[NBC News]
Scroll down this column for …
•Democrat Concerned for Midterms
•Roy Cohn Lives
•America's Birthday for Sale
Go to The Gray Area for "Jesus Wept", Stephen Macaulay's commentary on President Trump's National Prayer Breakfast speech
MONDAY 2/9/26
Democrat Concerned for Midterms – Democrats seem to be waking up to the notion that maybe, just maybe, President Trump means it when he says Republicans should take control and hand over voting November 3 to the federal government in “15 places.”
“I think [Trump] intends to subvert the election,” Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA) told ABC News This Week co-anchor Jonathan Karl Sunday.
Since suggesting the federal government take over voting a week ago on The Dan Bongino Show Trump has adjusted his remarks to say he supports House Republicans’ SAVE America Act, which would require proof of citizenship and photo identification to vote – each time you vote.
We the people … ICYMI, Article IV of the Constitution gives states full authority to set rules for voting.
But wait, there’s more: “And if he loses the vote,” Schiff continued on This Week, referring to the possibility that Republicans might lose majorities in the House and Senate, “he’s proposed to take some kind of action to overturn the result, and we really shouldn’t question that.”
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Roy Cohn Lives – If you were one of the few who saw The Apprentice – the 2024 Ali Abbari film about Donald J. Trump’s relationship with Roy Cohn, not the NBC TV show that helped make the future president a household name – you know the first lesson the attorney who gained infamy as chief counsel in the ‘50s to Sen. Joseph McCarthy (R-WI) gave Trump: Never apologize or admit wrongdoing, ever.
Trump relied on Lesson 1 when he told reporters on Air Force One last Friday that The Lion King video posted on Truth Social in which the president was depicted as the title character and President and First Lady Obama were depicted as apes (a racist trope so serious it’s hard to type): “I didn’t make a mistake,” NPR’s All Things Considered reports.
Prior to the Trump White House’s explanation that the video was posted by an aide, who apparently has not been fired, Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC), only the second Black Republican senator since Sen. Edward Brooke (R-MA) became in 1967 the first Black senator since Reconstruction, said he was “praying it was a mistake.”
When the president claimed it was not his mistake, Scott called the video “the most racist thing” he’s seen out of the Trump administration.
A few other Republicans, including Sens. Roger Wicker of Mississippi and Pete Ricketts of Nebraska, joined Democrats in criticizing the Trump White House’s use of the video.
But Trump said he is perhaps the least-racist US president to hold the office in a long time.
“We did criminal justice reform,” Trump said. “I did historically Black colleges and universities. I got them funded. Nobody has been – and that’s why I got a tremendous, the highest vote with male Black voters that they’ve seen in many, many decades.”
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America’s Birthday for Sale – President Trump is offering one-on-one access and other perquisites to people and businesses who make tax-deductible donations to Freedom 250, the organization Trump set up last December, to throw “the most spectacular birthday party you’ve ever seen,” The New York Times reports Sunday. According to the report, chief fundraiser Meredith O’Rourke is “amassing private donations” by offering “bespoke packages” for donors.
Instead of say, celebrations of the Boston Tea Party and the signing of the Declaration of Independence, Trump’s plans for the semiquicentennial celebration include an IndyCar race through the capital, a national prayer event and an Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) match on the White House lawn for the president’s 80th birthday, June 14, according to the NYT … and, of course, an Arc de Trump over Washington. -- TL
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FRIDAY 2/6/26
UPDATE: Blaming the post on a staffer, the White House has removed the racist altered Lion King post from President Trump’s Truth Social as of Friday afternoon, NPR’s Here & Now reports. Trump’s – or a staffer’s – version of an X-Twitter post from last November had included only the president’s head on the body of the Disney animation’s Lion King character, with the heads of Barack and Michelle Obama attached to the bodies of animated apes, with images removed from the original post that included other prominent Democrats attached to other jungle animals.
Racism in Plain Sight – There have been many examples of President Trump’s “dog whistles” to racists over the years. Overnight Thursday, Trump Truth Socialed a racist 62-second video first posted on X-Twitter last November that depicts his longtime political nemesis, the former President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama as apes in a piece riffing on Disney’s The Lion King.
The video depicts Trump as the Lion King, natch, with Democrats including Hilary Clinton, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and former Vice President Kamala Harris as “zebras, giraffes and other animals,” according to The New York Times, as well as the Obamas depicted as apes, repeating a white supremacist trope that goes back to America’s slavery era.
At the end of the video, the Democratic jungle animals bow to Lion King Trump, according to the report.
White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt called reaction to the video “fake outrage,” the NYT continues, adding “This is from an internet video depicting President Trump as the King of the Jungle and Democrats as characters from The Lion King.”
California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) called the video “disgusting behavior by the president” and said “Every single Republican must denounce this. Now.”
Former Obama administration official Ben Rhodes called Trump “a stain on our history.”
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US With Iran in Oman – Iranian negotiators led by Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi are in Muscat, Oman with Trump administration special envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner to prevent another conflict between the two countries, The New York Times reports. President Trump has backed off his January threat to attack Iran if the country continues to kill peaceful protesters, and NPR’s Morning Edition reports that the negotiations have commenced with the US and Iranian contingents in separate rooms, with diplomats from the host country shuttling in negotiation points between the two.
Reports indicate deaths in the tens of thousands from the Iran government’s crackdown on protesters.
Meanwhile an NYT analysis of satellite images indicates Iran has made rapid repairs to its ballistic missile facilities since the US air attack in 2025, but just limited fixes to its major nuclear sites.
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Trump’s Dispensary – Americans now have access to most-favored-nation (MFN) pricing on medications from AstraZeneca, Eli Lilly, EMD Serono, Novo Nordisk and Pfizer, by logging on to TrumpRx.gov, the White House has announced. MFN discounts include Ozempic, normally $1,028, available for an average of $350 and as low as $199, and Wegovy list priced at $1,349 for as low as $149. For both drugs the final price is based on dosage prescribed.
Critics say the discount prices are no better than typical co-pays for such medications as covered by health insurance.
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Week on Ice – Homeland Security funding has a week remaining before the extension of its 2025 appropriations expires, or Congress passes a permanent bill or another stopgap. Democrats have released a 10-point plan to reform Immigration and Customs Enforcement including body cameras (which Republicans support), clear identification on standard uniforms and equipment, masks off, and required judicial – not administrative – warrants.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) and House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) want to get it done, what with Homeland Security appropriations affecting the Coast Guard, TSA and FEMA as well as the already well-funded ICE.
“We want to make sure that ICE agents are conducting themselves like every other law enforcement agency in the country,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) told Morning Edition.
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Russian General Shot – Lt. Gen. Vladimir Alekseyev, whose superior in the Russian army has been actively involved in futile peace talks with Ukraine in recent weeks, was shot “multiple times” in the back while in Moscow, The Wall Street Journal reports. The attacker fled the scene.
Alekseyev has served Russia’s GRU intelligence agency since 2011 and has been accused by Western officials of conducting assassination attempts and sabotage attacks abroad. State-run RT television reports that Alekseyev was in critical condition. –TL
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THURSDAY 2/5/26
‘Softer Touch’ – President Trump is looking to expand his immigration crackdown into five more cities, though he wants Homeland Security forces to be ‘invited’, he told NBC News in a preview of the traditional Super Bowl Sunday interview this weekend.
“We have five cities that we’re looking at strongly, but we want to be invited,” Trump told NBC Nightly News anchor Tom Llamas (above) in the preview broadcast Wednesday.
Trump did not name the five cities, though Atlanta, Philadelphia and Detroit have been mentioned as three potential solid-blue targets in recent weeks.
“I learned that maybe we can use a little bit of a softer touch, but you still have to be tough,” Trump told Llamas. “We’re dealing with really hard criminals.”
“Operation Metro Surge” in the Twin Cities, along with other immigration crackdowns in Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, Chicago and elsewhere have led to a series of lawsuits against the administration for violating both legal and undocumented immigrants.
Meanwhile, Trump said the fatal shootings of Renée Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis were “very sad to me,” but …
“He was not an angel and she was not an angel,” Trump continued. … “I think they were both sad. And you know who feels worse about it than anybody? The people of ICE.”
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Poll: Trump, ICE Disapproval – Latest NPR/PBS News/Marist poll released on Morning Edition Thursday finds 65% of Americans say Immigration and Customs Enforcement has “gone too far,” and President Trump has his highest intensity of disapproval since just after the January 6th, 2021, attack on the US Capitol.
That 65% who say ICE has gone too far in enforcing immigration laws represents an 11-point increase since last summer, NPR’s Domenico Montanaro reports. Both independent and Democratic voters’ disapproval was up by double-digits.
Meanwhile… Trump’s overall favorable rating is 39%, with a disapproval rating of 56%, while 51% say they strongly disapprove of the job he is doing. That represents the highest “strong” number since Marist began tracking “strongly” approve or disapprove in 2017, Montanaro said. --TL
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WEDNESDAY 2/4/26
Only 2,300 Remain – In his second press conference Wednesday since taking over Operation Metro Surge in the Twin Cities nearly a week earlier, Trump administration border czar Tom Homan announced about 700 federal law enforcement personnel of about 3,000 – about four times the size of Minneapolis’ police force -- will leave immediately, The Hill reports. The crackdown on immigrants and those suspected of being immigrants will not ramp down, however.
“If you are in the country illegally, you are not off the table. Let me be clear: President Trump fully intends to achieve mass deportation during his administration, and immigration enforcement actions will continue every day throughout this country.”
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Spending Package Passes – The House approved a $1 trillion-plus spending package to reopen a portion of the federal government that shut down last Saturday. The vote was 217-214, according to NPR’s All Things Considered and includes a stopgap package for Homeland Security that’s good to February 13.
Five other appropriations bills included in the vote fund – Defense-HHS-Education, Financial Services, National Security-State and Transportation-HUD are good to the end of the fiscal year, September 30.
Now what? … On the face of it, Senate Democrats would seem to have the advantage in negotiations over reforms for Immigration and Customs Enforcement as they could hold up Homeland Security spending via filibuster if they don’t get ICE and border patrol body cameras, ID badges and the removal of masks plus judicial warrants only – no administrative warrants.
However … Republicans are in agreement with Democrats about body cameras and they could let the Homeland Security shut down again, as ICE was well-funded by President Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill, but TSA, for example, was not.
What’s more, there’s talk of Republicans killing the filibuster – though Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) is opposed – that could include forcing a “standing filibuster” by Democrats and invoking Rule 19.
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Sucking Sound in St. Paul – Justice Department attorney Julie Le expressed frustration about the downstream effects of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown in the Twin Cities by telling a federal judge the “system sucks” and “this job sucks,” The Wall Street Journal reports.
Le’s response came when Judge Jerry Blackwell in St. Paul pressed her about why the Trump administration was not complying with court orders to release detained migrants in Minnesota, according to two people who attended the hearing. Le also tried to get the judge to hold her in contempt so she could get 24 hours sleep. The hearing was brought to court by immigrants challenging the lawfulness of their detentions in five separate cases.
The WSJ credited Fox 9 Minneapolis-St. Paul with first reporting on the court hearing.
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Trilateral Peace Talks in Abu Dhabi – The US, Russia and Ukraine have begun their second round of trilateral peace talks in Abu Dhabi, led by Trump administration son-in-law Jared Kushner and special envoy Steve Witkoff, The Kyiv Independentreports.
But are they trilateral, really?
The two-day talks begin a day after Russia staged its most massive strike this winter on Ukraine, launching 71 missiles and 450 drones overnight Tuesday, according to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
This re-escalation of Russia’s assault on Ukraine’s power grid has led many to question the Kremlin’s seriousness about reaching a peace deal, according to the Independent. – Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa