car.

The two stopped to eat at a McDonald’s, where ICE agents, wearing masks, got out from unmarked vehicles and started knocking on their car doors. Instead of coming out, Arnulfo chose to drive away as he does not have legal documents to reside in the country.
Donald Trump and his Cabinet acolytes continue to insist on the righteousness and professionalism of Trump's ICE enforcers terrorizing Minneapolis, even as Americans see endless accounts and videos of the reckless brutality the residents of Minneapolis are enduring. Elliott Payne, Minneapolis city council president, talks with Jen Psaki about the reality on the streets of his city.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Thursday that President Donald Trump was "speaking facetiously" when he said in an interview the U.S. shouldn't have midterm elections.
Story by Sharelle B. McNair

Another racist battle coming out of New Jersey, only this time against the former Clark Township Mayor Salvatore Bonaccorso, who was recorded using the n-word and other derogatory terms while instructing police officers to keep Black people out of the town, the New York Daily News reports.

In a lawsuit from New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin, Bonaccorso was allegedly heard on tape telling leaders at the Clark Police Department to "keep chasing the spooks out of town," a racial slur against Black people, that he has used before. Currently serving three years of probation following a guilty plea to conspiracy to commit official misconduct and forgery, the ex-Republican mayor once praised an officer for a routine traffic stop involving a Black person. "Good for you, pulling over that [N-word] - keep them out of town," the suit alleges he said.

He once allegedly boasted about Clark being known for its racist ideologies. The town recently made headlines for finally firing two cops accused of using the n-word in racist rants and collecting six-figure salaries on taxpayers’ dime while on suspension.
Robert Davis

A federal judge handed President Donald Trump's administration another stinging defeat in its bid to rig the 2026 midterm elections, according to a new report.

For months, Trump's Department of Justice has been trying to access state voter rolls under the guise of inspecting them for fraud. Some Democratically-controlled states have pushed back and sued the administration, while Republican-led states appeared quick to comply with the spurious demand.

On Thursday, a federal judge in California, David O. Carter, ruled that the administration was prohibited from accessing the state's voter rolls, The Washington Post reported. He also called into question the motives behind the administration's attempt.
Story by Gerren Keith Gaynor

Advocates say the Trump administration’s latest move sends a global message to world leaders and threatens the momentum for global reparations.

While it likely went unnoticed by many living in the United States, the Trump administration’s withdrawal from the United Nations Permanent Forum on People of African Descent is alarming advocates and international leaders. They warn that, though the move carries out President Trump’s year-long agenda to do away with DEI both domestically and abroad, the withdrawal also threatens momentum for racial and reparative justice around the world.

Last week, Trump signed an executive memorandum announcing the U.S.’s withdrawal from 66 international organizations. One of them was the UN Permanent Forum on People of African Descent, an organization created by the UN General Assembly in 2021. The group has convened annually since 2022 to constructively engage with the collective harms of global colonialism and to develop policy solutions that improve the lived outcomes for people of African descent, from the more than 40 million Black Americans in the U.S., to the 1.5 billion on the African continent, and everywhere in between, from the Caribbean to South America.

“It was a space where Black people from all over the world could come and share their struggles, but also share their joy and see themselves in each other, even if they didn’t share the same language,” said Desirée Cormier Smith, founder and co-president of the Alliance for Diplomacy and Justice.
Story by Daniel Gura

A new investigation has found that Donald Trump and one of his biggest political enemies now have something in common: Both have been accused of committing mortgage fraud.

The president allegedly claimed more than one primary residence in a bid for lower mortgage rates, Knewz.com can report — the same thing his Justice Department alleged New York Attorney General Letitia James did.

Scoring a better deal
Mortgages for a person’s main home often qualify for lower interest rates or more favorable terms than mortgages for a second home or an investment rental property.

The charges that Trump tried to skirt the system are the same ones faced by James, who last year was indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of bank fraud and making a false statement to a financial institution while securing a mortgage for an additional home.

James has denied committing fraud. The initial charges against her were dismissed by a judge, and two separate grand juries subsequently refused to re-indict her on mortgage fraud charges, marking major setbacks for the Justice Department’s ongoing efforts to prosecute her.

According to the nonprofit newsroom ProPublica, Trump signed a mortgage for a “primary home” in Palm Beach, Fla., in 1993.

Less than two months later, he filed for another mortgage for a separate residence, which he once again labeled as his “primary home.”

“In reality, Trump, then a New Yorker, does not appear to have ever lived in either home, let alone used them as a principal residence,” ProPublica found.

“Instead, the two houses, which are next to his historic Mar-a-Lago estate, were used as investment properties and rented out… exactly the sort of scenario his administration has pointed to as evidence of fraud,” ProPublica reported.
Story by Aliss Higham

President Donald Trump has taken aim at an Indiana Republican, State Senator Rodric Bray, over redistricting in the state.

Writing on Truth Social this weekend, Trump wrote: “I was with David McIntosh of the Club for Growth, and we agreed that we will both work tirelessly together to take out Indiana Senate Majority Leader Rod Bray, a total RINO [Republican In Name Only], who betrayed the Republican Party, the President of the United States, and everyone else who wants to, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN! We’re after you Bray, like no one has ever come after you before!”

McIntosh, who is the former Republican representative for Indiana, backed the president. “President Trump and I are aligned. Rod Bray is going down,” he wrote on X.

Newsweek has contacted a representative for Bray for comment via email outside of regular working hours.

Why It Matters
Trump has been encouraging Republican-controlled states to redraw their U.S. House district maps mid-decade—not just after the usual census cycle—to create more districts that favor GOP candidates in the upcoming 2026 midterm elections. This is part of an effort to help the party keep or expand its narrow majority in the House of Representatives.

The pressure on Republicans to redraw maps has triggered gerrymandering battles nationwide, with Democrats also moving to change electoral maps. His comments come after Virginia House Democrats on Wednesday approved a redistricting constitutional amendment for a second time, clearing the way for a state Senate vote as the party moves to redraw the Old Dominion’s House map ahead of the midterms, which will take place in November.
During a roundtable discussion at the White House several weeks ago in late October, Donald Trump openly admitted that he pardoned crypto billionaire and former Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao because a lot of "very good people" told him to.
Brad Onishi, author of "Preparing for War", joined the ‘The Weekend: Primetime’ to unpack the growing number of social media posts from official government accounts displaying what many experts have identified as white Christian nationalist rhetoric. Experts have pointed out similarities between phrases used by Adolf Hitler and neo-Nazis to those being published by agencies under the Trump administration.
Story by Billal Rahman

A 36-year-old man who was taken into custody by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Minneapolis has died while being held at a detention facility in El Paso, Texas, federal officials confirmed on Sunday.

Victor Manuel Diaz, a Nicaraguan national, was found “unconscious and unresponsive in his room” at Camp East Montana on January 14, ICE said in a news release. Diaz was pronounced dead at 4:09 p.m. local time, the agency added.

ICE said Diaz’s death was being treated as a presumed suicide, but the official cause remains under investigation.

ICE agents arrested Diaz in Minneapolis on January 6 on an immigration violation charge after federal authorities determined he was living in the United States without legal status. He was detained pending removal proceedings following a judge’s deportation order issued in August 2025.

The Context
Diaz’s death comes amid a larger trend of rising fatalities in federal immigration detention. Government records and press releases indicate that multiple migrants have died in ICE custody in recent months, marking one of the most lethal periods for detainees in decades as enforcement operations and detention populations have expanded. There have been three known deaths at Camp East Montana since it opened last year.
Story by Marita Vlachou

President Donald Trump appears to still be upset that the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize went to someone other than him, now suggesting that the snub was somehow linked to his push to acquire Greenland, the Danish semi-autonomous territory.

In an extraordinary letter to Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre, first reported by PBS NewsHour, Trump said he no longer feels constrained by “an obligation” to consider peace, adding that he is primarily focused on advancing U.S. interests.

“Considering your Country decided not to give me the Nobel Peace Prize for having stopped 8 Wars PLUS, I no longer feel an obligation to think purely of Peace,” Trump wrote in a letter to Støre, according to Bloomberg and PBS NewsHour. “Although it will always be predominant, but can now think about what is good and proper for the United States of America.”
Story by Victoria Bekiempis

A second man being held at a US immigration detention facility in Texas has died in two weeks, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) said on Monday.

Victor Manuel Diaz, 36, originally from Nicaragua, was found “unconscious and unresponsive in his room” on 14 January at the Camp East Montana detention facility in El Paso, ICE said in a press release.

“They immediately notified contract medical staff on site to conduct life saving measures,” it said, adding that emergency medical technicians arrived to the facility but could not revive Diaz, who was pronounced dead just after 4pm. ICE asserted that Diaz “died of a presumed suicide” but that the “official cause of his death remains under investigation”.

Related: Death of man at ICE camp could be investigated as homicide after examiner’s report

Diaz was detained on 6 January during the Trump administration’s controversial deportation blitz in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He initially entered the US through the Mexican border in March of 2024, when border patrol agents picked him up and he was given a court date with an immigration judge, then released on parole. On 26 August of last year an immigration judge ordered Diaz’s removal “in absentia”. ICE detained him on 12 January in order to deport him.
The U.S. is celebrating Martin Luther King Jr. Day on Monday. Jeanne Theoharis, a professor of political science and history at Brooklyn College, breaks down how the day has changed under the Trump administration.
Story by Arthur Delaney

Staffers from billionaire Elon Musk’s “Department of Government Efficiency” had unauthorized access to sensitive information inside the Social Security Administration and may even have used it in coordination with an outside advocacy group, the Trump administration said in court.

The Justice Department said in a Friday “notice of corrections for the record” that the administration had uncovered “communications, use of data, and other actions by the then-SSA DOGE Team that were potentially outside of SSA policy” or in violation of a court order stemming from unions’ efforts to block DOGE from accessing people’s data.

The filing reveals officials falsely stated in the court case that DOGE team members had no access to personal identifying information when they actually did in several specific instances. In one case, DOGE staffers shared with their affiliates in other agencies an email attachment containing approximately a thousand people’s names and addresses.

In another instance, an advocacy group asked two members of the DOGE squad for help analyzing voter rolls the group had acquired with an eye toward overturning election results in certain states. The filing says there’s no evidence the staffers shared data with the group.
Story by Ryan Bort

Donald Trump has been operating like an authoritarian ruler since retaking the presidency a year ago, openly flouting Congress, the Constitution, the court system, and anything else standing in the way of his agenda. He recently started musing about canceling the midterm elections, and is currently in the midst of an imperialistic push to wrest control of Greenland from America's NATO ally, Denmark. He hasn't paid much mind to international law, either.

Trump is in Davos, Switzerland, this week, trying to make a case that Denmark is "our territory." He offered a bit of insight into how he views his role as president while taking questions from the press following his speech to the World Economic Forum on Wednesday. "We got good reviews on that speech," Trump said of what he claims was a positive response to his speech earlier in the day. "Usually they say he's a horrible dictator-type person."

"But sometimes you need a dictator," the president added.

Trump claimed during the speech that he would not use force to take control of Greenland - which he referred to as "Iceland" multiple times - but repeatedly stressed that the U.S. should take over the "piece of ice, for world protection." He continued to threaten that "we will remember" if Denmark doesn't cede control. When asked by a reporter to clarify what he meant when he said "we will remember" if Denmark doesn't give Greenland to the U.S., Trump replied, "You'll have to figure that out for yourself. You're a smart guy."
Story by Sarah K. Burris

Former special counsel Jack Smith spoke to the House Judiciary Committee on Thursday where he clarified some details that Republicans have tried to use as talking points against him.

Legal, analyst, reporters and commentators took to social media to attack the questioning of Smith.

"Republicans on House Judiciary don’t want answers from Jack Smith. They keep on interrupting him as he responds to their questions," said legal analyst Katie Phang.

"Jack Smith reminds us that the cases against Trump were dismissed 'without prejudice.' Meaning they could be brought again," legal analyst and podcast host Allison Gill, of @MuellerSheWrote pointed out.

National security analyst Marcy Wheeler cited Rep. "Hank Johnson still has it: While we're deposing Marshall Miller (the guy who got Jack Smith hired) perhaps we can depose Donald Trump why he hired his personal lawyer to run DOJ."

At one point, she noted, "So far Jack Smith is getting his a-- handed to him by the 5-minute rule and Dem ineffectiveness."

MS NOW producer Kyle Griffin pointed out a key quote from Smith: "Donald Trump was not looking for honest answers about whether there was fraud in the election. He was looking for ways to stay in power. And when people told him things that conflicted with him staying in power, he rejected them."
Opinion by Niko Mann

After the President of the United States finished his speech to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Jan. 21, 2026, Donald Trump gushed over reactions to his public address. The rambling speech featured Trump confusing Greenland with Iceland multiple times and insulting NATO, and his mental health was called into question all over social media.

However, Trump claimed he did a good job and that the speech "got great reviews" during a reception dinner for the World Economic Forum. He also mentioned comparing himself to a dictator, and his words have folks understandably clutching their pearls. So, did Trump actually call himself a dictator?

Did Donald Trump call himself a dictator?
Yes, technically, Trump did call himself a dictator. While gushing over his delusion that his speech was a smashing success at the reception dinner, he compared himself to a dictator while expressing the "need" for one as well.

“We had a good speech, we got great reviews. I can’t believe it," he said. "We got good reviews on that speech. Usually, they say, ‘He's a horrible dictator-type person.’ I'm a dictator. But sometimes you need a dictator. But they didn't say that in this case. And no, it's common sense. It's all based on common sense, you know. It's not conservative or liberal or anything else. It's mostly, let's say, 95 percent common sense."
Story by Ana Faguy - on Capitol Hill

In his first public testimony about his criminal investigations of Donald Trump, former special counsel Jack Smith said the president was responsible for the violence on 6 January 2021, when hundreds of rioters stormed the US Capitol.

Smith told a congressional committee that he believed his team had “proof beyond a reasonable doubt” and enough evidence to win convictions against Trump in both cases they had prosecuted - one into Trump's alleged attempts to overturn the 2020 election and the other into accusations that he illegally retained classified documents after leaving office the first time.

Trump pleaded not guilty in both cases, which were dropped once he returned to the White House last year.

On New Year's Eve, the Republican-led committee released 255 pages of transcripts of testimony Smith gave in private about the criminal cases, but Thursday's five-hour hearing was the public's first chance to hear him speak about it.

The lawmakers broke little new ground in their questions, with Republicans repeating accusations that the prosecutions were partisan attacks on Trump and that Smith was spying on certain Republican lawmakers by seeking subpoenas for their phone records. Democrats, meanwhile, targeted Trump's alleged wrongdoing involving the 6 January riot and applauded Smith and his investigations.

Here are four takeaways from the hearing.

Smith doesn’t regret charging Trump
Smith told lawmakers that he did not regret his decision to charge Trump in both felony indictments.

"If asked whether to prosecute a former president based on the same facts today, I would do so regardless of whether that president was a Republican or a Democrat," he said. "No one should be above the law in our country, and the law required that he be held to account. So that is what I did."
Story by Julia Ornedo

National Park Service staff took down slavery exhibits at Philadelphia’s Independence Mall on Thursday following a Trump-ordered crackdown on “distorted” narratives about the nation’s history.

Crews have dismantled plaques at the President’s House detailing the history of nine people enslaved by President George Washington, which came under scrutiny by the Trump administration last summer, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer.

Staff in fatigue green uniforms were captured by WPVI, an ABC-owned station in Philadelphia, taking down the slavery memorial as onlookers recorded with their phones.

“I’m just following my orders,” one park employee repeatedly told the Inquirer, which reported that he did not acknowledge whether he was doing so because of a Trump directive.

In March last year, Trump signed an executive order titled “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History.”
Story by William Spivey

Artist George Fuller created this painting in 1857, after witnessing a young Black girl being sold at auction in Augusta, GA, during his tour of the South. He never knew her name, and no historical documents identify her. He did write about her in a letter:

“Who is this girl with eyes large and black? … She is under thy feet, white man. … Is she not your sister?” — George Fuller
In the background are three dark-skinned enslaved people working in the fields. In American cinema and television, slavery is misrepresented and never shows us realistic percentages of half-breeds, quadroons, octaroons, and so on. Hollywood avoided historical accuracy and these terms after the 1930s because they were tied to slavery‑era racial caste systems. They were associated with sexual exploitation of mixed‑race women, and the Hollywood Production Code discouraged explicit discussions of “miscegenation.”

Miscegenation is a term coined in the United States in the 19th century to describe interracial sexual relationships, marriage, or reproduction, especially between Black and white people. The word itself was invented in 1863 during the Civil War by two journalists who opposed abolition; they created it as part of a political hoax meant to stir racist fears and undermine support for Abraham Lincoln.

Hattie McDaniel won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her portrayal of Mammy in Gone with the Wind.
Story by David Edwards

MAGA supporters spoke out in defense of Vice President JD Vance after he used Minnesota's old flag at a press conference despite criticisms that it is racist.

Writing on BlueSky, Ana Marie Cox noted that Vance's podium was "flanked by steroidal SUVs declaring 'Protect the Homeland' and the *old* Minnesota flag."

"Reclaiming the old racist flag has become a pathetic cause for the most loser dead-enders out there, so of course Vance plays along," Keith Harris observed.

Many MAGA fans — like Mike Lindell — have called Minnesota's new banner an "Islamic flag."
Display at President’s House site, residence to George Washington, had information on people enslaved by him
Marina Dunbar

Philadelphia is taking legal action against the Trump administration following the National Park Service’s decision to dismantle a long-established slavery-related exhibit at Independence National Historical park, which holds the former residence of George Washington.

The city filed its lawsuit in federal court on Thursday, naming the US Department of Interior and its secretary, Doug Burgum, the National Park Service, and its acting director, Jessica Bowron, as defendants. The lawsuit seeks a court order requiring the exhibits to be restored while the case proceeds.

The display stood at the President’s House site, once home to George Washington and John Adams, and included information recognizing people enslaved by Washington, along with a broader chronology of slavery in the US.

“The interpretive displays relating to enslaved persons at President’s House are an integral part of the exhibit and removing them would be a material alteration to the exhibit,” city lawyers wrote in the legal filing. According to the suit, officials were not informed in advance that the exhibit would be changed.
Story by Isabella Torregiani

Former Justice Department special counsel Brendan Ballou told lawmakers that while federal prosecutors have pursued fraud cases tied to Minnesota’s social safety net, the Trump administration has weakened the Justice Department’s ability to investigate fraud elsewhere.

House Oversight Committee  
Ballou briefed the House Oversight Committee on the alleged large‑scale Somali fraud in Minnesota, where defendants are accused of stealing millions from federal and state social‑service programs.

He said he was “deeply distressed” by the scheme, which has already resulted in multiple convictions.

“The department has charged over a dozen people for stealing $14 million from a program meant for children with autism and millions more from a program meant to help disabled Minnesotans maintain stable housing. This is heartbreaking for several reasons,” Ballou said.

Ballou warned that the impact of these fraud cases goes beyond money — they could also weaken trust in Minnesota’s social programs.

“At the most basic level, money meant for the neediest among us — the hungry, the disabled, the destitute — was stolen. I fear that skepticism of Minnesota’s social safety net, one of the things that makes the state great, will grow and it will be harder to fund these programs in the future. And I fear the actions of a few people will be used to demonize an entire population of Somali and East African Minnesotans who overwhelmingly have made the state more vibrant, more diverse and more prosperous,” he continued.

‘Dismantling infrastructure’
Appearing as a witness for House Democrats, Ballou claimed the Trump administration is “dismantling infrastructure” at the DOJ.

“I also fear the selective interest in fraud in America, because at the same time that these crimes are rightly being investigated by state and federal authorities, the larger infrastructure for prosecuting fraud and white-collar crime is being dismantled,” he claimed.

Ballou then provided several examples, noting that in February 2025, the Justice Department suspended enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which prohibits illegal payments to foreign officials, as well as the Foreign Agents Registration Act, which prevents individuals from acting as secret agents for foreign powers.

“Between February and April of last year, the department disbanded its Kleptocapture Task Force, which enforced sanctions against Russian oligarchs, and the National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team,” he added.
Story by Sandra Miller

A Republican lawmaker appeared caught off guard during former special counsel Jack Smith’s first public testimony when his attempt to downplay Donald Trump’s threats instead prompted a blunt fact-check from the prosecutor.

Questioned by Rep. Ben Cline (R-VA) about the gag order sought against Trump, Smith calmly detailed how courts found statements from the president posed real dangers to witnesses, court staff, and the judicial process itself.
Story by Adam Lynch

"Table for Five" host Abby Phillip delivered a ruinous montage of footage revealing the quickest way to determine when President Donald Trump has already lost interest in a particular topic.

“A fortnight: It's not just one of Taylor Swift's hits. It is also one of Donald Trump's biggest tells this week after threatening to invade Greenland, declaring that the United States will own the island and insulting and isolating America’s allies over that issue,” Phillip said. “He basically said, ‘never mind.’ Why? Well, because a deal he reached with NATO that is ‘forever,’ in his words. But when he was asked about this deal, he gave this response.”

“We’ll have something in two weeks,” Trump told a reporter, after his controversial speech in Davos.

“Now, if that timeline doesn't sound familiar to you, it should,” said Phillip, before ticking off a slew of identical Trump-style promises over other momentarily imperative but now hazy topics, including expiring healthcare subsidies and other issues important to U.S. voters.

“We are going to be announcing over the next two weeks, numbers and specifics…”

“… We're signing a health care plan within two weeks …”

“… I think so, over the next 2 or 3 weeks…”

“… you can ask that question. In two weeks…”

“… I'd rather tell you in about two weeks from now…”

“… I can't tell you that, but I'll let you know in about two weeks…”

“… I would say within two weeks or so. Pretty quick …”

“We don't know the details of how all this is going to shake out — I know that's what everybody seems to think. And he's a very optimistic guy on two weeks. Yes, I will give you that,” admitted Republican Strategic Communications Consultant and former GOP press secretary Lance Trover.
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