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Today in Politics, Bulletin 290. 1/20/26

Ron Filipkowski Jan 20 ∙

… Sky News’ Beth Rigby: “Trump detonated a series of bombshells on Truth Social overnight: leaking private messages from President Macron, posting image of Canada and Greenland as part of the US, and going all out on PM Keir Starmer and UK by calling the Chagos deal an ‘act of great stupidity’.”

… “Been speaking around govt this morning to get a sense of what the hell is going on after the PM yesterday sought to reiterate the UK’s position on Greenland while also trying to de-escalate, stressing the strong relationship, dodging the matter of retaliatory tariffs (although not ruling it out) and avoiding any incendiary language adopted by other leaders clearly fed up with Trump.”

… “But the lashing out against the UK and Starmer seems to be part of a bigger assault on allies - as Trump reveals private messages with Macron and shares a map of Canada as US territory, which will no doubt explode in Canada when the country wakes up in a few hours.”

… “Trump is clearly frustrated that European allies are standing firm on Greenland and facing down this threats, regardless of the consequences on the tariffs. Meanwhile, his Board of Peace plan has also fallen flat as the President demands $1 billion for membership of a club that seems intended to undermine the UN. France intends to reject Trump’s invitation over concerns that it would call into question ‘the principles and structure of the UN,’ while the UK govt has ‘severe reservations’ about the project’s legal framework.”

… “Yesterday, the former Danish PM and Danish Foreign minister Lars Rasmussen told me how surprised he’d been by Trump’s public threats on social media over the weekend because he thought Denmark had come to an agreement with JD Vance and Marco Rubio that the profound disagreement on Greenland would be negotiated away from social media.”

… Rasmussen: “We agreed that we should move this dialogue from social media and Truth Social. I thought, we have managed not to solve the problem, but to find a pathway forward. It was disrupted, by the statement from the president. And that's a reality of life.”

… “It’s a reality all leaders are dealing with, as Trump’s increasingly erratic behavior with allies makes the US almost impossible to deal with, though the UK position is that it must continue to try. Trump turning on Starmer after all the PM’s efforts to build a good relationship, is undoubtedly a blow and raises questions about how else Starmer might have dealt with Trump.”

… Trump posted: “Shockingly, our ‘brilliant’ NATO Ally, the UK, is currently planning to give away the Island of Diego Garcia, the site of a vital US Military Base, to Mauritius, and to do so FOR NO REASON WHATSOEVER. The UK giving away extremely important land is an act of GREAT STUPIDITY, and is another in a very long line of National Security reasons why Greenland has to be acquired. Denmark and its European Allies have to DO THE RIGHT THING.”

… BBC’s chief political correspondent Henry Zeffman: “No getting away from this being massively embarrassing, even humiliating, for Keir Starmer less than 24 hours after he gave a big speech defending his calm relationship with the US President. It will feel baffling, too, given the US endorsed the Chagos deal in May.”

… Trump also posted private text messages on Truth Social from several leaders in Europe. This one from NATO chief Mark Rutte: “Mr. President, dear Donald – what you accomplished in Syria today is incredible. I will use my media engagements in Davos to highlight your work there, in Gaza, and in Ukraine. I am committed to finding a way forward on Greenland. Can’t wait to see you. Yours, Mark.”

… UK political commentator Alastair Campbell: “As if Rutte was not embarrassed enough over calling Trump ‘daddy’ - this is even worse. Truly pathetic pandering to out of control narcissism.”

… Trump was asked about Macron not wanting to join his phony ‘Board of Peace’: Q - “Have you invited Putin to be a member of the board of peace? Trump: Yes. Q - Can you respond to Macron saying he will not join the board of peace? Trump: Nobody wants him. I’ll put a 200% tariff on his wines and he’ll join.”

… Zelensky isn’t happy about Trump inviting Putin to join his Board of Peace: “We have received an invitation to join the Board of Peace. Diplomats are working on this invitation. Russia is our enemy, and Belarus is its ally. To be honest, for now, it is very difficult for me to imagine how we could be together with Russia in any council. And it’s not about this peace council. It’s just that Russia is about the council of war. And Belarus is with them, namely, Lukashenko’s regime.”

… Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov: “Under Trump, the US became the only country that not only expressed understanding of the need to take Russia’s interests into account, but also proposed solutions that took into account the root causes of the current crisis, although we see how hysterically Europe and Zelensky with his team are trying to push the US away from this position and impose their own concepts again.”

… As many European leaders prevaricate, appease and try to placate Trump with public and private praise and flattery, Canadian PM Mark Carney gave the best speech at Davos today, cutting to the heart of the matter with moral clarity. Maybe it will sink in with others in attendance, which gave him a standing ovation.

… Carney: "American hegemony in particular helped provide public goods, open sea lanes, a stable financial system, collective security. But this bargain no longer works. Let me be direct. We are in the midst of a rupture, not a transition. Recently, great powers have begun using economic integration as weapons. Tariffs as leverage. Financial infrastructure as coercion. Supply chains as vulnerabilities to be exploited.”

… “You cannot live within the lie of mutual benefit through integration of economies when integration becomes the source of your subordination. If great powers abandon even the pretense of rules and values for the unhindered pursuit of their power and interest, the gains from transactionalism will become harder to replicate."

… "We stand firmly with Greenland and Denmark and fully support their unique right to determine Greenland's future. Our commitment to NATO's Article 5 is unwavering. Canada strongly opposes tariffs over Greenland."

… Alastair Campbell: “A standing ovation for Mark Carney at Davos. (Those do not happen often). Brutally honest assessment of the situation Trump is creating for the world and the new approach middle powers now need to take. One of those speeches worth reading in full.”

… Polish PM Donald Tusk agreed: “Appeasement is always a sign of weakness. Europe cannot afford to be weak - neither against its enemies, nor ally. Appeasement means no results, only humiliation. European assertiveness and self-confidence have become the need of the moment.”

… Gavin Newsom was also at Davos: “I can’t take this complicity of people rolling over. I should have brought a bunch of knee pads for all the world leaders. I mean handing out crowns, the Nobel prizes that are being given away. It’s just pathetic. And I hope people understand how pathetic they look on the world stage. Trump is a T-Rex. You mate with him or he devours you, one or the other, and you need to stand up to it. Stay tall and united.”

… Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) on CNBC: Q - “McConnell has said that if the president moves on Greenland, this would something that Republican senators would impeach him on. Are you in that camp? Tillis: I’m not going to go to impeachment. Let’s say it was a kinetic action - I’d immediately go for a War Powers resolution.”

… Tillis: “To be clear - I’m not critical of the president. I’m critical of the bad advice he’s getting on Greenland.”

… It’s always “the advisors” since these cowards are afraid to criticize Trump.

… Rep. Jim McGovern (D-MA) to Meidas: “At some point, this institution has defend its constitutional authority. These guys are like potted plants. They’re so afraid of Trump, they don’t give a shit about anything. He’s blowing up the NATO alliance. We have allies sending troops and reinforcements to Greenland, viewing us as a conquering power - as an aggressor - and everyone here is silent. The Speaker says, ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about.’ Something’s not right. If I were somebody close to him, I’d get him medical help.”

… The Express (UK): “Russia is rejoicing at Trump’s quest to take over Greenland, portraying the move as further evidence of a deepening crisis within NATO and a strategic win for Moscow. Russian media have framed Trump as an unlikely catalyst for NATO’s internal unraveling. Several outlets have even depicted him as a historically significant figure, not for strengthening Western unity, but for accelerating its decline.”

… “Speaking in an extremely gleeful tone, Russian pundits for the Moskovsky Komsomolets, a Moscow Daily paper, said: ‘Europe’s at a total loss. It’s a pleasure to watch.’ The article went on to mock the idea of conflict within NATO itself, asking rhetorically: ‘Which NATO countries should start fighting one of NATO’s founding members? I’d watch that.’”

… EU leader Ursula Von Der Leyen: “When it comes to the security of the arctic region we share the objectives of the US, this is why the proposed tariffs are a mistake. We signed a trade deal with the US, in politics as in business a deal is a deal. When friends shake hands it must mean something. Plunging us in a downward spiral will only serve our adversaries. Our response will be unflinching and proportionate. The territorial integrity of Greenland is non-negotiable.”

… I’m not sure she fully understand Trump even now. With Trump, a deal is only a deal as long as he decides it is a deal. Then the deal will only apply to you, not him.

… Deutsche Bank’s Jim Reid says Europe is not without leverage if they ever decide to fight back: “Financial markets may play a big part in how this situation resolves itself. The main Achilles Heel of the US is the huge twin deficits. So while in many ways it feels like the US holds the economic cards, it doesn’t hold all the funding cards in a world that will be very disturbed by the weekend’s events.”

… Fortune: “Investors, analysts, and world leaders have long wondered when—or if—a debt crisis would occur in one of the nations burdened by a massive deficit. While the likes of Japan, the UK, and France are by no means balancing their books, America’s $38 trillion deficit dwarfs its counterparts. While a great deal of that debt is held by the public (including the Fed, where Trump is also in hot water), vast sums are also owned by foreign govts and overseas investors.”

… “This exposure—to the tune of $8 trillion—may be something European leaders decide to remind the WH of. Europe being America’s largest lender ‘illustrates the deep interdependence between the US and Europe but also shows that, at least theoretically, Europe also has leverage on the US” wrote Carsten Brzeski, global head of macro, and Bert Colijn, chief economist for the Netherlands.”

… “The EU also has a weapon in its arsenal that it has yet to deploy. Macron has suggested now is the time to use the EU’s Anti-Coercion Instrument. The tool is a set of countermeasures against any foreign powers that unduly interfere in the policy choices of the EU or its member states, by restricting US companies from accessing the European market, banning them from bidding for govt work, restricting trade, and curtailing foreign investment. The EU could also impose new tariffs on about $100 billion of its imports from the US.”

… Trump’s massive tax cuts for the wealthy along with huge increases for defense spending and DHS are exploding the national debt. The national debt is accelerating rapidly, currently close to $38.5 trillion, according to the latest Treasury Dept data. At the end of 2025, the US govt had $37.64 trillion in federal debt. In 2025, the national debt increased by $2.17 trillion compared to 2024.

… Fox Business analyst Charles Gasparino: “What caused Trump to back off his ‘Liberation Day’ tariffs? An implosion on the bond market, which threatened to take borrowing rates to new highs and disrupt the growing economy. Well, 10-year yields are spiking again over the Greenland-related trade war. We’re not were we were back in the April in terms of market volatility but you can feel it building at in my convos here in Davos.”

… Treasury Secretary Scott Bessett was interviewed by Fox at Davos: Q - “What do you want to say about the EU pushing back and saying they’re not going to complete their trade deal with the US because of Greenland? Bessent: I’d tell everyone sit back. Take a deep breath. Do not retaliate. Do not retaliate. The president will get his message across. Have an open mind.”

… Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) responded: “Stop pretending Trump is playing some genius long game. He’s not. He’s a deeply insecure idiot and he’ll gladly blow up the world order and screw over the entire country if it makes him feel big for 5 minutes.”

… Metro (UK): “Conservative and Labour MPs have become the first voices to call for a boycott of the World Cup this summer after Trump announced new tariffs on the UK. Simon Hoare and Kate Osborne said the govt needed to ‘push every button and pull every lever’ to show its objection to the US president’s threats towards Greenland. Hoare, a senior Conservative MP said that could include not going to the World Cup, a day after he called for the King’s state visit to the US to be cancelled.”

… “Labour MP Kate Osborne: “I support those calling for a boycott. Trump’s appalling record on human rights, climate change, his flagrant contempt for the rule of law, his attacks on democracy, and an illegal war in Venezuela is not enough for him. Now he is threatening Greenland and attacking our own govt and politicians. Last year there was huge public support for the successful campaign to refuse to legitimize Trump by allowing him the honor of addressing Parliament. We need to see the same now in relation to the World Cup.

… TV commentator and rabid World Cup fan Piers Morgan: “Maybe England, France, Spain, Germany, Portugal, Netherlands, Norway and Italy should all pause participation in the World Cup. 8 of the 10 favored teams to win withdrawing might concentrate some minds.”

… Hoare: “We should send as many messages as possible to the Trump admin and the American people that there are certain red lines in regards to upholding sovereignty and international affairs. If that means not going to the World Cup then we shouldn’t go to the World Cup. If it means cancelling a state visit, then we should cancel the state visit.”

… “Trump is looking forward to America hosting the World Cup and all the benefits that accords to America. We need to send a message to the WH that leadership has responsibilities. It doesn’t allow you to behave like some modern-day pirate, gangster, bully.”

Reminder there is no Bulletin tomorrow because I do my podcast Uncovered as well as Ask the Editor where I answer 5 of your questions. Please put any questions or any topic you want me to talk more about in your replies to this Bulletin. I expect tomorrow will be a wild day with Trump rolling into Davos, and that will lead off the show on Uncovered.

If you missed yesterday’s Bulletin, you can find it here. Thank you for supporting my work by sharing and subscribing.

Meidas+ is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

… WSJ: “Americans, not foreigners, are bearing almost the entire cost of US tariffs, according to new research that contradicts a key claim by Trump and suggests he might have a weaker hand in a reemerging trade war with Europe. Trump has repeatedly claimed that his historic tariffs, deployed aggressively over the past year as both a revenue-raising and foreign-policy tool, will be paid for by foreigners.”

… “By analyzing $4 trillion of shipments between Jan 2024 - Nov 2025, the Kiel Institute researchers found that foreign exporters absorbed only about 4% of the burden of last year’s US tariff increases by lowering their prices, while American

consumers and importers absorbed 96%. Rather than acting as a tax on foreign producers, the tariffs functioned as a consumption tax on Americans.”

… MLS/Redfin data: US housing market sellers outnumber buyers by 529,770, the largest gap ever recorded.

… Multiple media outlets are reporting that grand jury subpoenas have gone out in Minnesota to several people in what looks like a sweeping investigation by DOJ which seeks to prove that local officials are obstructing ICE. Trump and MAGA activists have also called for the arrest of Don Lemon and activists who entered a church service to protest the pastor’s alleged cooperation with ICE. Lemon asserts he was simply covering the event as a journalist.

… Trump posted: “Just watched footage of the Church Raid in Minnesota by the agitators and insurrectionists. These people are professionals! No person acts the way they act. They are highly trained to scream, rant, and rave, like lunatics, in a certain manner, just like they are doing. They are troublemakers who should be thrown in jail, or thrown out of the Country. The first to go should be Walz, and Fake Sleazebag, Ilhan Omar. Investigate these Corrupt Politicians, and do it now!”

… Rep. Keith Self (R-TX) to Newsmax on anti-ICE protesters inside the church service: “I compare them to Hamas who live-streamed the attack in Israel that killed hundreds of people. They want to instill terror.”

… Marge Greene’s former Chief of Staff, Patrick Parsons: “Your daily reminder to buy lots of guns and ammo. The Communist left (the Democrat Party) is made up of bloodthirsty monsters the likes of which this country has never seen before. Most have no family. No kids. They live for bloody revolution and elimination of their enemies. If it wasn’t obvious already, the Communists want every single Christian dead, churches burned to the ground and/or replaced by mosques. Every church needs a trained security team. If Don Lemon did that at my church it would not have ended well for him.”

… He must be fun at parties.

… MN Police Chief Mark Bruley: “The last 2 weeks we as a law enforcement community have been receiving endless complaints about civil rights violations in our streets from US citizens. What we’re hearing is they’re being stopped in traffic stops or on the street with no cause and being demanded to show paperwork to determine if they are here legally. We started hearing from our police officers the same complaints as they fell victim to this while off duty. Every one of these individuals is a person of color. It has to stop.”

… Border Patrol Chief Greg Bovino was asked about it today: Q - “The Brooklyn Park police chief said his dept his receiving endless calls from citizens saying their rights are being violated by federal agents, including from off duty officers. Any response?
Bovino: We're gonna continue to be out in the community and we’re going to continue our mission. What I see out there is very professional, prudent and thoughtful law enforcement action.”

… NYT: “As thousands of federal agents have flooded streets in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area to round up and deport undocumented immigrants, Pastor Sergio Amezcua has mobilized his church and organized free grocery deliveries to help people stay safely inside their homes. An effort that started with a couple of hundred deliveries a week quickly swelled into a vast operation involving thousands of volunteers, who have signed up at the church to pack boxes with donated grocery items and make deliveries.”

… “Amezcua said that, so far, the church had received almost 25,000 requests for grocery deliveries through an online request form. Since the program started there have been 14,000 deliveries. Amezcua’s church, Dios Habla Hoy in south Minneapolis, offers services in English and Spanish to roughly 500 members. It organized a similar effort during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, but that was smaller in scale.”

… Pastor Amezcua: “To us, as Latinos in Minnesota, this is worse than Covid. This is a bigger pandemic. Our community is traumatized. People that are born here are traumatized.”

… NYT: “Heidy Sánchez took her 17-month-old daughter to a routine check-in last April with ICE in Tampa, FL. During the appointment, federal authorities told her that she was being detained and that her husband should pick up their daughter, who was still breastfeeding. Two days later, Sánchez, who worked as a home health aide, was deported. Sánchez’s story quickly spread across social media, in part because she is Cuban, a group that had long been treated differently than other immigrants, even when they entered the country illegally. That has changed under Trump.”

… “He has repatriated more than 1,600 Cubans in 2025. That is about double the number of Cubans who were repatriated in 2024. And in the years that Trump has been president, he has sent more Cubans back than his three predecessors.”

… I guess maybe the Cuban-American community thought they were exempt since they overwhelmingly supported Trump and other Republicans like Rick Scott and Marco Rubio. They thought wrong.

… Karl Rove on Fox: “These ICE tactics seem to have particular concerns, understandably, for Hispanic voters. Hispanic voters, again, source of tremendous strength for Trump in the election 2024. You know the numbers he got, what, over 40% of the Hispanic vote? He’s now registering way, way below that in approval ratings among Hispanics.”

… Fox host: Q - “How much of a problem is that for the GOP? Rove: Big, because this is a variable group whose movement into the Republican column in 2024 helped elect Trump to a second term and helped Republicans hold the Senate and the House. It’s a problem. And we’re going to see it here in Texas. You can just see the support for Republicans in Texas diminishing, despite the fact that initially there was enormous support for the action in securing the border.”

… NYT Editorial Board posted a lengthy article detailing how Trump has profited off the presidency this year: “Trump has never been a man to ask what he can do for his country. In his second term, as in his first, he is instead testing the limits of what his country can do for him. He has poured his energy and creativity into the exploitation of the presidency - into finding out just how much money people, corporations and other nations are willing to put into his pockets in hopes of bending the power of the govt to the service of their interests.”

… “A review by the editorial board relying on analyses from news organizations shows that Trump has used the office of the presidency to make at least $1.4 billion. We know this number to be an underestimate because some of his profits remain hidden from public view. And they continue to grow.”

… Before leaving for Davos, Trump gave a rambling, mumbling, low-energy speech that was supposed to be recounting the accomplishments of his first term, but it was just a mess. Here is some of what he said as he flipped through reams of papers, some of which included mug shot of people arrested by ICE that he would hold up periodically:

• “We have a book that I'm not going to read to you, but these are the accomplishments of what we've produced all page after page after page, individual things. I could stand here and read it for a week and we wouldn't be finished.”

• On protesters: "They're paid agitators and insurrectionists. Nobody talks about the fact that $19 billion at a minimum is missing in Minnesota, given to a large degree by Somalians. They've taken it. Somalians. A lot of very low IQ people."

• “Ilhan Omar, she comes from Somalia. A backward country, probably the worst country. They say it's the worst country in the world, if it's a country. I don't even think it's a country. They don't have police, they don't have military. They just have people running around killing each other and trying to pirate ships."

• On Renee Good: "When she was shot, there was another woman that was screaming 'Shame. Shame Shame Shame.' So loud. Like a professional opera singer. She was so loud. And so professional. She wasn't a woman that was hurt like, 'Oh my heart is injured.' She was a professional."

• "ICE is gonna be too rough with somebody. They're gonna make a mistake sometimes. I felt horribly when I was told the young woman had the tragedy. But I learned her father is - I hope he still is, but I don't know - was a tremendous Trump fan. It's terrible. It's so sad. It just happens.”

• “We are going to have so much rare earth. It's actually not that rare. There’s a lot of rare earth. There’s a lot of earth.”

• On DC: "Your lover isn't going to be killed anymore, so you can act like a real lover. You can walk right through the middle of the town. And DC is beautiful again too."

• Trump: "I think God is very proud of the job I've done."

• On avoiding injury while removing a binder clip from the pages: "Whoo! I'm glad my finger wasn't in that sucker. That could've dome some damage but you know what? I wouldn't have shown the pain. I would've gone back. Boy did you hear that? That was nasty. But I would not have shown the pain. I would've acted like nothing happens as my finger fell off."

• “I wanted to call it the Gulf of Trump. I’m joking. The Gulf of Trump. That does have a good ring. Maybe we could do that. It's not too late.”

• “They used to say that the people that come into our country as immigrants are very nice people. No. They make our Hell's Angels look like the sweetest people on Earth. I like the Hell's Angels. They voted for me. They protected me.”

• "We've taken in hundreds of billions of dollars, and if we lose that case it's possible we're gonna have to do the best we can in paying it back. I don't know how that's going to be done very easily without hurting a lot of people."

• On unemployment numbers: "All I have to do is what the Democrats do all the time. They hire a million people and then they hire another million and they load it up and it says, 'Oh, they only have a 3% unemployment rate.' It's a fake rate. With us, we're proud of the fact that we cut so many."

• “I signed an executive order to bring back mental institutions and insane asylums. We are going to have to bring them back. Hate to build those suckers but you've got to get the people off the streets.”

• "I should've gotten the Nobel Prize for each war, but I don't say that. I saved millions and millions of people. And don't let anybody tell you that Norway doesn't control the shots, ok? It's in Norway. Norway control the shots. It's a joke. They lost such prestige. That's why I have such respect for Maria doing what she did. She said, 'I don't deserve the Nobel Prize. He does.'"

• On 2020: "It was a rigged election. Everybody knows that now. And by the way, numbers are coming out that show it even more plainly. We caught them. We caught them."

… PBS reporter Elizabeth Landers: “The WH distributed a print-out to reporters in the briefing room listing out ‘365 wins’ from President Trump’s year back in office. #243 stands out: ‘Stripped notorious crackhead and grifter Hunter Biden of his taxpayer-funded secret service detail.’”

… Rep. Seth Moulton (D-MA) on MS NOW: “I’m not a child psychologist, so I can’t understand the mind of Trump.”

… After Meidas broke the story late yesterday that the WH did not issue a proclamation recognizing MLK Day, several legacy media outlets followed with stories of their own while calling the WH for comment with no response. The WH then finally sent a proclamation to the press at 8:15 PM EST. Trump posted nothing about it.

… Politico on Trump’s newly endorsed Senate candidate to take out Sen. Bill Cassidy: “GOP Rep Julia Letlow just announced a Louisiana Senate bid at a breakfast event in Baton Rouge. Challenging GOP Sen. Cassidy. ‘It’s an honor to share with you today that I’m officially announcing my candidacy for the US Senate.’ Sen. Bill Cassidy is in the room.”

… Trump reposted on Truth Social a tweet from a follower that said he was going after Cassidy since he voted to convict him on the J6 impeachment, despite the fact that Cassidy has done everything he could since that time to get back into Trump’s good graces. This is the first time Cassidy has had to run for re-election since that vote, and Trump has waited 5 years to pay him back for it.

… Politico: “Congressional leaders released bill text Tuesday of a bipartisan compromise to fund the vast majority of the federal government ahead of the Jan. 30 shutdown deadline. The bicameral breakthrough on funding for the Pentagon and the nation’s largest non-defense agencies is the product of private negotiations between top appropriators.”

… “House leaders plan to hold a vote later in the week on the legislation, which would boost defense funding to more than $839 billion. It would also fund HHS, Labor, HUD, Transportation, Education, and DHS. After the fatal shooting by an ICE agent in Minneapolis this month, congressional Democrats have demanded that any new DHS funding come with conditions to crack down on the Trump admin’s immigration enforcement tactics, even as many Democratic voters call for defunding the agency.”

… “The final compromise would mandate that DHS use $20 million to outfit immigration enforcement agents with body cameras, direct the dept to give officers more training on diffusing conflict while interacting with the public and provide $20 million for independent oversight of DHS detention facilities.”

… “Rep. Rosa DeLauro, the House’s top Democratic appropriator, acknowledged that the legislation does not include some of the ‘broader reforms Democrats proposed,’ such as preventing DHS from detaining and deporting US citizens or blocking the department from using other agencies’ personnel for immigration enforcement: ‘I understand that many of my Democratic colleagues may be dissatisfied with any bill that funds ICE.’”

… Top Senate Dem Appropriator Patty Murray to Bloomberg: “There is much more we must do to rein in DHS, which I will continue to press for. But the hard truth is that Democrats must win political power to enact the kind of accountability we need.”

… NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani on The View: “I am in support of abolishing ICE. What we see is an entity that has no interest in fulfilling its stated reason to exist. We’re seeing a government agency that is supposed to be enforcing some kind of immigration law, but instead what it’s doing is terrorizing people no matter their immigration status.”

… Jack Smith will testify publicly before the House Judiciary Committee this Thursday at 10:00 AM.

… The Chief Judge for the E. District of VA is taking applications to fill Lindsey Halligan’s job, even while she refuses to leave it: “The Senate has not confirmed Halligan’s nomination. Under 28 U.S.C. § 546(d), when the position is vacant, the Court ‘may appoint a US Attorney to serve until the vacancy is filled.’ In the exercise of our authority to appoint an Interim US Attorney for the E. District of VA until the position is filled by a Senate-confirmed person, the Court is soliciting expressions of interest in serving in that position. Therefore, the Court directs the Clerk of Court to publish a vacancy announcement on the Court’s website.”