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

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The Media Refuses to Call Trump’s Venezuela Attack an Act of War

What would Donald Trump have to do for the U.S. media to frame what he is doing in Venezuela as an act of war?

https://theintercept.com/2026/01/04/trump-maduro-venezuela-war-media/?

Congrats to Donald Trump on Starting the Least Popular War in Recent Memory

In the days after George W. Bush’s invasion of Iraq, the war was a hit with the American public. A Gallup poll conducted in March 2003 found 72 percent support for the shock-and-awe attack.

https://theintercept.com/2026/01/07/venezuela-war-poll-unpopular-trump/?

The List of Countries Trump Is Threatening With War Keeps Growing

President Donald Trump, the self-proclaimed “Peace President,” detonated his own America First campaign promise of “no new wars” over the weekend with an act of war in Venezuela.

https://theintercept.com/2026/01/06/trump-wars-venezuela-colombia-cuba-iran/?

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Trump, 79, Demands Mass Arrests in Morning Rage Post

The president apparently wants to talk about anything other than an ICE agent’s killing of a Minnesota mother.

Donald Trump has called for mass arrests among Minnesota’s Somali community as the state reels from the fatal shooting of a 37-year-old U.S. citizen by a federal immigration agent. “Arrest them all. They are criminals!!!” the president wrote on Truth Social early Thursday, linking to a story by right-wing outlet Just the News about cash transfers to Somalia from the Minneapolis airport.

The Trump-friendly platform cited statistics from Homeland Security that purportedly showed “the cash moved overseas in luggage by Somali couriers from the Minneapolis airport was 10 to 100 times larger than the total foreign exodus of money at other larger American airports the last two years.”

The report called this “substantially abnormal” and said it “should have raised red flags during the Biden administration.”

Trump’s post comes just a day after Renee Nicole Good was shot dead in Minneapolis by an ICE agent sent to carry out immigration raids in the city, home to the largest Somali community in the United States.

The president has repeatedly attacked that same community over the past several months, describing Somalia as “filthy, dirty, disgusting, ridden with crime” and those of Somali descent as “garbage.”

Those attacks began to spiral outward across the MAGA movement after pro-Trump content creator Nick Shirley posted a video in December alleging widespread fraud centered on Somali-run daycare centers in Minnesota, claiming they have received millions in government funding while providing little to no services.His claims were quickly picked up and amplified by Trump allies, including Vice President JD Vance and Elon Musk, with FBI Director Kash Patel announcing the diversion of fresh investigative resources to Minnesota to further probe the allegations.

The Daily Beast has reached out to the White House for comment on this story.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/president-donald-trump-79-demands-mass-arrests-in-morning-rage-post-on-truth-social/?

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Vance Goes on Troll Spree to Insult ‘Deranged’ Dead Mom

The vice president said the public’s gaslighting over the ICE shooting was “off the charts.”

Vice President JD Vance has mocked the unarmed mom killed by an ICE agent in Minneapolis, describing her as a “deranged leftist” while mansplaining that the officer who shot her was merely doing his job.

Hours after President Donald Trump defended the fatal shooting on Wednesday night, Vance doubled down on Thursday, accusing critics of “gaslighting” ICE and declaring it was “preposterous” to suggest the death of 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good was the officer’s fault.

“A tragedy? Absolutely. But a tragedy that falls on this woman and all of the radicals who teach people that immigration is the one type of law that rioters are allowed to interfere with,” Vance said.

Vance’s comments formed part of a lengthy response to civil rights lawyer Jenin Younes, a former staffer for Trump ally and GOP Congressman Jim Jordan.

Writing on X, Younes said she “had no political dog in this fight” but after reviewing the footage about 10 times from different speeds and angles, “it is very clear that the officers instigated the confrontation. The woman initially tried to wave them past her.”

She added that ICE officers had no authority to search a U.S. citizen or arrest her unless there was probable cause to believe she was harboring undocumented immigrants.

“A woman surrounded by masked, armed men who have no law enforcement authority over her has every right to try to escape,” Younes wrote.

“Video shows her steering wheel is turned to the right, clearly an attempt to leave WITHOUT hitting anyone and steer clear of the officer standing towards the front of her car. That officer had time to step to the side, which is where he was when he shot her.”

“Given that the ICE officers had no law enforcement authority to begin with, AND the video footage shows she was trying to escape a perceived threat, not to kill anyone, the crime is all the more inexcusable.”

Vance, however, clapped back at posting a lengthy 249-word response to the attorney that doubled down on the administration’s position: that the ICE agent fired in self-defense, and that Good tried to use her vehicle as a weapon against officers during the operation.

“This is preposterous,” the vice president said.

“First of all, she’s not waving the officers through and has no right to do so even if she were. She is waving another car through, before the officers approach her car.

“Second, the officers are not randomly searching her, they are approaching her vehicle because she is violating the law: namely, she is obstructing a lawful enforcement operation. You’re not allowed to walk up to or drive up to people who are enforcing the law to make it harder for them to do their jobs.”

“The gaslighting is off the charts and I’m having none of it,” he added.

In a separate post, Vance also wrote that congressional Democrats and those Democrats considering running for president should be asked: “Do you think this officer was wrong in defending his life against a deranged leftist who tried to run him over?”

Good’s tragic death, which took place not far from the scene where Black Man George Floyd was killed by a white police officer in 2020, sparked a national outcry and widespread protests.

The unarmed mom was shot three times by a federal officer as she attempted to drive away from a traffic stop during a protest against an immigration raid in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on Wednesday afternoon.

Video showed officers approaching Good’s Honda SUV and ordering her out before an agent fired three shots as the vehicle began to pull away.

The SUV then crashed into parked cars and a utility pole as bystanders screamed in shock.

But the killing sparked a political firestorm after video of the encounter undermined the administration’s claim of self-defense.

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey also hit out at the administration’s claim that Good was a “domestic terrorist”, telling ICE on Wednesday: “Get the f--k out of Minneapolis.”

Democrats have also demanded the resignations of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who oversees ICE, and White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, the architect of Trump’s deportation strategy.

Trump also weighed in on Truth Social, saying Good “violently, willfully, and viciously ran over the ICE Officer, who seems to have shot her in self defense.”

“Based on the attached clip, it is hard to believe he is alive, but is now recovering in the hospital,” he went on. “We need to stand by and protect our Law Enforcement Officers from this Radical Left Movement of Violence and Hate!”

https://www.thedailybeast.com/vance-goes-on-troll-spree-to-insult-deranged-dead-minneapolis-mom-renee-nicole-good/?

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ICE Goons Bombarded With Calls to Resign After Deadly Shooting

Democrats say Kristi Noem and Stephen Miller need to go after one of their agents killed an unarmed mom.

Democrats are lining up to demand the resignations of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and White House aide Stephen Miller in the wake of an ICE agent fatally shooting an unarmed mom.

Renee Good, 37, was shot three times by a federal officer as she attempted to drive away from a traffic stop during a protest against an immigration raid in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on Wednesday.

The killing detonated a political firestorm after Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, 44, said video of the encounter undermined the administration’s claim of self-defense. He called the government’s account that Good was a “domestic terrorist” a “garbage narrative” and told ICE: “Get the f--k out of Minneapolis.”As condemnation spread, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, 60, accused Donald Trump’s Department of Homeland Security of “lawless havoc” and said of the Homeland Security Secretary: “Kristi Noem must go. Now.”

When asked about the incident by Migrant Insider editor Pablo Manríquez, Democratic lawmaker Madeleine Dean said of Noem, nicknamed ICE Barbie for her love of dolling up for immigration raid photo-ops, “Whatever the heck her name is, the woman with the cowboy hat and many outfits...It’s time for her to go.”

Rep. Yassamin Ansari, 33, claimed the killing was “what an unchecked paramilitary force looks like,” and went further, urging resignations from Noem and Miller, the architect of the nationwide crackdown.

House Democrats on the Homeland Security Committee warned that “what American citizens should understand” is that “Noem’s secret police can kill you—then lie and call you a terrorist. That’s what they’re doing now."Noem, 54, offered a dramatically different version of events at a press conference after the shooting, alleging that ICE officers were harassed by a “mob of agitators,” and claiming Good “weaponize[d] her vehicle” and tried to run an officer over. Noem said the incident was being investigated as domestic terrorism, with the FBI involved, while state officials said they would also investigate.

Video showed officers briskly approaching Good’s Honda SUV and ordering her out before an agent fired three shots as the vehicle began to pull away. The SUV then crashed into parked cars and a utility pole as bystanders screamed in shock.

Democrats have branded the incident “murder” and “homicide.” Speaking to Manríquez on Capitol Hill, Rep. Dan Goldman said, “It was an outright murder. This officer needs to not only be fired and suspended, but—based on the video—charged."

Rep. Hank Johnson said, “This was a homicide for which there should be criminal charges.” Rep. Jimmy Gomez agreed, adding, “I think the AG in Minnesota has to take a hard look and probably file charges.”

The political blowback landed as oversight concerns grew over ICE’s rapid expansion. An aide to Sen. Gary Peters, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, told Military.com on Tuesday that Peters had “serious concerns” about how ICE had vetted, trained, and onboarded about 12,000 new front-line personnel in under a year, adding that the office had sought briefings on training changes and had not received them.

The rush ordered by Noem to add thousands of ICE agents has produced what officials and trainees told the Daily Mail amounted to a “circus,” where big bonuses and lowered entry standards have drawn recruits accused of violence, sexual misconduct, and basic illiteracy, including applicants deemed medically unfit.

The Mail investigation followed the Beast’s exclusive report a month earlier in which insiders said the recruitment push had turned into a full-blown “s--tshow,” putting Noem’s job in jeopardy.

Noem’s recruitment drive was meant to bolster Trump’s immigration blitz, devised by Miller, his deputy chief of staff. The ensuing crackdown has led to a nationwide push across cities, with large, multi-agency surges, loud messaging, aggressive street-level enforcement, and thousands of arrests.

In Minnesota this week, DHS says it has launched its biggest immigration operation yet, deploying about 2,000 personnel from ICE and Border Patrol to the Minneapolis–St. Paul area.

Federal officers have been going door-to-door in the Twin Cities investigating suspected fraud, human smuggling, and unlawful employment practices, while deportation officers conduct immigration arrests, backed by tactical units.

The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for comment. DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin reiterated Noem’s earlier statements in a comment to the Daily Beast, saying ICE agents “were conducting targeted operations when rioters began blocking ICE officers and one of these violent rioters weaponized her vehicle, attempting to run over our law enforcement officers in an attempt to kill them—an act of domestic terrorism."

https://www.thedailybeast.com/ice-barbie-kristi-noem-and-stephen-miller-goons-calls-to-resign-after-shooting-renee-good-minnesota/?

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MAGA Senators Switch Sides to Rebuke Trump on Invasion Mania

Five GOP senators voted to restrict military action in Venezuela without Congress.

The Senate delivered a bipartisan attempt to rein in Donald Trump on Thursday, approving a resolution to bar the president from deploying U.S. forces in Venezuela without Congress’s approval.

The legislation advanced with a simple majority 52 to 47, with five Republicans breaking ranks to support the measure: Sens. Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, Todd Young, Josh Hawley and Rand Paul.

The defections were especially striking from Young and Hawley, both of whom have been steadfast allies of Trump.

Paul, joined by Sens. Tim Kaine and Adam Schiff and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, introduced the resolution following Trump’s order to strike the South American country and capture its former president, Nicolás Maduro on Saturday.

The president’s claim that the U.S. was “in charge” of Venezuela has raised concerns from largely Democratic lawmakers as Trump has refused to rule out boots on the ground and issued a series of threats to other countries in recent days.

In a lengthy interview with The New York Times Wednesday evening, Trump indicated the U.S. could be running Venezuela for years, saying, “Only time will tell.” Asked if that meant months, a year or longer, Trump replied, “I would say much longer.”Young released a statement on his decision to vote with Democrats to block the president taking action in the country.

“The President and members of his team have stated that the United States now ‘runs’ Venezuela. It is unclear if that means that an American military presence will be required to stabilize the country,” Young said. “I – along with what I believe to be the vast majority of Hoosiers – am not prepared to commit American troops to that mission."

He said he would be open to persuasion to committing U.S. forces in Venezuela in the future, but he argued it needed to be debated and authorized by Congress.

Collins, who was among the Republicans to vote for it, also defended her vote.

“While I support the operation to seize Nicolas Maduro, which was extraordinary in its precision and complexity, I do not support committing additional U.S. forces or entering into any long-term military involvement in Venezuela or Greenland without specific congressional authorization,” Collins said in a statement.

The Senate has a few more procedural steps before final passage. However, it’s not clear whether the joint resolution would get a vote in the House, much less pass. Even if it does, Trump has the power to veto it.

The legislation moved in the Senate on Thursday, one day after Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth conducted briefings for the Senate and House on the U.S. plan for Venezuela.

Rubio said it would move forward in three phases with the U.S. continuing its blockade as it sells Venezuela’s oil. The administration claims the money will be used to benefit the Venezuelan people. The second phase was about giving American companies access to the Venezuelan markets, while the third phase would be a transition.

Thursday’s vote was not the first time Kaine introduced the resolution to prevent the president from using military force in Venezuela as the U.S. conducted strikes on alleged drug boats in the Caribbean and built up its military force last year. The previous efforts, however, failed to gain enough Republican support.

Democratic Senator John Fetterman, who previously rejected the resolution, also switched his support to back it on Thursday.

Kaine said the key change was that senators who had once dismissed the effort as premature no longer held that view.Kaine said while arrest of Maduro might be framed as a law enforcement operation, the deployment of 150 military aircraft from 20 bases—followed by Trump’s vow to “run the country,” seize its oil, and maintain a military blockade—amounted to a massive escalation.

“This was not the surgical execution of an arrest warrant. It was much bigger than that before last Saturday, and it’s going to be much bigger than that from now for the next few years if you listen to the administration,” Kaine told reporters ahead of the vote.

Kaine said he would be introducing more war powers resolutions going forward as the Trump administration has made threats to other countries including Cuba, Mexico, Colombia, Nigeria and Greenland.

The move comes as Trump demanded a massive increase in the military budget for 2027. He called for $1.5 trillion in a post on Wednesday, up from the $901 billion in 2026. Budget experts warned it would add $5.8 trillion to the national debt over a decade.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/maga-senators-switch-sides-to-rebuke-trump-on-invasion-mania/?

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Pence Has Dire Prediction About Trump’s Future

Trump’s former vice president says the 79-year-old has one thing to be very worried about.

Former Vice President Mike Pence has issued a dire warning that Donald Trump will be impeached if Democrats win this year’s midterm elections.

Speaking to CNN’s The Source with Kaitlan Collins, Pence said he agreed with Trump’s assessment that Democrats would find a “reason to impeach” should they retake control of the House, and possibly even the Senate, in November’s nationwide elections.

“I think it’s very likely,” Pence said. “I mean, they impeached the president for a phone call when we were in office, and I expect it in this highly divided, partisan town.”

Pence’s relationship with Trump fell apart in the wake of the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol in 2021. In the weeks leading up to the riot, Trump repeatedly and falsely suggested that Pence had the power to refuse to certify the 2020 election results.

He then blamed Pence for the certification of Joe Biden’s win, leading to supporters directing their ire at the outgoing vice president during the Capitol riot with chants to “hang Mike Pence!”

Trump later became the first U.S. president in history to be impeached for a second time after being accused of inciting the Jan. 6 attack.

Trump was first impeached in 2019 after allegedly threatening to withhold military aid to Ukraine unless President Volodymyr Zelensky agreed to investigate the business dealings of Hunter Biden, the son of Joe Biden, ahead of the 2020 election. Trump was acquitted by the Senate both times. Democrats are widely predicted to post significant victories in November’s midterms. Historically, the party in power suffers heavy losses—particularly in the House—and Trump’s turbulent second term, marked by a struggling economy, is expected to fuel voter backlash.

Speaking to House Republicans on Tuesday, Trump issued a blunt warning about what could happen if the GOP loses control of the House.

“You gotta win the midterms,” he said. “Because if we don’t win the midterms, it’s just going to be—I mean, they’ll find a reason to impeach me. I’ll get impeached.”

During his appearance on CNN’s The Source, Pence also suggested that Trump’s attack on Venezuela without congressional approval—and the unprecedented capture of its former leader, Nicolás Maduro—could become a liability for the remainder of Trump’s time in the White House.

The former vice president added that Americans are now longing for a “return to those timeless principles and values that really united the country.”

“The year that Ronald Reagan won 49 states, they were the very same principles that President Trump and I governed on,” Pence said. “And whatever time I have left remaining in the public debate, I’m going to continue to be a consistent advocate for that broad, mainstream conservative agenda.”

The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for comment.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/mike-pence-has-dire-prediction-about-donald-trumps-future/?

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Trump, 79, Makes Staggering Admission About His Invasion Plot

The president has no plans to give up control of Venezuela anytime soon.

President Donald Trump admitted in a new interview that he expects his imperialist experiment in Venezuela to last for years.

After capturing President Nicolás Maduro in a shock special forces raid on Saturday and declaring himself “in charge” of the South American country, Trump announced this week that Venezuela is providing the U.S. with 30 to 50 million barrels of oil.

The president said he plans to sell the oil and personally “control” the money, which he will hold in bank accounts outside the U.S. Treasury—in other words in offshore accounts, sources told Lisa Desjardins of PBS News Hour.

As reporters, lawmakers, and the general public struggled to understand what all of this means in practice, reporters from The New York Times asked the president on Wednesday how long he plans to remain Venezuela’s political overlord.

“Only time will tell,” he replied.

The reporters then pushed him to give a more precise answer, asking if it would be three months, six months, a year, or longer.

“I would say much longer,” Trump said.

He refused to say when elections would be held in Venezuela, which had a strong democratic tradition from the late 1950s until Hugo Chavez took power in 1999.

The president’s inner circle was surprised when the president announced Saturday during a press conference following the attack on Maduro’s heavily fortified compound that the U.S. would be “running” Venezuela, author Michael Wolff told co-host Joanna Coles during the Daily Beast podcast Inside Trump’s Head.

Afterward, members of the administration—including Secretary of State Marco Rubio—tried to downplay the U.S.’s involvement in the politically volatile country, which is home to 30 million people.

Trump, however, has continued to thwart any efforts to soften his rhetoric. Asked Monday by NBC News who was in charge of Venezuela, the U.S. president replied, “Me.”

The administration is allowing Maduro’s allies in government to remain in power—for now—under the threat of further military intervention if they don’t do what the U.S. says. Trump told the Times that the interim government is “giving us everything that we feel is necessary.”

The president didn’t answer the paper’s questions about why he decided to recognize Maduro’s vice president Delcy Rodríguez as Venezuela’s new leader instead of backing opposition leader María Corina Machado or her surrogate Edmundo Gonzàlez, who won the 2024 presidential election.

In the middle of the interview, Trump stopped to take a call from Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro, who apparently explained the actions he has taken against drug kingpins in his country.

Trump had previously threatened to invade Colombia next, back when the administration’s official line was that deposing Maduro was just a drug enforcement operation, not a scheme to pillage oil.

Following the call, which lasted about an hour, Trump dictated a social media post to an aide saying that Petro had “explain[ed] the situation of drugs and other disagreements that we have had,” and that the U.S president had invited his Colombian counterpart to the White House.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/billionaire-trump-makes-staggering-admission-about-his-invasion-plot/?

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America's battleground state

Photo illustration: Maura Kearns/Axios. Photos: Christopher Juhn/Anadolu, Stephen Maturen/Getty Images Nearly six years after George Floyd's murder, Minnesota is bracing for further unrest under a Trump administration now far more inclined to use federal force, Axios' Zachary Basu writes. Few states capture the convulsions of modern politics as vividly as the North Star State, where yesterday's fatal ICE shooting of 37-year-old mother Renee Good has again inflamed America's deepest divisions. ? The federal government has restricted access by Minnesota investigators to case materials and evidence in that shooting, officials said today. ?️ Vice President JD Vance to reporters this afternoon: "The unprecedented thing is the idea that a local official can actually prosecute a federal official with absolute immunity." Thousands of Minnesotans turned out to protest at the site of Good's killing, largely heeding Gov. Tim Walz's (D) call to remain peaceful. Minnesota has been in the spotlight ever since Trump took office for his second term. ? MAGA influencers elevated allegations of welfare fraud involving Somali immigrants there into a national proxy fight over assimilation, multiculturalism and Democratic governance. ? Trump launched a massive immigration crackdown in the state, deploying 2,000 federal agents this week in what Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem called the "largest immigration operation ever." Gov. Walz, who's at the center of his state's standoff with federal authorities, ended his reelection campaign this week amid scrutiny over his handling of the fraud scandal. He pleaded today: "This relentless assault on Minnesota, for whatever reason, is just cruel. So, please just give us a break." "And if it's me, you're already getting what you want. But leave my people alone. Leave my state alone." Go deeper.

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• ? The Senate voted to block President Trump from taking further military action in Venezuela without congressional approval. Enough Republicans broke with Trump to secure passage of the war powers resolution, a rare and notable rebuke. Go deeper.
• ?U.S. officials have considered paying Greenlanders to convince them to secede from Denmark and join the United States, Reuters reports. The amounts discussed range from $10,000 to $100,000. Go deeper.

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Live updates: State investigators say they can’t access ICE shooting evidence after FBI takes case

Minnesota’s investigations agency said Thursday that the U.S. attorney’s office has prevented it from taking part in the investigation into an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer’s fatal shooting of Minneapolis woman Renee Good, a 37-year-old mother of three. Asked about the development, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Thursday that Minnesota authorities “don’t have any jurisdiction in this investigation.” Read more.

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Lawless Order (Peter van Agtmael / Magnum Photos)

View in browser Until recently, Donald Trump was consistent about this: The time for the United States to police the world, enforcing laws and norms, was over. “We are going to take care of this country first before we worry about everybody else in the world,” he told The New York Times in 2016. “We more and more are not wanting to be the policemen of the world,” he said during a press conference with Nigeria’s president in 2018. “We’re spending tremendous amounts of money for decades policing the world, and that shouldn’t be the priority.” During the 2020 campaign, he often included a line in his stump speech complaining that American troops had spent 19 years serving as “policemen” in Afghanistan and elsewhere. Trump also rejected the idea that the United States had any kind of moral standing to criticize, much less regulate, the behavior of other nations. When Bill O’Reilly objected to Trump’s warmth toward Vladimir Putin in 2017, the president scoffed: “There are a lot of killers. You think our country’s so innocent?” If anyone gave the U.S. the benefit of the doubt then, Trump has squandered the possibility now. In his second term, Trump has returned the nation to its role as global policeman—but this time, it’s as the world’s dirty cop, running rackets and thumbing its nose at the law even as it cracks down on alleged criminality by other countries’ leaders. He launched air strikes on Christmas Day in Nigeria, the very country he held up eight years ago as one where the U.S. shouldn’t be involved. Days later, U.S. troops snatched the Venezuelan autocrat Nicolás Maduro and his wife in Caracas. Trump told the Times yesterday that the U.S. could spend years controlling Venezuela. This week, the Trump aide Stephen Miller all but announced plans to annex Greenland.   Although the idea of a global policeman originated as a metaphor, the White House has made it literal. Take the boat strikes in the Caribbean, where U.S. law-enforcement agencies such as the Drug Enforcement Administration have long operated. But whereas previous administrations have used law-enforcement agencies to police drug trafficking, the Trump administration has chosen to rely on the armed forces. He has instructed them to conduct lethal, extrajudicial, and likely illegal drone strikes, even as the administration argues that it need not notify Congress of the actions under the War Powers Resolution because U.S. troops are not in danger. As for the raid in Venezuela, Secretary of State Marco Rubio has also described Maduro’s capture as “a law-enforcement operation,” telling George Stephanopoulos, “We didn’t occupy a country. This was an arrest operation.” This takes some intellectual contortions to accept. Although officials say that the Justice Department wrote a memo justifying the action legally, the administration has not publicly shared the rationale, and international-law experts have almost unanimously agreed that the U.S. violated international law to arrest Maduro this way. In domestic policing, Trump has long espoused what I call “lawless order”—the idea that those in power can break the law in order to achieve their idea of society—and the president is now extending that to the rest of the world. This is only one of the inconsistencies that characterize Trump’s approach to law and order. A justice system depends on the idea that laws and enforcement are reasonably consistent and predictable, but Trump offers none of that. On the one hand, he has arrested Maduro and brought him to the U.S., and plans to try him for drug trafficking. On the other, he last month pardoned Juan Orlando Hernández, the former president of Honduras who had been convicted and imprisoned in the United States on very similar charges. He has correctly labeled Maduro an “illegitimate dictator,” but he has made the self-described Salvadoran dictator Nayib Bukele a key ally and welcomed him to the White House. Trump isn’t the best avatar of legal probity himself: He was convicted of 34 felonies in 2024, and escaped trial on several more serious ones only by virtue of being elected president. What Trump is doing in Venezuela and beyond isn’t enforcing norms and ensuring security. It’s finding a way to make a buck. If you listened to Trump closely when he was rejecting intervention in the past, he hinted at this possibility. Although he complained about American troops being dispatched around the world, he often added that the problem was that the U.S. didn’t receive any direct, immediate monetary compensation for it. (The Iraq War was a mistake, he argued, not because it failed to achieve geopolitical change but because the U.S. didn’t take Iraq’s oil.) Now he’s out to get his cut. He has openly acknowledged that the U.S. got involved in Venezuela because of oil, and the administration has declared its intent to control the country’s petroleum industry “indefinitely.” In the Arctic Circle, he’s attempting to establish a protection racket, arguing that Denmark doesn’t have the means to defend Greenland. Nice island you got there. Be a shame if something happened to it. The U.S. has, in the past, made common cause with dictators when expedient, overthrown democratically elected leaders when nervous, and stayed out of righteous causes when doubtful of the upsides of getting involved; presidents have made moves to boost the U.S. economy or their own political prospects. The war hero Smedley Butler famously accused the U.S. government of racketeering in 1935. But even purported deference to a higher principle constrained and directed the shape of global involvement. Trump has abandoned that pretense, and no one dares to stop him. He is getting his way right now, but the long-term effects may be dangerous: When a dirty cop walks the beat, he encourages bad behavior in his precinct rather than suppressing it. Related: The president seems intoxicated with military power. Trump seizing Greenland could set off a chain reaction.

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Trump's (oil) abundance strategy

Photo illustration: Brendan Lynch/Axios. Photo: Suzanne Plunkett/Getty Images

America's oil abundance is emboldening President Trump to wield power over Venezuela, Axios energy expert Ben Geman writes. Why it matters: The U.S. oil boom, a global crude glut and low pump prices are bolstering the president's ambitions. Relying less on imported oil gives the U.S. an expanded foreign-policy menu. So if Trump wants to capture Venezuela's leader — or threaten and bomb Iran — he can do it with much less risk of spiking pump prices at home. ? Catch up quick: America has nearly tripled oil production over the last 15-ish years, thanks to fracking. The U.S. is now, by far, the world's top producer at nearly 14 million barrels per day. Venezuela's output, by comparison, is 800,000 to 1 million barrels a day. Reality check: The same petro-forces emboldening Trump will complicate his vision of U.S. oil companies making massive investments to rebuild Venezuela's production. Companies still enjoy big U.S. opportunities and great prospects elsewhere. So the biggest players will likely hesitate to spend big in Venezuela. "Prices are certainly a big issue," oil analyst Ellen Wald tells Axios. "At $60 per barrel, Venezuela's oil isn't profitable. This is some of the highest-cost oil to produce." Keep reading. Today's New York Times lead story. Asked in a nearly two-hour interview with The New York Times if there are any limits on his global powers, President Trump said: "Yeah, there is one thing. My own morality. My own mind. It's the only thing that can stop me." "I don't need international law," he added in the Oval Office conversation on Wednesday evening. "I'm not looking to hurt people." Interview highlights (gift link).

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White House contacted Secret Service about MTG

Photo illustration: Brendan Lynch/Axios. Photos: Getty Images

The relationship between President Trump and former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) grew so poisonous that the White House told the Secret Service Greene may have tipped off Code Pink protesters about his surprise visit last fall to a D.C. restaurant she recommended, two Trump sources tell Axios' Alex Isenstadt. The episode — a chaotic confrontation between anti-war activists and Trump — embarrassed the president and intensified concerns about his safety, a year after he narrowly escaped assassination. Why it matters: Trump aides view the Joe's Seafood debacle as the point of no return in his relationship with Greene, a Trump ally-turned-critic who left office this week. Greene told Axios any suggestion she revealed Trump's dinner plans to the liberal group is "an absolute lie, a dangerous lie. I would never do that." She said she suggested the restaurant to Trump but didn't know when he would go. Greene added that only the fancy lobbyist hangout — a few blocks from the White House, at 15th and H NW — and Trump aides knew of the reservation. She said: "The story you should be writing is why didn't the Secret Service sweep the restaurant" and have metal detectors at the door? ? White House officials didn't provide direct evidence Greene alerted the protesters but said their suspicions rest on two factors: Officials say that after recommending the restaurant, Greene repeatedly called White House staffers the day of the dinner to confirm Trump was going. White House aides note Greene is friends with Code Pink co-founder Medea Benjamin.

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? Trump's bond blitz

Illustration: Shoshana Gordon/Axios

President Trump ordered the government to buy $200 billion in mortgage bonds to push down borrowing costs and make housing more affordable, Axios' Jeffrey Cane and Madison Mills write. Why it matters: While the number sounds huge, it's not even a full day's trading volume in the $10 trillion-plus market, potentially limiting its impact. Some economists warn cheaper mortgages could even make housing less affordable if demand suddenly spikes in a market with limited supply. In a Truth Social post, Trump said the purchases "will drive Mortgage Rates DOWN, monthly payments DOWN, and make the cost of owning a home more affordable." Bill Pulte, the regulator who oversees mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, immediately responded on X: "We are on it."

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? Inside plans for the new East Wing

Architect Shalom Baranes shows plans for the new $400 million White House ballroom to members of the National Capital Planning Commission yesterday. Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images The new East Wing addition will be two stories and rise to the same height as the White House, according to plans the architect for President Trump's ballroom revealed yesterday. A second-story may be added to the existing West Wing colonnade so the two wings are symmetrical, Axios D.C.'s Mimi Montgomery writes. Shalom Baranes, the president's architect, clarified yesterday the 90,000-square-foot figure associated with the ballroom project will actually play out across two floors. Upstairs: a 22,000-square-foot ballroom for 1,000 seated guests. Downstairs: a commercial kitchen, an office area for the First Lady and a rebuilt movie theater. The lower level will also have a grand staircase to the ballroom. Read on.

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Trigger-Happy Trump Casually Reveals What He Plans to Blow Up Next

The president suggested Venezuela was just the beginning.

President Donald Trump casually disclosed his plans for his next military campaign not in an address to Congress or the American people, but in a friendly conversation with Fox News host Sean Hannity.

A day after he made the bombshell admission that he plans to run Venezuela for years, Trump suggested he would invade Mexico next.

The reveal came while Trump and Hannity were discussing Saturday’s shock capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, who has been brought to New York to face drug charges.

Trump—who campaigned on a promise to end foreign wars, not start them—told Hannity that the legally dubious Venezuela operation was not a “hard decision” because Maduro had “killed a lot of people, sent a lot of bad people into our country,” and was a “big drug pusher.”

“You see that because all of the boats we shot down, they came out of Venezuela,” he said. “We knocked out 97 percent of the drugs coming in by water. And we are going to start now hitting land with regard to the cartels. The cartels are running Mexico.”

The president has claimed repeatedly that his missile strikes on dozens of alleged Venezuelan drug boats stopped the vast majority of drugs entering the U.S. by sea, saving hundreds of thousands of lives.

But even if those boats were smuggling drugs—a claim the administration has yet to back up—most Venezuelan drug boats carry cocaine bound for Europe, not the fentanyl responsible for the majority of American drug overdose deaths, NBC News reported in November.

Trump previously said he would target Colombia next in his supposed crusade against drugs, and he was originally planning a second wave of attacks against Venezuela, he revealed in a late-night Truth Social post.

But after a friendly call with the country’s president and concessions from the interim government of Venezuela, he has apparently turned his sights on Mexico, whose cartels first began manufacturing the synthetic opioid fentanyl around 2014.

It’s not the first time he has threatened military action against the cartels, which are not running Mexico.

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum walked a tight diplomatic tightrope for months with Trump as he threatened to impose tariffs on Mexican products and send American troops into Mexico to stop the flow of fentanyl.

Sheinbaum has assured Trump that she has sought to tackle the drug problem stemming from her country, with authorities frequently arresting smugglers and others related to organized crime near the Southern border.

Trump nevertheless insisted during his conversation with Hannity that “it’s very sad to watch and see what happened to that country.”

“The cartels are running and they’re killing 250, 300,000 people in our country every single year,” he said, parroting claims he made about Venezuela and Maduro.

The president has repeatedly insisted that 300,000 Americans die annually from drug overdoses, even though fewer than 80,000 overdose deaths were reported last year.

He also undermined his claims that he’s tough on drugs by pardoning nearly 100 people convicted of drug-related crimes. During his first term, he granted pardons or commutations to almost 90 people for drug-related crimes, and since taking office in January, he has freed 10 more.

Those include former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández, who trafficked hundreds of tons of cocaine into the U.S., and Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht, whose black-market site on the dark web generated hundreds of millions of dollars in sales of illegal goods and services, including drugs.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/trigger-happy-donald-trump-casually-reveals-what-he-plans-to-blow-up-next/?

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Kennedy Center Goon Triggered as Another Artist Cancels Show

Mexican-American singer-songwriter says D.C. venue is no longer welcoming to immigrants.

A former White House aide who now runs PR for the Kennedy Center accused the latest star to boycott the iconic arts venue of encouraging “discrimination” by her decision.

Sonia De Los Santos, a Mexican-born singer-songwriter, announced on Thursday she was canceling a planned performance because of the Trump administration’s policies.

“As an artist, I treasure the freedom to create and share my music, and for many years I have used this privilege to uplift the stories of immigrants in this country,” the Grammy-nominated musician wrote on Instagram about her decision to cancel her Feb. 7 performance at the center. “Unfortunately, I do not feel that the current climate at this beloved venue represents a welcoming space for myself, my band, or our audience.”“As a woman of color and a Mexican-American immigrant, I believe this decision is an important example for younger generations.”

In a statement to the Associated Press, Kennedy Center PR chief Roma Daravi challenged De Los Santos’ framing and her reference to the Trump administration’s immigration policies. Her comments echoed complaints from the center’s president and executive director, Richard Grenell, who has attacked other artists for canceling shows.

“This country was built on legal immigrants and as a first generation American, I find her statement highly offensive,” wrote Daravi, 32, who is of Persian Jewish origin and served in the first Trump White House. “Refusing to engage with an institution open to everyone is, in fact, a step towards discrimination.”

De Los Santos is the latest in a long line of artists to cancel their performances at the Kennedy Center, which President Donald Trump has attempted to rebrand as The Donald J. Trump and John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for Performing Arts.

A December lawsuit challenged the rebrand, arguing that it was void because only Congress can change the center’s name.

Other artists who have canceled scheduled performances include folk singer Kristy Lee, saxophonist Billy Harper, and the Oscar-winning Wicked composer Stephen Schwartz, who took part in the center’s opening gala in 1971 but said that it “no longer represents the apolitical place for free artistic expression it was founded to be.”

Grammy-winning bluegrass musician Béla Fleck also withdrew from three scheduled performances with the National Symphony Orchestra set to take place next month, citing politics as his reason for doing so.

“Performing there has become charged and political, at an institution where the focus should be on the music,” Fleck wrote on Instagram on Tuesday. “I look forward to playing with the NSO another time in the future when we can together share and celebrate art.”

Fleck’s withdrawal earned him a sharp rebuke from Grenell. Grenell wrote on X of Fleck’s decision that he had “caved to the woke mob who wants you to perform for only Lefties.”

“This mob pressuring you will never be happy until you only play for Democrats.”

The Kennedy Center was also hit with a wave of cancellations following Trump’s initial takeover of the venue in February, which included firing the board, replacing fired board members with his supporters, and installing himself as chair.

Among those cancellations was Hamilton, which was scheduled to be performed at the center for March and April 2026, with producer Jeffrey Seller sharing a statement on social media to explain the decision.

“Some institutions are sacred and should be protected from politics. The Kennedy Center is one such institution,” Seller wrote in a statement posted on X.

“In recent weeks we have sadly seen decades of Kennedy Center neutrality be destroyed. The recent purge by the Trump Administration of both professional staff and performing arts events at or originally produced by the Kennedy Center flies in the face of everything this national cultural center represents.”

https://www.thedailybeast.com/kennedy-center-goon-triggered-as-another-artist-cancels-show/?

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Trump Hurt That His Favorite Dem Was Mean About His Invasion

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani called the Venezuela raid “an act of war.”

President Donald Trump appears to be hurt that the Democratic mayor of New York City doesn’t support his military operation in Venezuela.

The 79-year-old has been on a high since American forces swept into Caracas last weekend to capture President Nicolás Maduro, promising to get Venezuelan crude flowing again under the control of U.S. oil companies.

Most commentators outside of the MAGAsphere condemned the raid as an assault on a sovereign nation, even if they conceded that Maduro was indeed a socialist dictator. But for Zohran Mamdani, the democratic socialist elected as New York City’s first Muslim mayor in November, it was “an act of war and a violation of federal and international law.”“This blatant pursuit of regime change doesn’t just affect those abroad, it directly impacts New Yorkers, including tens of thousands of Venezuelans who call this city home,” Mamdani added in a statement after the news broke.

In an interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity that aired on Thursday, Trump said he was surprised by the pushback from Mamdani, with whom he enjoyed a surprisingly jovial Oval Office meeting back in November.

Hannity teased that “your favorite mayor” spoke out against the operation. “We have a nice relationship, but I thought it would take at least maybe a month or two months before he went after me,” Trump responded.

“He hit me on the attack on Venezuela, which is pretty unusual because not too many people have hit us. That was a perfect attack,” he added, before rolling off the merits of the operation.

The 79-year-old also lamented Mamdani’s response in an interview with Hugh Hewitt on his eponymous radio show. “You know, I met him, he came to the Oval Office, and we’ve had some nice conversations and very good. And then he hit me a little bit on the tremendous victory—and you would say it was a tremendous victory—on Venezuela,” he said.

“And I said, ‘Gee, I thought he would have at least waited a month.’ I was surprised that he hit me on that, but he did. So what are you going to do? I expected it. I just thought it would be maybe three or four weeks instead of immediately, because I do get along with him.”

Trump added, “He’s got a great personality, he’s a nice guy. His policies are not good, but maybe he changes. You know, that’s what I would view, because I want to do everything I can to help New York… I hope New York will thrive. But typically, those policies… in history, those policies have never worked.”

After trading fierce insults both ahead of and after Mamdani’s sweeping victory at the polls, Mamdani and Trump stunned the nation with a White House meeting that could not have been more cordial.

Trump complimented Mamdani and even shielded him from certain questions during the November event.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-hurt-that-his-favorite-dem-was-mean-about-his-invasion/?

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Trump, 79, Admits There Is One Thing That Can Stop Him

The president says there is one limit to his power.

President Donald Trump, 79, has revealed the one thing he thinks is limiting his power on Earth.

The “President of Peace” opened up in a new interview with The New York Times about his self-imposed limits in the week the U.S. military invaded Venezuela—and made similar threats against Cuba, Mexico, Colombia, and Greenland.

When asked by the Times if he believed there were any limits in his global power, Trump claimed, “Yeah, there is one thing. My own morality. My own mind. It’s the only thing that can stop me.”

“I don’t need international law,” Trump claimed, then added: “I’m not looking to hurt people.”

Trump said his administration does abide by international law, but then qualified: “It depends what your definition of international law is.”

Before announcing on Wednesday that he had spoken to Colombian President Gustavo Petro, only days after threatening to invade his country and warning him to “watch his a--,” Trump was using more inflammatory language about the leader.

On Sunday, Trump said of Colombia: “Run by a sick man, who likes making cocaine and selling it to the United States. He’s not going to be doing it very long.”

Colombia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Trump’s remarks were “an undue interference in the internal affairs of the country, against the norms of international law.”

Despite Trump saying he had invited Petro to a meeting at the White House, the Times quoted the Colombian leader as saying he feared an invasion similar to the takeover of Venezuela, where the military also cited that they were tackling drug smuggling.

“Well, we are in danger,” Petro told the Times on Thursday. “Because the threat is real. It was made by Trump.”

Trump also lashed out at Republican senators this week who joined with Democrats to attempt to stop future U.S. military action in Venezuela without congressional approval.

Five Republicans joined every Senate Democrat to vote 52 to 47 to advance the legislation in a move that angered the president.

“Republicans should be ashamed of the Senators that just voted with Democrats in attempting to take away our Powers to fight and defend the United States of America,” Trump posted to Truth Social in response to the decisive vote.

Trump is also facing pushback on his plans to either buy the Danish island of Greenland or have it come under U.S. control.

“We need Greenland from the standpoint of national security,” Trump said on Sunday, despite warnings from Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen that threatening Denmark could jeopardize the future of NATO.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Trump was “actively” discussing an offer to buy Greenland, stating it was “something that’s currently being actively discussed by the president and his national security team.”

Denmark and the leaders of Greenland itself have repeatedly stressed that the island territory is not for sale.

European nations in NATO, including the U.K., released a statement on Tuesday rebuffing Trump’s moves that read: “Greenland belongs to its people. It is for Denmark and Greenland, and them only, to decide on matters concerning Denmark and Greenland.”

The message was signed by leaders of seven of America’s allies, including U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron, and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-79-admits-there-is-one-thing-which-can-stop-him/?

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Nobel Institute Torpedoes Loser Trump’s Desperate Plot for His Own Prize

Nobel officials tell the Daily Beast that there’s one big problem with Trump’s efforts to get his hands on the peace prize.

President Donald Trump’s dream of being handed the Nobel Peace Prize has been killed within hours of him saying what an “honor” it would be.

Trump, 79, is due to host Nobel laureate María Corina Machado in the Oval Office next week, amid a public and behind-the-scenes lobbying campaign to have Machado hand her prize to Trump, both to appease the president and to encourage him to endorse her as a replacement for deposed Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro.

Speaking about that possibility in an interview with Sean Hannity on Thursday, Trump lit up, saying: “I’ve heard that she wants to do that. That would be a great honor.”

Trump went into his now-familiar riff about his peace credentials, boasting, “I’ve stopped eight wars” and calling it “a very big embarrassment” that he hadn’t been given the prize. He argued that “when you put out eight wars, in theory, you should get one for each war.”

Within hours, however, Trump’s hopes were dashed by the Norwegian Nobel Institute, which said its rules do not permit the passing on of its coveted prize to someone else.

A spokesperson told the Daily Beast on Friday: “A Nobel Prize can neither be revoked nor transferred to others. Once the announcement of the laureate(s) has been made, the decision stands for all time. As for the prize money, the laureate(s) are free to dispose of it as they see fit.”

The organization’s refusal to bend its own rules will be a disappointment not just to Trump but also to some of his loyalists, who are reported to have lobbied for Machado to hand the president the prize he so covets.

Fox News presenter Rachel Campos-Duffy, the wife of Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, both 54, is reported to have been working both publicly and privately to get Machado to offer the prize to Trump when they meet next week, according to political journalist Rachael Bade‘s Substack.

Campos-Duffy is said to have worked hard to get Machado the Oval Office audience where she would “give Trump her Nobel Peace Prize,” Bade writes, saying the push has come from Trump-world insiders who know the president is fixated on the award.

The Venezuelan opposition leader, who had spent months in hiding before the U.S.-led operation that removed Maduro on Jan. 3, plans to press Trump on both the future of her country and her own role in leading it.

Trump has said of that prospect: “I think it would be very tough for her to be the leader… She doesn’t have the support within, or the respect within, the country. She’s a very nice woman, but she doesn’t have the respect.” Trump has instead tacitly backed interim acting leader Delcy Rodríguez.

But in public as well as in private, Campos-Duffy has tried to flip that script, according to Bade, and has argued on air that Rodríguez is “the wrong person in charge,” alleging that she was behind executions of dissenters and had acted as “torturer in chief.”

By contrast, Campos-Duffy has described Machado as “pro-American,” said she “respects President Trump,” and stressed that Machado “will work with the president on economic issues, on the oil, and on rooting out the corruption.”

Trump has spent years insisting he deserves the Peace Prize for supposedly ending a string of global conflicts, even inventing one between far-flung countries to pad his list of “wins.” However, the Norwegian committee gave the 2025 Peace Prize to Machado instead of him, despite his lobbying campaign.

Allies have tried to fill the void with ersatz accolades. FIFA boss Gianni Infantino invented a “FIFA Peace Prize” that was handed to Trump onstage at the Kennedy Center weeks after the Nobel committee passed him over.

The Daily Beast has contacted Campos-Duffy via Fox News and the White House for comment.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/nobel-institute-torpedoes-loser-donald-trumps-desperate-plot-for-his-own-prize/?

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MAGA-Curious CBS Boss Stalls Another Anti-Trump ‘60 Minutes’ Report

An Anderson Cooper-fronted investigation is in limbo.

MAGA-friendly CBS editor-in-chief Bari Weiss is reportedly personally stalling a new 60 Minutes segment that has the potential to infuriate President Donald Trump.

Last month, Weiss decided to yank a damning report on the deportation of Venezuelan men to the El Salvadoran megaprison known as CECOT. The segment was pulled just hours before it was due to air, with Weiss stating it needed more input from key MAGA figures.

A new report by Status reveals the flagship CBS news program is now reviewing a story on the Trump administration refusing to process refugees from South Africa that star reporter Anderson Cooper has been working on for months.

Status reports that the unaired segment “is all but guaranteed to provoke Trump,” who has repeatedly promoted a debunked right-wing conspiracy theory that a white “genocide” was taking place in South Africa.

Cooper’s piece was reportedly screened in December by 60 Minutes executive producer Tanya Simon, who subsequently requested changes. Weiss, 41, then viewed the segment and had “extensive editorial feedback” according to sources familiar with the matter.

Weiss, who took on her new role in October, has reportedly still not met with all of the 60 Minutes staff. That includes Sharyn Alfonsi, who told her colleagues in an email that Weiss “spiked” the CECOT story, which he was the reporter on.

Alfonsi’s email, which leaked online, said the team had asked Weiss to discuss her eleventh-hour call to pull the segment, but “she did not afford us that courtesy/opportunity.”

Status floated the possibility that the CECOT segment, which also leaked online, could finally air on Jan. 18, 2026, however the status of the segment remains “murky.”

The Daily Beast has contacted CBS for comment.

Last month, Axios reported Weiss was planning to overhaul the CBS standards and procedures to give senior editors greater visibility into potentially sensitive stories.

Status reported that Weiss and CBS President Tom Cibrowski now sit in on screenings of upcoming segments.

In April 2025, the news series’ longtime executive producer Bill Owens resigned his position, telling staff in a memo that “over the past months, it has become clear that I would not be allowed to run the show as I have always run it, to make independent decisions based on what was right for 60 Minutes, right for the audience,” he wrote.

“So, having defended this show—and what we stand for—from every angle, over time with everything I could, I am stepping aside so the show can move forward,” he added.

Weiss has worked as a podcast host and opinion writer for The New York Times, but has limited experience with broadcast TV journalism—especially at a show with the storied history of 60 Minutes.

Weiss installed new CBS Evening News host Tony Dokoupil, reportedly after being unable to lure her first choices of Anderson Cooper or Fox News’ Brett Baier for the role.

However, Dokupil has had a tumultuous first week on air, including Trump-friendly segments and cue card mishaps, with one network insider telling Status his performance had been “a total s--t show.”

Dokoupil, 45, who previously co-hosted CBS’s morning news show, said ahead of his first appearance he planned to rail against “elites” and the “legacy media,” accusing them of botching stories on Hunter Biden’s laptop, Hillary Clinton’s emails, and “the president’s fitness for office.”

On Wednesday, Dokoupil—who is married to MS NOW anchor Katy Tur—aired a puff piece segment where he fawned over Dallas Cowboys owner and noted Trump donor Jerry Jones, who took the anchor on a helicopter tour of Dallas.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/maga-curious-cbs-boss-bari-weiss-stalls-another-anti-trump-60-minutes-report/?

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Ballroom Architect Reveals Trump Is Plotting to Destroy West Wing

Despite claiming the new ballroom would not interfere with the main White House building, Trump’s vanity project keeps encroaching.

President Donald Trump is considering building a one-story addition to the West Wing of the White House as his $400 million ballroom project keeps getting bigger.

Despite previously declaring that the project would “not interfere” with the existing White House building, the president’s lead architect revealed on Thursday that another level could soon be built above the West Wing Colonnade—the iconic columned walkway connecting the Oval Office to the Executive Residence at the White House.

Trump also plans to make his controversial ballroom as tall as the White House’s main mansion itself, chief architect Shalom Baranes said, in a move that would break from the long-standing tradition that requires additions to be shorter than the main building.

The details were revealed for the first time as the White House began making its case to the planning body reviewing Trump’s proposed ballroom, which happens to be stacked with the president’s aides and allies.

While presenting the details to the National Capital Planning Commission on Thursday, Baranes said adding another story to the West Wing would “reinstate the symmetry around the central pavilion of the White House,” effectively balancing out new renovations to the now-demolished East Wing.

As revealed by the Daily Beast last month, those renovations would involve rebuilding the East Wing colonnade with a second-story passageway connecting the ballroom to the executive residence, where the president lives.

The ballroom itself would also be on the second level of a newly constructed building and would have the capacity for 1,000 people.

The plans are likely to prove contentious for a project that has already faced significant public backlash and a number of legal challenges.

The first was filed late last year, when the National Trust Preservation Committee sought unsuccessfully to halt further construction until a “legally mandated review process” could take place.

This week, another lawsuit was filed by the Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization, which accused the administration of refusing to release information on whether it removed or released asbestos when it demolished the East Wing to make way for the ballroom.

“When an Administration bypasses required safety procedures or withholds documentation of the measures it took to prevent harm, it erodes public trust and weakens protections required by law to safeguard the American people and public resources,” the lawsuit reads.

Despite public concerns, the White House insists that the president has the authority to carry out his controversial plans.

Trump also kicked off the new year last week with a ballroom shopping spree, spending more than an hour at Arc Stone & Tile, a wholesale supplier near his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, to buy marble and onyx for the project.

The store’s chief executive Mike Coiro told the Daily Beast that the marble the president bought was the same Italian marble he used for Mar-a-Lago’s ballroom, suggesting he is trying to replicate it in Washington.

Earlier in the week, Trump also told reporters: “It’s bigger than I told you.”

“You know, after realizing we’re going to do the inauguration in that building, it’s got all bulletproof glass. It’s got, they call it, drone-free roof. Drones won’t touch it. It’s a big, beautiful, safe building. But it’s a big project,” he said.

In his presentation on Thursday, Baranes said the 51-foot-tall ballroom structure would comprise two levels and its facade would be built with stone and precast concrete.

He also said the new ballroom would be 89,000 square feet in total, and would feature a major banquet space as well as offices for the First Lady and the historic movie theater enjoyed by generations of first families.

The additional story over the West Wing Colonnade would effectively sit above the area Trump has since turned into a presidential “Walk of Fame,” which features framed plaques taking petty swipes at many of his presidential predecessors.

Since returning to power, Trump has also decked the Oval Office out in gold, paved over the Rose Garden with drab concrete, and installed giant flags on the North and South Lawns.

But many describe Trump’s projects as out-of-touch.

“People are saying to themselves, ‘What the hell does that have to do with me? I thought he was going to be fighting for me to bring my costs down?’” former Obama adviser David Axelrod told CNN last week.

Veteran GOP strategist Karl Rove went even further in a Wall Street Journal opinion column, arguing that while Trump “might receive a fawning reaction from his MAGA base,” the average American “finds such narcissism off-putting.”

https://www.thedailybeast.com/ballroom-architect-reveals-trump-is-plotting-to-destroy-west-wing/?

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Federal immigration officers shoot and wound 2 people in Portland, Oregon, authorities say Federal immigration agents shot and wounded two people in a vehicle outside a hospital in Portland on Thursday, a day after an officer fatally shot a woman in Minnesota, authorities said. Read more.

What to know: The Department of Homeland Security said the vehicle’s passenger was involved in a recent shooting in the city. When agents identified themselves to the occupants during a “targeted vehicle stop” in the afternoon, the driver tried to run them over, the department said in a statement. There was no immediate independent corroboration of that account.   Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield vowed to investigate “whether any federal officer acted outside the scope of their lawful authority” and refer criminal charges to the prosecutor’s office if warranted.

RELATED COVERAGE ➤ Vance calls killing of Minneapolis woman by an ICE officer ‘a tragedy of her own making’   Minnesota shooting videos challenge administration narrative, policing experts question tactics   Family and neighbors mourn Renee Good   FACT FOCUS: Minneapolis shooting prompts spread of misrepresented and fabricated images online

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Trump says he wants government to buy $200B in mortgage bonds in a push to bring down mortgage rates President Donald Trump said on social media Thursday that he is directing the federal government to buy $200 billion in mortgage bonds, a move he said would help reduce mortgage rates at a time when Americans are worried about home prices. Read more.

Why this matters: Trump and the White House have been trying to show they are responding to voter concerns about affordability ahead of midterm elections in November. Home prices have generally risen faster than incomes because of a persistent construction shortfall, making it harder for renters to buy their first home and for existing owners to upgrade to a new property — a challenge that dates back to Trump’s first term and the recovery from the housing market collapse that triggered the global financial crisis in 2008.   “At a high level I feel this is putting a Band-Aid on a deeper issue,” said Daryl Fairweather, chief economist at the real estate brokerage Redfin. The purchases wouldn’t address other factors such as a chronic shortage of homes on the market, which has helped make homeownership unaffordable for many Americans, she cautioned.

RELATED COVERAGE ➤ After delays, the missing Jan. 6 plaque will be displayed at the Capitol   House passes bill to extend health care subsidies in defiance of GOP leaders   House easily passes spending package as lawmakers work to avoid another shutdown   5 states sue Trump administration for withholding billions in social safety net funds   Venezuela helps vault Rubio to quarterback of Trump’s foreign policy team   Trump has a China problem in Venezuela: What to do with Beijing’s debt and oil stakes   Experts say Trump pullout from UN climate fighting will hurt world and leave US out of green surge   Tennessee university reinstates professor fired for Charlie Kirk post and settles for $500k   Newsom punches back at California’s critics and Trump in his final State of the State speech   Colorado AG accuses Trump of ‘revenge campaign’ for state refusal to free convicted elections clerk   North Carolina may lose $50M in federal funds over flawed immigrant trucker licenses   Somalia denies US allegation that it destroyed food aid warehouse   Sonia De Los Santos cancels Kennedy Center shows, citing unwelcoming climate

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US Christian leaders minister to an anxious diaspora with Venezuela's future in flux Faith leaders are urging prayers for peace following the U.S. capture of former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. In Venezuela, Catholic and evangelical leaders are appealing for calm, while many in the diaspora welcome the change. Read more.

Why this matters: About 8 million people have fled Venezuela since 2014, settling first in neighboring countries in Latin America and the Caribbean. After the COVID-19 pandemic, they increasingly set their sights on the United States, with many settling in South Florida. The Catholic archbishop of Miami, who ministers to the largest Venezuelan community in the U.S., says there is anxiety about what comes next, but he believes the church has a key role to play in helping the Catholic-majority country move forward. Miami Archbishop Thomas Wenski noted that the Trump administration has ended federal programs allowing more than 700,000 Venezuelans to live and work legally in the U.S. He said many of them are wary of returning home, given the current political uncertainty in Venezuela.

RELATED COVERAGE ➤ Maduro’s ouster sparks celebrations among Venezuelans in South Florida President Trump says his voters loved the Venezuela attack — here’s what they think Miami’s ‘Little Venezuela’ fears Trump’s moves against migration