Summary
Closing summary
Our live coverage is ending now. In the meantime, you can find all of our live US politics coverage here. Here is a summary of the key developments from today:
Democrats and the White House have reached a deal to avoid a government shutdown, Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer’s office confirmed to the Guardian. The deal will advance a package of spending bills, while separating a Department of Homeland Security spending bill from the package. The agreement will include funding for DHS for two weeks at current levels, while Democrats continue negotiating further guardrails on immigration agents in light of the recent fatal shootings in Minneapolis. However, a government shutdown could still be coming, with Senate majority leader John Thune saying it “remains to be seen” whether the chamber will approve the deal tonight and House speaker Mike Johnson saying the earliest the House could take floor action may be Monday.
Donald Trump sued the US Treasury and Internal Revenue Service for $10bn over an unauthorized disclosure of his tax returns during his first term, Bloomberg News reports. Trump famously broke precedent by not releasing his tax returns while running for, and then attaining, the presidency.
Trump will announce his choice to replace Jerome Powell as head the Federal Reserve tomorrow, he says. Powell’s term as chair of the reserve ends in May.
Amy Klobuchar, the Democratic US senator and one-time presidential candidate, announced she will run for governor of Minnesota, an expected move after the incumbent governor, Tim Walz, dropped out of the race in early January.
Matt Mahan, the moderate Democrat and mayor of San Jose, California, announced on Thursday that he would run for governor, joining a sprawling but stagnant field to succeed Gavin Newsom.
The Justice Department filed charges against the man who allegedly tried to spray Democrat representative Ilhan Omar with a “mixture of water and apple cider vinegar” from a syringe during a town hall in Minneapolis on Tuesday.
Trump’s “border czar” Tom Homan held a news conference in Minneapolis today, where he said ‘no agency is perfect’ but did not mention the fatal shootings of US citizens by immigration agents there this month.
Minneapolis mayor Jacob Frey addressed the US Conference of Mayors in Washington, where he said “we won’t be intimidated”. He said the leaders of cities across the country are “on the frontlines of a very important battle”.
The top Democrats on Senate and House national intelligence committees questioned why Tulsi Gabbard, the Director of National Intelligence, appeared at an FBI search of a Georgia election office this week. In a letter to Gabbard, senator Mark Warner and congressman Jim Hines wrote, “The Intelligence Community should be focused on foreign threats”.
Massachusetts governor Maura Healey announced that she plans to file legislation that would bar federal immigration officers from schools, courthouses, hospitals and churches and make it illegal for another state to deploy its National Guard in the state. Meanwhile, Josh Shapiro said Pennsylvania is preparing to respond if federal agents begin an immigration operation there as they have in Minnesota and other states.
Trump signed an executive order to create a “White House Great American Recovery Initiative” focused on addiction treatment. At an Oval Office sigining ceremony, the president appeared alongside health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr and Kathryn Burgum, who is married to interior secretary Doug Burgum. The pair will be co-chairing the initiative.
The United States Treasury will allow US entities to engage in Venzuela’s oil industry under a new license announced today. The news comes as Venezuela’s interim president Delcy Rodríguez signed a law today to open the country’s oil sector to privatization. Also today, the Department of Transportation rescinded a 2019 order that prohibited all US airlines from flying to Venezuela.
The Department of Transportation has rescinded a 2019 order that prohibited all US airlines from flying to Venezuela.
The 2019 order came during Donald Trump’s first presidency, when the Department of Homeland Security determined that conditions in Venezuela threatened the safety and security of travelers, and suspended air travel to - as well as embassy operations in - the country.
Majority leader John Thune says it “remains to be seen” whether the Senate will approve a deal to fund the government tonight, Fox News reports.
Earlier today, Donald Trump and Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer said Democrats and the White House had reached a deal to keep the government open by separating out a funding bill for the Department of Homeland Security, which would be funded for only two-weeks while negotiations around immigration enforcement continue.
Donald Trump is currently attending the premiere of First Lady Melania Trump’s documentary, alongside other members of his cabinet.
Amazon MGM Studios financed the movie, “Melania”, at $75mn. Amazon chairman Jeff Bezos also contributed substantially to the president’s inaugural fund.
The studio paid $40mn to license the film and a forthcoming docuseries, and $35mn to promote and distribute the movie, Reuters reports.
House speaker Mike Johnson says the government could be headed to a “short shutdown situation” because the earliest the House will take floor action on funding bills could be Monday.
“We want to get the government funded, as does the president, so respect whatever he was able to negotiate there, and we’ll deal with it,” Johnson told reporters at the premiere of First Lady Melania Trump’s documentary at the Kennedy Center.
The Senate is expected to vote on a funding deal, reached earlier today, tonight. The House of Representatives requires that the text of bills be available 72 hours before a vote, Johnson said.
Without a funding package, the government will partially shut down at 12:01 am on Saturday.
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At the premiere of his wife Melania’s documentary at the Kennedy Center today, Donald Trump told reporters he hopes to speak to Iranian leadership.
“We have a lot of very big, very powerful ships sailing to Iran right now, and it would be great if we didn’t have to use them,” he said.
Donald Trump will announce his choice to replace Jerome Powell as head the Federal Reserve tomorrow, he just told reporters. Powell’s term as chair of the reserve ends in May.
On his way in to watch a screening of a new documentary about his wife, in what the White House now calls the Trump Kennedy Center, the president said: “I’ll be naming the Fed tomorrow morning. I’ve chosen a very good person to head the Fed. I’ll be putting that out tomorrow morning.”
Trump has long feuded with Powell over interest rates. As my colleague Lauren Aratani reported yesterday: “The Trump administration has put unprecedented pressure on the Fed chair, Jerome Powell, to cut rates, with Donald Trump launching personal attacks on Powell and the justice department opening a criminal investigation into his handling of the refurbishment of the central bank’s offices.”
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Donald Trump has sued the US Treasury and Internal Revenue Service for $10bn over an unauthorized disclosure of his tax returns during his first term, Bloomberg News reports.
Trump famously broke precedent by not releasing his tax returns while running for, and then attaining, the presidency. Ahead of the 2020 election, the New York Times published a report based on data leaked by a former IRS contractor.
The IRS and Treasury “had a duty to safeguard and protect plaintiffs’ confidential tax returns and related tax return information from such unauthorized inspection and public disclosure,” Trump’s lawsuit reads.
Trump has filed a number of lawsuits since returning to the presidency, seeking damages totaling more than $50bn, Bloomberg reports.
Here’s our past coverage of the details of Trump’s tax returns that were made public in 2022:
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As news of a government funding deal emerges, progressive organizations including MoveOn Civic Action are denouncing a “weak” deal with “zero ICE accountability”.
“Leader Schumer should ask the Minnesotans who are watching their neighbors get killed in cold blood if a deal with no plan to stop ICE is enough right now,” said MoveOn Civic Action spokesperson Britt Jacovich.
Donald Trump threatened Canada with 50% tariffs on “any and all Aircraft” it sells in the United States, citing the country’s decision not to certify Gulfstream jets made in the United States.
“We are hereby decertifying their Bombardier Global Expresses, and all Aircraft made in Canada, until such time as Gulfstream, a Great American Company, is fully certified,” the president wrote on his social media platform. He added that he would levy the tariff if “this situation is not immediately corrected”.
Trump has repeatedly threatened the United States’s northern neighbor with tariffs, including most recently if Canada made a deal with China:
The United States Treasury will allow US entities to engage in Venzuela’s oil industry under a new license announced today. The license specifically prohibits entities from China, Russia, Iran, North Korea or Cuba from the transactions.
The news comes as Venezuela’s interim president Delcy Rodríguez signed a law today to open the country’s oil sector to privatization.
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Donald Trump has signed an executive order imposing tariffs on countries that sell oil to Cuba, according to the White House.
Democrats and White House reach deal to avoid government shutdown
Democrats and the White House have reached a deal to avoid a government shutdown, Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer’s office has confirmed to the Guardian.
The deal will advance a package of spending bills, while separating a Department of Homeland Security spending bill from the package. The agreement will include funding for DHS for two weeks at current levels, while Democrats continue negotiating further guardrails on immigration agents in light of the recent fatal shootings in Minneapolis.
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Donald Trump signs executive order to create initiative focused on addiction treatment
Donald Trump signed an executive order today to create a “White House Great American Recovery Initiative” focused on addiction treatment.
At an Oval Office sigining ceremony, the president appeared alongside health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr and Kathryn Burgum, who is married to interior secretary Doug Burgum. The pair will be co-chairing the initiative.
Both Kennedy and Burgum have lived experience with addiction.
Kennedy, who has been open about his past struggle with heroin addiction, emphasized that it’s “not a moral failure, it’s a disease.”
In her remarks, Kathryn Burgum talked about being reliant on alcohol for 20 years and being in recovery for more than 23. “Addiction is not a moral failure. It is not a character flaw. And it’s not simply a behavioral issue. Addiction is a lifelong, chronic, relapsing medical disease as real as diabetes, cancer, and heart disease. And when we fail to treat it as such, we don’t treat the disease,” she said.
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House speaker Mike Johnson called last week’s shooting of Alex Pretti “deeply concerning” in his first remarks about the death of the 37-year-old ICU nurse in Minneapolis.
Johnson told reporters that an investigation is necessary, while also criticizing state and local officials. “We need them to cooperate with federal officials,” he said.
Josh Shapiro says Pennsylvania is preparing to respond if federal agents begin an immigration operation there as they have in Minnesota and other states.
Speaking in conversation with The Christian Science Monitor at an event in Washington DC, Shapiro declined to share specifics but said, “we have ratcheted up our preparation should this come, and that is going to involve not just law enforcement response but working closely with the community.”
“If the president of the United States seeks to impose his will and the federal will on the commonwealth, there may be some things we can’t stop,” he said, but added that his government is “prepared on every level”.
Asked about Trump’s threats to investigate California for fraud, Newsom ran through a litany of efforts the state had taken to reduce abuses of federal and state benefit programs. While he insisted that fraud was a real problem and efforts to address it should be taken seriously, Newsom pushed back, asking the moderator if he was aware of a multi-billion dollar healthcare fraud scheme in Texas.
He suggested that because it took place in a red state that voted overwhelmingly for Trump, the federal government wasn’t interested in the case.
“This is not about fraud and abuse,” Newsom said. “This is about politicalization, weaponization.”
As he has before, Newsom argued that Trump was laying the groundwork to contest the outcome of the 2026 midterm elections in anticipation of steep Republican losses that could imperil the second-half of his presidency.
“What more evidence do we need on a day-to-day basis,” Newsom asked. On Wednesday, the FBI executed a search warrant at the elections warehouse of a Georgia county at the heart of Trump’s baseless stolen-election lie, Newsom noted. “All of this is part of that same narrative, that same threat.”
Gavin Newsom says he has little faith that 'border czar' Tom Homan will de-escalate immigration crackdown in Minneapolis
Governor Gavin Newsom said he had little faith that Donald Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan, would de-escalate the immigration crackdown in Minneapolis, warning darkly: “These guys are not screwing around.”
Speaking in San Francisco at an event hosted by Bloomberg News, Newsom recalled that the Trump administration closed an investigation into Homan, who was accused of accepting a bag with $50,000 in cash from undercover FBI agents.
“If Tom Holman – who was accused of a $50,000 bribe where charges disappeared … – is the adult in the room, we are more trouble than any of you think,” Newsom said.
The governor added: “None of this can be normalized, and none of this, none of these can be considered credible in the context of any of this renewed posture of the administration.”
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Donald Trump’s approval rating has fallen to 37%, down three percentage points from the fall, according to a new Pew poll.
The poll showed the greatest changes among Republicans. The percentage of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents who believed Trump acts ethically in office had fallen from 55% at the start of the president’s second term, to just 42% in January 2026. Meanwhile, the percentage who believed the president had the mental fitness to do the job had fallen from three-quarters to two-thirds of Republicans.
Pew also asked Americans about their opinions regarding Trump’s immigration policies. It found that 74% of Americans believe it is acceptable for ordinary people to record video of immigration arrests. A majority (59%) also believe it is acceptable for people to share information about where enforcement actions are happening.
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Top Democrats on Senate and House national intelligence committees question why Tulsi Gabbard appeared at FBI search of Georgia election office
The top Democrats on Senate and House national intelligence committees are questioning why Tulsi Gabbard, the Director of National Intelligence, appeared at an FBI search of a Georgia election office this week.
Gabbard was present yesterday when the Federal Bureau of Investigation executed a search warrant in Fulton county, Georgia for documents related to the 2020 election, which Donald Trump has falsely claimed he won.
In a letter to Gabbard, senator Mark Warner and congressman Jim Hines wrote, “The Intelligence Community should be focused on foreign threats and, as you yourself have testified, when those intelligence authorities are turned inwards the results can be devastating for Americans privacy and civil liberties.”
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Massachusetts governor Maura Healey announced today that she plans to file legislation that would bar federal immigration officers from schools, courthouses, hospitals and churches and make it illegal for another state to deploy its National Guard in the state.
Healey, a Democrat running for reelection, also signed an executive order that would prohibit Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers from making civil arrests in non-public areas of state facilities, and prohibiting the use of state property for immigration enforcement staging.
“We have people right now in Massachusetts who are afraid to send their children to school or to daycare, people afraid to go to church and worship, people afraid to go to the doctor’s for appointments or take their kids to the pediatrician’s office,” Healey said at a press conference.
“This is all making us less, less safe. And as governor, I have a responsibility to protect the people of Massachusetts.”
El Salvador signs trade agreement with the US
El Salvador has signed a trade agreement with the United States, El Salvador’s ambassador to the US Milena Mayorga and US trade representative Jamieson Greer announced today.
The US embassy said it was a deal for “reciprocal trade” which involved “addressing a number of non-tariff barriers including simplifying regulatory requirements.”
In a statement, Greer said: “Today’s signing of the first Agreement on Reciprocal Trade in the Western Hemisphere will further strengthen markets for US exports and lower trade barriers facing American workers and producers. This Agreement is an important step in the deepening of our strategic partnerships in Latin America.”
Part of the “strategic partnerships” that the Trump administration has built with El Salvador was the agreement for the US to expel Venezuelan deportees to El Salvador under Trump’s mass deportation agenda. Deportees under the policy suffered systematic and prolonged torture and abuse during their detention, according to reports.
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California officials are reportedly meeting with Detroit automakers this week to discuss the next phase of greenhouse gas regulations for cars and trucks, despite opposition from the Trump administration.
California is currently fighting in the courts and in Congress against Trump’s efforts to dismantle landmark federal vehicle emissions standards. Governor Gavin Newsom is planning an announcement next week that will lay out details of a new $200 million electric vehicle incentive program that aims to help fill the gap left after Trump’s budget bill killed federal tax credits for new electric cars last year, Lauren Sanchez, chair of the California Air Resources Board, told Reuters in an interview.
The Trump administration is looking at basing its new Board of Peace in the Washington building that formerly housed the US Institute of Peace, administration officials told the Associated Press.
The Board of Peace’s initial task is to oversee the Gaza ceasefire plan, but Trump seems to have broader ambitions for the initiative. The US Institute of Peace is an independent nongovernmental organization established by Congress. The administration seized the building last year and fired almost all the institute’s staff. The building has since been renamed the Donald J. Trump US Institute of Peace, but its name and status are in legal limbo.
'We won't be intimidated,' Minneapolis mayor Jacob Frey says at US Conference of Mayors
Minneapolis mayor Jacob Frey has just addressed the US Conference of Mayors at a winter meeting in Washington.
“In Minneapolis, we’ve heard them say they will end this siege when we hand over voter rolls. We’ve seen them invade not just with this occupation, but also with the DOJ being used as a weapon,” Frey said. “They’re investigating me and several other local elected officials not because we’ve done something wrong but because we have exhibited one of the core responsibilities we have as mayors – speaking on behalf of your constituents. I’m going to continue to speak on behalf of my constituents. We won’t be intimidated.”
Frey also told reporters that “Our police officers will do their jobs,” and “They’re not going to do somebody else’s job.” He brushed off Trump’s threat that he was “playing with fire” by not enforcing federal immigration laws.
During his remarks, the mayor said leaders of cities across the country are “on the frontlines of a very important battle,” adding “This is not a time to bend our heads in despair out of fear that we may be next.”
He warned: “If we do not speak up, if we do not step out, it will be your city that is next.”
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Mike Johnson, the Republican speaker of the House of Representatives, said that he called Democratic Representative Ilhan Omar after she was sprayed with vinegar during her town hall on Tuesday night in Minneapolis.
“We deal with member security issues as they rise” he told a CNN reporter. “I called her as I do any member who has a situation like that. I talked with her briefly, I think she felt like she had adequate protection there.”
The man who sprayed the substance has since been charged with assault.
When asked by reporters whether a deal has been reached to avoid a government shutdown, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, a Republican, said on Thursday afternoon that they are “trending in the right direction, but I don’t think we’re quite there yet.”
Another reporter asked whether he had talked to the White House “about what to do” to which Thune responded: “Yes.”
Democratic Senator Tina Smith, of Minnesota, has said that she was not satisfied by the remarks made this morning by Tom Homan.
When asked by CNN’s Manu Raji “was what Tom Homan laid out enough for you?” Smith responded: “No, not at all, it was more conciliatory words but no detail. And I’m looking for information about when troops are leaving.”
“I think ICE needs to get out of Minnesota” Smith added. “I think it is dangerous when they are there, I’m looking for much more detail than he offered today.”
A new survey from Pew Research has found that over 60% of Americans oppose suspending all applications for asylum and giving immigration priority to people if they pay a $1 million fee.
The survey of 8,512 US adults, conducted between 20 January and 26 January, also found that over 60% of those surveyed oppose keeping large numbers of immigrants in detention centers while their cases are decided, and are against pausing immigration visa applications from people in 75 countries.
But, the survey found that 62% of respondents favor maintaining a large military presence at the US-Mexico border, and that 56% of respondents said that they were in favor of requiring people who want to enter the US to let immigration officers review their social media accounts.
“There are wide partisan gaps on many immigration proposals and actions from the Trump administration” the report states. “But majorities of both Republicans and Democrats oppose giving people priority status in the immigration process for a $1 million fee.”
Leavitt: Trump to sign order 'launching new initiative to address drug addiction'
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt has announced that Trump will sign an executive order at 4pm today “launching new initiative to address drug addiction”.
Leavitt made the announcement on X and shared a link to a CBS News story about the order that Trump is scheduled to sign.
The CBS News story says the order will “coordinate a federal government response to drug addiction and substance abuse” and it states that, per a White House fact sheet, the order will create a “White House Great American Recovery Initiative,” which will advise federal agencies on directing grants to support addiction recovery and aim to increase awareness about drug addiction.
The initiative will also reportedly advise agencies on how to integrate programs focused on drug prevention, early intervention, treatment, recovery support and re-entry, CBS reported.
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Nevada Senator Catherine Cortez Masto, a Democrat, said Thursday that she would not break with her party if a another government shutdown fight emerges, as Democrats have refused to support a funding package that includes money for the Department of Homeland Security following the second fatal shooting of a US citizen in Minneapolis by federal immigration agents.
Cortez Masto, who previously broke with Democrats during the last shutdown, said on Thursday that “there’s a difference now.”
“First of all I don’t support shutdowns, never have” she said, adding that “the only one that we’re questioning right now is Homeland Security, and rightfully so based on what we have seen, the excessive force and demand for accountability for these officers. So, there has to be a callout.”
The University of Minnesota police reportedly arrested 67 protesters who were demonstrating at the Graduate hotel, where demonstrators suspect that immigration agents are staying, on campus on Wednesday night.
In an Instagram post, the University of Minnesota Students for a Democratic Society shared that all protesters had been cited and released as of Thursday morning. Student activist groups will host another rally near the Graduate to protest the arrests.
Chris Van Hollen, a democratic senator from Maryland, promoted a bill on Thursday that addresses the rising electricity costs AI data centers are bringing to the public. During a press conference, he said the legislation sets out to make sure “rate payers should not have to foot the bill of some of the richest companies on earth”.
The top companies driving data center growth are Amazon, Microsoft, Google and Meta.
Van Hollen cited a Department of Energy report that says it expects power consumption from data centers to more than double by 2028 because of the rise in AI. He also pointed to a report by the Natural Resources Defense Council, which estimates average households in the 13 states in the “Pennsylvania-New Jersey-Maryland” region could see their energy bill grow by $70 per month, or $840 per year, because of pass-on costs from tech companies to consumers.
Van Hollen’s “Power for the People Act” comes after Donald Trump announced earlier this month that he was partnering with tech companies to ensure they didn’t drive up electricity costs for households. “Big Technology Companies who build them must ‘pay their own way,’” Trump wrote on Truth Social. Microsoft was the first company to lay out a plan, and OpenAI made a similar announcement days later.
Van Hollen called Trump’s announcement “a nice set of principles”, but said it’s not enforceable and not complex enough to address strain-on-the-grid issues, such as black outs and brown outs.
DoJ files charges against man accused of spraying substance at Ilhan Omar
The Justice Department has filed charges today against the man who allegedly tried to spray Democrat representative Ilhan Omar with a “mixture of water and apple cider vinegar” from a syringe during a town hall in Minneapolis on Tuesday.
The affidavit alleges that Anthony Kazmierczak “forcibly assaulted, opposed, impeded, intimidated an officer and employee of the United States” while she was engaged in official duties.
Omar, who has repeatedly criticized the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown in Minnesota, had just finished calling for the resignation of Kristi Noem when Kamierczak appeared to say, “She’s not resigning. You’re splitting Minnesotans apart” after spraying her, according to the FBI.
This morning, Omar appeared on CNN to reiterate her stance against the Trump administration’s aggressive approach to immigration. “The difference between the president and I is that I was raised to be a decent human being, and my faith teaches me to have compassion,” she said. “He lacks both of those things.”
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Today’s cabinet meeting has just ended after going on for over an hour. Trump notably did not take questions from the press.
Senate Democrats block vote to allow government funding as shutdown looms
Moments after Trump said ‘we’re getting close’ on a deal to avert a US government shutdown, Democrats voted to block legislation to fund the Department of Homeland Security and several other agencies as they continued to negotiate with Republicans and the White House on new restrictions for Trump’s surge of immigration enforcement.
Thursday’s 45-55 test vote came as Democrats have threatened a partial government shutdown when money runs out on Friday.
As the country reels from the deaths of two protesters at the hands of federal agents in Minneapolis, Senate Democrats laid out a list of demands on Wednesday, including that officers take off their masks and identify themselves and obtain warrants for arrest.
If these demands are not met, Democrats say they are prepared to block the wide-ranging spending bill, denying Republicans the votes they need to pass it and triggering a shutdown.
Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer has said that Democrats won’t provide the needed votes until the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is “reined in and overhauled” and that this is “a moment of truth.”
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Trump: Putin agrees to not fire on Kyiv for a week due to weather
Trump said that Russian president Vladimir Putin agreed to not fire on Kyiv for a week due to cold weather.
“I personally asked President Putin not to fire into Kyiv and various towns for a week, and he agreed to do that,” Trump said at the Cabinet meeting, citing “extraordinary cold” in the region.
“It was very nice. A lot of people said, ‘Don’t waste the call, you’re not going to get that.’ And he did it,” Trump added.
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Trump also said the US “had zero illegal aliens being admitted into our country for the last eight months”.
“That’s hard for even me to believe,” he quipped. According to the department of homeland security’s own 2025 year-end review, border crossings dropped by 93% year-over-year.
Trump claims 'we're getting close' on a deal to avert US government shutdown
Speaking on the possibility of a government shutdown, Trump said: “Hopefully we won’t have a shutdown and we’re working on that right now. I think we’re getting close. The Democrats, I don’t believe, want to see it either. So we’ll work in a very bipartisan way, I believe, not to have a shutdown. We don’t want to shut down.”
Talks of a government shutdown have been looming since Senate Democrats demanded a series of reforms on federal agents involved in Trump’s mass deportation campaign, including a prohibition on wearing masks, the imposition of a code of conduct and independent investigations of violations.
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Trump says airspace over Venezuela to reopen as US oil companies in country scouting locations to drill
Speaking on Venezuela, Trump said: “We have the major oil companies going to Venezuela now, scouting it out and picking their locations, and they’ll be bringing back tremendous wealth for Venezuela and for the United States. And the oil companies will do fine to Venezuela, will actually make for themselves more money than they’ve ever made before. And that’s a good thing.”
He continued: “I just spoke to the president of Venezuela, informed her that we’re going to be opening up all commercial airspace over Venezuela. American citizens will be very shortly able to go to Venezuela, and they’ll be safe there.” He also added that he has “instructed Sean Duffy and everybody else concerned, including the military, that if you would, by the end of today, I’d like you out of the airspace over Venezuela”.
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Trump holds Cabinet meeting amid looming shutdown and Minnesota crisis
Donald Trump has begun speaking at this afternoon’s Cabinet meeting. We will bring you lines from the meeting as they come.
Since returning to office, Trump has used his cabinet meetings to review his administration’s accomplishments and provide Cabinet members with an opportunity to shower him with compliments.
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There’s news of shifting sands in Florida, where Alex Vindman, a key player in Donald Trump’s first impeachment, announced Tuesday he was running as a Democrat for a US Senate seat.
The army veteran’s campaign says it raised a record $1.7m in the 24 hours after launching his candidacy, and it was given a further lift Thursday when Sabato’s Crystal Ball, the respected political forecasting arm of the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics, nudged the race in his favor.
Vindman still has a mountain to climb to topple the incumbent Republican, Ashley Moody, in November. But the shift from “safe” Republican to “likely” Republican is still a notable development in the former swing state that has become reliably red in recent election cycles.
It follows other small but significant Democratic advances during the second Trump administration, including pushing two Republican candidates close in a special congressional election in April, and Eileen Higgins’s stunning upset win in Miami’s mayoral run-off last month.
Vindman, a retired Lt Col, and his brother Eugene, now Democratic congressman for Virginia, served the national security council in Trump’s first term, and raised concerns that sparked an investigation into the president’s demands for Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden.
Florida has not elected a Democratic senator since Bill Nelson in 2012.
US defense secretary Pete Hegseth is not expected to attend a meeting of Nato defence ministers in Brussels next month, a US official and a Nato diplomat told Reuters.
If Hegseth does not attend the regular gathering, he will be the second US cabinet secretary in a row to skip a Nato ministerial meeting. Secretary of state Marco Rubio did not attend the last Nato foreign ministers’ meeting in December.
The US standing in Nato has been on shaky ground since Trump set aggressive sights on obtaining Greenland. Earlier this month, Trump rattled Nato allies after threatening to impose tariffs on a group of European members of the alliance that opposed his bid for Greenland, prompting outrage from EU leaders.
Moderate Democrat Matt Mahan announces bid for California governor
Matt Mahan, the moderate Democrat and mayor of San Jose, California, announced on Thursday that he would run for governor, joining a sprawling but stagnant field to succeed Gavin Newsom.
In a series of interviews on Thursday, Mahan suggested he saw an opening as a candidate focused less on the national politics dominated by Donald Trump and more on the problems facing the state, including homelessness and the soaring cost-of-living.
“We have a lot of candidates following a tired playbook,” Mahan told Politico. “They’re either running against Trump or they’re running in his image. I’m running for the future of California.”
Mahan, 43, is a former tech entrepreneur who was first elected mayor of Silicon Valley’s largest city in 2022. Since then, he has drawn support for his pragmatic approach that he touts for helping make San Jose the safest big city in the nation.
For weeks, he has signaled an interest in running for governor. His entrance into the race, months before the June primary, reflects the unsettled nature of the field, which has so far failed to produce a front-runner.
Mahan is a frequent critic of Newsom, who is term-limited and cannot run again, over the governor’s approach to homelessness, crime reduction and even his social media taunting of the president.
The Democrats running for governor include former congresswoman Katie Porter, congressman Eric Swalwell, former health and human services secretary Xavier Becerra, former Los Angeles mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, and billionaire climate activist Tom Steyer.
Welcoming Mahan to the race, Steyer said in a statement: “California needs a governor who will stand up to powerful interests, not carry their water.”
Mexican president Claudia Sheinbaum said today she had a “productive and cordial” conversation with her US counterpart Donald Trump.
“We continue to make progress on trade issues and the bilateral relationship. We agreed that both teams will continue working together,” Sheinbaum said in a post on X.
To stave off the threat of tariffs, the Mexican government has already helped the Trump administration with aspects of its security agenda – the US-Mexico border – by suppressing the number of migrants arriving there and receiving deportees. Earlier this month, Sheinbaum defended the transfer of 37 Mexican cartel operatives to the US as a “sovereign decision”, as her government strives to alleviate pressure from the Trump administration to do more against drug-trafficking groups.
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Homan: undocumented immigrants are ‘never off the table’ as enforcement surge continues
Earlier, Homan said that the immigration enforcement surge in the Twin Cities is “targeted”.
“We know exactly who we’re looking for,” Trump’s border czar said, despite many people who have minor or no criminal convictions being caught in the dragnet.
When a reporter asked whether undocumented immigrants — who have not committed a crime — would be affected by the ongoing operation, Homan was resolute.
“If you’re in the country illegally, you’re never off the table,” he said.
A reminder that living in the US without legal status is a civil offense.
Homan said if the “message” that the Trump administration sends to undocumented immigrants is “don’t worry, unless you commit a serious crime, you’re good to go” they are “never going to fix this problem”.
A man attempted to raise the American flag in Greenland’s capital, Nuuk, on Wednesday and was stopped by bystanders, according to Danish television channel TV 2.
When police later questioned the person, he identified himself with a German satire program called Extra 3, broadcast on the German television station Norddeutscher Rundfunk. Extra 3 is working on a satirical film about the U.S. posture toward Greenland, the station said.
A fine was issued “on the spot” for the act.
Officials in Springfield, Ohio, are bracing for an immigration enforcement surge next week as Temporary Protected Status for Haitian immigrants expires.
Reporting by the Springfield News-Sun cited messages within the city’s school system expecting that a federal immigration enforcement operation may begin in Springfield lasting at least 30 days.
”Federal authorities signaled an enforcement window of at least 30 days,” said an email obtained by the News-Sun from Springfield City School District Superintendent Bob Hill, citing a meeting with Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine. “A federal list of individual removal orders has been identified in Springfield as an initial focal point for enforcement activity, with discretion to detain additional individuals encountered who lack lawful status.”
Donald Trump falsely claimed that Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, were eating residents’ pets during a 2024 debate. The fabrication had been pushed by a neo-Nazi group in Ohio. Trump’s amplification of the lie made the city a focal point for national immigration debates and threats against immigrants there.
ICE agents have been instructed not to engage with “agitators” following the arrival of Tom Homan amid the fallout after federal agents shot two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis, Reuters reports.
The new orders instruct agents to focus on “targeted enforcement,” as Homan described in a press conference this morning, while refraining from random seizures in street stops in Minneapolis.
“DO NOT COMMUNICATE OR ENGAGE WITH AGITATORS,” said an email disseminated by a top ICE official. “It serves no purpose other than inflaming the situation. No one is going to convince the other. The only communication should be the officers issuing commands.”
ICE officers will receive megaphones so that they can issue commands to the public and “need to verbalize every step of the arrest process”, Reuters reported.
Homan says that immigration crackdown in Minnesota could ease up with ‘cooperation’ from local officials
Homan didn’t answer a reporter’s question about the specific number of federal immigration agents that are currently in Minneapolis.
“There’s been some rotations,” he said.
This comes after reports that, after Gregory Bovino left the state, a number of border patrol officers were also directed to leave.
Homan also noted that “cooperation” from local officials in Minnesota, specifically access to jails, could lead to the federal immigration crackdown easing up, and a reduction of agents throughout the state.
“As we see that cooperation happen, then redeployment will happen,” he said.
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Homan doesn’t specify ‘improvements’ to be made in federal immigration crackdown
During Thursday’s press conference, Tom Homan noted that the administration has “recognized that certain improvements could and should be made” in the ongoing immigration enforcement operation in Minnesota, but didn’t specify what those looked like or when they would be implemented.
The border czar also refused to comment on the newly published video footage of Alex Pretti earlier this month, which appears to show officers grabbing Pretti and bringing him to the ground during intense protests that have gripped Minneapolis.
“We’ll let the investigation play out and let it go where it goes,” Homan added.
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Tom Homan, border czar for the Trump Administration, is appealing for politicians and the public for a shift in tone.
“The hostile rhetoric and dangerous threats must stop,” Homan said. “I said in March that if the rhetoric didn’t stop, there would be bloodshed. I wish I wasn’t right. … “If you want certain laws reformed, take it up with Congress.”
“God bless Minnesota. We can do better,” he said.
Trump’s border czar says that ‘no agency is perfect’ but doesn’t mention fatal shootings of US citizens in Minneapolis
“I do not want to hear that “everything that’s been done here has been perfect”, Homan said, without referring specifically to the fatal shooting of Renee Good and Alex Pretti.
Homan noted that while no “agency is perfect” he did not come to Minneapolis to create “headlines”. The federal immigration enforcement surge is “going to improve because of changes we’re making”, he said.
Homan kicked off his press conference saying that he’s been in the Twin cities for fewer than three days. “I’m staying until the problem’s gone,” he said.
In his time on the ground, Homan noted his meeting with state and city officials, including governor Time Walz, attorney general Keith Ellison, Minneapolis mayor Jacob Frey, as well as a number of police chiefs.
“I’ve heard many people want to know why we’re talking to people that they don’t consider friends of the administration. Bottom line is you can’t fix problems if you don’t have discussions,” Homan added.
Notably, during his meeting with Ellison, Homan confirmed that the attorney general promised that county jails would notify federal immigration authorities about the release dates of criminals that post a “public safety risk”.
Homan says 'improvements' to be made to Trump's immigration enforcement
Tom Homan acknowledges in remarks in Minneapolis that there are “improvements” that should be made in how the federal government has carried out immigration enforcement in Minnesota.
“ICE is enforcing laws enacted by Congress through a federal statute,” he said. “That said, I’m not here because of the federal government has carried this mission out perfectly.”
Homan went on to say, “President Trump and I, along with others in administration, have recognized that certain improvements could and should be made. That’s exactly what I’m doing here.”
Trump’s border czar also vowed to say in Minnesota “until the problem’s gone.”
“We will conduct targeted enforcement operations targeting what we’ve done for decades,” he said. “When we hit the street, we know exactly who we’re looking for.”
The border czar also acknowledged people’s right to protest, but urged the public to “keep it peaceful.”
Trump border czar Tom Homan speaks in Minneapolis
In Minneapolis, Trump’s “border czar” Tom Homan is set to address reporters shortly.
A reminder that Homan took over the federal immigration surge in the North Star state this week, after top border patrol official, Gregory Bovino, was reassigned in the days following the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti.
I’ll bring you the latest lines from the press conference.
Democratic senator Amy Klobuchar announces run for Minnesota governor
Amy Klobuchar, the Democratic US senator and one-time presidential candidate, announced she will run for governor of Minnesota, an expected move after the incumbent governor, Tim Walz, dropped out of the race in early January.
“Minnesota, we’ve been through a lot,” Klobuchar said in a video posted on X on Thursday morning, calling out political violence across the state including the recent killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti.
She continued: “We cannot sugar coat how hard this is, but in these moments of enormous difficulty, we find strength in our Minnesota values of hard work, freedom and simple decency and good will. These times call for leaders who can stand up and not be rubber stamps of this administration.”
She also emphasised: “I’m running for every one … for every Minnesotan who wants ICE and its abusive tactics out of the state we love.”
Under Donald Trump, the White House has filled its social media with AI-generated memes, wishcasting, nostalgia and deepfakes. Here are some of the photos of the ‘slopaganda era’:
The first AI image posted by the White House X account sets the tone for Trump’s second presidency – marking a turning point in which the shitposting that had been associated with the far-right online culture that brought Trump to power moved from fringe message boards, such as 4chan and Reddit, to mainstream platforms.
In another post on Truth Social in October, the president posted an AI video depicting himself as a president-king, crown on head, flying over “No Kings” protesters in a jet fighter and dumping faeces on them. The House speaker, Mike Johnson, defended the post, saying: “The president uses social media to make a point. You can argue that he’s probably the most effective person who’s ever used social media for that. He is using satire to make a point.”
“It’s not going to be on Twitter,” said the agent filming the Minneapolis civil rights lawyer Nekima Levy Armstrong, one of the city’s most prominent activists, as she was arrested last Thursday. Within hours, though, it was: the homeland Security secretary Kristi Noem posted a still from the video, in which Armstrong seems composed and shows little emotion.
Half an hour later, the White House X account posted a significantly altered version of the same image: this time, Armstrong is exaggeratedly upset, tears streaming down her face. Her skin tone also appears to have been darkened. The image was captioned: “Arrested: far-left agitator Nekima Levy Armstrong for orchestrating church riots in Minnesota.” In fact, Armstrong was demonstrating at a church service led by an allegedly ICE-affiliated pastor, and was later released without charge.
Until this moment, the White House’s AI-generated output had been conspicuously outlandish: there was little danger of mistaking it for reality. This image purports to be an authentic photograph – or at least omits to mention that it is not. It is not so much AI-generated trolling as an AI-assisted deepfake.
WATCH: Federal officers clash with Alex Pretti 11 days before his killing
Officers appeared to grab Pretti and bring him to the ground during intense community protests against the federal crackdown in Minneapolis.
About two minutes of an exclusive video, published on Wednesday by The News Movement, a digital news outlet, shows Pretti yelling at agents in an unmarked vehicle and kicking the tail light of the car as they move away. Soon after, a heavily armed agent in tactical gear is seen exiting the car.
A family representative confirmed to the Guardian that it was Pretti in the footage published on Wednesday. A representative also said they had been aware of the incident and that Pretti sustained injuries, but did not get medical care.
Steve Schleicher, an attorney representing Pretti’s family, said in a statement: “A week before Alex was gunned down in the street – despite posing no threat to anyone – he was violently assaulted by a group of ICE agents. Nothing that happened a full week before could possibly have justified Alex’s killing.”
ICE halts its 'enhanced activities' in Maine
Immigration and Customs Enforcement has ended its “enhanced operations” in the state of Maine, according to senator Susan Collins. Collins said this morning in a post on X that the move came after multiple discussions between her and homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.
Collins wrote on X:
There are currently no ongoing or planned large-scale ICE operations here. I have been urging Secretary Noem and others in the Administration to get ICE to reconsider its approach to immigration enforcement in the state. I appreciate the Secretary’s willingness to listen to and consider my recommendations and her personal attention to the situation in Maine. ICE and Customs and Border Patrol will continue their normal operations that have been ongoing here for many years.
‘Nothing has changed’: Minneapolis on edge despite Trump’s de-escalation vow
In the days after the killing of 37‑year‑old ICU nurse Alex Pretti, signs emerged that the Trump administration understood how quickly anger at federal immigration agents could ignite across Minnesota and the nation.
Early in the week, the president touted “very good” phone calls with Minnesota governor Tim Walz – whom Trump routinely disparages – and Minneapolis mayor Jacob Frey.
By Tuesday, Gregory Bovino – the senior border patrol official initially tasked with running the immigration crackdown in Minnesota – was replaced by Trump’s so‑called “border czar,” Tom Homan. Homan, who served as acting director of ICE during Trump’s first administration, and as a senior official of removal operations under Barack Obama, also had meetings with Walz and Frey to discuss the federal immigration operation. “While we don’t agree on everything, these meetings were a productive starting point and I look forward to more conversations with key stakeholders in the days ahead,” he wrote on X.
But the Twin Cities remain on edge following Pretti’s death – and the killing of Renee Nicole Good by an ICE agent just three weeks earlier – as federal officers continue targeting scores of people regardless of immigration status.
Despite Trump’s claims that he would “de‑escalate” the situation with a “more relaxed” operation, raids have persisted. Just two days after his supposedly cordial call with Frey, Trump lashed out at the mayor on Truth Social, accusing him of “playing with fire”, after Frey reiterated that local police should not enforce federal immigration laws.
Read the rest of the dispatch:
Video emerges of previous clash between Alex Pretti and federal officers; Homan to speak in Minnesota
Videos emerged on Wednesday of a previous confrontation between Alex Pretti and federal agents, 11 days before the ICU nurse was fatally shot by federal officers in Minneapolis. About two minutes of video, published on Wednesday by The News Movement, a digital news outlet, shows an incident on 13 January in Minneapolis in which officers appeared to grab Pretti and bring him to the ground during intense community protests against the federal crackdown in the city.
Sahan Journal, a nonprofit news site that reports on immigrants and communities of color in Minnesota, reported that day that dozens of residents had showed up to protest and observe a federal immigration sweep in the area. On the same morning, just two blocks away, a young woman named Aliya Rahman was violently pulled from her car while trying to drive past federal immigration agents and roughly treated in an image that prompted widespread outrage.
Steve Schleicher, an attorney representing Pretti’s family, said in a statement, “A week before Alex was gunned down in the street – despite posing no threat to anyone – he was violently assaulted by a group of ICE agents. Nothing that happened a full week before could possibly have justified Alex’s killing.”
In other news:
White House Border czar Tom Homan is expected to address the press in Minneapolis after being sent to take the reins on the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown in Minnesota. ICE officers in the state were directed to avoid engaging with “agitators,” and only target “aliens with a criminal history,” according to an internal memo reviewed by Reuters.
Senate Democrats have threatened to block legislation that would fund the Department of Homeland Security and several other agencies, potentially bringing the government a step closer to a partial shutdown if Republicans and the White House do not agree to new restrictions on President Donald Trump’s surge of immigration enforcement. Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said Wednesday that Democrats won’t provide needed votes until US Immigration and Customs Enforcement is “reined in and overhauled.” In posts on X, Schumer also ramped up the pressure for DHS secretary Kristi Noem and top Trump aide Stephen Miller to go, and repeated calls for the president to pull ICE agents out of Minnesota.
A federal judge in Minnesota blocked the Trump administration from arresting and detaining the 5,600 refugees living in the state. In a ruling issued on Wednesday, US district judge John R Tunheim granted the Advocates for Human Rights, which represents midwesterners seeking asylum, a temporary restraining order blocking Operation Post-Admission Refugee Reverification and Integrity Strengthening (“Operation Parris”). He also ordered the Department of Homeland Security to release and return to Minnesota anyone already detained by the administration under the operation.
The parents of Alexi Pretti retained a former federal prosecutor who helped Minnesota’s attorney general convict police officer Derek Chauvin of the murder of George Floyd. Pretti’s family has retained Steve Schleicher, a partner at the Minneapolis firm Maslon, who served as a special prosecutor in the 2021 trial over Floyd’s murder. Schleicher has taken on the case pro bono, PBS News reports. Earlier this month, the family of Renee Good, who was also killed by an ICE agent in Minneapolis, retained another lawyer involved in the George Floyd case – the Chicago-based firm Romanucci & Blandin, which represented Floyd’s family.
Customs and Border Protection (CBP) confirmed that the two officers involved in the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti on Saturday have been placed on administrative leave as “is the standard protocol”. But it’s currently unclear exactly when they were placed on leave. Federal law enforcement officers who have been involved in a shooting are typically placed on administrative leave for the course of the investigation.
The confirmation is also in direct contradiction to what border patrol commander Greg Bovino said in the aftermath of the shooting. On Sunday, he told a press conference that “all agents that were involved in that scene are working, not in Minneapolis, but in other locations, that’s for their safety.”
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