Donald Trump has been accused of acting out "revenge" on Blue states, with decisions affecting "vulnerable people".
Democratic Rep. Brad Schneider (Il) claims the president is overseeing ICE raids in Democratic states and "putting communities at risk" as a result. Speaking to Politico, Schneider said, "He’s attacking blue states out of revenge. If that’s in the form of sending in ICE, he sends in ICE."
"If it’s denying food and education to their children, which, to be clear, are America’s children, he’s gonna do that. What he is doing is seeking revenge at the cost of America’s most vulnerable people, putting those communities at risk."
Manhattan Democrat Liz Krueger says she is hardly surprised by the president's actions in Blue states as he made it clear he was going to "punish" the Democratic Party.
She said, "I’ll say one thing about our president: He told us he was going to do this. He told us he was going to punish blue states. We have to brace for impact, we have to use our legal skills, our amazing attorney general, and endless lawsuits to at least hold them back."
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul has suggested Trump is using children as "political pawns" and that it shows the "depth of cruelty" his administration is capable of overseeing.
She said, "It’s this depth of cruelty. They think they’re going to get to me, but the kids are the political pawns in this process, and they’re not doing that calculation."
Analysis from Politico staffers Blake Jones, Jeremy B. White, and Nick Reisman suggested the "ammunition" Trump had at his disposal against Blue states could take down his political opponents.
They wrote, "The spending-focused line of attack from Trump marks an escalation in Trump’s already red-hot war on blue states."
"While hostilities between Trump and Democratic-led states on immigration intensify following shootings in Minnesota and Oregon, he is now moving more aggressively on a separate track to cut off states’ funding. And if “waste, fraud and abuse” is a familiar rallying cry for Republicans, it is now serving as fresh ammunition for Trump’s targeting of his political adversaries."
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem was accused of “lying about her lies” on Monday morning as Donald Trump was warned that she has become a huge drag on his approval numbers.
Following a weekend where the embattled Noem hit the talk show circuit and insisted the shooting of 37-year-old Minnesota mother Renee Good by an ICE agent was completely justified, and that she personally has been correct on the details since day one, the co-hosts of MS NOW’s “Morning Joe” claimed she has become a liability for the president.
After sharing clips of Noem’s notorious “cowboy hat” press conference and appearances on Fox News and CNN over the weekend, co-host Mika Brzezinski pointed out that she is sending even more agents into Minneapolis — which will only exacerbate the chaos.
That led co-host Joe Scarborough to offer, “You go back to her cowboy hat press conference, everything she said was a lie. Absolutely everything. And while we're looking at the head of DHS, a couple of things for President Trump to keep in mind while looking at the person who is running this agency into the ground and running his numbers down. On the issue of immigration approval of Kristi Noem, ICE itself, has plummeted 30 percentage points since she took control.”
After adding, “It's a YouGov poll and more than half of Americans, 54 percent, say ICE’s tactics are too extreme, and only about 25% support the tactics,“ he suggested, “How ironic that we see all of these fat, out of shape people that they push through. Right? And in how long, instead of five months, they have these shortened training sessions. So they go out there, and they're ill-equipped to handle what professional law enforcement officers, the NYPD or the LAPD or any of our law enforcement agencies are equipped to do.”
“And suddenly tragedy is unfolding on the streets, he pointed out. “But we all predicted this was going to happen. We all said, these guys are untrained, they're out of shape, they don't know the basics of law enforcement — tragedy is going to strike. And sure enough, it's striking. An ICE’s numbers are plummeting.”
Ronn Easton was out for lunch in Minneapolis last Thursday when he drove by a federal building now serving as a command center for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), one of whose agents shot dead a 37-year-old mother, Renee Nicole Good, in the city on Wednesday.
Easton, 76, said he felt compelled to stop and participate in a protest outside the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building in Fort Snelling, Minn. Catching media attention, he ended up interviewed on national TV.
“You could tell by the way I was dressed that I did not intend to go there. I wasn't going to go there protesting in a f—- fur coat. That was not my intent,” Easton told Raw Story.
Yet, Easton said, “I had to. My brain would not settle down.”
On Friday, Easton again felt the urge to respond to “rage” that rose in him after an ICE agent shot Good dead, as she drove her Honda Pilot away from a scene where federal agents had performed an immigration enforcement operation.
Easton dropped flowers at the site where Good was killed by an agent identified as Jonathan Ross, a 10-year ICE veteran.
“I've never done that. Never. But I had to do it this time. For some reason there's something inside of me that's telling me to do this,” Easton said.
“To see people, the hate, the vitriol in this country is really starting to take an effect on me, because never mind that this was a mother that was killed, people are talking about her sexuality.”
Good’s wife said in a statement they were supporting neighbors when the confrontation with ICE took place on a street near their home.
Administration officials have not hesitated to vilify Good.
In a press conference Wednesday, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem accused Good of “stalking and impeding” ICE officers whose vehicles were stuck at the scene due to snow.
Noem also claimed Good “proceeded to weaponize her vehicle, and she attempted to run a law enforcement officer over.”
President Donald Trump used social media to blame Good for her own death.
Vice President JD Vancecalled the killing of Good “a tragedy of her own making.”
But as media analyses of video of the incident have undercut such readings, so local and state officials have strongly disputed such accounts.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walzurged people not to “believe this propaganda machine.”
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey called ICE’s characterization of the incident “bull—-.”
‘On a hair trigger’
On Tuesday, ICE said its “largest ever” operation was under way in Minneapolis, with as many as 2,000 agents deployed.
Easton, who lives in Little Canada, Minn., outside Minneapolis-St. Paul, said the ICE crackdown had affected businesses he frequents, including restaurants in St. Paul’s West Side neighborhood.
Ronn Easton (provided photo)
“There's a rage that is inside of me that I'm trying my damnedest to deal with, seeing people, families torn apart, businesses that I support terrorized by ICE, people that I love affected,” Easton said.
Easton became 100 percent disabled after serving in Vietnam.
Diagnoses of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, tinnitus, neuropathy and Type 2 diabetes were linked to exposure to Agent Orange, the cancer- and neurological disease-causing herbicide used to clear enemy hiding spots, RawStory reported last month.
Raw Story firstspoke to Easton about his engagement with Home of the Brave, a nonprofit focused on portraying what it calls “catastrophic harm” caused by the Trump administration.
Easton said ICE deployments near his home made him feel “on a hair trigger.”
“I have been purposefully avoiding confronting ICE or anybody else, for that matter, because I've been struggling,” he said.
“I'm trying to just maintain my sanity and keep a lid on my anger, and it's getting increasingly hard.”
But Easton said ICE targeting “the lowest hanging fruit,” including “mothers and children,” had made him want to speak up even more.
“This is my home,” he said.
“This backbiting bull— and everything that people have died and fought for being stripped away — oh, I can't handle this.”
‘Tension is as high’
Easton said tension on the streets of Minneapolis was “palpable” and “comparable” to that generated in summer 2020, after Derek Chauvin, then a Minneapolis police officer, killed George Floyd, a 46-year-old African American man, an incident that sparked a national racial reckoning amid the Black Lives Matter movement.
Now, Easton said, “The tension is as high, but it's different because then you had a lot of outside agitators coming into town trying to stir up people, and they did.”
Civil unrest following Floyd’s murder included arson and looting. Easton said he encourages peaceful protests, as violence “destroys your message.”
The Trump administration has deployed the National Guard in Democratic cities throughout the country. Easton said it was “trying to induce martial law.
“That is the reason why it is imperative that this be peaceful. No matter what you do, it has to be peaceful, but it has to be hard-hitting.”
Nonetheless, Easton said he expected violence from ICE only to get worse — particularly in light of events in Portland, Oregon on Thursday, where ICE agents shot two people.
President Donald Trump declared Sunday night that he was the new “acting president of Venezuela” by sharing a doctored image of his online biography bearing the new title — a declaration that produced shockwaves for onlookers.
“He’s spiraling into a singularity of narcissistic terror over [Jeffrey] Epstein, and decompensating with performative dictatoring,” wrote Jim Stewartson, a journalist and podcast host, in a social media post.
“His alternate reality is sealed and the people around him are riding his collapse to get what they want – total destruction of the world order. What a timeline.”
Trump took to his social media platform Truth Social to share the image of himself that's featured in his biography on Wikipedia — edited to list him as Venezuela’s “acting president.” The declaration comes just over a week after his unprecedented U.S. attack on Venezuela, which Trump said shortly thereafter would be run by the United States until a transfer of power could be facilitated.
Trump declaring himself to be Venezuela's interim president was just the latest sign, some critics said, that the president was potentially sparking even more civil unrest across the world.
“Not satire… Zero presidents have ever publicly declared executive authority over a foreign nation,” wrote author and analyst Shanaka Anslem Perera in a social media post on X, where he’s amassed more than 111,000 followers. “The greatest energy realignment since the 1973 embargo is hiding in plain sight as a ‘troll post.’ When the world realizes this isn’t a joke, the repricing won’t be gradual. It will be violent.”
Others, like Brian Berletic, a geopolitical analyst and former U.S. Marine, called Trump’s unprecedented declaration a “wake-up call to the rest of the world.”
“A US president declaring himself president of another nation 1000 miles from his own nation's borders is unhinged criminality,” Berletic wrote in a social media post on X, where he’s amassed nearly 120,000 followers.
“This is done to prime the US public for wider criminality to come. This is a wake-up call to the rest of the world, nations big and small, that this is no longer a matter of diplomacy, international relations, or deal-making.”
🇺🇸🇻🇪 US President Donald Trump posts on his official account that he is "acting president of Venezuela."
A US president declaring himself president of another nation 1000 miles from his own nation's borders is unhinged criminality.
President Donald Trump made a bizarre comment about grabbing his 28-year-old press aide Sunday as Air Force One hit turbulence.
The 79=year-old leader was left unsteady as the plane shook while he was standing talking to reporters on his return trip to Washington D.C. after a weekend in his Mar-A-Lago home.
As he was asked about his administration's plans regarding Venezuela, he turned toward Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, and made a comment about needing something to hold onto.
"I'm looking for something to grab here. Because it's going to get rough. I think you did this to me, you put me in a position where there's absolutely nothing to grab," Trump said, gesturing toward Leavitt.
"So I'm looking for something to grab. And it's not going to be Karoline."
Reporters did not pursue the comment, instead continuing to question the president about international policy matters.
The odd comment is the latest by Trump about his press secretary. Following his departure from Israel in October, Trump asked reporters assembled nearby: "How's Karoline doing? Is she doing good?" He then posed the question, "Should Karoline be replaced?" When a reporter responded that such decisions rested with the president, Trump replied: "It'll never happen. That face... and those lips, they move like a machine gun, right?"
In an August interview with Newsmax's Rob Finnerty, Trump made a similar observation about Leavitt. He stated: "She's become a star. It's that face. It's that brain. It's those lips, the way they move. They move like she's a machine gun... She's a star and she's great."
These comments received additional attention following a Vanity Fair interview with White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles in December. The accompanying photographs showed Leavitt's face prominently, featuring heavy makeup and apparent cosmetic enhancement.
When asked why he did not edit certain aspects of the images, photographer Christopher Anderson told The Washington Post: "I didn't put the injection sites on her. People seem to be shocked that I didn't use Photoshop to retouch out blemishes and her injection marks."
The waning "strongman" image Donald Trump has attempted to present in office is causing "unpredictable" results, according to a political analyst.
While the president may want to come across as tough on the world stage by throwing threats at Venezuela, Greenland, and Cuba, the actions are "unpredictable" and cause for concern. CNN analyst Stephen Collinson believes the recent acts of Trump and his administration are to counter the opinion from political commentators calling him a "lame duck" president.
Collinson wrote, "So much for that lame duck in the White House. President Donald Trump is doubling down on retribution, global domination and relentless domestic power." He added that Trump was "never going to sit by and watch his strongman's aura erode."
Doing so means unpredictability the world over, with Collinson observing a few recent choices from Trump had been made to bolster his image. Collinson added, "So far this year, Trump is indicating that his second year back in the White House will accelerate a trend of the first: Show him a constitutional curb, an international law, or a status quo, and his instinct is to smash it."
"The result is that millions of people around the world now find their lives intricately bound up in the whims of the most untamed and unpredictable president in generations."
Trump's long term goal with this image, Collinson argues, is to create "maximum disruption" during his time in office. He wrote, "Events of a turbulent early January are consistent with Trump’s aim to create maximum disruption after he left office in 2021 believing that establishment forces had thwarted his better instincts."
"The president is seeking to reverse decades of progressive advances — for instance, at universities, law firms and businesses through his dismantling of diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives."
"And he is seeking to redefine America’s relationship with immigrants, not just by seeking to deport undocumented migrants, but with a string of steps to curtail legal immigration and even travel to the US from citizens of non-White nations. There is no backing down."
Residents of Greenland made it clear they would never acquiesce to the demands of Donald Trump as the president seeks to buy out the country.
The president's administration has cited strengthening the country's security as a reason for taking over Greenland, a move which is opposed firmly by the country's residents and politicians. Should a takeover bid be refused, the Trump administration has refused to rule out military, boots on the ground action against the country.
Those living in Greenland told The Mirror they would stand firm against Trump, and no amount of money would convince them or their government to sell up.
Mads Pedersen, 35, a local plumber, was left disgusted by the president's rhetoric and that the statements have sparked a crisis in Greenland. He said, "It’s a sh**show to be honest. This man has no boundaries, he doesn’t care about laws or people and he is making direct threats to people who care so much about people in their communities."
"He is talking about buying everything - buying the land, buying the people. We can see he has been working on a plan to take over and we really don’t know what will be going on with extra US consular people coming over. But people don’t want our home to turn in to an American colony."
"We don’t give a damn about his money and we people wouldn’t do it for a million dollars. He’s blown the whole game. If he wanted to do one of his ‘deals’ he’s not going to get it because he’s lost all trust. He doesn’t understand that he’s dealing with proud people who don’t give a damn about what Donald Trump wants."
Mads went on to say Trump had "no respect for Greenland or its people" and that the president had "no patience" for diplomacy.
Other Greenland residents believe the threat of war in a bid to take over Greenland is a "step too far". During a briefing at the White House, Trump said if it does not work "the easy way" of a land purchase, then "the hard way" will be pursued.
For resident Simon Pedersen, 35, also a plumber, this was a step too far. He said, "I’d say it’s not going to happen because we’re dealing with Nato and the actual future of the world. This would be a step too far, even for Trump."
"The land is owned by Greenland by law. This is important to the national identity and culture. So how can Trump just say he’ll buy it? He is a like gangster." Another member of the public, Martin Nielsen, 41, said Trump taking over by force is a "nightmare scenario" that he hopes does not happen.
A former GOP representative has called on the party to rebel against the recent economic decisions made by Donald Trump.
Adam Kinzinger urged the party to push back against the decision of one Trump appointed investigator to open an investigation into the Federal Reserve chair, Jerome Powell. The New York Times reported on Sunday that Jeanine Pirro, U.S. Attorney for Washington, D.C., opened an investigation into Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell last November.
Powell said in a statement later that day that he had received a subpoena to testify before a grand jury about statements he made last June during a Senate committee hearing. He described the subpoena as "ongoing pressure" from the president to end the Federal Reserve's independence.
In a video uploaded to his YouTube channel, Kinzinger, a US House Rep for Illinois from 2011 to 2023, urged Republican Party members to stand firm against the subpoena and Trump's influence.
He said, "This was only done for one reason, and one reason only. Donald Trump has been wanting Jerome Powell to cut interest rates and Jerome Powell and the Federal Reserve board's job and charter is not to do what Donald Trump wants, it's to do what they need to do to stabilize the money, to ensure as much employment as they can."
"When you cut interest rates, more money goes out into the economy and if you have an inflation problem, inflation increases, when you have out of control inflation, you have to raise interest rates to reign that money in and combat inflation."
Kinzinger added the Federal Reserve are "doing what they need to do" so inflation does not rapidly increase. Trump has since taken legal action against the economic body, Kinzinger says, because they won't "do what he wants".
The ex-GOP member said, "This is utterly insane. It's utterly unethical. This is the moment that the elected Republicans have to make a decision. The vast majority of them out there have done nothing but bow and acquiesce to Donald Trump every day. Everything he wants, they do it."
"As a member of Congress, your job is not to do what Donald Trump wants. Your job is to do what's right. Your job is to represent your district. If you know anything about the Constitution... it's that Congress has, as a whole, the same power as the president. You're not supposed to roll over and do what he wants."
"So every Republican has a chance right now to save any shred of decency or morality they have. You need to speak out and oppose this, and you need to make it clear that you will oppose every single one of Donald Trump's priorities in the Senate or the House until they throttle back on this."
A former US attorney says the public has "no confidence" in the federal investigation of the death of Renee Nicole Good.
The mother was shot dead by ICE agents in Minneapolis last week, causing outcry from members of the public and political commentators. Vance, who served as attorney for the Northern District of Alabama from 2009 to 2017, says the mood across the country is one of distrust in the investigation.
Writing in her Substack, Vance suggested the goal is not to figure out the truth but to "restore communities' trust" as was the case for similar situations which have occurred in recent years. Vance also denounced Kristi Noem's "political knee-jerk" response to the death of Good.
Noem claimed Good had "weaponized her vehicle" against officers "in an attempt to kill or cause bodily harm to agents, an act of domestic terrorism." The statement was ripped into by Vance, who says there is "no confidence" in the federal investigation.
She wrote, "Meticulous investigations have to be conducted before conclusions are reached. It was irresponsible for Noem to call it self-defense. Conclusions in a situation like this shouldn’t be political knee-jerks; they should be fact-based."
"If they aren’t, and let’s not fool ourselves here, even if there is a federal investigation, it won’t be unless something dramatic shifts, the public will have no confidence in the outcome. And in this case, where the very life of an American citizen is involved, it’s essential for the public to trust the outcome."
"That’s the goal federal prosecutors worked toward with their state and local counterparts so they could restore communities’ trust after George Floyd’s and Ahmaud Arbery’s murders, and in countless other situations."
Vance went on to suggest the defense options available to the ICE agent who shot and killed Good are limited. Vance has suggested it will depend on the coroner's report.
She wrote, "The first shot, with the agent in front of the vehicle, went through the windshield. But he also appears to fire two additional shots through the driver’s side window. We do not know which shot killed Good."
"The County Coroner will likely do the autopsy report that will have bearing on this, while the feds may have collected physical evidence from the scene involving the gun and the shots fired that could be important as well."
"If the case were to be indicted as a murder and go to trial, even if the first shot was legitimate self-defense (which it does not appear to me to be based on multiple video angles and what we know now), the last two clearly were not, as Good had already turned completely out of his path and was driving off."
"It would be hard for the agent to argue for qualified immunity and claim he was operating lawfully if one of those shots was responsible for her death. That’s all awfully inside baseball, and that’s the point."
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirsti Noem went on CNN on Sunday morning to try to justify the murder of a 37-year-old mother by an immigration agent last week, and some of her comments left one ex-GOP speechwriter stunned.
Noem joined CNN's Jake Tapper on "State of the Union" on Sunday morning, where the two discussed the recent killing of Renee Good in Minneapolis. Tapper confronted Noem about several claims she made about Good in the aftermath of her death, including that she had weaponized her car against the agent who shot and killed her, Jonathan Ross, and that she was on scene to agitate the immigration agents who were conducting a raid.
Tapper showed Noem a video of Ross calling good a "b----" after he shot her. The video appeared to undercut Noem's claim that the officer feared for his life, thereby justifying the shooting. Noem deflected the question and appeared to hold back a smirk in her answer.
Ex-GOP speechwriter Tim Miller reacted to Noem's comments in a new reaction video on Sunday with Jack Cocchiarella for "Bulwark Takes."
"I just wanted to make sure it wasn't AI because ... from the start, I thought this was ridiculous," Miller said. "This video, to me, I thought just showed so clearly that there's no reasonable way that you could spin this as this man being fearful for his life."
"There's no way to be scared," Miller added. "I've been in more dangerous situations in a Walmart parking lot with somebody kind of backing up a little too fast."
President Donald Trump sparked outrage on Sunday when it was revealed that one of his handpicked prosecutors had opened an investigation into the Federal Reserve chairman.
The New York Times reported on Sunday that Jeanine Pirro, U.S. Attorney for Washington, D.C., opened an investigation into Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell last November. Powell said in a statement later that day that he had received a subpoena to testify before a grand jury about statements he made last June during a Senate committee hearing. He described the subpoena as "ongoing pressure" from the president to end the Federal Reserve's independence.
Political analysts and observers reacted to the news on social media.
"If there were any remaining doubt whether advisers within the Trump Administration are actively pushing to end the independence of the Federal Reserve, there should now be none," Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) posted on X. "It is now the independence and credibility of the Department of Justice that are in question. I will oppose the confirmation of any nominee for the Fed—including the upcoming Fed Chair vacancy—until this legal matter is fully resolved."
"Just an extraordinary statement from Powell," John Bresnahan, co-founder of Punchbowl News, posted on X. "He accuses the Trump administration- without mentioning names - of ginning up a criminal probe of the Fed in a battle over interest rates."
"Chief Justice has greenlit all of this conduct by Trump! Disgusting!" lawyer Tom Ryan posted on X.
"Jerome Powell. A man who refuses to be intimidated," GOP analyst Sarah Longwell posted on X.
A prominent voting rights lawyer slammed Vice President JD Vance on Sunday for his latest "lie" about the lethal shooting in Minneapolis.
Last week, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer shot and killed 37-year-old Renee Good as she was in her car trying to leave the scene of an immigration raid. Good's killing sparked protests across the country and increased calls for Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to be impeached.
In the wake of Good's killing, Vance joined a press conference at the White House where he claimed the officers involved have "absolute immunity."
Marc Elias, a voting rights attorney, fact-checked Vance in a new interview with progressive YouTuber Brian Tyler Cohen.
"This entire press conference by JD Vance was a constitutional crisis in a nutshell," Elias said. "This guy is a trained lawyer. He went to Yale Law School ... It sets the tone for just how off the rails JD Vance has become and how captive of the MAGA right-wing, someone who was once viewed as a thoughtful conservative, is now just a MAGA extremist."
"JD Vance saying that there is absolute immunity is a lie," Elias said. "He knows it's a lie because, as I said, he's actually a Yale-trained lawyer, and he is saying it because he is trying to smear the victim of a tragic shooting."
Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell responded to President Donald Trump and one of his allies, a prosecutor, on Sunday after receiving a subpoena to appear before a grand jury.
Powell said he received a subpoena from U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro of Washington, D.C. to testify about comments he made to a Senate committee last June. The investigation is the latest escalation in the fight between Trump and the Federal Reserve, which he sees as too hesitant to embrace his low-interest-rate monetary policy.
Trump has tried to remove Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook over alleged mortgage fraud. Cook appealed Trump's attempts to fire her, and the Supreme Court is set to hear arguments in the case on January 21.
He has also threatened to remove Powell over his management of the Federal Reserve headquarters renovation. Trump has claimed that Powell mismanaged the budget for the renovation, but experts have said Trump's claims have no basis in fact.
"This unprecedented action should be seen in the broader context of the administration's threats and ongoing pressure," Powell said in a statement.
"This new threat is not about my testimony last June or about the renovation of the Federal Reserve buildings," Powell added. "It is not about Congress's oversight role; the Fed, through testimony and other public disclosures, made every effort to keep Congress informed about the renovation project. Those are pretexts. The threat of criminal charges is a consequence of the Federal Reserve setting interest rates based on our best assessment of what will serve the public, rather than following the preferences of the President."
"This is about whether the Fed will be able to continue to set interest rates based on evidence and economic conditions—or whether instead monetary policy will be directed by political pressure or intimidation," he continued.
Ronn Easton (provided photo)