There is another point I want to note about what has happened over the last 48 hours. Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) is a pretty forward-leaning lawmaker. But on a show this morning he said something very clear: “We cannot fund a Department of Homeland Security that is murdering American citizens.” That’s clear, succinct and accurate. Those are the stakes. DHS is being used as a domestic terror force to deprive American citizens of their liberties. Yes, they’re killing American citizens. But that’s with the goal of terrorizing the larger population and depriving it of its liberties.
I’m going to post TPM Reader DS’s note and follow up on the concept of “escalation dominance” and who exactly has the upper hand in Trump’s war on blue cities. I said in my earlier post that the White House thinks it has escalation dominance, the stronger hand at every stage of escalation. I think they’re wrong. The simple explanation is that they think this is a battle of force. It’s not. It’s ultimately a battle over public opinion. And it’s one they’re already losing. Escalating the contest of force will make them lose harder.
The concept of escalation dominance comes out of Cold War deterrence and strategic theory. DS shares some more thoughts on that. But one of the key things about these concepts, which emerged in the 1950s, is that they’re highly theoretical, in both senses of the word. The real world isn’t as linear or as predictable as you expect. There are various ways that weakness can be turned into strength. And, as DS notes, the point of escalation dominance is to keep the weaker party from escalating at all. It’s supposed to be a framework of deterrence for the stronger power.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said Saturday evening that Democrats would “not provide the votes” for a government funding bill this week if appropriations for the Department of Homeland Security are included without new guidelines for Immigrations and Customs Enforcement. The statement comes after federal agents earlier in the day shot and killed a Minneapolis man, identified as 37-year-old Alex Pretti, who was filming their activities.
Again we have an ICE killing in which the Department of Homeland Security gets a story out first which, on its face, appears to describe an armed civilian in the process of committing a massacre of federal law enforcement officers. A tragedy is prevented only by fast-thinking federal officers, this account claims, who shoot and kill the assailant before he can do any harm.
As now happens 100% of the time, these early DHS narratives are willfully absurd and don’t survive contact with abundant video evidence emerging from the scene. My best current understanding is that the dead man, Alex Pretti, 37, was legally carrying a licensed firearm and was at the scene in some sort of observer status or perhaps there to place himself between ICE agents and those they were trying to assault or arrest. Video evidence seems to clearly show that Pretti never brandished his firearm and actually used clear non-confrontation signals in his engagement with ICE agents. What’s more, video evidence appears to show that ICE agents had already confiscated Pretti’s firearm in a scuffle before shooting him multiple times.
In response to this latest ICE killing, a TPM Reader contacted me this afternoon and said that he thought Stephen Miller’s true goal was to have the U.S. military enforcing martial law in U.S. cities. Why else would they continue to escalate ICE’s tactics in the face of growing public outcry and the majority of Americans opposing ICE’s behavior?
Minnesota Governor Tim Walz says he has spoken with the White House after federal agents shot and killed another man in Minneapolis this morning.
I just spoke with the White House after another horrific shooting by federal agents this morning. Minnesota has had it. This is sickening. The President must end this operation. Pull the thousands of violent, untrained officers out of Minnesota. Now.
Video shows a group of men who appear to be federal agents wrestling another man to the ground. Several gunshots ring out, and the man goes limp.
The Star Tribune later reported the man had died, citing Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara. ICE attempted to order local police officers to leave the scene, O’Hara told the Star Tribune, but O’Hara refused.
If you read mainstream coverage of Vice President JD Vance’s trip to Minneapolis this week, you’d be forgiven for thinking that he went there as an eyelinered MAGA Mahatma Gandhi, asking the city a simple question: How about we just give peace a chance?
A transgender worker is repeatedly and intentionally misgendered by their coworker. A workplace bars an employee from using facilities that match their gender identity. A supervisor suggests a transgender subordinate shouldn’t be in public-facing work.
Going forward, it will be more difficult, timely and costly for LGBTQ+ workers to seek justice for these and other workplace harassment issues related to their gender identities and sexualities.
A lineup change for next week’s Morning Memo Live event: Kyle R. Freeny, a former DOJer who was a member of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s team and is now senior counsel at the Washington Litigation Group, will be joining us. An unforeseen issue came up that prevents former Mueller team member Aaron Zelinsky from attending, but I hope to have him back for future events.
Details and tickets here for the Jan. 29 event in D.C. (TPM members should look out for a special discount code in your inboxes. Reach out to talk@talkingpointsmemo.com if you didn’t receive or can’t find it.)
Tweeting All the Way Through the Fascism
Just two of the many good (by which I mean bad) nuggets from an exhaustive series of NYT Magazine interviews with current and former FBI officials about the catastrophic leadership of Director Kash Patel and former Deputy Director Dan Bongino …
On Patel: “There was a photo taken of all the Five Eyes people, some of whom are nondisclosed, meaning their affiliation with the British intelligence service isn’t public. The Brits forwarded that picture as a keepsake for the individuals. They prefaced it with, This isn’t to be shared. But Kash has decided he wants to post it on social media. They have people trying to negotiate with the Brits about whether that’s possible. They’re fighting with the director’s office, like: You cannot post this. Do not do that. And they’re arguing, He wants a picture out.”
On Bongino: “Bongino called the field office in Detroit. In the normal course of business, if the deputy director calls at a moment like that, they’re asking: How can we help? What do you need? They can turn on all the resources of the organization. But Bongino called and asked, What can I tweet about this? The field office has to be careful — this is their boss. But the body was still there. They said, We’ll get back to you. But Bongino kept calling back, asking, What can I tweet?”
The constant urge to tweet — instead of actually running a massive organization with counterintelligence and counterterrorism responsibilities on top of its core crime-fighting duties — is especially stark when paired with a quote attributed to Patel as he waved off briefing materials: “I don’t read.”
If you need more, search for “jet skiing” in the NYT Mag piece. You’re welcome.
Jan. 6 Still Alive and Unwell 5 Years Later
Donald Trump’s never-ending revenge saga for getting busted for couping produced a few new permutations this week:
FBI Director Kash Patel sacked more than half a dozen agents around the country, including several senior agents leading field offices, for their roles in either the Arctic Frost or Mar-a-Lago investigations, Ryan Reilly reports.
In state court in Florida, Trump personally sued JPMorgan Chase and its CEP Jamie Dimon for a whopping $5 billion, alleging they improperly closed his bank accounts for political reasons after the Jan. 6 attack.
In his public testimony to the House Judiciary Committee, former Special Counsel Jack Smith said he fully expects Trump DOJ officials will “do everything in their power” to prosecute him “because they have been ordered to by the president.”
Seated behind Smith were some of the most outspoken former law enforcement officers who defended the Capitol on Jan. 6, including Michael Fanone, who did little to muffle his disdain for House Republicans:
Nehls: I would like to quickly address the police officers from January 6th. And I can tell you that the fault does not lie with Donald Trump. It lies with the US capitol leadership team.Fanone: *Coughs: Go fuck yourself*
With the local medical examiner declaring Renee Good’s death a homicide (which is not the same legally as murder), former DOJ prosecutor Julia Gegenheimer explains why there is a legitimate basis for opening an investigation into the ICE shooting.
Mass Deportation Watch: Minnesota Edition
A general strike in the Twin Cities is underway today, with a march scheduled for this afternoon.
Three protestors were arrested on pending federal charges for disrupting a service Sunday at a church where the pastor is also the acting director of the ICE field office in St. Paul.
In the same case, a federal magistrate judge rejected the Trump DOJ’s attempt to charge former CNN journalist Don Lemon, who reported on the protest.
The Trump White House posted a digitally altered image of one of the church protesters during her arrest to make it look like she was crying. The Black woman arrested was actually cool and collected in the original unaltered photo:
The White House posted a digitally altered image of a woman who was arrested in Minneapolis, a Guardian analysis has found www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026…
After deliberating for a little more than three hours, a federal jury in Chicago acquitted 37-year-old union carpenter Juan Espinoza Martinez on the charge of murder for hire for allegedly putting a $10,000 bounty on the head of CBP commander Gregory Bovino.
Judge Bars Retaliation Against Pro-Palestinian Activists
U.S. District Judge Judge William Young of Boston has been doing yeoman’s work protecting pro-Palestinian academics and activists from retaliatory deportations by the Trump administration. In two new moves yesterday, Young:
ordered that members of the American Association of University Professors and the Middle East Studies Association were not to have their immigration statuses adversely changed except in narrow circumstances and that any attempt to deport them would be presumed to be “in retribution” for suing the government.
unsealed dossiers prepared by the Trump administration that focused on the free speech activities, including campus protests and public writings, of five student activists who Secretary of State Marco Rubio would move to deport.
Full 5th Circuit Hears AEA Case
The uber-conservative 5th Circuit Court of Appeals heard oral arguments on the substance of whether President Trump validly invoked the Alien Enemies Act last year. The arguments zeroed in on whether there was truly an “invasion or predatory incursion” by Tren de Aragua as contemplated by the wartime statute. This case out of Texas is the most likely one for the Supreme Court to take up and finally rule on whether the president properly invoked the AEA in this instance.
Quote of the Day
“We are in a much better place today than we were at the beginning of this week. But of course, the very fact that we are relieved that a NATO country is not going to attack another NATO country tells us that we are somewhere where we never thought we would be. And that, in itself, will linger.”—Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide
Park Service Removes Slavery Exhibit
Reacting to President Trump’s “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History” executive order, the U.S. Park Service has removed an exhibit on slavery at Independence National Historical Park in Philadelphia. It was among a series of moves at parks nationwide to suppress historically accurate information and replace it with racist revisionism.
Trump Ballroom Runs Into Legal Trouble
In a hearing yesterday, U.S. District Judge Richard Leon of D.C. expressed considerable skepticism that Trump had the legal authority to demolish the East Wing of the White House and construct a vanity ballroom in its place.
Leon reportedly mocked the Trump DOJ when it compared the project to President Gerald Ford’s use of private funds to build a White House swimming pool. “You compare that to ripping down the East Wing and building a new East Wing?” Leon said. “C’mon. Be serious.”
Meanwhile, the Trump-stacked Commission of Fine Arts appears prepared to greenlight the project to … I’m not making this up … spare Trump having to worry his sweet little head about it, according to Rodney Mims Cook Jr., the new chairman of the commission: “So we need to let the president do his job, and, as best we can, keep his mind off of things like this, that we can keep him rolling, and do it as elegantly and beautifully as the American people deserve for generations and further centuries into the future.”
Bovino’s Provocative Greatcoat
NYT’s fashion critic deconstructs the Pavlovian response to CBP commander Gregory Bovino’s costuming himself as an early 20th century fascist.
“Using the coat to confront crowds with armed supporters, together with Bovino’s cropped hair and the (apparently) black or dark clothing underneath, gives the unmistakable whiff of dictators and of the 1930s,” Princeton University history professor Harold James told the NYT.
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