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The Mad King
President Trump is marauding through the Arctic and NATO and basic good sense in such a disinhibited and public way that it’s giving rise to new calls for the invocation of the 25th Amendment. That’s not happening, but his jangly grip on reality is already doing grave damage to the North Atlantic alliance.
The most glaring concoction of Trump’s fevered mind was the missive to Norway’s president, irrationally connecting his failure to get the Nobel Peace Prize to his threats against Greenland: “I no longer feel an obligation to think purely of Peace.” Here’s the full text:
NEW: @potus letter to @jonasgahrstore links @NobelPrize to Greenland, reiterates threats, and is forwarded by the NSC staff to multiple European ambassadors in Washington. I obtained the text from multiple officials:
— Nick Schifrin (@nickschifrin) January 19, 2026
Dear Ambassador:
President Trump has asked that the…
Since that nonsense, Trump has been posting to social media his private texts with European leaders, who are not just alarmed but mystified by the rantings of the American president. “I do not know what you’re doing on Greenland,” French President Emmanuel Macron wrote Trump in one text.
Trump’s weekend threat to impose punitive tariffs on Europe if it doesn’t bend to his will on Greenland has turned Davos from a lifestyles convention of the rich and famous into a emergency summit on the future of trans-Atlantic relations. And Trump doesn’t arrive until tomorrow.
Among the latest developments:
- Denmark deployed a small contingent of combat troops to Greenland, including the chief of the Danish Army.
- “We’re living through uncharted territories. We’ve never seen this before. An ally, a friend of 250 years, is considering using tariffs … as a geopolitical weapon,” France’s Finance Minister Roland Lescure said.
- “A line has been crossed… You’ll understand that today I’m not saying exactly what will happen. But one thing must be clear: Europe must be prepared,” said German Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil
- The three most senior Roman Catholic cardinals in the United States issued a joint statement condemning U.S. policy toward Greenland, Venezuela, and Ukraine — and warning that America’s “moral role in confronting evil around the world” is now in question.
Feds Not Investigating Good Shooting
Since yesterday was a federal holiday, I want to make sure you saw the important news that the Justice Department has ended its investigation into the fatal ICE shooting of Renee Good even though the FBI’s initial review “determined that sufficient grounds existed to open a civil rights probe.”
While this is a complete abdication of the DOJ’s role, the confidence level was already extremely low in any federal investigation controlled directly by the Trump White House. What I’m curious about is whether — since there’s no ongoing federal investigation — this clears the way for state investigators to access all the evidence they need to proceed with their probe. And if not, what basis the feds claim for thwarting the state investigation.
Investigating Good Instead of ICE
The WaPo updated its story later yesterday with this additional nugget, suggesting that instead of using its powers under civil rights law to investigate ICE, it turned them on Good instead:
[S]oon after the shooting, law enforcement applied for a warrant to search Good’s car under a civil rights statute, according to an FBI official familiar with the probe, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation. The official said a magistrate judge approved that warrant, though agents did not execute it after it was granted.
Instead, the FBI official said that as new facts emerged in the case, law enforcement applied for a warrant under an assault statute. A magistrate judge rejected that warrant, the FBI official said, determining that it was not an appropriate statute since Good was deceased and could not be charged with assault.
It’s not clear why the FBI didn’t execute the search warrant, though you’ll remember that a half dozen top lawyers in the Minnesota U.S. Attorney’s Office resigned rather than abide by an order to investigate the political activities of Good’s widow.
More Fallout From Good Shooting
- Former FBI agent Michael Feinberg: “[W]hat much of the nation has now seen was not professionalized or situationally appropriate law enforcement. It was a series of incredibly bad choices leading to an unnecessary death.”
- The far right is demonizing Good and her widow with the acronym “AWFUL.”
- Since the Civil War, the federal government has been a backstop to the enforcement of civil rights law when state and local governments fail to do so, but former DOJer Jonathan Wroblewski argues that the roles have been reversed in Trump II and district attorneys and state attorneys general must step up to investigate ICE abuses.
Mass Deportation Watch
- Marisa Kabas: Behind the disturbing image of ICE snatching a half-naked, elderly Hmong American from his home in St. Paul
- WaPo: Family of man shot by ICE in Minneapolis disputes key aspects of DHS account
- Judd Legum: ICE has stopped paying for detainee medical treatment
- Valerie Smith attended a Customs and Border Patrol recruitment event in Florida that touted qualified immunity and early retirement: “By never saying ‘no,’ I was corralled from standing near the recruitment table to having a completed application submitted on my behalf, and I was told to expect a tentative job offer within weeks.”
The FBI-MAGA Disinfo Pipeline
The NYT took a long look over the weekend at how the FBI has become the wellhead in a disinformation pipeline that flows to Republicans on the Hill and into the wider MAGA universe:
[U]nder its current chief, Kash Patel, the bureau has added payback to its portfolio. Agents now scour the F.B.I.’s vast holdings to root out negative information about those who once investigated President Trump, according to current and former officials, lawmakers and lawyers representing some of those targeted. …
The material, once gathered, has typically been distributed through various channels to Trump-allied media and to Republicans on Capitol Hill, including Senator Charles E. Grassley of Iowa, the Republican chairman of the Judiciary Committee.
This is particularly relevant ahead of former Special Counsel Jack Smith’s upcoming public testimony Thursday on the Hill.
A Symbolic Appearance
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell is planning to attend in person tomorrow’s Supreme Court oral arguments over whether President Trump can fire Fed governor Lisa Cook on the flimsy pretext of bogus mortgage fraud claims.
One Year Down, Three to Go
On the first anniversary of Donald Trump second inauguration, Thomas Zimmer argues, perhaps counterintuitively, that the past year was not an inexorable rampage through democracy toward an inevitable authoritarianism:
Several times over the past twelve months, the regime pushed the country right up to the edge of the kind of authoritarian escalation that would have taken America across the line into full-blown autocratic territory… but then failing and/or proving unwilling to actually go there. Several times the Trumpists seemed poised to vanquish the democratic opposition, break through whatever obstacles the constitutional order was still placing in their path, and wipe away the system entirely – but then were either unable or didn’t dare to force that next step.
Zimmer, who is quick to say he’s not making predictions or minimizing the current dangers, zeroes in on three moments when the Trump forces encountered pushback they were unable to overcome.
Get Your Questions In
Ahead of the Morning Memo Live event next week, I’m soliciting your questions for the panel. As you think about what you’d like to ask, it might help you to know that I’m not just looking for specific questions I can use but also your input to help shape the direction and focus of the discussion of the politicization and weaponization of the Justice Department. With that in mind, you can email me your questions with “MM” in the subject line. Thanks in advance!
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