Donald Trump has sweeping plans for a second administration. Here’s what he’s proposed

January 7

A US takeover of Greenland would mark the end of NATO, Danish prime minister says after US military operation in Venezuela

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said Monday an American takeover of Greenland would amount to the end of NATO. Greenland is a semiautonomous territory of the Danish kingdom and thus part of NATO. Her comments came in response to President Donald Trump's renewed call for the strategic, mineral-rich Arctic island to come under U.S. control in the aftermath of the weekend military operation in Venezuela that left the world stunned. Read more.

What to know:

"If the United States chooses to attack another NATO country militarily, then everything stops," Frederiksen told Danish broadcaster TV2. "That is, including our NATO and thus the security that has been provided since the end of the Second World War." Trump’s comments Sunday, including telling reporters "let’s talk about Greenland in 20 days," further deepened fears that the U.S. was planning an intervention in the near future.
The U.S. Department of Defense operates the remote Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland. It supports missile warning, missile defense and space surveillance operations for the U.S. and NATO.

RELATED COVERAGE ➤

January 7

Fifth anniversary of Jan. 6 brings fresh division to the Capitol

Five years ago, the outgoing President Donald Trump told a crowd of his supporters to head to the Capitol in protest as Congress was affirming the 2020 election victory for Democrat Joe Biden. A short time later, the world watched as the seat of U.S. power descended into chaos. On the fifth anniversary of Jan. 6, 2021 there is no official event to memorialize what happened. Read more.

What to know:

Trump will meet privately with House Republicans at the Kennedy Center, which the president has rebranded to carry his own name, for a policy forum. Democrats will hold a hearing with witnesses to the violence and later gather on the Capitol steps to mark the memory of what happened.The political parties refuse to agree to a shared history of the events.

RELATED COVERAGE ➤

January 7

Corporation for Public Broadcasting votes itself out of existence

Leaders of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a private agency that has steered federal funding to PBS, NPR and hundreds of public television and radio stations across the country, voted Monday to dissolve the organization that was created in 1967. Read more.

Why this matters:

CPB had been winding down since Congress acted last summer to defund its operations at the encouragement of President Donald Trump. “CPB’s final act would be to protect the integrity of the public media system and the democratic values by dissolving, rather than allowing the organization to remain defunded and vulnerable to additional attacks,” said Patricia Harrison, the organization’s president and CEO.
Many Republicans have long accused public broadcasting, particularly its news programming, of being biased toward liberals but it wasn’t until the second Trump administration that those criticisms were turned into action.

RELATED COVERAGE ➤

January 7

Preschool Teacher, 22, Arrested on TV After Condemning Trump

Cops moved in with handcuffs while the teacher was still on camera.

A preschool teacher was arrested on camera as soon as she finished a TV interview criticizing Donald Trump, fueling the debate over protest policing and free speech.

Jessica Plichta, 22, said she was the only person arrested among roughly 200 demonstrators at an anti-war protest in Grand Rapids, Michigan, on Saturday, hours after Nicolas Maduro was detained in Caracas by the U.S. military.

In the broadcast footage, two officers could be seen approaching from behind as she wrapped her interview with WZZM, the city’s ABC affiliate, then escorted her away as she told them, “I am not resisting arrest.”

WZZM said an officer cited “obstructing a roadway and failure to obey a lawful command,” and that Plichta had been charged with failure to obey a lawful command.

Plichta later told Zeteo: “I don’t think it’s a coincidence that as soon as I finished an interview speaking on Venezuela, I was arrested.”

She told the outlet the officers shoved her into the back of a patrol car without fastening her seat belt, then drove a short distance down the street—out of view of cameras and bystanders.

According to Plichta, they stopped again, pulled her out, bent her over the vehicle, patted her down, and took her belongings. She recalled one officer saying they moved her because she was “making a scene.”

She also said officers repeatedly pressed her on whether she was Venezuelan, what her connection to Venezuela was, and why she had attended the protest. Plichta claimed they tried to get her to identify other demonstrators. “We are so accustomed to, and used to, repression when we speak out on anti-war topics. When we speak out for Venezuela, when we speak out for Palestine, we expect the police to want to shut that down,” she told Zeteo.

“It just shows how much they feel they can get away with things, how easy it is for them to isolate people from the public eye when they’re doing this.”

Plichta said she largely stayed quiet as officers took her to jail, where she said the same questions continued. She was released about three hours later after other protesters gathered to demand she be freed and was seen punching the air in a video shared on Facebook.

The Grand Rapids Police Department disputed her claims in a statement to the Daily Beast.

A spokesperson said more than “25 announcements were made from the PA system of a marked police cruiser for the group [of protesters] to leave the roadway and relocate their activities to the sidewalk,” but that they had “refused lawful orders” to move to the sidewalk and “began blocking intersections.”

Adding that supervisors told officers they could arrest anyone who could be “positively identified,” the spokesperson confirmed only one arrest was made. The Beast followed up to ask why only Plichta had been arrested, but had not received a response at the time of publication.

The mayor of Grand Rapids is David LaGrand, a Democrat.

The incident came to light as Trump, 79, tries to sell the Maduro operation at home, despite signs of public unease.

A Reuters/Ipsos poll released Monday found about one in three Americans approve of the U.S. strike, while 72 percent worry the U.S. will become too involved.

It is also a small part of a much larger information war that has even seen Trump amplify mislabeled footage on Truth Social to claim mass celebrations after the Maduro capture—a video that fact-checkers traced to an unrelated 2024 protest.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/donald-trump-critic-arrested-on-camera-after-speaking-out-against-maduro-venezuela-capture/?

ps:What a petty, petty, petty person!!

January 7

Trump Admits U.S. Taxpayers Are on the Hook for His Venezuelan Oil Plan

The president says it will cost a “tremendous” amount to salvage Venezuela’s oil industry.

Donald Trump has admitted that American taxpayers could be tapped to fund the “tremendous” investment needed to upgrade oil production in Venezuela.

After U.S. special forces removed Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro from power in a pre-dawn raid on Saturday, Trump said he planned to seize the country’s huge oil reserves and put them under the control of American oil companies.

In a new phone interview with NBC News on Monday, Trump admitted that his plans would come at a major cost—with American taxpayers potentially picking up the bill.

Trump said he believes the U.S. oil industry could expand operations into Venezuela in under 18 months.

“I think we can do it in less time than that, but it’ll be a lot of money,” Trump said.

“A tremendous amount of money will have to be spent, and the oil companies will spend it, and then they’ll get reimbursed by us or through revenue,” he said.

The 79-year-old declined to put a figure on the cost to upgrade Venezuela’s aging oil facilities.

“It’ll be a very substantial amount of money will be spent” by the oil companies, Trump said. “But they’ll do very well, and the country will do well.”

While Venezuela is estimated to have around one-fifth of the world’s total oil reserves, their “badly broken infrastructure” according to Trump means their daily oil production accounts for less than 1 percent of the global total.

Much of the 300 billion barrels of estimated reserves involve super-dense crude oil, which is simply not economic to extract and process at current world market rates.

It is also not clear whether American oil majors that gave up on Venezuela during the rule of Hugh Chávez, Maduro’s socialist predecessor, are keen to return, let alone fund an investment program that experts say could cost up to $200 billion.

The president claimed that oil companies were not specifically briefed on the military invasion before it took place, but said his administration had been “talking to the concept of ‘What if we did it?’”

“The oil companies were absolutely aware that we were thinking about doing something,” Trump told NBC. “But we didn’t tell them we were going to do it.”

The president also claimed that the move for American oil companies to overhaul Venezuela’s oil infrastructure will lower the price of the fuel.

“Having a Venezuela that’s an oil producer is good for the United States because it keeps the price of oil down,” Trump said in the interview.

Trump said it was “too soon” to reveal if he had discussed his plans with the bosses of Exxon Mobil, Chevron, and ConocoPhillips, simply claiming “I speak to everybody.”

Seventy-two percent of Americans are concerned about America getting too involved in Venezuela, according to a poll taken this week. However the president said the U.S. was at war with “people that sell drugs” not the Latin American country.

“We’re at war with people that empty their prisons into our country and empty their drug addicts and empty their mental institutions into our country.”

https://www.thedailybeast.com/donald-trump-admits-us-taxpayers-on-the-hook-for-venezuelan-oil-plan/?

January 7

Top General Slams Trump’s Stalinesque Takeover of the Military

A former major general has sounded the alarm on the Pentagon’s “Stalin problem.”

Donald Trump’s ruthless takeover of the military is reminiscent of Joseph Stalin and could take decades to fix, a former general has warned.

Speaking to the Guardian, Major General Paul Eaton, 75, sounded the alarm on the Pentagon’s “Stalin problem,” which has seen Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ruthlessly cull anyone critical of the Trump administration and replace them with pro-MAGA sycophants.

“There is an active effort to politicise the armed forces,” said Eaton, who spent 37 years in active service and helped train troops in Iraq, in an interview published Monday.

“Once you infect the body, the cure may be very difficult and painful for presidents downstream.”

Although critical of the wider administration, Eaton pointed the finger at Hegseth specifically for handing Trump unchecked power by purging the Pentagon of inspector generals, watchdogs, and military lawyers who advise the president on the laws of armed conflict.

“Hegseth not only swears loyalty to Trump, he swears fealty to Trump – whereas the military swears an oath to the Constitution,” he explained.

Since Hegseth’s appointment last year, a swift purge of top brass and independent oversight officials soon followed. After the inspector generals and legal advisors were ousted in early 2025, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, General Charles Brown, soon followed, along with the heads of the Navy and Air Force.

In their place were officers such as Lt. General Dan Caine, a Trump loyalist who is alleged to have told the president he would “kill for him” (a claim made by Trump, which Caine has since denied).

The message sent by the firings was clear: “Toe the line, or we will fire you,” Eaton said. “You’re in a different world now. This is Trump’s world, and by God, this is what we’re going to do.”

Drawing a direct parallel to the Soviet Union, Eaton pointed to the purging of the military top brass by Joseph Stalin, who cemented his power by killing or imprisoning any officers who disagreed with him.

“Stalin killed a lot of the best and brightest of the military leadership, and then inserted political commissars into the units,” he explained.

“The doubt that swept the armed forces of the Soviet Union is reminiscent of today – they are not killing these men and women, but they are removing them from positions of authority with similar impact.”

The result, he added, is that “you’ve got a 1940s Stalin problem inside the American military right now”.

After sounding the alarm as far back as 2024, Eaton’s fears were later confirmed during a bizarre gathering of generals back in September, in which Hegseth torched the top brass for allowing themselves to become “the woke department,” telling them “Not any more. We’re done with that s—.”

In an incendiary speech in which he boasted of “removing the social justice, politically correct and toxic ideological garbage that had infected our department,” Hegseth said any military commander who disagreed with his vision should retire.

“The sooner we have the right people, the sooner we can advance the right policies. But if the words I’m speaking today are making your heart sink, then you should do the honorable thing and resign,” he said at the time. “We will thank you for your service.”

The defense secretary’s words that day were “disgusting,” and “antithetical to the US military,” Eaton told the Guardian. “The senior leadership of our armed forces are sober people who do not speak in terms of fatness or ‘kill them all’ or ‘the gloves are off’.”

Furthering comparisons to Soviet Russia, Eaton says he fears a clash among the military’s branches in the near future, predicting they’ll be forced into conflict after receiving contradictory orders from top brass.

“You can very easily see an escalation in which both sides think they are right, obeying orders that they believe were given legally,” he said. “There are going to be people getting hurt who really don’t need to get hurt.”

Speaking to The Daily Beast back in December, Eaton said Hegseth’s conduct would, in normal circumstances, result in him being out of a job.

“If I were rating Pete Hegseth’s conduct as a superior officer, he would be out of a job,” he told the Daily Beast podcast.

“He has consistently demonstrated that he does not have the gravitas, he does not have the experience, he does not have the mindset, he does not have the ethical base to perform the duties expected of the Secretary of Defense, and he is demonstrating this on a daily basis.”

Pentagon Press Secretary Kingsley Wilson told the Daily Beast: “The United States military is — and will always remain — non-partisan and under civilian control. Retired officers are private citizens who can speak for themselves and their commentary, or lack thereof, does not change the professionalism, readiness, or oath of our men and women in uniform. Eaton’s bogus comments are nothing more than an attempt to undermine confidence in the military and push a partisan media narrative.”

The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for further comment.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/top-general-slams-trumps-stalinesque-takeover-of-the-military/?

January 7

Donald Trump’s America Is Acting Like a Mafia State

Trump will take what he wants, when he wants, how he wants, because he believes he has the might to impose his will.

The president is treating Venezuela like a truckload of Italian designer suits his gang can hijack from a rest stop on the New Jersey Turnpike.

What is happening now in Latin America is not foreign policy. It is not military strategy. It is not statecraft of any sort. And it is certainly not a law enforcement operation. On the contrary, it is a mob heist. Nothing more. Nothing less. It is an effort by a bunch of lawless thugs to use muscle to take what isn’t theirs.

The only way it differs from the day-to-day behavior of the mafia itself is that the soldiers carrying out the boss’s orders are not high school dropouts from Brooklyn or Newark; they’re members of the U.S. military’s elite Delta Force doing so under the cover of the stars and stripes.

Every aspect of the operation is reminiscent of scenes from The Godfather, The Sopranos or perhaps your favorite Scorsese movie.

To start with, Trump looks and acts like a mob boss. In fact, it has often been noted that this president—who used to work in casinos and the building trades—has long emulated the style and affect of now-deceased Gambino family boss John Gotti. (More recently, he has started to resemble Genovese crime boss, Vincent “the Chin” Gigante, who was famous for wandering the streets of Greenwich Village in his pajamas mumbling incoherently to himself. Gigante’s mental decline was a ploy to avoid prosecution, of course, whereas Trump’s appears real—and he has avoided prosecution a different way, with the help of the U.S. Supreme Court, by becoming president.)

Trump’s mentor, Roy Cohn, often represented mobsters; Trump has reportedly employed mob-run construction companies in his businesses and had myriad other ties to the U.S. and Russian mob.

His approach to international relations is clearly inspired by the same wise guys. He sees the world divided into territories that, in his mind, should be under the control of various crime families (or administrations).

The capo di tutti capi to whom Trump regularly pays deference and who is himself well-known for his gangland ties is, of course, Vladimir Putin. It has even been reported that, in a deal pretty much like the one struck at the sit-down hosted by Don Barzini in The Godfather, Russia had informally agreed to give up protection of Venezuela in exchange for the U.S. letting it have its way with Ukraine.

While the U.S. tried to make the kidnapping of Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro seem legitimate by suggesting that he was himself the head of an alleged drug gang, Trump’s assertion that he and his captains—“Petey Walnuts” Hegseth, Marco “Little P---y” Rubio and Stephen “Bugsy” Miller—would be running the country from now on made it clear that was just a ruse covering up a play to control an even bigger chunk of the sale of the past century’s drug of choice, oil.

Rubio, seemingly made kingpin of the new operation, has subsequently downplayed the degree of active American control over Caracas, suggesting instead that the U.S. would use the threat of force to keep Venezuelans in line. His point: They’ll do what the Don wants if they know what’s good for them. After all, as Petey Walnuts made clear on the night the Maduro raid was announced, the Venezuelan leader had gotten crosswise with Trump—he “f---ed around” and “found out.”

Spoken just like a true thug.

Other threats have made it clear that the Trump Doctrine asserts that, mob-style, the territory on this side of the Atlantic was ours. Trump will take what he wants, when he wants, how he wants, because he has the might to impose his will.

Rubio has called out the leaders of Cuba. The Don suggested he wanted his gang to go after cartels in Mexico. (Who’s the criminal here? It’s getting so hard to tell.) He’s otherwise threatened that his next hit might be against the president of Colombia, who, Trump hissed, has “got to watch his ass.” And he’s said, again, that the U.S. “needed” Greenland —to traffic in its rare earth minerals and other valuable resources that aren’t ours to sell but could be if we knocked a few heads together.

Meanwhile, the Don’s kids are out running protection rackets all over the world, shaking down foreign leaders in exchange for their Dad’s favor, spinning up scams that pump money and crypto into far-flung Trump family bank accounts and generally behaving like… well, like just who they really are.

Am I saying that Trump and his administration are mobsters? Of course not. That would be reckless and irresponsible without the hard evidence of criminal wrongdoing that some future U.S. administration might compile. If we ever have one. However, I am saying that they sure are behaving like it—and worse, that the entire world is coming to see America’s actions to be those not of “the land of the free and the home of the brave” but instead, sadly, frighteningly, like those of a mafia state.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/donald-trumps-america-is-acting-like-a-mafia-state/?

January 7

‘Not about special treatment,’ Miccosukee Tribe responds to Trump veto

The Miccosukee Tribe is rejecting President Donald Trump’s claim that the tribe worked against his administration’s immigration efforts, the basis he used to veto a flood protection project in the Everglades.

https://floridaphoenix.com/2026/01/05/not-about-special-treatment-miccosukee-tribe-responds-to-trump-veto/?

Trump says US to get 30 million to 50 million barrels of oil from Venezuela at market price

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — President Donald Trump said Tuesday that Venezuela would be providing 30 million to 50 million barrels of oil to the U.S., and he pledged to use proceeds from the sale of this oil “to benefit the people” of both countries.

https://apnews.com/article/venezuela-trump-democrats-9d16138866bebdc2644eb009c6326066?

What Americans think about the situation in Venezuela, according to recent polls

There are few signs that President Donald Trump’s supporters wanted the United States to become more embroiled in foreign conflicts ahead of its military actions in Venezuela — even as many Republicans show initial support for his military strike there, according to an Associated Press analysis of recent polling. Read more.

RELATED COVERAGE ➤

January 7

Trump Allies Hit Back at Stephen Miller’s Insane Greenland Rant

The rebuke came after the White House aide doubled down on seizing the territory and defended his wife’s provocative post.

America’s global allies have slammed the Trump administration’s ambition to seize Greenland after one of the president’s top aides claimed no one would oppose the U.S. militarily staking a claim to it.

Hours after White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller doubled down on Trump’s push—and defended his wife threatening Greenland in a provocative social media post—America’s major European allies rallied behind the Arctic territory to tell the U.S. to butt out.

“Greenland belongs to its people. It is for Denmark and Greenland, and them only, to decide on matters concerning Denmark and Greenland,” they said, in a stinging rebuke.

The strongly-worded statement was signed by seven of America’s traditional allies, including UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron, and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz.

Republican Congressman Don Bacon, a staunch defender of the US-European alliance, said it was “embarrassing for the U.S. that this statement even has to be made.”

“Denigrating our Allies serves no purpose and there is NO up side,” said the retiring lawmaker from Nebraska.

“It weakens us by diminishing trust between friends, and Russia and China love it. So… stop the stupid “we want Greenland BS.”

The joint statement is emblematic of growing concerns around the world over Trump’s push to dominate the Western Hemisphere.

The president made his intentions clear after the stunning capture of Venezuelan dictator Nicholas Maduro, paving the way for the U.S. to “run” the oil-rich Latin American country.

Immediately after the military operation, Miller’s wife posted a photo of a map of Greenland covered with an American flag on her X account on Saturday, with the caption “SOON.”

Grilled about the CNN post on Monday night, Stephen Miller said Trump had made it clear he wanted to take over the running of Greenland since his first term.

Asked by Jake Tapper if military action to seize the country was off the table, he replied: “The real question is by what right does Denmark assert control over Greenland? What is the basis of their territorial claim? What is their basis of having Greenland as a colony of Denmark?”

“The United States is the power of NATO,” Miller said. “For the United States to secure the Arctic region, to protect and defend NATO and NATO interests, obviously, Greenland should be part of the United States.”

He added that there was no need to talk about military action, telling Tapper: “Nobody‘s going to fight the United States militarily over the future of Greenland.”

Taking Greenland by force would be the first time a NATO member directly attacked another member’s territory since the alliance was created in 1949.

Trump argues that the U.S. needs Greenland for national security purposes, and securing it is aligned with what he describes as the “Donroe Doctrine”: a vision of a U.S. superpower that could assert its military might to conquer the Western Hemisphere.

But the leaders of Greenland and Denmark have forcefully rejected the idea of annexing the territory.

The Danish foreign policy committee has also called an extraordinary meeting of the country’s parliament for Tuesday night to discuss the Danish kingdom’s relationship with the U.S.

In their statement on Tuesday, which was shared by the Danish prime minister’s office, the European leaders said security in the Arctic must be achieved collectively with Nato allies, including the U.S.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, who met with Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen on Tuesday, also weighed in.

“The future of Greenland is a decision exclusively for the people of Greenland and Denmark,” Carney told reporters in Paris.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-allies-hit-back-at-stephen-millers-insane-greenland-rant/?

January 7

QAnon Shaman Reveals Why He No Longer Supports Trump

The pardoned Capitol rioter said he can’t forgive Donald Trump over this major issue.

The infamous Capitol rioter widely known as the “QAnon Shaman” confirmed that he is no longer a MAGA maniac.

Jacob Chansley, the often-shirtless conspiracy theorist who made headlines for bearing war paint and horns during the January 6 Capitol riot, told CNN that the administration’s handling of the Epstein files was the last straw for his support of President Donald Trump.

When asked by CNN senior correspondent Donie O’Sullivan if he was still a Trump supporter, Chansley replied, “No. I thought you knew that.”

“The man alone, refusing to release the Epstein client list, was enough for me and I think a lot of other people to be like, ‘Okay, this is bulls--t,” he added.

Chansley, an Arizona native, explained to O’Sullivan why he participated in the Capitol riot while the two hiked a mountain in his hometown of Phoenix.

“I went to Washington because I believe that every election since Kennedy has been stolen. And I believe every election since 1913 has been stolen,” Chansley said. “I went to Washington, not necessarily so much to support Trump, but to support America, and the idea of free, honest, and fair elections in the United States.”

“Look at it like this: I supported Trump because he was talking about ending child and human trafficking. I supported Trump because he was talking about arresting Epstein and the Epstein client list.”

Chansley received one of the longest prison sentences out of any of the January 6 rioters, but was pardoned by Trump last year. He shared a post on X shortly after, celebrating the news he heard from his lawyer.

“I GOT A PARDON BABY! THANK YOU PRESIDENT TRUMP!!!” he wrote. “NOW I AM GONNA BUY SOME MOTHA FU*KIN GUNS!!!”

However, his tune changed months later in July, when he lashed out on X in a series of posts targeting Trump and other members of the administration.

“F--k this stupid piece of s--t,” Chansley said in a since-deleted reply to a photo of Trump’s mugshot posted by the president in August 2023. “What a fraud.”

“Oh yeah & F--k Israel! And F--k Donald Trump!” he added. “What do you think Epstein & Isreal (sic) have on Trump???”

Chansley told CNN that he never self-identified as the “QAnon Shaman,” but said he was only “kind of” a QAnon follower—referring to the unfounded conspiracy that Trump was working to dismantle a secret elite cabal of Satan-worshippers occupying the U.S. government.

“I had a sign that I carried around with me for a little while that said ‘Q sent me!’” Chansley said. “But that was because of the meme.”

https://www.thedailybeast.com/qanon-shaman-jacob-chansley-confirms-his-breakup-with-trump/?

January 7

White House Faces Questions as Mystery Trader Wins Big Betting on Trump’s Maduro Capture

A Polymarket spree that netted more than $400K from Trump’s Venezuela raid has raised insider trading concerns.

A mystery trader banked almost half a million dollars on low-odds bets that Venezuela would be invaded just before Donald Trump ordered a covert operation to seize President Nicolás Maduro.

The anonymous gambler opened an account with Polymarket, a cryptocurrency-based prediction market, in late December and started small. They wagered about $96 on Dec. 27 on the prediction of a U.S. invasion before Jan. 31, then ramped up with thousands more dollars over the next week.

The heaviest buying came in a short burst on Jan. 2, with the final wager landing at 9:58 p.m. ET, just hours before Maduro’s capture. The “Maduro out by Jan. 31” bets were trading at around 8 cents at the time, implying roughly an 8 percent chance of the wager proving successful.

Within hours, news of the U.S. operation in Venezuela broke, and explosions were reported in the capital of Caracas, sending the contracts’ value soaring.

The trader ultimately turned about $34,000 in wagers into nearly $410,000 in profit—a roughly 12-fold return—then began cashing out the morning of Jan. 3, according to Polymarket data analyzed by The Wall Street Journal.

Market watchers told the Journal that the pattern—a new wallet, clustered wagers, and a tight window before the operation surfaced—looked like the kind of activity they’d scrutinize for nonpublic information.

“It’s more likely than not that this was an insider. That’s a lot of money to put in at that price, without a lot of news,” said Tre Upshaw, the founder of Polysights, a firm that tracks unusual trading on the platform.Trump’s boasts about how hush-hush the operation was, as he sought to explain why he had failed to tell Congress it was happening, have done little to quell those concerns.

The president said he did not seek congressional approval or give advance notice of the Maduro raid because he feared “leaky” lawmakers would blow the element of surprise, keeping operational details secret until after the action was underway.

Those who were in the know about the strikes reportedly included only Trump, Vice President JD Vance, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Observers now want to know who else may have had access to classified intelligence surrounding the operation.

Legal exposure could depend on who was behind the wallet, which was identified only by a series of numbers and letters. The Journal quoted Fenwick & West partner Noah Solowiejczyk as saying that a U.S. official misusing government information could be prosecuted under existing laws—but that a foreign trader operating abroad could be harder to pursue because of jurisdiction limits.

The controversy has caused Capitol Hill blowback. Rep. Ritchie Torres, 37, said he plans to introduce legislation that explicitly bars federal officials from betting in prediction markets when they hold—or can access—relevant nonpublic information.

Polymarket’s founder and CEO, Shayne Coplan, previously argued that the platform has a form of self-policing because suspicious activity is quickly called out in public.

“The moment there is a suspected insider, it’s pointed out on X, and it’s visible on Polymarket immediately,” he told the Journal.

The Daily Beast has reached out to Polymarket and the White House for comment.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/white-house-questions-as-mystery-polymarket-trader-wins-big-on-donald-trumps-nicolas-maduro-venezuela-capture/?

January 7

Hilton Caves to MAGA Fury After Hotel Turns Away ICE Agents

The franchise didn’t take long to remove the hotel from their system.

Hilton Hotels caved to MAGA backlash and removed a Minnesota hotel from its system after it allegedly refused to house ICE agents.

“The independent hotel owner had assured us that they had fixed the problem,” an official Hilton account posted on X on Tuesday, noting that after a video raised further “concerns” about the property, the franchise decided to take “immediate action” to “remove this hotel from our systems.”

The post comes amid MAGA calls to boycott Hilton Hotels after the Department of Homeland Security accused the property—the Hampton Inn by Hilton Lakeville Minneapolis—of allegedly canceling reservations for Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.“NO ROOM AT THE INN!” the DHS posted on Monday, stating that “@HiltonHotels has launched a coordinated campaign in Minneapolis to REFUSE service to DHS law enforcement.” “When officers attempted to book rooms using official government emails and rates, Hilton Hotels maliciously CANCELLED their reservations,” the post continued, including alleged screenshots of emails from the hotel, one of which stated that it was “not allowing any ICE or immigration agents to stay” at the property.The DHS post sparked an outcry, prompting conservative users to take to social media to announce they were canceling their Hilton Honors credit cards and calling for a boycott. Meanwhile, conservative commentator Nick Sortor filmed a video that Hilton said prompted its decision on Tuesday to remove the hotel from its systems.In the video posted on X, Sortor can be seen walking inside the Hampton Inn by Hilton Lakeville Minneapolis and asking to book 10 rooms. After telling the receptionist he was from the DHS, he was told that the hotel is “not accepting” people from Immigration, ICE, or DHS. When he asked if that had changed, the receptionist said the manager confirmed it had not.

In a statement on Monday, a Hilton spokesperson said that their hotels “serve as welcoming places for all” and that the Minnesota hotel “is independently owned and operated, and the actions referenced are not reflective of Hilton values.”

Everpeak Hospitality, which manages the hotel, said in a statement on Monday that the issue had been resolved and that it would contact affected guests to ensure they are accommodated.

“They lied,” Sortor said at the end of his video about Hilton and Everpeak. “Their talk, it means nothing,” he continued, before telling Hilton that they can “take their name off the sign” as soon as they want if they wish.

Nearly two hours after Sortor shared his video, Hilton issued its statement, emphasising that after removing the hotel from their systems, they are also “engaging with all of our franchisees to reinforce the standards we hold them to across our system to help ensure this does not happen again.”

The hotel’s decision not to accommodate ICE agents comes as the agency increased its presence in the state following a childcare fraud scandal, which the White House claims was carried out primarily by Somali migrants.

President Donald Trump, 79, has repeatedly attacked Somali immigrants, saying that he “don’t want ’em in our country” and referring to them as “garbage,” which Abdiqani A. Jabane, a Somali American immigration lawyer in Minneapolis, told The New York Times has created “an atmosphere of xenophobia, where an entire community feels targeted and unsafe.”

https://www.thedailybeast.com/hilton-caves-to-maga-fury-after-hotel-turns-away-ice-agents/?

January 7

Republican Who Cast Key Vote for RFK Jr. Rages at His Vaccine Changes

It’s finally dawning on the Health Committee chair that he opened the door to a wolf in sheep’s clothing.

The senator whose vote put conspiracy theorist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in charge of Health and Human Services is furious that he’s altered the child vaccine schedule.

Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee chair Bill Cassidy, 68, gave Kennedy, 71, his support on the grounds that he wouldn’t interfere with immunization practices. Now he’s been left furious after the raw milk enthusiast ripped up the national pediatric vaccine schedule recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It roadmaps routine shots for children and babies, but has now been replaced by a new version that no longer recommends immunization against rotavirus, influenza, meningococcal disease, or hepatitis A.

Trained physician Cassidy was unable to hide his fury at RFK Jr.’s new schedule, which cites a loss of public confidence in vaccinations for the change. It aligns the CDC’s recommendations closely with those of the Danish government, despite the Scandinavian country’s wildly different demographics from those of the U.S.

“As a doctor who treated patients for decades, my top priority is protecting children and families,” the Republican said on X. “Multiple children have died or were hospitalized from measles, and South Carolina continues to face a growing outbreak. Two children have died in my state from whooping cough. All of this was preventable with safe and effective vaccines.

“The vaccine schedule IS NOT A MANDATE. It’s a recommendation giving parents the power. Changing the pediatric vaccine schedule based on no scientific input on safety risks and little transparency will cause unnecessary fear for patients and doctors, and will make America sicker.”

Recommendations for polio and measles jabs remain in place following Monday’s announcement.

Kennedy’s act of defiance is just the latest against Cassidy, who reluctantly gave him his support if he promised to “maintain the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices recommendations without changes.”The former independent presidential candidate also previously duped the Louisiana senator by promising he wouldn’t alter the CDC’s position that vaccines do not cause autism. That has now been changed, with RFK Jr. saying the science is inconclusive.

In November, days after the autism fiasco and with the wool pulled firmly over his eyes, Cassidy appeared on CNN’s State of the Union, where he refused to admit Kennedy had played him.

“RFK Jr., according to his own family, is causing real damage to the health of the U.S.,” host Jake Tapper said. “You don’t seem willing to criticize him by name at all.”

Tapper was referencing Kennedy’s cousin, Tatiana Schlossberg, the 35-year-old granddaughter of President John F. Kennedy, who died from terminal cancer on Dec. 30. Before her death, she had been insistent that RFK Jr. was doing damage to the healthcare system.

“Clearly, you want me to be on the record saying something negative,” Cassidy clapped back at Tapper at the time. “Of course, it makes news if Republicans fight each other.”

HHS says it hopes the pivot to the new vaccine schedule will improve uptake of the shots it deems most important. Kennedy said in a statement, “We are aligning the U.S. childhood vaccine schedule with international consensus while strengthening transparency and informed consent. This decision protects children, respects families, and rebuilds trust in public health.”

His decision to remove influenza from the schedule comes as the U.S. suffers through its worst flu season in 25 years.

“This is definitely a banner year [for flu cases],” Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security epidemiologist Dr. Caitlin Rivers told CNN. “It’s the worst we’ve had in at least 20 years. We’re seeing a majority of the country is experiencing very high levels of activity, and we’re still in the thick of it.”

In a written press statement, Massachusetts Public Health Commissioner Dr. Robbie Goldstein said, “This is a moment for clarity, urgency, and action. These viruses are serious, dangerous, and life-threatening. We are seeing children who are seriously ill, families grieving devastating losses, and hospitals under capacity strain.”

The Daily Beast has contacted representatives for Cassidy and Kennedy for comment.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/republican-who-cast-key-vote-for-rfk-jr-rages-at-his-vaccine-changes/?

January 8

?? Venezuelans face U.S. deportation push

mail?url=https%3A%2F%2Fimages.axios.com%

Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios

Hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans in the U.S. are being encouraged to go home or face deportation following the operation to capture Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro, Axios' Brittany Gibson reports.

"President Trump's decisive action to remove Maduro marks a turning point for Venezuelans. Now, they can return to the country they love and rebuild its future," U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services spokesperson Matthew Tragesser said in a statement.

?? Venezuelan immigrants had temporary U.S. legal protections until last year, in part due to poor economic conditions and human rights abuses under Maduro.

A Temporary Protected Status designation in 2023 gave about 348,000 Venezuelans legal status and the opportunity for work permits. The Trump administration terminated that status in April.
Another TPS designation from 2021 protected roughly 268,000 Venezuelans. It was terminated in November.
Many more Venezuelans live and work in the U.S. with visas, or could apply for permanent legal status.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem recently said TPS holders can apply for "refugee status."

⏸️ But all asylum applications have been paused since December.
⛔️ Venezuelans are also affected by the Trump administration's halt on all immigration decisions for people from countries on its travel ban list.

?? USCIS did not respond when asked about changes affecting Venezuelans' applications.

Go deeper.

ps:So he invades there country, knows why so many came to this country to get away from there and now he's going to throw them under the bus and send them back!!!!!

January 8

?️ WH site says Trump supporters were "peaceful" on Jan. 6

Screenshot: Whitehouse.gov

The White House marked the fifth anniversary of the Jan. 6 riot with an official webpage that claims the 2020 election was stolen, insists President Trump's supporters were peaceful that day, and accuses former Vice President Mike Pence of "cowardice and sabotage," Axios' Avery Lotz reports.

The page, which is headed by sprawling images of House Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and members of the select committee that probed Jan. 6, says that Democrats "staged the real insurrection by certifying a fraud-ridden election."
?️ Election officials have maintained a lack of evidence of widespread voter fraud.

? The page goes on to accuse United States Capitol Police (USCP) of "deliberately escalating tensions" and turning "a peaceful demonstration into chaos."

The site also declares that a USCP officer "murdered" Ashli Babbitt "in cold blood."

Babbitt was fatally shot while trying to climb through a broken window to the House Speaker's Lobby.

The Justice Department closed its investigation into the shooting in 2021, and an internal USCP probe determined the officer's conduct was lawful.
A USCP representative did not immediately respond to Axios' request for comment.

The page also accuses Pence, who resisted pressure to refuse to certify former President Biden's 2020 election, of "cowardice and sabotage."

Pence's organization, Advancing American Freedom, did not immediately respond to Axios' request for comment.

Go deeper.

January 8

?? White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller said no one would oppose a U.S. military takeover of Greenland, a self-ruling island in the Kingdom of Denmark. His remarks ramp up President Trump's ambitions of territorial expansion against a NATO ally. Go deeper.

ps:How much sicker can this administration get??????????

January 8

When Insiders Win

																(Michael Nagle / Bloomberg / Getty)
															

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When U.S. Delta Force commandos slipped into Venezuelan airspace over the weekend, they did so in secrecy. And yet, in the hours before President Donald Trump gave the final order for the strike, someone bet more than $20,000 that Nicolás Maduro would be ousted as the country’s leader by the end of January.

On Polymarket, the online platform that lets people wager on almost anything, an anonymous trader somewhere in the world placed a series of suspiciously well-timed bets. Using a fresh account created last month, the individual made just a few bets in the days leading up to the raid, according to The Wall Street Journal—all on the possibility of imminent regime change in Venezuela—and appeared to come away with more than $400,000.

Perhaps the bettor just got phenomenally lucky. Or perhaps they knew about the raid ahead of time and leveraged it for a quick payout. We can’t know, because Polymarket, a so-called prediction market where people turn their idle hunches into real cash, allows some of its customers to remain anonymous. Traders place their bets using crypto, which could provide another layer of cover. The Maduro trade has generated a huge amount of speculation and controversy; the internet is now full of jokes that Barron Trump, hunched behind dual monitors in his NYU dorm room, may have been behind it.

This is not the first instance of a well-timed bet on Polymarket raising questions about insider trading. Just before María Corina Machado, a leader of Venezuela’s opposition to Maduro, was declared the winner of the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize, the probability that she would win the award began to spike on Polymarket (despite a highly secretive selection process). The Nobel Institute has said that it may have been a victim of espionage. Early last month, a trader made a series of bets related to Google’s most popular searches of 2025. Just before the company released its “Year in Search” report, the user bet on some of those top searches with uncanny accuracy. In the end, the account netted more than $1 million.

Traditional financial markets have clear-cut rules around insider trading: Capitalizing on nonpublic information is plainly illegal. Polymarket seems to have no such policies in its terms of use (although it does ban activity that violates “applicable laws”). The company’s CEO, Shayne Coplan, has also explicitly said that Polymarket creates a “financial incentive for people to go and divulge” new information. The thinking is that, if the function of these tools is to predict the future, then rewarding people for leaking information could be seen as a positive. When insiders push markets toward what’s actually going to happen, they can hypothetically turn prediction markets into a source of real-time unfiltered news. There are legal ways to find and divulge new information—say, in scraping publicly available data for an edge over other traders—but Coplan did not draw that distinction. (Polymarket did not respond to a request for comment.)

Not all prediction markets share this ethos. Kalshi, Polymarket’s biggest competitor, “explicitly prohibits insider trading of any form,” a spokesperson told me over email. But the concept of treating insider trading as a feature rather than a bug seems to be gaining traction. Brian Armstrong, the CEO of Coinbase—a cryptocurrency exchange that recently purchased a prediction-market firm—laid out this line of thinking at The New York Times’ DealBook Summit last month: “If your goal is actually for the 99 percent of people trying to get signal about what’s going to happen in the world—like, ‘Is the Suez Canal going to be reopened?’ or whatever—you actually want insider trading.”

Outsourcing privileged information to prediction markets in the name of “news” has some clear problems. Maduro’s ouster is a helpful example: Both the Times and The Washington Post reportedly learned of the plans for Saturday’s raid before it happened, and held off on publishing their stories to avoid endangering U.S. troops. No such editorial-judgment calls are being made across betting markets. The democratization of certain kinds of information can be a social good—but not like this.

As it becomes easier for people to bet on everyday phenomena, more opportunities will open up for insiders to leverage private information for fast cash. Hypothetically, the Deloitte employees who tabulate Grammy votes can bet on who might win Song of the Year, and the White House aide with a sense of the president’s mood can bet on whether he’ll publicly use the word fuck before the end of the month. It’s no secret that these markets can be gamed. Armstrong closed Coinbase’s most recent earnings call with a string of non sequiturs (“Bitcoin, ethereum, blockchain, staking, and Web3”) in a nod to the traders betting on whether those specific words would crop up during the call.

Polymarket has become enormously popular, even though its main platform isn’t meant to be accessed from within the United States. In 2022, the company shut down its domestic service as part of a settlement with the Biden administration over alleged regulatory violations. Still, American bettors have found an easy work-around in the digital trickery of VPNs, or virtual private networks. Polymarket is now gearing up for a U.S. comeback, with the support of the new White House. The company tapped a former Trump campaign manager to lobby on its behalf last year, and Donald Trump Jr. now serves as an adviser to both Polymarket and Kalshi. The Trump family’s media company is working on a prediction market too: Truth Predict.

Insider trading is frowned upon because it further slants an already uneven playing field, further enriching those in proximity to the biggest and most consequential decisions of the day and leaving the public at a disadvantage. This, at least, has been the prevailing view for much of the modern history of American commerce. Traditional financial markets aren’t always fair, but they at least purport to operate from a shared perspective. Among the central innovations of prediction markets is the idea that an unequal playing field might actually facilitate the truth. It’s a convenient line. But it obscures the fact that these are still very much also just markets. When insiders win, the rest of us lose.

Related:

January 8

?️ Trump's Venezuela oil bonanza

Via Truth Social

Despite talk about elections and democracy in Venezuela, the Trump administration has a simple goal: Back a pro-U.S. government — and prop it up with millions of barrels of Venezuelan oil, Axios' Marc Caputo writes.

Why it matters: The plan hinges on the U.S. taking de facto control of oil production in Venezuela. The South American country says it has the largest crude reserves in the world but has been crippled by kleptocracy and U.S. sanctions.

President Trump announced last night on Truth Social the U.S. would receive as many as 50 million barrels of sanctioned oil from Venezuela, worth about $2.5 billion. Venezuela would share in the profits from the sale, Trump said.

On Friday, Trump plans to meet with a dozen oil executives in the White House to discuss boosting Venezuelan oil production.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio is pressuring Venezuela's acting president, Delcy Rodriguez, to kick suspected intelligence officials from China, Cuba, Iran and Russia out of the country.

Keep reading.

January 8

? White House freezes child care funds

Illustration of a wooden bead and wire child's play set with a dollar sign created from the twisting wire

Illustration: Natalie Peeples/Axios

The Trump administration sent letters to five blue states last night freezing about $10 billion for child care and social services programs pending a "thorough review," citing "systemic fraud" concerns, Axios' Emily Peck and Jason Lalljee write.

Why it matters: The freeze could hurt low-income families in those states, depending on how long it lasts.

The letters — sent to California, Colorado, Minnesota, Illinois and New York — demand data on all recipients of federal funding, including names, Social Security numbers and birthdates.

The administration is also adopting a so-called Defend the Spend policy throughout all 50 states, asking officials to further justify any spending on child care.

Keep reading.

January 8

?️ 1 for the road: Commanders Colosseum

The first conceptual look at a stadium, released in the spring. Rendering: D.C. government

Trump allies want the new Washington Commanders stadium to include classical architecture, Axios D.C.'s Cuneyt Dil writes.

Why it matters: The 65,000-seat stadium is expected to feature cutting-edge design and tech, with a dome for a future Super Bowl and year-round events. Making that look like the Colosseum won't be easy.

The Colosseum in Rome opened in 80 A.D. Photo: Elio Castoria/AFP via Getty Images

Will Scharf — President Trump's chairman of the National Capital Planning Commission, which has a say over the design — recently told team reps he hopes the stadium "incorporates architectural features in keeping with the capital more generally — classical, neoclassical elements," according to the Washington Business Journal.

"I think really going back to classical antiquity, arenas and stadiums have played a vital role in the urban cityscape," Scharf said at an NCPC meeting.
"There were several decades in American history where we unfortunately really got away from that, much to the detriment of the fan experience."

January 8

Greenland takeover threat

The White House is discussing options to acquire Greenland — and has not ruled out the use of military force. President Donald Trump's interest in the Arctic island centers on its strategic and economic value. The self-governing Danish territory sits at a critical location between the US, Europe and Russia. It is also believed to hold significant untapped resources, including oil, gas and rare earth minerals. European leaders on Tuesday issued a joint statement denouncing the idea, saying "Greenland belongs to its people." Back in Washington, many lawmakers have warned that the administration's rhetoric on Greenland and NATO ally Denmark could strain global alliances.

Venezuela oil

In the days since the US capture of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro, tensions have flared over control of the country's vast oil reserves. On Tuesday, President Trump said Venezuela will turn over 30 million to 50 million barrels of sanctioned oil to the US. It will be sold at market value for as much as $2.75 billion, with the proceeds controlled by the US. A senior Trump administration official tells CNN the oil has already been produced and will be shipped to the US for refining. Analysts say the move could slightly lower oil costs, but it is unlikely to have a major impact on Americans' gas prices.

Flu season

Doctor visits for flu symptoms have reached their highest level in 25 years, the CDC reports. This comes as nearly all US states are showing high or very high levels of flu activity, driven by a new variant called subclade K. Health officials urge vaccination to reduce the risk of severe illness, although current vaccines may provide only partial protection since subclade K began spreading after strains were chosen for this year's flu shots. The CDC estimates that at least 11 million people have had the flu this season, 120,000 have been hospitalized as a result and 5,000 have died.

January 8

Trump administration withholding funds for families from 5 Democratic-led states over fraud concerns

Five states — California, Colorado, Illinois, Minnesota and New York — have been targeted, and the Department of Health and Human Services said they had been notified. Read more.

What to know:

The HHS, which oversees the program, will require the states to provide extra documentation to access the funds. The administration has not laid out details about the fraud allegations.
Federal child care funding has been on hold in Minnesota since late last month amid investigations into a series of alleged fraud schemes at day care centers run by people with family roots in Somalia. In the fallout, HHS officials said no state will receive child care funds without providing more verification. Several states have told The Associated Press that they have not received any guidance on that decision. Gov. Kathy Hochul said that New York is prepared to take the administration to court, as Democratic-led states have done scores of times now.

RELATED COVERAGE ➤

January 8

US leaves Maduro’s party in power, sidelining Venezuela’s opposition

Venezuela’s opposition supporters have long hoped for the day when Nicolás Maduro is no longer in power — a dream that was fulfilled when the U.S. military whisked the authoritarian leader away. But while Maduro is in jail in New York on drug trafficking charges, the leaders of his repressive administration remain in charge. Read more.

Why this matters:

The nation’s opposition — backed by consecutive Republican and Democratic administrations in the U.S. — for years vowed to immediately replace Maduro with one of their own and restore democracy. But President Donald Trump delivered them a heavy blow by allowing Maduro’s vice president, Delcy Rodríguez, to assume control. Meanwhile, most opposition leaders, including Nobel Peace Prize winner María Corina Machado, are in exile or prison.
Maduro’s government barred Machado from running for office to prevent her from challenging — and likely beating — him in the 2024 presidential election. Machado chose retired ambassador Edmundo González Urrutia to represent her on the ballot. Officials loyal to the ruling party declared Maduro the winner, but Machado’s well-organized campaign stunned the nation by collecting detailed tally sheets showing González had defeated Maduro by a 2-to-1 margin. Neither Trump nor Rodríguez have said when, or if, new elections might take place in Venezuela.

RELATED COVERAGE ➤

January 8

Trump tells Republicans: ‘You gotta win the midterms’ or ‘I’ll get impeached’

President Donald Trump insisted Tuesday that Republicans have “so many good nuggets” to campaign on this year as they try to hold onto their razor-thin margin in the House. Read more.

Why this matters:

Trump’s appearance at the GOP’s policy forum was meant to ensure House Republicans and the White House were aligned on their agenda ahead of the November midterms that will determine control of Congress and the course of Trump’s final two years in office. Trump warned that if Democrats regain control of Congress, “they’ll find a way to impeach me.”
Rising health care costs, Trump’s expansive foreign policy pursuits and other issues are dramatically splitting the GOP, as some Republicans become more comfortable crossing party lines to bypass House Speaker Mike Johnson and join proposals from Democrats.
It all points to a difficult year ahead for the president and his party, especially as the House’s slim majority narrowed Tuesday with the sudden death of California Rep. Doug LaMalfa, and the resignation of former Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene.

RELATED COVERAGE ➤

January 8

Trump’s Beauty Queen Prosecutor Hit With Humiliating Court Order

One of Donald Trump’s own appointees has taken aim at Lindsey Halligan.

Donald Trump’s beauty queen prosecutor is facing a fresh crisis after a judge demanded she explain why she was still calling herself U.S. Attorney despite a federal court ruling that her appointment was illegal.

More than six weeks after a judge threw out Lindsey Halligan’s indictments against former FBI Director James Comey and New York state Attorney General Letitia James on the grounds that she was illegally serving as interim U.S. Attorney, Halligan is still signing indictments as the Eastern District of Virginia’s lead prosecutor, according to a bombshell court filing.

Federal Judge David Novak, who was appointed by Trump, issued an order Tuesday demanding that Halligan “explain why her identification does not constitute a false or misleading statement.”

Novak wrote that although the government had appealed the ruling that nullified Halligan’s appointment, the appeals court had not issued a stay in the case, meaning the original decision remained “binding precedent in this district” while the appeals process played out.

The Richmond-area judge also noted that he had issued the order of his own initiative, as opposed to at the request of a defense counsel, and gave Halligan seven days to respond.

The 36-year-old former beauty contestant and insurance lawyer—who also worked as a civil attorney for Trump—is still calling herself the U.S. Attorney on the Eastern District of Virginia’s website and on X.

The Daily Beast has reached out to the Department of Justice for comment.

Halligan was sworn in as interim U.S. Attorney on Sept. 23 after her predecessor was pushed out over his refusal to bring cases against Trump’s perceived enemies, citing lack of evidence.

She quickly secured indictments against Comey and James, but those cases were called into question over the validity of her appointment.

In early November, Attorney General Pam Bondi tried to shore up the indictments by giving Halligan the additional title of “special attorney,” which the administration claimed applied retroactively to Sept. 22.

The court, however, rejected that argument and dismissed the cases in a Nov. 24 ruling that found Halligan was illegally serving as U.S. Attorney.

Bondi’s DOJ, however, has continued to insist that Halligan is the office’s lead attorney. Last month, several judges in the district complained to prosecutors in open court about Halligan signing new criminal case filings.

By law, interim U.S. attorneys can only serve 120 days without Senate confirmation, unless the federal judiciary agrees to keep them in the position longer. The court ruled that veteran prosecutor Erik Siebert had already served the interim period, making Halligan’s appointment illegal.

Even before her appointment was overturned, the court blasted Halligan for a “disturbing pattern of profound investigative missteps” that could have resulted in dismissal.

In December, the White House pushed to advance Halligan’s nomination in the Senate, a plan that appeared dead on arrival because neither of Virginia’s Democratic senators was willing to support her nomination with a so-called “blue slip.”

Failure to return a positive blue slip amounts to an internal veto because without it, the Senate Judiciary Committee will not move forward with a hearing or recommendation for a nominee.

Trump has raged against the blue slip process—which has also made it all but impossible for him to appoint his former personal lawyer Alina Habba as U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey—but Senate Majority Leader John Thune has refused to kill the practice.

In the meantime, the Department of Justice has brought in new prosecutors to try to secure grand jury indictments against Comey and James, but has so far failed to convince two grand juries to sign off on charges against James.

James successfully sued Trump for civil fraud, while the president blames Comey for helping to trigger special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/donald-trumps-beauty-queen-prosecutor-lindsey-halligan-hit-with-humiliating-court-order/?

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Trump’s Beauty Queen Prosecutor Hit With Humiliating Court Order

One of Donald Trump’s own appointees has taken aim at Lindsey Halligan.

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