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Masked Secret Police Are Not Victims | The Truth About Alex Pretti | What Would The Founders Do?
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
Jan 26, 2026

The Trump Administration is lying about the killing of Alex Pretti, Pretti's family wants everyone to know the truth about who he was and what happened to him, and America's founding document outlines what should be done if the government turns on its citizens.




Transcript

Welcome, welcome one and all in here out
there all around the world to the late
show. I'm your host Steven Colbear.
Ladies and gentlemen, [cheering]
today
more than half of Americans are digging
out from a massive winter storm.
Freezing temperatures from Texas all the
way up to Maine. It's frigid here in New
York City. I want to thank everyone here
who stood outside in the cold today
before you came in.
[cheering]
I um
[applause] I think we can all agree
ice now. [cheering]
[music]
on Saturday. [cheering]
On Saturday,
only 17 days after Renee Good was shot
and killed by an ICE agent, another
American citizen was shot and killed by
Customs and Border Protection agents.
And again, Trump administration
officials immediately blamed the victim,
calling him a domestic terrorist. But
videos appear to contradict federal
accounts of the shooting. That analysis
was from the New York Times, and they
weren't alone. They were joined by NBC
News, PBS News, Reuters, the Washington
Post, and the Wall Street Journal, as
well as Your Own Eyes and Ears magazine,
and I know that's pee on my leg weekly.
[laughter]
The man who was shot and killed by CBP
was named Alex Prey. And the
administration is making a big deal out
of the fact that Prey was legally
carrying a handgun. But as you can see
in all the videos, he never pulled out
or brandished that gun. Now, I'm not
going to play you that video. You've all
seen it. And if you haven't seen it,
it's because you didn't want to, and I
don't blame you. But here's here's what
the video shows. At first, Mr. Prey
appears to be filming the scene with his
phone and directing traffic. An agent
begins shoving the demonstrators and
squirts pepper spray at their faces.
Prey moves to help one of the protesters
who was sprayed as other agents approach
and pull him from behind. and several
agents tussled with Mr. Prey before
bringing him to his knees. He appears to
resist as the agents grab his legs, push
down on his back, and strike him
repeatedly. An agent crouches down,
reaches toward Prey, and lifts a gun
from Py's back near his waistband.
Another agent unholsters his gun at
virtually the same moment, and points it
at Freddy's back at close range. Two
other agents open fire, shooting him in
the back as he lays on the ground. At
least 10 shots were fired, killing him.
masked government agents disarmed an
American citizen and then executed him
in the streets. That's what it looks
like. Gnome was asked about the video
and here's how she lied this time.
Video appears to show he's disarmed
before shots are fired. So, I just want
clarity on that.
I want dude to not distract away from
the facts of this situation.
Not distract away from the facts of this
situation. They want you to believe that
something didn't happen when we all saw
it happen with our own eyes. It's like
claiming that Allan doesn't
serve looks on the traitors when there's
plenty of evidence that he feeds us
every damn [cheering]
week. Mama, [applause]
over on uh over on the CNN, uh head of
the Border Patrol, Greg Bavino had a
unique take on this tragedy. With
respect, it feels as though in some ways
you're blaming the victim here.
Uh the victim, the victims are the
border patrol agents. I'm not blaming
the border patrol agents. The victim are
the border patrol agents. Bull masked
secret police shooting innocent people
with impunity [cheering and applause]
in the streets are not victims. The only
way they could ever even be considered
close to victims is that they are at
best weak-minded individuals full of
anger who have been led to the darkness
by Donald Trump and are now
participating in an evil system that
will stick to them like hot black tar
for the rest of their lives. I would
cook, guys. [cheering]
[applause]
I' I'd cook at home from now, fellas,
because no meal will ever go unspit
upon.
But Vino went on complaining.
Look, Dana, they're they're uh they're
trying to portray Border Patrol agents
and ICE agents as Gestapo, Nazi, and
many other words.
Yes, do not compare ICE or Border Patrol
agents to the Nazis. That's an unfair
comparison. The Nazis were willing to
show their faces.
The [cheering] victim [applause]
The victim, Alex Prey, was 37 years old
and a nurse of the city's VA hospital
who had no criminal record. DHS did not
even inform PR's family of their son's
death. Instead, his parents first
learned of the shooting when they were
called by Associated Press reporter.
Later that day, the family released this
statement. We are heartbroken but also
very angry. Alex was a kind-hearted soul
who cared deeply for his family and
friends and also the American veterans
whom he cared for. As an ICU nurse at
the Minneapolis VA hospital, Alex wanted
to make a difference in the world.
Unfortunately, he will not be with us to
see his impact. I do not throw around
the hero term lightly. However, his last
thought and act was to protect a woman.
The sickening lies told about our son by
the administration are reprehensible and
disgusting. Alex is clearly not holding
a gun when attacked by Trump's murdering
and cowardly ICE thugs. He has his phone
in his right hand and his empty left
hand is raised above his head while
trying to protect the woman Ice just
pushed down all while being
pepper-sprayed. Please get the truth out
about our son. He was a good man. Thank
you.
The truth is [applause]
[applause]
well the truth is Prey was on the front
lines of the CO9 pandemic and a beloved
mentor to nurses stepping into the
intimidating environment of the
intensive care unit. His colleagues say
he was the kind of nurse patients
remembered. This administration has no
idea the mistake they just made. They're
messing with nurses now. They're
underpaid, overworked, and they're the
ones who have to deal with Dr. Robbiey's
inner demons.
You stupid old men really want to cross
the people in charge in putting in your
catheterss.
Believe me, they can do it the
lubricated way or the unlubricated way.
[cheering] You just made your choice.
[applause]
Everyone knows
everyone knows there has to be an
investigation and this weekend Christine
Gnome announced that the DHS will be
leading the Border Patrol shooting
investigation in Minneapolis. But the
outcry at that announcement was so huge
that today it was announced the FBI will
also lead the probe into Alex Prey. Do
you know how awful you have to be for
people to go? We'd be a lot more
comfortable if Cash Patel were involved
here.
Trump knows exactly who's to blame for
PR's death. It's people who didn't vote
for him. Last night, he posted,
"Democrats are putting illegal alien
criminals over taxpaying law-abiding
citizens, and they have created
dangerous circumstances for everyone
involved." Got to point out, you're
anti-immigrant thugs are the one killing
taxpaying, law-abiding citizens. And
Americans won't stand for it because we
have read our country's user review.
[cheering]
[applause]
We have read our country's user
agreement, the Declaration of
Independence. Governments derive their
just powers from the consent of the
governed. Whenever any form of
government becomes destructive of these
ends, it is the right of the people to
alter or abolish it.
[cheering]
Those [applause]
those
right there [applause]
those those might be the most important
words of our founding documents right
after Wendy's now has tendies.
The Trump administration wants to paint
the protesters in Minnesota as violence
so they can justify further violence
against them. Which is why it is so
powerful and so beautiful to see the way
motans are responding to these
provocations. On Friday before the
killing of Alex Petty, motans staged a
general strike where an estimated 50,000
people took to the [cheering] streets.
[applause]
They took to the streets [cheering]
in 20° weather and held a peaceful
protest at Minneapolis St. Paul airport
where faith leaders from various
religions staged a prayin and around a
hundred of them were arrested. Generally
speaking, the good guys aren't the ones
dragging away the people kneeling in
prayer. As Jesus said, "Guys, I'm
starting to think you didn't read my
book."
Governor Walls. [applause]
This is They're out there.
Governor Walls has now deployed the
National Guard to protect protesters.
And the Guard is doing it in the most
motan way possible. What are you guys
giving out for coffee? Don't hot
chocolate.
Why was this important for you guys to
do today?
It's a demonstration of safety and
security. We're here to help.
Yes. That That's beautiful. [cheering]
[applause]
That's That's a way to keep people safe
and warm.
The worst thing someone in uniform
should do to US citizen is hand out mini
marshmallows instead of full size.
Minis are for babies. I want full size.
I'm a big boy. [laughter]
The Trump administration wants fear and
motans are responding with community
just like these folks who gather in a
Minneapolis church on Saturday.
We are here [singing]
in our city. [singing]
Our love [music] for each other will
carry us through. [music]
Seeing motans react to brutality with
grace reminds us all that standing up
for our neighbors is our duty as
Americans. As Alex Prey said himself, as
he honored a deceased veteran who had
been in his care.
Today we remember that freedom is not
free. We have to work at it, nurture it,
protect it, and even sacrifice for it.
May we never forget and always remember
our brothers and sisters who have served
so that we may enjoy the gift of
freedom.
Amen.

Jon on Alex Pretti's Killing, DHS vs. Video Evidence & MAGA's Gun Rights Surrender | The Daily Show
The Daily Show
Jan 26, 2026

After the second murder of a Minnesota ICE protester by federal agents, Jon Stewart breaks down the increasingly unhinged gaslighting from Trump officials, who are trying to paint victim Alex Pretti as a "domestic terrorist" and ICE agents as innocent kittens, despite clear video evidence to the contrary. And as MAGA and Kristi Noem ignore even their precious Second Amendment in their attempts to justify the shooting of a legally armed citizen, Jon points to the real weapon threatening this administration: cameras.



Jon Stewart's TDS Welcome
Hey, everybody.
Welcome.
Welcome to The Daily Show.
Oh, man, I got a good one for you.
My name is Jon Stewart.
Great show for you tonight.
My guest tonight, Jason Rezaian will be talking
about Iran, a fabulous story.
Iran right now, an authoritarian state
currently being rocked by protests that threaten to tear
the whole nation apart--
I mean, can you imagine?
[LAUGHTER]
But yes, like most of the country,
I spent the weekend consumed by the awful news
out of Minnesota.
And I will say, hearing about this has somehow
done the impossible, which is, it has dampened
my enthusiasm for this week's premiere
The Melania Documentary Drops This Week
of the Melania documentary.
MELANIA TRUMP: Everyone wants to know.
So here it is.
[DRAMATIC MUSIC]
[LAUGHTER]
[APPLAUSE]
Move over, Avatar sequels.
Here's another movie that wasn't necessary.
[LAUGHTER]
No, I was actually really looking forward to it,
go behind the scenes, find out what went into deciding
on such an unusual hat.
Was it courage, or was it madness?
Either way, 10 out of 10, no notes.
Also, love the tagline to the movie, Melania,
the inspiring true story of how an online shopping
billionaire paid millions to curry favor with the president.
[LAUGHTER]
Am I in trouble?
I can't wait for the sequel, Oh, [BLEEP] It,
Just Take the Money.
[LAUGHTER]
It's in the hat.
But back to the main story--
MAGA's Account of Alex Pretti's Murder Contradicts Video Footage
for the second time in two weeks,
another American has been tragically killed
on the streets of Minneapolis.
Now, obviously, all the facts are not in yet.
But here is, as best we can tell, the account of what
happened on this terrible day.
This individual, who came with weapons and ammunition
to stop a law enforcement operation of federal law
enforcement officers--
Oh.
The agents attempted to disarm the individual,
but he violently resisted.
Oh, dear god.
They must have been petrified.
This individual attacked those officers,
wishing to inflict harm on these officers,
coming, brandishing like that.
Fearing for his life and the lives
and safety of fellow officers, a Border Patrol agent
fired defensive shots.
Well, of course they're defensive.
I mean, he had to stand his ground.
This looks like a situation where
an individual wanted to do maximum damage and
massacre law enforcement.
Committed an act of domestic terrorism-- that's the facts.
Whoa, committed an act of domestic terrorism.
That's the second worst kind of terrorism.
[LAUGHTER]
But, hey, those are the facts.
That's the facts.
There's really no reason to doubt them.
No evidence exists to contradict--
hold on.
[LAUGHTER]
I'm getting-- oh, really?
I'm hearing there may be some grainy Zapruder-like footage
from, I don't know, every angle imaginable
that contradicts the government's version
of events--
REPORTER: Videos of the shooting of Alex Pretti
have contradicted the government's
account of what happened.
REPORTER: All he has in his hand
is a cell phone, not a gun.
REPORTER: He's trying to help a woman
who's just been pushed to the ground and pepper sprayed.
He's trying to go help her with his hands up.
They engage him.
And they're dragging him back.
REPORTER: The videos also appear
to show Pretti's legal registered firearm being
removed from his person by an officer
just seconds before those shots were fired.
Wow.
Well, it looks like we've got a real case of he
said, video totally disproves what he said.
[LAUGHTER]
You know, this is also confusing.
Perhaps to help get some more clarity on what's going on,
we go live to Minneapolis, where
our own Jordan Klepper has been standing outside in the cold.
Jordan Klepper Recounts What's Going on in Minnesota
Jordan, thank you so much for joining us.
What's the latest that you're hearing?
John, DHS has finally completed their analysis
and now has a definitive account of what happened.
Let me take you through it step by step
because it paints a more complete picture.
This all took place in an area where
illicit activity by illegal immigrants was occurring.
And terrible stuff-- peddling drugs,
selling knockoff Labubus, showing football games
without the express written consent of the NFL,
you know, heinous shit.
Now, shortly after, protesters arrived at the scene
to create a barricade.
That's when, as you can see here, the ICE agents arrived.
I see.
And--
[LAUGHTER]
I'm sorry.
You're-- you're telling me that according to DHS,
those are the--
The ICE agents, yes And contrary to all the mainstream
media spin, all these ICE agents want to do
is keep America safe and occasionally lick
their own puckered buttholes.
But before they could do their job,
a gang of Soros-funded protesters
arrived on the scene.
As you can see, these guys-- these guys
were packing heat, posing an Imminent threat
with their girthy leftist dongs.
I--
[LAUGHTER]
This-- this is the DHS account?
I mean, it's-- first of all, it's Minnesota.
It's winter.
You would think they'd be wearing clothes, no?
Don't be naive, Jon.
If you got it, you flaunt it.
But this is the moment when the armed suspect finally appeared.
And shit got real.
[LAUGHTER]
Pow, pow. Pew, pew.
Meow, meow.
Hiss, hiss.
Jon, as you can see, the suspect left them no choice.
Look, I don't even know where to begin.
That doesn't-- this scene doesn't match any
of the video that we've seen.
And that's clearly Doc Ock from Spider-Man.
That's Doc Ock.
Jon, Jon, I can see this isn't resonating with you.
And luckily, DHS is not married to this version.
Here's-- here's another one they're pitching.
[LAUGHTER]
What-- what if I told you the ICE agents
just do this on the side and they're
actually all KPop stars?
Well, no, now that--
that's just the plot of KPop Demon Hunters.
You didn't let me finish.
And they're all gay hockey players.
[LAUGHTER]
The ICE agents?
Everybody, Jon.
That last one's intriguing.
Jordan Klepper, everybody.
Well, thank YOU Jordan.
[CHEERING]
Look.
[APPLAUSE]
Border Patrol President Floats New Lies About Pretti's Murder
I think the lowest bar that a government ever has to clear,
in terms of earned credibility to its population,
is obvious reality.
You just got to clear obvious reality.
I believe it's what the political philosopher Seneca
referred to as the "don't piss on my leg and tell
me it's raining" doctrine.
But watch Border Patrol Commander-in-Short Greg Bovino,
who, by the way, appears to be just
a new character the Trump cinematic universe
has introduced.
Where the [BLEEP] did this guy even come from?
It's his first season on the show.
Anyway, this guy, Bovino, very clearly
stated that the guy they killed was a terrorist
attempting a massacre.
I'm sure that version of events will
be able to withstand even one [BLEEP]
follow-up question at the presser.
Questions?
Allie, this-- this situation, again, is evolving.
This-- this situation is under investigation.
Oh, now it's an-- oh, the investigation is evolving.
I thought evolution was a generational thing, not three
seconds after you confused-- you
accused the guy of terrorism.
And by the way, here's what they said at the presser
after just the second question.
[LAUGHTER]
"I'm ready to take your questions"
to "no more questions" in two [BLEEP] questions.
And it's too bad because I happen
to have a lot of questions.
Like, who's going to investigate
this horrific killing by the Department of Homeland Security
that the Department of Homeland Security
has clearly misrepresented?
REPORTER: The Department of Homeland Security
says they will investigate the shooting.
[LAUGHTER]
Oh, good luck finding the real killer, OJ.
[LAUGHTER]
We're rooting for ya.
And pardon me for not trusting that the administration is
going to do a fair and free investigation
when they are already going out on TV, moving the goalposts
on why the shooting was justified, whether he was
brandishing the weapon or not.
He was not protesting peacefully.
He was screaming in the face of ICE.
He had a phone up right to the--
right into ICE's face.
I mean, we all see the same thing.
I mean, you shouldn't try to gaslight the administration
about what happened.
[LAUGHTER]
Somebody's on therapy talk.
[LAUGHTER]
I'm-- we're gaslighting you?
You gaslight-- no, I'm gaslight-- you gaslighting me?
Are you gaslighting me?
A little bit?
A little bit?
We're gaslighting you?
What the-- by the way, we're gaslighting you.
Speaking of gaslighting, here is Todd Blanche a day
after accusing all of us of gaslighting the administration
about what happened.
I don't think anybody thinks that they were comparing what
happened on Saturday to the legal definition
of domestic terrorism.
Oh, you don't think anybody's doing that?
Well, they were certainly [BLEEP] insinuating it.
I mean, it might be hard to find
someone explicitly using those exact words, but we found it.
Violence against a government because of ideological reasons
and for reasons to resist and perpetuate violence--
that is the definition of domestic terrorism.
I mean, we're guessing.
I think that actually might be the definition of gaslighting.
Look, the administration realized pretty quickly
that the public is not buying their description,
so they had to make a choice.
Come clean and commit yourself to finding the truth,
no matter where it may lead, or just redefine who the victims
of this tragedy really were.
The victim are the Border Patrol agents.
MAN: I think when it comes to the ICE agents,
I think you see the incredible frustration that they feel.
You know, someone screaming in your face, F you,
you suck, get out of here, that's tough to take
for an eight-hour day.
[AUDIENCE GROANS]
Now look what you've done.
[LAUGHTER]
People screaming [BLEEP] you eight hours a day
is basically every customer service job in this country.
[LAUGHTER, CHEERS]
That's all it is.
And the national pastime of Staten Island.
[LAUGHTER]
You're telling me trained and armed ICE agents
can't handle what the average Geek Squad member at Best Buy
has to?
I told you, I didn't spill any [BLEEP] coffee on it!
Just fix it!
[LAUGHTER]
I was upset.
[LAUGHTER]
I'm sorry, Greg Bovino.
You've got more to say?
Politicians, community leaders, and some journalists
engage in that heated rhetoric, calling law enforcement
names like Gestapo.
[LAUGHTER]
I'm shorry.
Oh, I'm shorry.
[LAUGHTER]
Could you-- could you pronounsh that agai--
you went full "shtapo"?
Gushtapo?
Shtap-- Gushtapo?
I thought you guys hate when people do that,
the way a Latino newscaster might throw out a "a-Maduro."
A-Nicolas Maduro.
But you're out there full "Gushtapo"
like you're an extra in Jojo Rabbit?
Gushtapo.
I'm Gushtapo.
In America, we pronounce it "guh-sta-pow."
[LAUGHTER]
And I get that people's language can be hyperbolic
certainly, but one thing that may not be helping your case,
Sergeant Bovino or whatever--
can-- can we get a quick fit check on this mother-[BLEEP]?
You know, first of all, it is slightly
terrifying to Americans that you seem to be
dressing for the job you want.
[LAUGHTER]
So if I can say, if you love the Gestapo coat,
you may want to change, uh, the Gestapo hair.
Because together, it's really 'shtapo.
So if you love the coat, keep the coat.
But instead of the fasci, you, might want to give
yourself the Garfunkel.
Changes everything.
[LAUGHTER]
Or if you're really into the reverse Larry David,
keep the hair, but maybe a slightly
less threatening uniform.
That nice.
That nice.
That nice.
[LAUGHTER]
Nobody is buying your shit right now.
We can't even-- you know what?
We can't even get through a snowstorm
without being reminded of how badly this is going for you.
The biggest threat, though, continues to be,
and always, really, generally is ice.
Ice still causing dangerous conditions.
REPORTER: Ice creating some treacherous conditions
on the roads and on the sidewalks.
REPORTER: There hasn't been an ice warning
this severe in 12 years.
When it comes to ice, all the bets are off.
You need to just still be careful because ice
can still be out there.
[LAUGHTER]
Just don't mention the storm might be the result of El Niño,
or it might get dragged out of the car in front of the kids.
Too-- too soon?
All right, fair enough.
But as all of the administration's descriptions
MAGA Ignores Second Amendment to Justify Shooting
of the events and reasoning behind the events fell apart,
the right did seem to coalesce on one aspect of the incident.
When you are bearing arms and you are confronted by law
enforcement, you are raising the risk of-- of force
being used against you.
You cannot bring a firearm loaded
with multiple magazines to any sort of protest that you want.
I don't know of any peaceful protester
that shows up with a gun and ammunition rather than a sign.
Don't let the left kid you with this that this
is just a normal protest.
Peaceful protesters don't have 9-millimeter weapons
with two extra magazines.
Are you [BLEEP] kidding me right now?
Are you [BLEEP] ki-- are you saying-- is that what
you're saying on the right?
Is that what-- is that what the right--
are you saying that the problem was the guy had a gun?
Are you saying that the guns are the problem?
Is that-- are you saying, if I may--
are you saying--
[CHEERS, APPLAUSE]
Is everyone on the right coming together
to say carrying illegal firearm was the problem?
Am I hearing things?
Is that really what you're saying?
Really?
Is that what you're saying?
[LAUGHTER]
I guess that's what they're saying.
Yeah, I want to hear it again.
I want to hear you say it again.
But this time not from some, you know, congressman.
I want to hear from a cabinet-level secretary.
And it doesn't have to be a cabinet-level secretary
who deals with security or anything along those lines.
Just someone who wants to jump in and comment on it.
In fact-- and I want this secretary
to deliver this line like it's a mic drop, even though,
oh, is it not?
He brought a gun.
Have you ever gone to a protest, Jonathan--
JONATHAN KARL: I mean, do have a Second Amendment
in this country that--
Jona-- Jonathan, have you ever gone to a protest?
I mean--
Have you gone to a protest?
I mean, I've-- no, actually.
As a reporter covering it.
OK, I've been to a protest.
Guess what.
I didn't bring a gun.
I brought a billboard.
[LAUGHTER]
I didn't bring a ha.
I brought a hm.
It wasn't a [GIBBERISH].
It was a [GIBBERISH].
I brought a billboard.
I brought three billboards.
The protest was outside of Ebbing, Missouri.
It was three billboards.
I brought them all.
[LAUGHTER]
By the way, people don't bring billboards
to [GIBBERISH] protest.
They call them signs.
I brought a billboard.
I brought a billboard.
I didn't bring a bang-bang.
I brought a boom-boom.
[LAUGHTER]
There is nothing that I love more than watching somebody
deliver a practiced line that they think is devastating,
only to shrip on their own dick.
[LAUGHTER]
This is blowing my [BLEEP] mind.
The people that brought you this guy and these guys
and these guys as [BLEEP] heroes
who are brandishing their weapons
are telling you the big mistake was letting
a citizen legally carry a gun.
I mean, listen, I--
I wasn't shocked when you guys gave up the First Amendment,
and I wasn't shocked when you gave up the Fourth Amendment
and the 10th Amendment and the 14th
Amendment at Trump's behest.
But the Second?
[LAUGHTER]
[CHEERS, APPLAUSE]
Isn't that kind of load-bearing wall of the "don't tread on
me" flag?
Your snakes down to a newt.
[LAUGHTER]
Your deeply felt constitutional principles are suddenly
the knight in Monty Python.
Ah, come back! Come back!
Ah!
I'll bite you to death.
I'm still a Constitution.
[BARKS]
[LAUGHTER]
Rent it.
It's very good.
[LAUGHTER]
Come on, guys.
Guns are your whole personality.
Guns are your Zoom backgrounds, your decorative lapel pins.
Guns are how you show displeasure at documents.
[LAUGHTER]
Guns are your Christmas cards.
There's no human activity that can't
be made better without the pulsing heat
of your armalite best friends.
Of course, in Texas, we cook bacon a little
differently than most folks.
[GUNFIRE]
Mm.
Machine gun bacon.
[LAUGHS]
[LAUGHTER]
I'm not really one to talk, but
it is clear how much heavy lifting his beard has to do.
[LAUGHTER]
Like, that dude-- that was like--
that's some weapons shit right there.
The crazy thing is, the right has jettisoned
the entire integrity and belief of their political worldview,
the entire foundation of it, for a guy who
really doesn't give a [BLEEP].
You gave it all up.
This is your president on this harrowing weekend of bloodshed.
At 11:31 AM this morning, he wrote on Truth Social
to complain about a lawsuit and say that stopping construction
of his White House ballroom, in his view, quote,
"would be devastating to the White House, our country,
and all concerned."
Just a few moments ago, he posted again, lamenting
the NFL's new kickoff format.
[LAUGHTER]
This is who you threw it all away for.
[GRUNTING] kickoff.
[GRUNTING]
Blood runs through the streets of Minnesota.
A political party has jettisoned
their entire knowledge of the founding documents.
And Trump's out there like, hey, everybody.
We're all going to get laid.
[LAUGHTER]
This is what makes this entire Minnesota adventure
so maddening.
Because, ultimately, we as a country
are not asking for too much from our government.
We're just not.
We have the soft bigotry of low expectations.
All we want is sane policies actually
competently executed without you all being huge dicks.
That's all we-- oh, no, that's not--
that's not what we--
we'll work on the acronym.
[CHEERS, APPLAUSE]
But instead, we get bad policy executed
with extreme dickishness.
And to add insult to injury is the denial of the reality
that we all witnessed.
They're lying.
We saw it.
And that's how brazen they lie when they
know we've seen the truth.
That's how they lie when they know we know.
Imagine how they lie when there's no evidence
to contradict them.
And maybe that, more than anything,
explains why Alex Pretti really was a threat.
Because he was brandishing a weapon,
a handheld aluminum, 1080p, 60 FPS
weapon of mass illumination.
Because there is nothing more dangerous to a regime
predicated on lies than witnesses
who capture the truth.

ICE, F**K You - A Protest Song for Minneapolis
scaredketchup
Jan 24, 2026



Transcript

I [ __ ] you [music] whenever I under your
rock jack booty clown.
I [ __ ] [music] you. We will back down.
Say that name. Say them loud. I [ __ ]
[music] you.
We will remember and survive. [music]
I [ __ ] you.
Say it now. I heard [music] straight up
the flags and shields or rolled up dogs
in a kill zone. Fear. They turn a park
then cry [music] chaos. Light the fuse
then play the boss. Cast the block. Roll
the [music] cams. Call it order. Beat
the damn Nazi [music] cob breaking
history. Scream save that day. You th
they shock your hell. They strike you
down. [music] They p the very
I [ __ ] you.
[music] Attend your rush jack.
I [ __ ] you. We won't back down city.
[music]
I [ __ ] you. No, I know we're [ __ ]
here. I [ __ ] you.
[music]
Say their names.
[music] Say their names.
Say their name.
[music]
Your st can rest and sh [music] a drill
help a car a ling
you [music] can't tear gas this memory
you [ __ ] [music]
I [ __ ] you [music] get out of my back on
you your rock booty clowns
I [ __ ] you. We won't break down [music]
sing.
I [ __ ] you.
We're not We're [ __ ] [music] here. I
[ __ ] you. Pull that trigger. We can
[music] [ __ ]
We're done with
our
We got to be all right.
[music]
We won't die. We won't die. I [ __ ] you.
Get out of [music] my town.
I [ __ ] you. We won't back down. Say that
name. Say that [music] loud. I [ __ ] you.
We will win.
[music] I [ __ ] you.
[music] Sing it now.

https://oag.ca.gov/system/files/attachm ... 20Noem.pdf

EXHIBIT 1

CASE 0:26-cv-00190-KMM-DJF Doc. 94-2 Filed 01/22/26 Page 1 of 19

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
FOR THE DISTRICT OF MINNESOTA

STATE OF MINNESOTA, by and through its Attorney General Keith Ellison, CITY OF MINNEAPOLIS, and CITY OF SAINT PAUL,

PLAINTIFFS,

v.

KRISTI NOEM, in her official capacity as Secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security; JOHN CONDON, in his official capacity as Acting Executive Associate Director of Homeland Security Investigations; U.S. Department of Homeland Security; TODD LYONS, in his official capacity as Acting Director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement; MARCOS CHARLES, in his official capacity as Acting Executive Associate Director, Enforcement and Removal Operations; U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement; RODNEY SCOTT, in his official capacity as Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection; U.S. Customs and Border Protection; GREGORY BOVINO, in his official capacity as Commander of the U.S. Border Patrol; U.S. Border Patrol; DAVID EASTERWOOD, in his official capacity as Acting Director, Saint Paul Field Office, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement,

DEFENDANTS.

Court File No. 0:26-cv-00190-KMM-DJF

[PROPOSED] BRIEF OF THE STATES OF CALIFORNIA, ARIZONA, COLORADO, CONNECTICUT, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, DELAWARE, HAWAI‘I, ILLINOIS, MAINE, MARYLAND, MASSACHUSETTS, MICHIGAN, NEW JERSEY, NEW MEXICO, NEW YORK, NEVADA, OREGON, VERMONT, WASHINGTON, AND WISCONSIN, AS AMICUS CURIAE IN SUPPORT OF PLAINTIFFS’ MOTION FOR INJUNCTIVE RELIEF

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction And Interest of Amici ......... 1
Argument .................... 2
I. The Sovereignty of States Is Fundamental to Our Constitutional Order ...... 2
II. Defendants’ Extreme Conduct Harms Minnesota’s Sovereign Interests and the Public ..... 4
Conclusion .................. 9

TABLE OF AUTHORITIES

Alfred L. Snapp & Son, Inc. v. P.R. ex rel. Barez 458 U.S. 592 (1982) ... 3
Barbier v. Connolly 113 U.S. 27 (1884) . 3
Berman v. Parker 348 U.S. 26 (1954) . 4
California v. Trump 963 F.3d 926 (9th Cir. 2020) ............. 4
Gregory v. Ashcroft 501 U.S. 452 (1991) ... 2
Heath v. Alabama 474 U.S. 82 (1985) . 3
Jacobson v. Commonwealth of Massachusetts 197 U.S. 11 (1905) . 4
Medtronic, Inc. v. Lohr 518 U.S. 470 (1996) ... 4
Nebbia v. People of New York 291 U.S. 502 (1934) ... 4
Printz v. U.S. 521 U.S. 898 (1997) ...................... 2, 3
United States v. Lopez 514 U.S. 549 (1995) ... 3
United States v. Morrison 529 U.S. 598 (2000) ... 3

STATUTES

Insurrection Act ........... 1
Minn. Stat. § 120A.22 subd. 5 ................ 3
RCW 28A.150.200(1) .. 3

CONSTITUTIONAL PROVISIONS

Ariz. Const. Article XI, §§ 1, 6 ............... 3
Cal. Const. Article I, § 28 3
Cal. Const. Article IX, §§ 1, 5 ................ 3
N.Y. Const. Article XI, § 1 ..................... 3
Haw. Const. Article X, § 1 ...................... 3
Mass. Const., pt. II, c. 5, § 2, Amendment Articles CXXI and XLIV ........ 3
Md. Const. Article VIII, § 1 .................... 3
Minn. Const. Article XIII, § 1 ................. 3
Wash. Const. Article IX, § 1 ................... 3

OTHER AUTHORITIES

Anna Giaritelli, Tom Homan Offers to Pull ICE from Minneapolis 'Real Quick' Upon Access to Jails, Washington Examiner (Jan. 15, 2026) .... 8
Ariel Edwards-Levy, “Half of Americans Think ICE is Making US Cities Less Safe, CNN Poll Finds,” CNN (Jan. 14, 2026) ... 6
Ashley Carnahan, Second Largest Minnesota School District Offers Temporary Virtual Learning Amid ICE Operations, FOX News (Jan. 15, 2026) ................ 7
Billal Rahman, “DHS Responds After ICE Drags Woman Shouting ‘I’m Disabled’ From Car,” Newsweek (Jan. 14, 2026) .... 6
Brittney Ermon, Spanish Immersion Schools Feeling Impact of Immigration Enforcement, KSTP Eyewitness News (Jan. 14, 2026) . 8
Corin Hoggard, ICE Surge Hits Twin Cities Businesses, 50-80% Revenue Loss Reported, FOX-9 KMSP (Jan. 12, 2026) .......... 8
Elizabeth Shockman, Minneapolis Schools Cancel Classes After Border Patrol Clash Disrupts Dismissal at Roosevelt, Minnesota Public Radio News (Jan. 8, 2026) 7
Greg Wehner, Taxpayer-Funded Minnesota Charter School Shuts Down In-Person Learning Amid ICE Raids, FOX News (Jan. 14, 2026) ............ 7
Helene Cooper, Pentagon Tells 1,500 Troops to Prepare for Possible Deployment to Minnesota, New York Times (January 18, 2025) ......... 1
Letter from Superintendent Teri Staloch, Update: Federal ICE activity within the district, Robbinsdale Area Schools (Jan. 14, 2026) ............. 7
Mariana Alfaro, “Native Americans Are Being Swept Up by ICE in Minneapolis, Tribes Say,” The Washington Post (Jan. 15, 2025) ......... 6
Minho Kim, 'Hundreds More' Federal Agents to Be Deployed to Minneapolis, Noem Says, The New York Times (Jan. 11, 2026) ......... 6
Natasha Korecki, 'It Feels Like an Invasion': Minnesotans Stunned as Federal Officers Flood Their State, NBC News (Jan. 15, 2026) .......... 5
Press Conference: Donald Trump Leads the Press Briefing at the White House (January 20, 2026) .................. 5
Rachel Leingang & Maanvi Signh,'Make No Mistake, This Is an Occupation': ICE's Deadly Presence Casts Long Shadow Over Minneapolis, The Guardian (Jan. 17, 2026) .............. 8
Reg Chapman, “Minneapolis Couple Says ICE Released Tear Gas Under Their Family Vehicle With 6 Children Inside,” CBS News (Jan. 15, 2026) ...................... 5
Steve Karnowski, et al., Trump Threatens To Use The Insurrection Act To End Protests In Minneapolis, AP News (Jan. 15, 2026) 5
Steve Karnowski, et al., Trump Threatens To Use The Insurrection Act To End Protests In Minneapolis, AP News (January 15, 2025) ................. 1
“Video Shows Minneapolis City Council President Assaulted by Immigration Agent,” YouTube (Jan. 13, 2026) ......... 6

INTRODUCTION AND INTEREST OF AMICI

Amici1 submit this brief in support of Plaintiffs. Amici have a strong interest in ensuring that federal immigration enforcement is not used as an excuse to infringe the sovereignty of the States. Under the claimed auspices of carrying out immigration enforcement, the federal government has seriously undermined state and local authorities and made it impossible for the public to go about their day-to-day activities because they fear being stopped, tear gassed, or worse. If left unchecked, the federal government will no doubt be emboldened to continue its unlawful conduct in Minnesota and to repeat it elsewhere.

Over the course of just a few weeks, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has sent more than 3,000 federal agents into the Minneapolis area, a federal force that exceeds the combined police departments of the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul—Minnesota’s two largest cities. DHS has set in motion an extraordinary campaign of recklessness and disregard for norms of constitutional policing and the sanctity of life. This has resulted in federal agents that have fatally shot one resident, seriously wounded others, tear gassed an infant and other children, attacked peaceful protestors, and systematically conducted illegal stops and arrests. When tragedy has struck and public outcry rung out, the response has been a promise to deliver more of the same. Indeed, just days ago, President Trump threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act, and it is reported that the Pentagon is preparing 1,500 troops to possibly deploy to Minnesota, reflecting the Administration’s desire to further escalate tensions and put the military into an unlawful domestic role.2

Amici write for two reasons here. One is to emphasize the state sovereignty and federalism principles that are central to our nation’s constitutional framework. The other is to emphasize that the balance of the equities and public interest lies with Plaintiffs, who are watching with shock, concern, and fear of what has already occurred and what more could lie ahead in Minnesota and beyond.

ARGUMENT

I. THE SOVEREIGNTY OF STATES IS FUNDAMENTAL TO OUR CONSTITUTIONAL ORDER

The Constitution establishes a system of dual sovereignty. Printz v. U.S., 521 U.S. 898, 918 (1997) (citing Gregory v. Ashcroft, 501 U.S. 452, 457 (1991)). Under this “‘constitutionally mandated balance of power’ between the States and the Federal Government,” Gregory, 501 U.S. at 458, States retain “a residuary and inviolable sovereignty that is reflected throughout the Constitution’s text.” Printz, 521 U.S. at 919 (quoting The Federalist No. 39, at 245). The separation of authority—what James Madison referred to as our “double security”—is one of the Constitution’s structural protections of liberty. Id. at 922 (quoting The Federalist No. 51, at 323). This framework serves as a critical check and balance, ensuring that “a healthy balance of power between the States and the Federal Government will reduce the risk of tyranny and abuse from either front.” Id. at 921. By dividing sovereign power between two distinct levels of government, our system ensures that no single entity gains absolute control over all aspects of daily life. Id. at 920 (“The great innovation of this design was that our citizens would have two political capacities, one State and one federal, each protected from incursion by the other . . . ’” (quoting U.S. Term Limits, Inc. v. Thornton, 514 U.S. 779, 838 (1995) (Kennedy, J., concurring)).

In keeping with the dual system of “distinct and independent” sovereigns, id., the Supreme Court has identified several spheres over which States have primary and sometimes sole responsibility. See United States v. Lopez, 514 U.S. 549, 566-68 (1995). Often referred to as the State’s “police powers,” these include the general authority “to prescribe regulations to promote the health, peace, morals, education and good order of the people[.]” Barbier v. Connolly, 113 U.S. 27, 31 (1884).

While police powers go far beyond “policing” as the term is commonly understood, a fundamental police power is the authority and duty to “create and enforce a criminal code.” Heath v. Alabama, 474 U.S. 82, 93 (1985); see also Alfred L. Snapp & Son, Inc. v. P.R. ex rel. Barez, 458 U.S. 592, 601 (1982) (“[T]he exercise of sovereign power . . . involves the power to create and enforce a legal code.”). In general, each State has the authority to pass and enforce criminal laws within its borders, and each State has a system involving state, city, county, or district law enforcement officers who may make arrests, file charges, and prosecute crimes in local courts. This is because policing is first and foremost a function and responsibility of the States. United States v. Morrison, 529 U.S. 598, 618 (2000) (“[W]e can think of no better example of the police power, which the Founders denied the National Government and reposed in the States, than the suppression of violent crime and vindication of its victims.”).

Among other sovereign “powers” that the Constitution “reserve[s] to the States” is the ability to regulate the education of their citizens. See Lopez, 514 U.S. at 580, 589 (Kennedy, J., concurring) (“t is well established that education is a traditional concern of the States.”). Pursuant to their well-established sovereign powers, several State constitutions require them to provide a system of free public schools. See, e.g., Minn. Const. art. XIII, § 1; Minn. Stat. § 120A.22 subd. 5; Cal Const. Article IX, §§ 1, 5; Cal. Const., art. I, § 28; Ariz. Const. art. XI, §§ 1, 6; Mass. Const., Part II, c. 5, § 2, amend. arts. CXXI and XLIV; Md. Const. art. VIII, § 1; N.Y. Const. Article XI, § 1; Haw. Const. art X, § 1; Wash. Const. art. IX, § 1; RCW 28A.150.200(1).

More broadly, States’ sovereign interests—and indeed, their duties—encompass the whole of promoting public health, safety, and welfare, which are among the more “conspicuous examples of the traditional application of the police power.” Berman v. Parker, 348 U.S. 26, 32 (1954). “States traditionally have had great latitude under their police powers to legislate as to the protection of the lives, limbs, health, comfort, and quiet of all persons.” Medtronic, Inc. v. Lohr, 518 U.S. 470, 475 (1996) (citation and internal quotation marks omitted). States thus legislate for their residents over wide-ranging matters that touch every aspect of life from work to health and family matters. See, e.g., Jacobson v. Commonwealth of Massachusetts, 197 U.S. 11, 38 (1905) (upholding Massachusetts’ authority to enforce vaccination laws, explaining that “[t]he safety and the health of the people of Massachusetts are, in the first instance, for that commonwealth to guard and protect”); Nebbia v. People of New York, 291 U.S. 502, 537 (1934) (explaining that “a state is free to adopt whatever economic policy may reasonably be deemed to promote public welfare, and to enforce that policy by legislation adapted to its purpose”). But state authority does not end with legislation. States are entitled also to carry out their laws and policies and to fulfill the duties they owe as sovereigns to their people. See, e.g., California v. Trump, 963 F.3d 926, 936 (9th Cir. 2020) (concluding States had standing to challenge Federal actions that would “cause particularized and concrete injuries in fact to the environment and wildlife of their respective states as well as to their sovereign interests in enforcing their environmental laws”).

II. DEFENDANTS’ EXTREME CONDUCT HARMS MINNESOTA’S SOVEREIGN INTERESTS AND THE PUBLIC

Beginning in December 2025, Defendants began to threaten an enforcement action in the Twin Cities area dubbed “Operation Metro Surge.” The operation began with 100 U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (“ICE”) and Homeland Security Investigations (“HSI”) agents. Since then, public reporting has indicated that Defendant Noem has deployed as many as 3,000 federal officers to Minneapolis. Of that number, more than 2,000 are ICE personnel, hundreds are Customs and Border Protection (“Border Patrol”) agents operating hundreds of miles from the border, and others are from Justice Department agencies.3 President Trump has openly blasted the “corrupt politicians of Minnesota” in justifying the incursion and proclaimed that he will “quickly put an end to the travesty” in the State.4

Local law enforcement agencies have had to divert large portions of their limited resources and personnel to respond to unrest caused by the federal officers. Approximately 95 Minneapolis Police Department (“MPD”) officers responded to the scene of a federal agent’s fatal shooting of Renee Good, rendering those MPD officers unable to “respond to other 911 calls, investigate reports of crimes, or fulfill other law enforcement duties for the communities MPD serves.” ECF 8 (“TRO”) at 19. Since the filing of Plaintiffs’ complaint, the violence has only escalated. For example, ICE agents also exploded a tear gas cannister underneath a car carrying a couple and six children, trapping them inside their vehicle, rendering a six-month old unconscious, and requiring a mother to administer CPR to the infant child.5 A video shows an agent assaulting Minneapolis City Council President Elliot Payne while he was acting as a legal observer.6 Another video shows several agents dragging a woman, who can be heard identifying herself as autistic and disabled and attempting to reach a medical appointment, out of her car.7 Native American leaders report that Indigenous people are being “stopped, questioned, harassed and, in some cases, detained solely on the basis of their skin color or names.”8 And Defendants are doubling down. Amid nationwide protests against Defendants’ militarized tactics, and a majority of Americans expressing the view that “ICE enforcement actions were making cities less safe,” Defendant Noem announced that “hundreds more” federal agents are being sent to Minneapolis.9

As a result of the federal government’s actions, diminished numbers of local law enforcement agencies are available to address their ordinary responsibilities. In a single week, Minneapolis received more than eighty 911 calls about federal immigration enforcement actions. TRO at 17. As of the filing of Plaintiffs’ complaint, MPD officers had been forced to work more than 3,000 hours of overtime since January 7, 2026, due to the need to be available to respond to and deescalate any tensions surrounding Defendants’ purported immigration enforcement activities. TRO at 24. State agencies have similarly had to divert personnel and resources towards emergency preparedness, and away from their ordinary but critical duties. TRO at 35. Adding to the problems they are causing, DHS agents have hidden their identities and affiliations—via masks and inconsistent uniforms with inconsistent identification—and refuse to identify themselves. TRO at 20. Sometimes, the federal agents’ efforts to conceal their affiliations makes them indistinguishable from Saint Paul Police Department (“SPPD”) officers. Id. This diminishes community trust that SPPD has worked hard to build over the years through community-oriented policing, and the harm to this trust, in turn, makes community members less likely to report criminal activity and less likely to cooperate as witnesses. TRO at 23.

As another direct result of Defendant’s actions, learning and education has been disrupted across the State. On January 8, at a Minneapolis high school, armed agents tackled people, handcuffed two staff members, and released chemical weapons on bystanders on school property during dismissal.10 Following that harrowing incident, more than 100 schools were shut down in the Minneapolis Public School system, affecting 30,000 children. TRO at 15. Since Plaintiffs’ complaint was filed, ICE agents detained a parent while waiting at a school bus stop with their child.11 Student absenteeism is climbing “because families and students are too scared to come to school.” TRO at 39. Saint Paul Public Schools as well as other Minnesota schools have had to begin to offer temporary virtual learning programs for students who do not feel safe going to school in person.12 Leaders from at least four Spanish immersion schools across Minnesota have had to cut hours or temporarily close because “employees are afraid to come to work, worried they could be detained even when they are in the country legally.”13 Nearly half the staff at one school has stopped coming to work out of fear, and preschool classrooms that would normally be filled with children now sit unused.14

Defendants’ extreme and unlawful conduct is ripping at the fabric of our society. Every aspect of daily life for Minnesotans is being affected. Pregnant women are afraid to go to their prenatal appointments for fear that they or their loved ones will be detained by federal agents.15 Vibrant shopping areas have turned into ghost towns, and businesses report 50 to 80% in revenue losses due to the presence of immigration officers.16

To be clear, Amici do not contend that Defendants’ conduct infringes on state sovereignty because it reflects an increase in purported immigration enforcement. Defendants’ conduct infringes on state sovereignty because, as set forth above and in Plaintiffs’ motion, Defendants’ actions have the purpose and effect of inflicting maximal harm on state, city, and community institutions. Moreover, Defendants’ own statements indicate that they will continue to employ violent and chaotic tactics until and unless Minnesota alters its sovereign policy decisions.17

Through their statements and actions, Defendants are sending a message not only to Minnesota but also to other jurisdictions: If a state or city adopts disfavored policies, Defendants may launch a similar militaristic operation in which federal officers disturb the functioning of schools and other basic services, deploy chemical weapons in public areas in ways that endanger public health, frighten and provoke residents in a manner that requires state and local law enforcement to respond and de-escalate, and create a climate of anxiety and fear. Defendants’ actions infringe on Minnesota’s sovereignty and send a message that reverberates across the country.

Amici are deeply troubled by the escalating violence and needless devastation unfolding in Minnesota. Today, the federal government’s unlawful conduct harms Minnesota and infringes upon its constitutionally-guaranteed state sovereignty. Absent injunctive relief, there is no telling how much more terror and chaos Defendants will inflict on Minnesota, its cities, and their communities in the coming days and months. Tomorrow, without legal intervention, the federal government will no doubt threaten other States and local communities across the nation. Amici urge swift intervention by the Court.

CONCLUSION

For the foregoing reasons, Amici support Plaintiffs’ request to enjoin the federal defendants’ extreme conduct.

Dated: January 22, 2026
Respectfully Submitted,
ROB BONTA
Attorney General of California
MICHAEL L. NEWMAN
Senior Assistant Attorney General
MARISSA S. MALOUFF
ROBIN L. GOLDFADEN
JAMES E. STANLEY
Supervising Deputy Attorneys General
DENNIS OJOGHO
Deputy Attorney General

/s/ Theresa Zhen
THERESA ZHEN*
Deputy Attorney General
Office of the Attorney General
300 South Spring Street, Suite 1702
Los Angeles, CA 90013-1230
Telephone: (213) 269-6063
Email: [email protected]
Counsel for Amici
*Pro Hac Vice Application Pending

(Counsel listing continues on next page)

KRISTIN K. MAYES
Attorney General
State of Arizona
2005 North Central Avenue
Phoenix, AZ 85004

PHILIP J. WEISER
Attorney General
State of Colorado
Office of the Attorney General
Colorado Department of Law
1300 Broadway, 10th Floor
Denver, CO 80203

WILLIAM TONG
Attorney General
State of Connecticut
165 Capitol Avenue
Hartford, CT 06106

KATHLEEN JENNINGS
Attorney General
State of Delaware
820 N. French Street
Wilmington, DE 19801

BRIAN L. SCHWALB
Attorney General
District of Columbia
400 6th Street NW
Washington, DC 20001

ANNE E. LOPEZ
Attorney General
State of Hawai‘i
425 Queen Street
Honolulu, HI 96813

KWAME RAOUL
Attorney General
State of Illinois
115 S. LaSalle St.
Chicago, IL 60603

AARON M. FREY
Attorney General
State of Maine
6 State House Station
Augusta, ME 04333-0006

ANTHONY G. BROWN
Attorney General
State of Maryland
200 Saint Paul Place
Baltimore, MD 21202

DANA NESSEL
Attorney General
State of Michigan
P.O. Box 30212
Lansing, MI 48909

ANDREA JOY CAMPBELL
Attorney General
Commonwealth of Massachusetts
One Ashburton Place
Boston, MA 02108

MATTHEW J. PLATKIN
Attorney General
State of New Jersey
25 Market Street
Trenton, NJ 08625

RAÚL TORREZ
Attorney General
State of New Mexico
P.O. Drawer 1508
Santa Fe, NM 87504-1508

AARON D. FORD
Attorney General
State of Nevada
100 North Carson Street
Carson City, NV 89701

CHARITY R. CLARK
Attorney General
State of Vermont
109 State Street
Montpelier, VT 05609

LETITIA JAMES
Attorney General
State of New York
28 Liberty Street
New York, NY 10005

DAN RAYFIELD
Attorney General
State of Oregon
1162 Court Street NE
Salem, OR 97301

NICHOLAS W. BROWN
Attorney General
State of Washington
P.O. Box 40100
Olympia, WA 98504

JOSHUA L. KAUL
Attorney General
State of Wisconsin
17 W. Main Street
Madison, WI 53703

_______________

Notes:

1 Amici are California, Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, District Of Columbia, Delaware, Hawai‘I, Illinois, Massachusetts, Maryland, Maine, Michigan, New Jersey, New Mexico, Nevada, New York, Oregon, Vermont, Washington, Wisconsin.

2 Steve Karnowski, et al., Trump Threatens To Use The Insurrection Act To End Protests In Minneapolis, AP News (January 15, 2025), https://apnews.com/article/immigration- ... 6fded8c1b9; Helene Cooper, Pentagon Tells 1,500 Troops to Prepare for Possible Deployment to Minnesota, New York Times (January 18, 2025), https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/18/us/p ... esota.html.

3 Natasha Korecki, 'It Feels Like an Invasion': Minnesotans Stunned as Federal Officers Flood Their State, NBC News (Jan. 15, 2026), https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/mi ... rcna254061.

4 Karnowski, et al., supra note 2; Press Conference: Donald Trump Leads the Press Briefing at the White House (January 20, 2026), https://rollcall.com/factbase/trump/tra ... y-20-2026/ (President Trump contends that “[t]he Somalians, you know what they're good at. That's about the only thing they're good at is they're good at pirating ships at sea, big ships.”); id. (discussing “Somalians” in Minnesota, the President stated, “[t]hey’ve taken it, Somalians. Can you imagine? And they don't do it. A lot of very low IQ people, they don't do it. Other people work it out and they get them money, and they go out and buy Mercedes-Benzes. And they come from here. They have no money. They never had money. They never had a life.”) (emphasis added).

5 Reg Chapman, “Minneapolis Couple Says ICE Released Tear Gas Under Their Family Vehicle with 6 Children Inside,” CBS News (Jan. 15, 2026), https://www.cbsnews.com/minnesota/news/ ... 00-10aac3a.

6 “Video Shows Minneapolis City Council President Assaulted by Immigration Agent,” YouTube (Jan. 13, 2026), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENdgq2e_uj4.

7 Billal Rahman, “DHS Responds After ICE Drags Woman Shouting ‘I’m Disabled’ From Car,” Newsweek (Jan. 14, 2026), https://www.newsweek.com/dhs-responds-i ... s-11360131.

8 Mariana Alfaro, “Native Americans Are Being Swept Up by ICE in Minneapolis, Tribes Say,” The Washington Post (Jan. 15, 2025), https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics ... nneapolis/.

9 Ariel Edwards-Levy, “Half of Americans Think ICE is Making US Cities Less Safe, CNN Poll Finds,” CNN (Jan. 14, 2026), https://www.cnn.com/2026/01/14/politics ... a-cnn-poll; Minho Kim, ‘Hundreds More’ Federal Agents to Be Deployed to Minneapolis, Noem Says, The New York Times (Jan. 11, 2026), https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/11/us/p ... -ios-share.

10 Elizabeth Shockman, Minneapolis Schools Cancel Classes After Border Patrol Clash Disrupts Dismissal at Roosevelt, Minnesota Public Radio News (Jan. 8, 2026), https://www.mprnews.org/story/2026/01/0 ... el-classes.

11 Letter from Superintendent Teri Staloch, Update: Federal ICE activity within the district, Robbinsdale Area Schools (Jan. 14, 2026), https://www.rdale.org/discover/news/art ... e-district.

12 Ashley Carnahan, Second Largest Minnesota School District Offers Temporary Virtual Learning Amid ICE Operations, FOX News (Jan. 15, 2026), https://www.foxnews.com/us/second-large ... operations; Greg Wehner, Taxpayer-Funded Minnesota Charter School Shuts Down In-Person Learning Amid ICE Raids, FOX News (Jan. 14, 2026), https://www.foxnews.com/us/taxpayer-fun ... -ice-raids.

13 Brittney Ermon, Spanish Immersion Schools Feeling Impact of Immigration Enforcement, KSTP Eyewitness News (Jan. 14, 2026), https://kstp.com/kstp-news/top-news/spa ... forcement/.

14 Id.

15 Rachel Leingang & Maanvi Signh,‘Make No Mistake, This Is an Occupation’: ICE’s Deadly Presence Casts Long Shadow Over Minneapolis, The Guardian (Jan. 17, 2026), https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/202 ... e-dispatch.

16 Corin Hoggard, ICE Surge Hits Twin Cities Businesses, 50-80% Revenue Loss Reported, FOX-9 KMSP (Jan. 12, 2026), https://www.fox9.com/news/ice-surge-hit ... d-jan-2026.

17 See, e.g., Anna Giaritelli, Tom Homan Offers to Pull ICE from Minneapolis 'Real Quick' Upon Access to Jails, Washington Examiner (Jan. 15, 2026), https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/watch/2475252/ (“‘Minnesota, the mayor and the governor, could fix this real quick,’ Homan said during a telephone town hall with Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-TX) ‘Let us in the jail. Stop being a sanctuary jurisdiction, sanctuary state, sanctuary city.’”)

How Melania’s ‘Doc’ Made Trump’s Chaos Even Worse | Inside Trump's Head
The Daily Beast
Jan 27, 2026

Michael Wolff joins Joanna Coles to unpack the Minneapolis ICE shootings that have sent the Oval Office into a frenzy—and exposed the real tripwire in Trumpworld. As Susie Wiles, Stephen Miller, Kristi Noem, and Corey Lewandowski turn on each other in a furious blame game, Wolff reveals why the president is suddenly “wobbling” on immigration, how ICE quotas and untrained agents led to disaster, and why Miller is now dangerously exposed with no bureaucratic buffer left. Looming over it all is a furious First Lady, whose long-planned Melania movie rollout has been eclipsed by bloodshed and scandal—and whose displeasure, Wolff argues, matters more to Trump than polls, politics, or public outrage.



Transcript


This whole week. This was supposed to be the Melania Week. I mean, they have spent time in the white House discussing this.
This week was the give to the First lady, and this means a lot to her.
This Melania, the movie is her statement.
From Michael. Joanna. All right, let's get into it.
We've been talking, and I know you've been talking to people in the white House. Let's actually find out what the hell is going on
inside Trump's head in that cavernous space. You know, enormous amount of,
what would you call it? Chatter this weekend? And quite a bit of schadenfreude.
So in brief, let's cut this down. It is the Siouxsie Wiles faction.
Blaming and blame is a key thing in the Trump White House, because Trump can never accept blame and there is always someone to blame.
The Siouxsie Wiles faction blaming Kristi Noem and Stephen Miller,
Stephen Miller and Kristi Noem blaming each other and
together with that in actually maybe over all that, the cloud over
all of that is a truly pissed off first lady.
Minneapolis and these ice shootings ice out of control,
is ruining her week. So Saturday was the first screening of Melania the Movie.
Thursday is the premiere at the Kennedy Center, and all anyone can talk about
is the fiasco in Minneapolis. In other words, they are not talking about Melania
the movie Melania, the country's most famous immigrant. So.
So let's unpack the Kremlin ology of all this. Because it seemed significant to me
that Christie Noem's team had let it be known that she had asked for
what turned out to be a two hour meeting with the president. Right. That is, of course, not true.
And you can always assume in these things that the opposite is true. They were being Kristi Noem and Corey
Lewandowski were being called on the carpet. What we
don't know is, is also that Stephen Miller has been called on the carpet.
And there is another aspect of this. Stephen Miller has been talking to the MAGA side,
MAGA, the the broader the broader MAGA echo chambers
and suggesting that the president and this is,
this would truly send up a Maga red flag that the president is wobbly
on immigration, the president is wobbly on immigration. And and remember and remember, and this is really
this is a kind of kind of timeline here. The, the shooting of Alex Pretty
is that's Saturday morning. Saturday evening is the screening
of Melanie of the movie The Black Terror screening. Yes. So during this period, the president
Donald Trump begins to shift in his, in his view of this,
he begins to wobble, so to speak. Now, let me just flash back to the first
administration when a crisis.
Maybe not as large a crisis as Minneapolis is now, but it was certainly a large crisis
at the time when the family, the policy of family separation of immigrants,
and that was largely at immigrants at the border. That policy was reversed, really, for only for one specific reason,
which was Melania, the nation's most famous immigrant, stepped in and said this was untenable.
She expressed herself, and she doesn't usually express herself. And remember, we're talking about
we're talking about the the nature, the complicated balance of this marriage.
And it is one of the things and almost everyone within the white House acknowledges that this, that this is a trip wire.
This is something that is not allowed to happen. You cannot alienate the first lady to the extent
that she makes it an issue with the president. So that now has happened.
Beginning to happen starting on Saturday morning, Saturday night into Sunday.
Monday. The the and remember again, this is the first lady's week
Thursday, the the Kennedy Center premiere of Melania
the movie now being hopelessly overshadowed. So the president and the president is
not, as we've said so many times before, moved by normal political considerations,
but he is moved by a pissed off wife. Absolutely.
A remarkable insight there. I love your description is of Melania is the country's most famous immigrant.
And of course, it was Tom Homan that came up with the separating families at the border policy
while he was working for President Obama, who finally has come out and said things.
We come. We can come to that later. But let's discuss the factionalism in the white House
in terms of this has felt certainly this time around. The second administration has felt more coherent, or at least they have.
They are often very much so, very much so. I mean, the first administration was riven.
It was a day by day, hour by hour affair of one faction
against another, one person against another of, and that, that was,
that was the central dynamic constantly on a daily basis. Who was up who was down in this administration in this year.
And I think for a combination of, of reasons, the,
the president being so determined to do what he wanted to do of, of him,
his determination to amass power, I want the power. I don't care what has to be done to get it.
The power, the power, the power. And in that, in the administrative details of that,
he had Siouxsie Wiles, who did not take who does not take an ideological position.
Her position is just I am there to shepherd this through, to get this done, to herd cats,
to keep everybody in line at the same time.
And it's really is a is a is a kind of thing that that is it is considering what has happened
through this year, difficult to appreciate. But it is true. And it is pronounced so.
Susie Wiles is quite a moderate. I mean, she is quite, quite, quite an old school
rhino, if you will, Republican. And the tension has always been there
between Susie Wiles and Stephen Miller. Stephen Miller is the opposite, obviously,
of a rhino Republican. Well, and when people
when American citizens when VA a ICU nurses are being shot, people take sides and know
who is going to side with Stephen Miller, who we know from discussions on this podcast, Trump
himself thinks is weird, is thinks, thinks he's crazy, crazy Stephen. And that doesn't matter when Stephen Miller is doing something
that is working, but when he's doing something that's not working, which is clearly what's happening with Ice,
this is terrible. And I think go back to blame. You get to the point, the understanding that
someone is going to be blamed here and that person is not going to be the president of the United States.
So therefore, who is going to be blamed? And I mean, logically, who are the who's the front line here?
I mean, I think a lot of people are reporting that, that Kristi Noem and Corey Lewandowski are going to be blamed.
And that that certainly is fair. But the policy, the root of the policy here is Stephen Miller.
And Stephen Miller. Of course, Stephen Miller and Kristi Noem have been relatively
aligned so far in carrying out this policy. But from Stephen Miller's point of view, it is going to be Kristi Noem is
it has failed to carry out this policy, is screwing up the policy is mismanaging.
Ice is a bad communicator. From Kristi Nome's point of view, it is going to be
she has been put in the position of having to carry out Stephen Miller's policy, his quota of arrests, his
the ness that the necessity of putting untrained or minimally trained Ice agents in the field.
So they are going at this each against each other and it's,
well yet unclear, who who the president will side with if anyone.
So but what we do know is that Kristi Noem is being sidelined here, and Tom Homan is being sent into Minneapolis to take over the Ice operation.
They're reporting directly to the president. Let's talk a little bit here. Also. Let me just let me just clarify bureaucratically what's going on there.
Stephen Miller is in charge. So Stephen Miller gets to essentially remove Kristi Noem
or get her her to take a step back. But that means he is all the more exposed bureaucratically.
This is if if Homans doesn't fix the situation, if the situation is not fixed, it will come back to Stephen Miller.
There's no one between anymore, between him and the policy. Okay. And let's talk about Corey Lewandowski here.
Former campaign manager for Trump during Trump one and Christie gnomes
I open quote marks advisor close quote marks. What is his influence here.
What does this mean. This is it's important important as to as to the internal
the internal workings and character and what's going on in, in the white House.
Susie Wiles hates Corey Lewandowski, Corey Lewandowski.
And this is, again, this is fundamental. During the campaign, Corey Lewandowski.
Lewandowski set out to get Susie Wiles fired, Susie Wiles, and then Chris,
lots of who were who were the the co-heads of the campaign. He came in there and there was a real he led a coup
which many people thought was on the verge of succeeding.
This would have been in August, September 2024.
And, I mean, I mean, he literally came in to headquarters in West Palm Beach, started, started moving desks,
moving offices, making people, people show up and,
show up early in the morning and, and describe their job function and,
Susie Wiles and Chris, lots of EDA retreated to another floor.
And it was a it was a major it was a major moment, a stand off in the in the campaign.
And. Michael. Michael, hold on, hold on. Why did Trump want them to come in? Why did he hire Corey to do this?
You know, I mean, he, he, he, he didn't necessarily hire Corey to do this.
He hired Corey. Corey needed a job at that point, went to the president.
I need a job. I you gotta you gotta do something for me. You got to put me on the payroll.
He, Trump said send down word. Yeah, yeah, Corey needs a job. Put him on the payroll.
And did Trump feel loyalty to Corey because of the first administration? Like, I mean, I'm sure lots of people hit up the president.
Well, he wasn't president then, but the candidate for job, why did he deserve a job? Why did Trump feel funny.
Yeah. No, I think he's, he's always been fond of Corey. As many times as Corey has been fired and pushed out
and and there have been this was not the first the first instance Trump has remained fond of him and that's oh, that's the loyalty thing.
Corey has always been loyal to the president, and he has been one of those people on the phone with the president.
Remember, this is a key thing in this white House who has the telephone relationship with Donald Trump?
Corey has had that relationship over a long period of time. So therefore, yes.
Corey says I need a job. Trump. Trump calls down, give Corey a job. And then suddenly Corey is is announcing that he's taking over the campaign.
I mean, I mean, it was it was literally like that. I mean, I think that there was a there was a one intermediate moment
in which he said, and in which he started to refer to the three of us running the campaign, Corey,
Susie Wiles and Chris Le Savita. But suddenly that was a promotion he hit.
Everybody was like, oh my God. He's And then he edged them out and then it was just him.
He was. And he gave himself a title, the chairman of the campaign.
So this went on I mean, this is largely I, I described this in my, in my book,
but otherwise it's been, largely unreported. And, and then, and then there came a moment
when they, they, they staged a Susie was and Chris lost lots of either staged a counter coup, and a
which was consisted of them going to Trump and saying, we're going to quit you you have to decide between Corey and us.
Whereas Trump would have been happy not to decide, just letting them fight it out, but they,
they pulled the ripcord there and Trump was forced to choose them over.
Corey. But that doesn't mean that his regard for Corey is truly any less.
And then Corey obviously obviously sort of came came in the back door through Christie.
Noam now, you know, and and he has has which they deny.
But everyone understands a romantic relationship Christie gnome and Corey Lewandowski and Corey Lewandowski
are an item okay. So they deny they're an item. But everybody thinks they're an item.
And he does have a reputation for being something of a low authority. A something of a lothario.
Yes, yes. So so oh yeah. Actually. And that was the thing.
That was one of the elements in getting him pushed out of the campaign is that Susie Wiles and Chris Love surveyed,
started to circulate rumors about about him,
him doing Corey things within the campaign office. Interesting.
So what is his position now? We know he's a special advisor to Kristi Noem, whatever their relationship.
But she's obviously getting advice from him. No. And I think they think they think Kristi Noem is.
And this has been throughout the, the the first year of this administration.
Kristi Noem is a, you know, is a lightweight.
And she has been so her credentials have been bolstered by the fact that Corey Lewandowski is her guy in.
However, one wants to interpret that. It's it's it's Corey Lewandowski running Kristi Noem.
And that gives the president some amount of comfort. A large amount of comfort. I mean, he does think I think that, that Corey is kind of brilliant.
Okay. Well, what's happening in Minneapolis is clearly not brilliant. It's very damaging for the Republicans.
They had, as you have pointed out, consistently, an actual scandal.
The Democrats hadn't managed to get a grip on, with the children's nursery somehow funneling off of money.
Although they had, I think, put 58 people behind bars over it. So it was being investigated.
But nevertheless, the point is they had a political advantage. The Democrats were weak. They're they've come in, they've mishandled this hugely.
Two people have died, two unthreatening people died in horrible circumstances that everybody has seen on video.
We've been told not to believe our eyes, which is ridiculous. And this is now backfiring hugely on the president.
Do you think that Susie Wiles can get rid of Stephen Miller?

No. I, I don't think ...

Will heads rolls roll for this.

And my my gut feeling is that they won't. That he's so dug in that even Kristi Noem maybe keeps her job here.
And that the Trump
effort will be a further distraction. What happens now?
I mean, the question now is how do we get out of this? That's what's going on in the white House. How do we get out of this?

And, it's so ironic for a president who made his name and
and sort of swept to popular appeal by his phrase, you're fired. And yet he can't actually fire people over
something that someone needs to be fired over.

Yes. And, to interpret that the level of it is very hard to fire
people who are abject in their loyalty.
So in the first administration, he fired a lot of people, and in every instance,
He fired them because he suspected that they were disloyal, or they had
openly demonstrated their disloyalty. But in this instance, when you've populated
your team with abject sycophants, then what do you do? Everybody is there trying to out-loyal the other person.
"We love you, Mr. President. You're the greatest." I mean, there is no break from this. There is no nobody who is kind of
taking him to task for the policy. And of course, Tom Homan is going to feel grateful and loyal to him.
Because in 2024, he was the subject of an FBI investigation
that allegedly had him taking a paper bag of $50,000
as a kickback for a potential government contract if Trump were to get reelected,
which of course, he did enough to say that Emil Beauvais,
who was one of the lawyers in the EGene Carol case. But who knows, with so many cases
against the president. And now he's a federal appeals court judge. He decided there wasn't enough evidence against Tom Homan, that
the tape of him allegedly taking the paper bag full of cash, was not sufficient evidence to prosecute him in any way.
So now he's being sent to run Ice in Minneapolis.

Let me let me just digress for a minute and say, over the weekend,
I got a text from a Trump lawyer. The text, it was a text that had gone astray.
It wasn't for me. And it was discussing legal strategy.
So I immediately called my lawyers and said, is this a strategy about our case, my case against Melania?
And we couldn't quite figure that out. Whether this involved us, or one of the hundreds
of other cases that they have obviously going. And then a little while later, I got a text
from this person saying, oh, that was misdirected. Please ignore. And then I said, sure, but, how goes? Right?

Can you imagine being the lawyer that mistakenly added you to the thing?

I like to think it's because he's been listening to Inside Trump's Head. Here's the key thing: this lawyer then said,
"off the record." Oh. Can you imagine putting you on there by accident?
He must have gone home to his wife and said, you'll never believe what I got today.
Assume nothing. Assume nothing. So you don't think heads will roll over this?

This seems the most clear cut case of someone. I mean, it would be interesting to see. This will be a test.
Because this is bad. It is. It can't get much worse than than this. I mean, this is, and we've said this before,
so I want to be careful about this, that we've identified a tipping point in this administration.
We've had so many tipping points before, and then we move on to the next one, and we forget this.
Can we forget the fact that two people have been killed in cold blood?
I would certainly hope not. But, these are peculiar times.
But we'll see. And I think
we should remember that, and everybody should remember that. Remember this. The focus ought to be on the specific policy.
The specific policy begins with Stephen Miller. And it is all about quotas.
I think that's really the root of this problem. You have to produce this many arrests.
If you don't produce this many arrests, you are failing at your mission.
That's Stephen Miller's policy to carry. And the person who executes on this policy.
is Kristi Noem, aided by Corey Lewandowski. So they really are the two pillars. When Suzie Wiles blames Kristi and Stephen.

That is correct.

Nicolas Maduro, who?

I just want to say when you said Nicolas Maduro, what suddenly popped into my head was a New York Times reporter.

I mean, it's like the speed and the velocity of this insanity.
It is so difficult to keep a grip on it.
I did think it was interesting that the nurse was armed,
and that instead of understanding what that would signal to the MAGA base,
I think it was Gregory Bovino, the head of ICE operations in Minneapolis, who's now being sent back to California,
where we're reassured that he's shortly to be retired. He said, "People shouldn't be taking arms to protests," immediately
riled up the MAGA base, because they like nothing better than to take it. And of course, someone brilliantly found Kash Patel's
tweets from five years ago in praise of Kyle Rittenhouse, who turned up at one of the demonstrations,
armed with his enormous rifle, saying to Kyle, you know, we support you.
Whatever you need, we're behind you.
The ridiculous Keystone Kash Patel, riding around on government jets with his girlfriend.

I think wherever you look in this story, you start to get these kinds
of contradictions, and you get them because it's a misguided policy, because they can't justify it.
They obviously can't justify the specific acts here. We see the evidence. And what you have again
is these untrained, or suboptimally trained, enforcement agents having to fulfill quotas. What do they think is going to happen?

And props to Chris Madel, who wanted to be the Republican governor candidate for Minneapolis, who stepped down from his race. We know Tim Walz is stepping down. Chris Madel is saying in all good faith, he couldn't possibly be a member of the Republican Party that was supporting what has happened in Minneapolis. And he was one of the leading candidates.

But he couldn't have won anyway, that was not a realistic race.
But the Trump people have turned this into a humiliating race.
So it's an interesting thing that you're willing to risk defeat, but not utter humiliation.

Well, I think what was perhaps unusual about it was that he came out and just said, this is not what the Republican Party should be doing. I can't get behind this. And, you know, most people don't want to take on Donald Trump like that, and don't want to criticize the party, because they know what's going to happen to them. I mean, this guy can't be primaried, but he can certainly be doxxed. You can have people you know, arrive outside your home. It's brave for people to speak up, is all I'm saying.

I always assume that there is some pretext for bravery, but fine.

Well, you may be right, you may be right. But let's hope it points to a new leaf for the Republican Party post Donald Trump.

Yeah, that is a hollow hope. Nothing is going to be. Again, what you're doing there, he said accusatorily late, which I don't mean to be.

It's fine to be accusatory.

You're ascribing normal ...

I knew you're going to say that I'm normalizing it.

It's not just normalizing it, but it's looking for an explanation, a cause and effect explanation.
And those explanations don't work here. And it on the part of virtually everybody
talking about this, the fallacy that they fall into. And the fallacy now is that this terrible thing has happened, so this is going to cause Donald Trump to back up, it's going to cause him to reassess, and it's going to chasten him in some way. And I think it should be very clear that is not going to happen.
He may well change the subject. He may well go off in another direction.
But the fundamental Donald Trump, which is his fundamental mission
to grab as much power as he can, to grab all power, continues on.
This will not change anything.
It's just so important to understand this is not normal.
And even if there is a sudden normalish reaction, like
"Oh, that's bad. We have to change the politics of this. We have to change the perception of this,"
that which any president or any politician would do. That does not change the direction of this administration.

Of course it's not normal, of course it's not normal. And finally, Obama and Bill Clinton, who you predicted wouldn't come out,
but you were hoping that Obama would, have both come out and said,
the Alex Pretti killing was a pivotal moment that Americans need to step up and understand what's happening here.
And Obama, I guess he sort of gave out a statement saying "it should be a wake up call to every American, regardless of the party, that many of our core values
as a nation are increasingly under assault."

When we talked about President Obama not doing enough last week, people were very angry. We got lots of comments saying, well, this isn't about Obama. But it is difficult to not feel like they should have a bigger presence because, as you point out,
they still have moral authority over the democratic Party. Anyway, he has come out and said something. And Bill Clinton has added
his voice.

Finally, finally! I mean, and maybe he came out because we shamed him.

Well, let's not get high on our own supply. I'm sure he came out because the murder of Alex Pretti shamed him.

Well, Yeah. You know, again, to wait for someone to be murdered. Two people. He didn't come out for the first murder. It took two murders for, for Barack Obama to weigh in here.

Okay, I'm just going to read you Bill Clinton's statement.
"Over the course of a lifetime, we face only a few moments where the decisions we make, and the actions we take, will shape our history for years to come. This is one of them. "And then he said, "the people in charge, lying to the public and telling them
not to believe what we've seen with our own eyes." Do you think the presence of cellphones here, and the fact that we all saw
what was going on, changes what we wouldn't have seen 30 or 40 years ago?
Everybody now is taking pictures of this stuff. Alex Pretti was taking pictures.

Well, obviously that is what this is all about.
We see this. This would have been much easier to cover up. And God knows they tried to cover it up.
But you know, a frame by frame analysis makes it significantly more difficult.
And obviously they failed to cover this up.

And I think what makes people so angry is being told they're not seeing
what they're seeing.

Yeah. No, don't believe your lying eyes.
Of course. But let me read something, because I was going through some files, and trying to think about this, and trying to explain, you know. That's all we do is try to explain.
How have we gotten here? Which is staggering.
I mean, Barack Obama is finally weighing in. How have we gotten here?
We have gotten to an unimaginable place in American history.

Right. And a government of one. A government of one.

And I was going through some materials over the weekend, and I found a conversation with Steve Bannon, which took place in the first administration. And Bannon was talking about what would happen if Trump got a second term, a second term in which he no longer had to think about facing the voters. Here's what nobody gets, Bannon said.

"Here's what nobody gets. He'll be unchained. Off the reservation. No moral constraints. No scruples. No cares.

And at this point in this conversation, Bannon started to laugh hysterically. And I think he was laughing at the absurdity of the idea of Donald Trump getting four years in which he was accountable basically to no one.

"It'll be vendetta, and Payback, and fuck everybody. It'll be an America that nobody ever dreamed of.
Donald Trump off his meds is something that nobody is prepared for."

God how prophetic. How prophetic.

So again, just in the context of this, and there's this
sudden righteousness on the part of Bill Clinton, on the part of Barack Obama, that normal political consequences
are facing Donald Trump, and that he will have to bow to them.
And my concern and fear and belief is that he'll move on.
Minneapolis is not going to rescue us.

Well, he said he could stand on Fifth Avenue and shoot someone, and people would let him get away with it. And they've now shot two people in Minneapolis. Let's not forget Renee Nicole Good, as well as Alex Pretti, the V.A. nurse. And there was something particularly poignant about the fact that people who turned up to stand at his vigil, a lot of them were fellow nurses, and they all had their stethoscopes around their neck. I mean, incredible moments in modern America you would not think you would see. And for what? For what? An insane policy, by an insane guy, that had nothing to do between the two
Trump administrations, and sidled back Mar-a-Lago, sitting there hoping that Trump would notice him. And then through his abject loyalty, got picked up as an appalling public servant.

Stephen Miller.

Yeah, yeah. Stephen Miller and his wife, who has a sort of Magda Goebbels type
podcast where she fawningly interviews the cabinet members and their wives.
I mean, it's the most egregious, egregious thing you can imagine.

So what is our hope here? Perhaps only, Melania.

Well, tell me everything about the black tie, intimate screening of the Brett Ratner -- happily, Brett Ratner no longer Me-to'ed, but back out there given the rush hour for movie to make
by Paramount who's desperately trying to still do the Warner Brothers bid. Remember all that?
So she's furious. This was supposed to be her moment. She looked fabulous this whole week.

This was supposed to be the Melania Week. I mean, they have spent time in the White House discussing this. This
week was the "Give to the First Lady." They took away the east wing, but she's getting this week. And this means a lot to her. Melania the movie is her statement.

And it means a lot to Jeff Bezos because he's paid $40 million.

Jeff Bezos, I'm sure could care less. He's already gotten what he wants from this movie, which is
to to be able to suck up in the way that really matters to the White House.

Well, I noticed he was not at the black tie White House special screening.

Well, we'll see if he is at the premiere, at the Trump Kennedy Center on Thursday.

Well, his CEO, Andy Jassy, was there on Saturday night. But Tim Cook was there, the CEO of Apple was there, getting a lot of backlash online from people saying they want to boycott Apple products. And, you know, Tim Cook who's got on his Twitter bio some quote from Martin Luther King saying, "You know, the most important thing to do in life is ask what you can do for other people."

The weakness of the opposition, it seems to me, is kind of vividly displayed, in the call to boycott Apple.

Right. Well, it's hard to boycott both Apple and Amazon, because they've made themselves so vital. But what about the government shutdown? Chuck Schumer is back. And now that the Dems want a government shutdown, because they want to cleave off the Department of Homeland Security over this Minneapolis business.

If not now, when?

So do we think that's going to happen?

You know, well, I've given up a long time ago thinking that the Democrats are going to do anything, which requires an amount of, what would be the word? "Backbone." Backbone. So I don't know, but should they, and is this an opportunity?
Well, should they? Obviously, yes. Is this an opportunity? Without a doubt. Does it require some fortitude? Yes. Do the Democrats have that? No.

Right, I mean even Jeanne Shaheen, that led the eight Democrats who decided against keeping on with the shutdown last year, has said that she's not going to support approving the funding that they need to keep the government open. So they're offering a compromise, which is they just carve out the Department of Homeland Security against the other government funding. But again, Chuck Schumer seems pretty lame over this. He is calling people to rouse themselves. "Let us be roused."

"Let us be roused." We are roused. Yes, everybody's roused but Chuck Schumer.

$5 million in advance ticket sales for Melania's documentary. We've had lots of texts from people saying how they are quietly boycotting it. I think we should be noisily boycotting it. And someone from Tokyo saying that they'd been looking at the Tokyo movie centers because there are ad campaigns there, even though nobody knows who Melania is in Tokyo, apparently, and she was going to study the various, advanced seating plans of movie theaters in Tokyo and letting us know how many tickets have been sold.
So thank you for that.

As you said, Michael, it is Melania's week, which means we have questions for you in your ongoing case against the First lady.
Various people have written in to suggest that you try and serve her papers, which we know has proved a challenge, in a bouquet of flowers presented by a small child. So you may have to get very cunning in the way that you serve her.

Anyway, here's a question from dredge rivers. Great name, Dredge rivers.
Ask Melania if anyone related to her, or otherwise, ever asked her to use her position to influence her husband to expedite their citizenship, and how she responded. And then there's a question here, which I don't think you're going to want to answer, but I'm just putting it out there. And it's from someone called Terrell Tongue 2624. Question for Melania. Does Donald have bad B.O.?
If so, how do people cope?

I hear this is a social media trope. And when I have been with the president in smelling distance, and smelling in there, and there have been quite a number, nope. He was as sweet as can be.

All right. And I'm going to read this out on a golf read Limerick
because golf it's been busy at work again, as have lots of people. And because I was away for the weekend, I wasn't organized about,
keeping tabs on all the different poems. So I'm going to go back and do that. But I'm going to read this out with golf,
read

There once was a Don full of bile,
who weaponized spite with a smile.
He'd piss on the weak, blame ghosts for his reek,
and tweet like a rabid feral child.

What more is there to say?

There's not much else to say except they all hate each other in the White House. They're now going after each other in the white House, and Michael Wolff will be talking to people in the white House, and bringing you the best Kremlinology that we possibly can.
And of course, Melania will be back on Thursday, as Melania gears up for her premiere at the Kennedy Center.

Aren't we going to Washington, and doing the show from outside the ...

Well, we could do.

Trump and Kennedy Center.

Well, would you like to do that?

No.

There you go. There you go. I think you learn more from just talking to people who are in the White House.

Anyway, Michael, thank you again for a really interesting insight. Probably no heads will roll, apart from Gregory Bovino, who's been dispatched to California today, I think, as we speak, Tom Homan to Minneapolis to calm everybody down, and Melania gearing up for what she hopes will be a premiere. But how can her husband inadvertently, or advertly in fact, spoil it for her? Do you think he doesn't like the fact that she's getting attention? Or do you think actually Donald Trump doesn't want Melania to be a success, in the same way that charismatic leaders don't want to be followed by anybody, and he's already making it difficult?

I think the issues there are the, the intricate balance of this relationship.
What he does not want is a uncontrolled,
a pissed off and uncontrolled Melania. I'm pissed off Melania.
You see smiling Melania I am pissed off Melania behind scenes, behind the scenes.
I bet if there's stuff you know, you know, I mean, those opaque gestures that she is very capable of making.
He doesn't want that. Michael, thank you very much. But if you have been. Thank you for joining us.
Leave us a comment on your thoughts on the infighting, which is clearly going on with very sharp knives at the white House.
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And Neil and Neil.

Scott Ritter: US-Iran War Imminent as Military Buildup Peaks
Glenn Diesen
Jan 27, 2026

Scott Ritter is a former Major, Intelligence Officer, US Marine, and UN Weapons Inspector. Ritter discusses the possibility of an imminent attack on Iran.



Transcript

Welcome back. We are joined today by Scott Ritter, a former UN weapons inspector, a US Marine Corps
intelligence officer, and a prolific author. So, thank you for coming on.
We're seeing now a lot of indicators that another attack on Iran could be
imminent. That is, uh, some US naval forces are arriving in the region. Trump
claims that this is a greater armada than what was sent to Venezuela. There's
also a lot of US air power coming in. We see some disruption to the airspace.
That is some civilian flights are being redirected and there's media reports about uh the plan of doing precision
strikes against Iranian officials. Uh how how are you assessing the
information? Are we heading towards war? It certainly looks that way. Um, you
know, Donald Trump has a history of um, pulling back from the brink
um, you know, on Iran because the consequences of conflict remain the
same. I if you know there's the old saying, don't strike the king unless you plan on killing the king. Um, because if
you strike the king and the king's still alive, king's going to kill you. Um, Iran's the king of the region. Let's
just be straight up about that. Um, Iran has the ability to uh terminate
all energy production capabilities in the region at will. Uh, in addition,
Iran has the ability to inflict horrific harm on um American military bases uh to
include u the potential of killing hundreds if not thousands of American service members. Um, I think we have to
keep in the back of our head the possibility of the United States losing some ships um up to and including an
aircraft carrier. Um, and Iran of course has the ability to deliver near uh
lethal damage to Israel. Israel has told the United States that it's apparently,
according to news reports, that it's prepared to absorb up to 700 Iranian
ballistic missiles. Um, if the United States can guarantee that whatever
military action is taken removes the Iranian regime from power,
uh, yeah, I I I've got bad news for US military planners. Uh, let's just, you know, be straight up and honest about
this. you don't have what it takes to remove Iran's military uh and civilian leadership from power, especially now
that you've literally literally broadcast your punch. This isn't going to be a repeat of June where you lulled
the Iranians into a false sense of complacency by leading them to believe that there would be ongoing negotiations
about their nuclear program and they went to bed at night only to be attacked by Israel with the backing of the United
States in a decapitation attempt that failed. Um, the Iranians have been
preparing uh for more than 20 years now to wage an
existential conflict against Israel, the United States, and the West. um you know they have divided their
nation up into self- sustaining um military and governing districts um
under the assumption that there could be a decapitation strike
against Thrron um not that it would eliminate the leadership but it could eliminate the ability of the leadership
to communicate with um the various regions of Iran. So, the Iranians have
built underground cities, underground command posts, um that are capable of
independently overseeing their designated terrain. Uh and they're also
capable of independently continuing to resist against, you know, enemies, both
those who may be threatening Iran from within and also striking those uh without. The Iranian government has a a
buried city in Mashad. Uh I would imagine that um you know they have their
own you know continuity of government uh plan in place and that uh the
appropriate leaders have been sent to the appropriate places as we learned with um the case of you
know FDRO the underground nuclear uh enrichment plant you know FDO was was
basically a modified pre-existing underground ground cavern u that was
created by the Iranians for resilience. U this is they have dozens if not more
of these around the country many of which we don't know about where they can
hide production equipment. They can hide sensitive um military equipment. Um they
can hide documents. They can hide government office spaces. They can hide enrichment capabilities.
the Iranians would be fools not to have implemented whatever plans they need to implement for, you know,
national existential resilience. And so we blew it. I mean, if you're going to carry out a decapitation strike, it has
to be done by surprise. You don't telegraph your punch. And you
know, even if the United States were to come in with nuclear weapons, and I don't see them doing that, [snorts] um
they're not going to eliminate the Iranian regime. It just isn't going to happen. And what's going to happen is
that the Iranians are going to deliver a knockout punch against Israel that very well may end Israel's ability to survive
as an ex, you know, as a as a as a modern state by taking out critical infrastructure that will not be repaired
anytime soon, making Israel basically uninhabitable for millions of people who have to flee Israel. And
demographically, that's the end of Israel. Um the uh the Iranians are
prepared not only to shut down the straight or Hermuz but to permanently disrupt the ability of regional u energy
producing nations to produce energy. This will have um you know a near fatal
impact on the global economy. I mean I fear for for me and for my family and for the United States the consequences.
You know the dollar's already lost 10% of its value in the past year. We're looking at the potential of a complete collapse of the dollar. Um, and you
know, energy prices out of control. Uh, and this will resonate globally. I fear for you because I know I mean I know
Norway produces its own energy, but um, you know, you will be impacted by this
as well. Um, this is the consequence of this. Um,
and hopefully there's people that are smart enough to say, "Hey, Mr. president, this just isn't this isn't going to work. It's not going to work at
this time. Uh let's not do this. It's this is foolhardy. Um you will lose the
the midterms. You will you you will be impeached there. You know, all the
things. U so we'll we'll see what Trump does, but you know, right now it looks as if the pieces are being put in place
to carry out, you know, a major military attack against Iran.
Well, what would the objective be here though? Because um there's no longer any talk about the nuclear program that is
well, Trump claims that this was already destroyed. Uh doubtful, but uh but but
anyways, the the talk now is about pre precision strikes against the government. It's about holding to
account the government for the the killing of protesters. Essentially, they're talking about regime change. And
given that there's no unifying opposition, it begs the question whether or not the main objective therefore is
to destroy Iran. That is to break it into many smaller manageable pieces.
Indeed, there was this Wall Street Journal um article recently which had a
title that uh a fractured Iran might not be so bad and it recognized that uh yeah
there's a distinct possibility of a civil war following a regime change operation uh which seems like it could
well either you would need an extremely authoritarian opposition to take over capable of controlling it something like
the you know the jihadist who were put in place in Syria or it would be the fragmentation of of
Iran. Do do you see this being the the main game plan just to destroy the
country? Absolutely. Um I I see you know the the
the plan would be to destroy Iran's ability to um carry out effective
national level command and control um to suppress regional security um
infrastructure institutions, units, organizations etc. Um [snorts]
and then to facilitate uprisings uh in Belaluchistan we know that the CIA
actively backs a Baluch liberation army. We know um in Havaz we back Arab li
liberation. We know we back Kurds. We know we back Azeris. Um and so you'll be
seeing uh uprisings in all of these areas CIA um backed uprisings. Uh and
then you'll have the mek and the monarchists uh working uh to destabilize
Iran uh from within. You know what the the the I guess the core of Iran. Um
[clears throat] you know I I think Trump believes that he could
put the Sha in power, the Sha's son in power and resurrect the monarchy. Um you
know Trump is not the smartest man in the world. He literally isn't. I think people need to understand that
especially about the world we live in that he's extraordinarily susceptible to nonsense being whispered in his ear. And
right now he is being presented with what appears to be, you know, a solid
front of anti-regime Iranians, expatriots um in Los Angeles, a very
strong group there, but also throughout the United States. Uh people who are saying that it's time for the for the
regime to fall, that the monarchy is ready to go. And remember, the CIA has been backing the monarchy. Israel has been backing the monarchy for again
close to 30 years. So I think Trump has bought into the nonsense. Um and he he
believes that this plan can can succeed. Um but if there is a regime change
operation as you suggested you need some groups on the ground. Uh I had the impression that the the efforts to
instigate all these riots and anti-government violence uh which died
off recently uh that this was essentially the well the opportunity to
to go after the Iranian government and once it failed that uh the US or Israel
would come in bombing in the during the chaos in in a way of supporting an uprising. But given that this uh well
fell apart uh it it didn't just die down. It appears that Iran was able to
uh essentially roll up a lot of these covert networks which had been built up over years if not decades. So has has um
the US and Israel lost a lot of its uh I guess uh ground assets in Iran which
could could have been used during a war or at least as as a necessity for regime
change operation. Again not being read into the covert
plan um I can only speculate here. Yeah. What I what I think happened is that um
a network of an internal cellular network of um
agents working for hostile foreign intelligence primarily Israel, the United States, Great Britain um
were sacrificed to create the conditions of unrest.
Um, if I know the Israelis the way I think I know the Israelis and the CIA the way I
think I know the CIA. Um, you know, they operate. You know,
when they do something like this, it's called shaking the tree. I've done it before. You go in and you and you tickle
the system. Then you see how the system responds. Um, and they tickled the system. They
sacrificed an entire network, and we're talking hundreds of um of assets to uh to
achieve this. But what they didn't do is mobilize the
the actual paramilitary organizations that would lead the insurrection. I
think the goal was to um create the unrest and then there was
supposed to be a bombing campaign uh to suppress those security nodes identified
that were activated to suppress. So now to be honest, the United States knows exactly how Iran responds.
They got it all. They collected it all. They're not stupid. um they sacrificed these people, but the
Iranians had to communicate, had to activate, had to mobilize, they identified units, personality,
structures that responded. This was their first team, and the team's been identified. And this is a team that's
going to be bombed uh when the when the strike begins. And they're going to suppress this. And this is when the
paramilitary forces come in, the people that are training that are in northern
uh Iraq, the the Kurdish forces there, the Kurdish forces that operate um along
the border of Iran. This is where Azeri forces that are operating inside Azerbaijan under CIA and and um and and
Israeli control, the Beluch liberation army, all of these paramil
military forces, actual terrorist armies are going to mobilize and make the move.
At the same time, the Mujidin Elk, which is one of the most resil survivable
organizations, they will mobilize from within. These people have networks that weren't sacrificed, that are still in
play. These are the networks that the Israelis use to assassinate scientists, etc. They're going to be killing
everybody they can get a hold of. They're going to be running around putting plastic, you know, explosives on cars, uh, you know, rooms. This is going
to be the full scale go after everybody and kill everybody. Not necessarily the senior leadership, which should have been evacuated, but all of these
security nodes that were identified when they shook the tree, they're going to die, or at least they're going to try and die. And the idea is to create
massive confusion, air strikes, on the ground activity, paramilitary moving in,
resumption of the uprising because now there won't be security forces to to lower it down. And this will cause Iran
to fracture and break apart. um whether Iran um is is is is actually split up
and you know you you'd have to have the Pakistani government willing to absorb parts and I don't see the Pakistani
government doing that because it's uh you know issues but I I I think you're going to see Iran be be fractured into
autonomous regions of chaos and anarchy uh that it'll be uncontrolled by the by the center and from the Israeli
perspective this is a success. The Israelis don't care about the Iranian people. The Americans don't care about the Iranian people. All we care about is
getting rid of the Ayatollah regime. And that's what we're going to be trying to do. Again, I I say this um
understand that what I just laid out, which I believe is actually what's going to happen. Um the Iranians know this.
They've been preparing for it. So, it's not as though the Iranians are going, "Oh, you mean the MEK is going to come
out of the woodworks? Oh, you mean the balluch liberation aren't?" The Iranians are ready for this. Now, now how ready
you are. I It's like saying, "I'm ready for Mike Tyson to punch me in the face." Um, can you really be prepared for Mike
Tyson to punch you in the face? You know, if he knocks you out, you're knocked out. Um, but at least, you know, the punch is coming and you can, you
know, prepare for it. We'll see what happens. I I think this is a horrible. no reason for the United States and
Israel to be pushing for the elimination of the Iranian government at this time except that Benjamin Netanyahu
desperately needs this for his political survival. So once again, the United States is willing to sacrifice
everything, our national security, our national legitimacy, everything on behalf of Israel.
Well, if you were advising the Iranian government or if you're just in Thran,
uh, how would you assess their likely response? Because in the first attack on Iran, I I would have thought that the
the main objective of Iran would have been to to essentially show the the
strength it has, the the resilience, the ability to strike back, essentially to
build up its deterrent to to make sure that the aggressive forces were pushed
back and that they would be deterred from doing this again. But uh but what you're describing though this is an
existential threat that is uh the the goal is yeah not some limited strike
it's it's to destroy essentially Iran and uh if if they fail they would
perhaps go back regroup and try again. So given that this is how Iran likely
sees uh the threat against it, it would have a incentive to react differently
this time. I would think that is to not hold back in terms of striking various
uh western military assets, Israel in the region or even you know some have
suggested Iran might even do a preemptive strike if if all the American
warships and and fighter planes bombers all are in position and and you know it
looks like they're going for the go then it would be better for Iran to hit them first. Do again I'm not this is
speculation so one scene is in the media no one in tan is whispering my ears. So I'm just wondering how how how do you
assess the likely a way of the the Iranians would behave differently this
time as opposed to the first time they were attacked? Well the first time they were attacked
they weren't expecting that attack. It took them by surprise. So right off the bat um if Iran is taken by surprise then
shame on them. I mean, that's that's their own issues. [clears throat] I don't I mean, if I were the decision
maker in Iran, the Abraham Lincoln would already be sunk. American bases would already be destroyed. Israel would be
eliminated, and I'd be carrying out massive operations against the Kurds in Iraq, the Beluch. I'd be wiping out
Avas. I'd be killing anybody suspected of the of MEK ties.
Um, I'd be sending assassination teams around the world to kill the Sha son. I would kill everybody. Um, but that's
just me. I'm not Iranian. I'm just a bloodthirsty sunk who doesn't believe in uh in in standing by and
getting hit in the face first. Um, the Iranians, unfortunately for them, are very civilized. They're very proper. Um,
and I believe that their government still holds out hope that war can be avoided. And so they're not going to
take, I believe, the um the the the actions um that would be ne necessary to
preempt this. Iran has every right to. I mean, the statements made by the United States and Israel uh already justify
this. There there's no doubt that there's an imminent threat that's building up. um the Iran should go to
the United Nations and declare um uh you know an emergency and demand
international intervention um and uh declare that there there's an imminent threat and if that imminent threat can't
be um eliminated in a period of time, Iran has no choice but to you know carry out preemptive self-defense under
article 51 of the United Nations charter. They'd have every legitimate right to do this. Um, but I also think
they're being advised by the Russians and the Chinese to be patient, too. That again,
we know of at least two occasions when Donald Trump pulled back from the brink. And so maybe there's people advising
the Iranians that this can be the third time that there's no reason or justification to uh to go forward
because, you know, a preemptive strike again, if you're if you're going to strike the king, kill the king. So, the
preemptive strike has to be a knockout blow to the United States and to um and to Israel. And one of the things that
happens if you carry out a very effective preemptive strike is that you open yourself up to nuclear retaliation and that would be again the end of Iran.
Um which is why hopefully if I were advising the Iranians, you'd have some
rational people say, "That's okay, Scott. Go sit in the back corner and eat your raw meat. We'll uh we'll get back
to you later." Um, you know, but no, I I I think, you know,
Iran, [clears throat and cough] I have hope and I have confidence that the Iranians understand what's happening
and that they are preparing um to ride out
what's going to be one hell of a storm. I also need to say this, uh, you know, I'm an American. Uh, I don't wish harm
on any Americans. Um, you know, I don't want any American hurt in this. And uh,
you know, you I just I, you know, this is going to
just be a bad bad thing, a very bad thing because it's it's a war of choice.
Um, and I just hope and pray that um the the leaders of the American men and
women who are in harm's way do their jobs right and bring as many of their boys and girls home as possible.
Well, meanwhile, Trump though he he made some comments that as this massive Armada is heading towards Iran, he said
that uh the Iranians now want to make a deal. Again, his words, we shouldn't
necessarily take it literally. I don't think the Iranians necessarily said we're ready to make a deal. Is it's just
words. But but it does beg the question, what kind of a deal would we even talk about? uh
because this is no longer about the the nuclear deal. So, is this just more
trying to give them a sense of security that this is just to put pressure to
negotiate or or is he actually looking for a deal? Because uh surely Trump must
see the disaster that awaits if if he goes forth with this and he kind of fits
his um approach to not get dragged into something too big. He seems to always
want to, you know, even if it's if it's Yemen or Venezuela, just go quickly in, quickly out and have something to show
for it as opposed to being, you know, taking massive casualties on the American side. So, do you think he's
actually looking for a deal or if so, what exactly would that deal be? Because I I I it would have to be something
else. Are the Iranians going to disarm? Are they going to accept voluntary
regime change? I mean, what what would such an a deal actually entail?
Well, I think a deal would uh first of all, you know, Karen Kissell, she's a
former for um Austrian foreign minister that's currently residing in St. Petersburg. She heads up what's called
the Gorki Center. Um you know, very very smart lady. Um she uh she abhores the
term deal. Uh she calls it the language of gangsters. Uh well, which is why
Donald Trump uses it. A deal isn't I mean, Donald Trump wants a deal because
a deal is a one-way street. Donald Trump wants everything for him, nothing for you, and he can break it anytime he
wants because he'll just call it a bad deal, and I'm looking for a better deal. Um it's it's the language of gangsters.
Um and the Iranians should understand that u and not be looking for any deal. You don't deal with the mafia.
They always win. um because that means that you've gone down to their level and you're playing their game.
Iran needs to be looking for a comprehensive treaty based agreement uh founded in
international law, which is problematic because Donald Trump has stated that he doesn't believe in international law. Um
so, right off the bat, I'd say that we just have incompatible visions on
what um conflict resolution looks like in Iran and in the United States. But and to answer your question, um a deal
would be nuclear um you know to bring to close the nuclear uh file and ballistic
missile that Iran would have to voluntarily disarm of the one thing that gives it viability. Um and um and once
they did that then Israel would come in and finish him off. I mean that's the deal. What the United States is saying is voluntarily get rid of anything that
gives you um you know deterrence [clears throat] capability and then Israel will finish you off because we
want regime change. Israel will not be happy until the Ayatollas are gone. And
frankly speaking the core of American policy makers share that same sentiment.
Um you know they shouldn't have gone over the embassy walls in 1979.
Uh because when they did that, they taught an entire nation to hate them.
And that hatred's still there. It's irrational hatred. It doesn't make any sense, but it doesn't matter. You don't take Americans hostage for 444 days. You
don't uh poke the dead bodies, the charred bodies of eight American service members who were sent to Iran, not to
invade it, but to rescue hostages that the Iranians took hostage. I mean,
Iranians aren't the good guys here in in terms of what happened in 1979. I know the Sha Sabach uh compliability and all
that. American people don't care about that. You people need to understand that, you know, when you insult the
American people, that insult says we we don't forgive and forget. We're we hold grudges. And right now, there's a big
grudge against uh against Iran. There's not too many Americans out there. I'm one of the few that articulate for good
relations, normalized relations with Iran. Um, most Americans would be very happy to see the Ayatollah go away, not
because they know anything about the Ayatollas or they know anything about how Iran functions, but because they
have been programmed into linking the Ayatollas with holding Americans
hostage, taking American embassy. Um, you know, a failed rescue mission, eight dead Americans burned on the desert
floor, Desert One. Um, you know, this is this is the reality. So, you know, it's
um [clears throat] there should be no compromise on the part of the Iranians. Um because the
moment they compromise, the moment make a deal, it's over. You don't make a deal with the devil. You don't make a deal with the mafia and you don't make a deal
with Donald Trump. Well, given that this is an existential
threaten to the Iranians, that is even if they make a deal or not, as you say, they will uh regime change is
nonetheless the key objective. How does this uh impact how the Russians and the
Chinese would respond to an American and Israeli attack on Iran? because uh well
I heard that there was good possibility that the Russians had something to do with um with shutting down the Starlink
during uh the riots. But uh but overall Iran is a key regional power and and the
wider Eurasian continent is a key pillar of this greater Eurasian partnership. So, and for countries like China, it's
also an important uh source for energy and if it was be able to be knocked out,
it would certainly be taken advantage of uh to go after Russia or China in the
future. So, um it's it's hard to it's hard to expect uh to be reasonable that
they would allow Iran to go down in a similar way as Venezuela, for example.
I I think you hit the nail on the head here. Iran's not Venezuela. Iran is um
you know much closer and much more important. Uh it's a bricks member. Um
Russia has a strategic relationship with Iran. There's a secret military annex that now has been ratified by both the
Russians and the Iranians that's in play. And the Chinese have likewise been, you know, working with the
Iranians. Um
I [laughter] wrote an article uh couple weeks ago that many say is the reason why I got debanked. Um uh basically I
basically said give the camel a bloody nose. Um that you can't let the camel stick its nose under the tent or else
the camel's coming in. And the United States is the camel. It's trying to you know stick its nose under the under the
tent here and then somebody needs to give it a bloody nose. Now again I'm not advocating for any harm to come to any
Americans. I don't want that at all. Um, and I was more or less talking about, you know, economic actions that can be
done to hold the United States back or punish the United States for bad policy. But, um, if I were the Russians, uh,
again, the United States isn't as smart and clever as it thinks it is. The B2
strike that was conducted gave away every American capability you could imagine. Um, when they talk about
precision strikes, they're talking about penetrating Iranian airspace with B2 bombers, with F-35s, with F22s.
Uh, that profile has been flown, has been captured, has been recorded. Uh, every aspect of it has been uh assessed
by Iranians and Russians and Chinese. Um, and if I were the Russians, I would say
that my goal is to shoot down one or more B2 bombers.
um and um prove once and for all that the concept of American um supremacy
um that America can't be touched, America is able to do anything at once is is a fundamentally flawed concept.
Now, if they do shoot him down, I hope the American air crews get out and are rescued by American search and rescue
and there's no prisoners of war and uh all that good stuff. But um the the the
point is again if I were advising Donald Trump, don't do this. You could be entering a trap because the Russians
aren't going to sit back idly and let you bomb Iran. Russia is not going to respond directly. They're not going to
go to war for Iran, but Russia is going to do everything they can to ensure that your military adventure is a failure, a
fundamental failure. Um, you know, and then this is up to and
including, you know, the Iranians have the ability to uh hit American shipping
in a way that no other nation that has recently fought the Americans could, including the hoodie. Um, we're talking
about arrnic like missiles that cannot be intercepted. Uh, that will rain death
and destruction down on the the platform, penetrating the deck, potentially uh penetrating the nuclear
reactor. um potentially sinking the ship with catastrophic loss of life. Um
sinking other ships that are part of the carrier battle group. Um
the United States has become very cocky and we've we've become accustomed to inflicting harm on people without having
harm inflicted on us. Um, I believe that the Russians and the Chinese um are
going to do everything possible to en to help the Iranians give the United States a bloody nose um a broken nose in this
fight. And uh that's again another reason why you have to ask yourself why are we doing this? Why go through this
this motion? Um because of Trump's ego. I mean it's it's really comes down to that. becomes the
also the control that Israel has over American foreign policy and national security policy. But,
you know, I'm not saying the Iranians are perfect, and I'm not saying the Iranians can't mess it up, and I'm not saying the Iranians are going to
succeed. But, if I were the Russians, I'd be doing everything I could to ensure that the Iranians shoot down at
least one, maybe two B2 bombers um and the strike forces that, you know, strike
package that's going to be coming in. um that that will be a humiliation to
Donald Trump that he won't be able to survive. Well, as we speak now, I see on one of
the screens there that the there's a American um surveillance aircraft over
the Strait of Hermoose and there's also Iranian drones uh near while doing
reconnaissance on the American naval assets in the region. So it does look as
if both sides are preparing for yeah for for war now. But um this is her last
question. What if if if we're not going to war? What what will be an offramp by now? Because uh it's very hard to step
back from this massive show of force unless there's u you know something to
show for it. Uh to to show that you know your pressure tactics were successful
and uh you can come home with something. Otherwise it it looks as if wars seems
very certain by now. you know, Donald Trump is somebody who
has little problem telling lies. Um, and
you know, he'll he'll be able to if he wants to, he can craft something about, you know, I received a phone call
assurances that Iran will behave properly. you know, once again,
American military strength has compelled the Ayatollah to back down and, you know, things of that nature. Um,
[sighs and gasps] that's the off-ramp. Um, you know, we're going to, you know, because this war has
no legitimate foundation because normally an off-ramp is an off-ramp that takes us away from the issues of
concern. Now, here they they say the issues of concern are the nuclear program and ballistic missiles, but you
know, Iran's not going to give those up. Not in a vacuum, not anytime. Um, you
know, so it's I I I I think, you know, Donald Trump, if he wanted to end this,
could do what he did last time. Um, you know, I made a decision to save Iranian lives. uh that you know when I was
briefed on the totality of the damage that would be done by this
strike I realized that the Iranian people have suffered enough you know at the hands of this regime and um I am not
going to facilitate continued suffering thousands of Iranians would be killed if
we struck and instead we're going to you know pull back and double down on sanctions and you know work to further
isolate the regime and we always will have our military here in the background ready to pounce, you know, something
like that. Um, so because Donald Trump has no problem telling lies and manufacturing, you know, his own
reality, he can say anything he wants. And unfortunately, we have an American population that's just dumb enough to
believe it. That could be a strength now, though, wouldn't it? Uh, because usually
countries, they lock themselves. They get stuck in the rhetorical trap. guess uh Trump's uh skills in terms of lying,
getting away with it, just spewing pure BS or or just this ability to shift
focus. I mean, one day you're talking about Venezuela, day two you're talking about Greenland. Uh it is a talent, I
guess, this managing the media. It it could be an offramp uh if wants to be
optimistic. So, um um final thoughts. Yeah, that's I mean I
you got to take the silver lining when it's offered. Okay. you know, there's a dark cloud over us, but look, um, you
know, it's sort of um reflective of the of the state of
affairs that we're confronted with today where um having a lying leader with no
moral compass is a good thing because his lies, his lack of moral compass
could actually prevent a war. So, I'll take it.
Well, on that optimistic note, uh thank you very much for taking the time and yeah, sharing your insights.
Thanks for having me.

https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/72 ... f-v-trump/
Wolff v. Trump (1:25-cv-10752)
District Court, S.D. New York
Last Updated: Jan. 28, 2026, 3:26 p.m.
Assigned To: Mary Kay Vyskocil

Exclusive: ICE's Secret Watchlists of Americans
by Ken Klippenstein
Jan 28, 2026
https://www.kenklippenstein.com/p/ices- ... -americans

“We have a nice little database and now you’re considered a domestic terrorist,” a masked federal agent taunted a protester filming him in Maine last week.

Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin’s response was firm: “There is NO database of ‘domestic terrorists’ run by DHS.”

There’s just one problem: She’s lying.

Two senior national security officials tell me that there are more than a dozen secret and obscure watchlists that homeland security and the FBI are using to track protesters (both anti-ICE and pro-Palestinian), “Antifa,” and others who are promiscuously labeled “domestic terrorists.”

I can reveal for the first time that some of the secret lists and applications go by codenames like Bluekey, Grapevine, Hummingbird, Reaper, Sandcastle, Sienna, Slipstream, and Sparta (including the ominous sounding HEL-A and HEL-C reports generated by Sparta).

Some of these, like Hummingbird, were created to vet and track immigrants, in this case Afghans seeking to settle in the United States. Slipstream is a classified social media repository. Others are tools used to link people on the streets together, including collecting on friends and families who have nothing to do with any purported lawbreaking.

There’s practically nothing available that further describes what these watchlists do, how large they are, or what they entail.

“We came out of 9/11 with the notion that we would have a single ‘terrorist’ watchlist to eliminate confusion, duplication and avoid bad communications, but ever since January 6, not only have we expanded exponentially into purely domestic watchlisting, but we have also created a highly secretive and compartmented superstructure that few even understand,” says a DHS attorney intimately familiar with the subject. The attorney spoke on the agreement that their identity not be disclosed.

Prior to 9/11, there were nine federal agencies that maintained 12 separate watchlists. Now, officially there are just three: a watchlist of 1.1 million international terrorists, a watchlist of more than 10,000 domestic terrorists maintained by the FBI, and a new watchlist of transnational criminals, built up to more than 85,000 over the past decade.

The new domestic-related watchlists—a set of databases and applications—exist inside and outside the FBI and are used by agencies like ICE and the Border Patrol to organize the Niagara of information in possession of the federal government. Collectively, they create ways to sort, analyze, and search information, a task that even artificial intelligence has failed to conquer (so far).

Among other functions, the new watchlists process tips, situation reports and collected photographs and video submitted by both the public and from agents in the field; they create a “common operating picture” in places like Minneapolis; they allow task forces to target individuals for surveillance and arrest; and they create the capacity for intelligence people to link individuals together through geographic proximity or what is labeled “call chaining” by processing telephone numbers, emails, and other contact information.

Administration officials have alluded to all of this, though contrary to the Hollywood idea of some all-seeing eye, actual government watchlists are more a patchwork system of lists and applications, each of which might have individual justification or even legitimate purpose to aid law enforcement but overall form the basis for massive violations of American civil rights.

“One thing I’m pushing for right now … we’re going to create a database where those people that are arrested for interference, impeding and assault, we’re going to make them famous,” Tom Homan, Trump’s border czar, told Fox News earlier this month.

Watchlists in general fly in the face of the spirit of the Constitution and the protections it’s supposed to embody against unreasonable search and seizure, and relating to the right of privacy.

“Fairness can rarely be obtained by secret, one-sided determination of facts decisive of rights,” Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter said of a Justice Department list of subversives during the Red Scare. “Secrecy is not congenial to truthseeking.”

Now, the national security community has developed an interlocking set of lists and applications that are secret not just to the public but opaque to most who toil in the federal agencies themselves. Asked about the watchlists, a Border Patrol agent recounted to me how they punch their data into their own proprietary application, not really knowing what happens after that.

Again, these watchlists aren’t the all-seeing eye of Sauron that many imagine. They’re more like the compound eye of a fly, a fragmented array of lenses (over 3,000 per eye in the common housefly!) that collectively form a mosaic. That mosaic—the ability to unify all the disparate lists into one master picture—doesn’t yet exist, sources tell me. That, however, is the direction we’re going, especially with software packages like Palantir that can be customized to aggregate all that is collected.

“We do of course monitor and investigate and refer all threats, assaults and obstruction of our officers to the appropriate law enforcement,” says McLaughlin. “Obstructing and assaulting law enforcement is a felony and a federal crime.”

Impeding federal law enforcement has emerged as the Trump administration’s primary justification for actions against people like Renee Good and Alex Pretti.

As part of its new effort to support its operations in places like Minneapolis and Los Angeles, the Homeland Security Department, working with the Justice Department, has started more methodically tracking what it calls “aggressive protesters.” According to one senior official, this is a new designation the agency uses to describe the supposed threat posed by people on the streets.

Both Good and Pretti were considered aggressive protesters; in Good’s case, for criticizing ICE officers while operating a vehicle; and in Pretti’s case, getting up close to immigration officers while filming them.


Alex Pretti filming a Border Patrol agent

Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche alluded to the term in a recent CNN interview, saying: “He [Alex Pretti] was not protesting peacefully—he was screaming in the face of ICE, he had a phone up right into ICE’s face. You tell me: is that protesting peacefully?”

When the CNN host pointed out that Pretti wasn’t violent, Blanche actually agreed, but went on to argue that there’s a third category for protest that is neither violent nor peaceful.

“I did not say that he was violent,” Blanche interjected, adding: “I said that he was not protesting peacefully.”

When I asked civil liberties experts what might be the legal justification for the expanded watchlisting, Rachel Levinson-Waldman, the Brennan Center’s Liberty and National Security Program director said that NSPM-7 and Attorney General Pam Bondi’s December 5 memo implementing the presidential directive “might be their justification.”

Under the Privacy Act, Levinson-Waldman explains, the government is prohibited from collecting and retaining information about Americans exercising their First Amendment rights. There can exceptions to that, but the question is whether DHS and FBI have articulated which exceptions they believe apply here.

The DHS lawyer, who helped to reveal the many secret watchlists and applications that are now being built and used to create the new American dragnet, says that sorting out the data being collected—rather than some explicit order to collect the data—is what’s driving the process.

“We over collect and everyone agrees we should create this or that list or application to wrestle the information to submission lest we miss something important,” the lawyer said. “So the data people do their thing and pretty soon you actually have Big Brother.”

A senior intelligence official, who confirmed the existence of the watchlists described earlier, characterized the problem another way.

“Lists of this and that—this social media post, that video taken of someone videoing ICE, the mere attendance at a protest—gets pulsed by federal cops on the beat to check for criminality but eventually just becomes a list itself of criminality, with the cops thinking that indeed they are dealing with criminals and terrorists.”

“Watchlists, and the whole watchlisting process, should be as transparent as possible, not the other way around. If we don’t explore more why all of these secret lists exist, even more of an environment of paranoia on the ground and more tragic killings.”

BOMBSHELL: Trump PANICS as MASSIVE BRIBE EXPOSED
Pondering Politics
Feb 1, 2026 #politics #news #trump

The conservative Wall St. Journal exposed Donald Trump's massive bribe in a new bombshell report.



Transcript

Donald Trump and members of the Trump
administration are publicly panicking
because the conservative Wall Street
Journal, a sister publication of Fox
News, just dropped a brutal bombshell
expose exposing Donald Trump's
corruption and how it's impacting
foreign policy in one of the most
egregious conflicts of interest and
displays of corruption we have ever
seen. But before we unpack all that, if
you end up liking this video and you
want to support the channel, please be
sure to hit the like, subscribe, and
alert bells before you go. All right,
folks. This is from one of the authors
of this bombshell Wall Street Journal
report. 4 days before Donald Trump's
inauguration, lieutenants to an Abu
Dhabi royal secretly signed a deal with
the Trump family to buy a 49% stake in
World Liberty Financial for $500
million. According to documents and
people familiar, the buyer paid half
upfront, steering 187 million to Trump
family entities and 31 million to Witoff
entities. Okay. The investment was
backed by the UAE national security
adviser Tanun bin Zed. The deal put two
executives at his company G42 on the
board of World Liberty Financial
alongside Eric Trump and Zack Witco. At
the time the Abu Dhabi Royal invested in
World Liberty, the company had no
products. It had raised $82 million by
selling a token called World Liberty
Financial. The WLFI, it's a token, I'm
sorry. But the investment didn't give
the buyer rights to future WLFI token
sales, leaving the Tanoon backed entity
out of what was then the company's only
source of revenue. So,
let's dive into this a bit more and then
we'll get into Deputy Attorney General
Todd Blanch, the second highest ranking
person at the DOJ and former personal
attorney of Donald Trump. He was just
grilled about this by George
Stephanopoulos on ABC News. The Trump
administration is full-blown panic. But
just to give you more of a snapshot
about what's going on.
Corruption at a level that's
unimaginable by any previous
administration. People were mad that
Hunter Biden sold some mediocre
paintings. Now, quote, "Something
unprecedented in American politics. A
foreign government official taking a
major ownership stake in an incoming
president's US company." Days before the
inauguration, the Trump family secretly
signed a deal signed away 49% of World
Liberty Financial, their crypto company
in a deal with a UAE royal to documents
and people familiar. The $500 million
investment came months before the UAE
won access to USAI chips. That's one of
the authors on this. Another person
points out senior UAE royal secretly
purchased 49% stake in Trump's World
Liberty Financial for $500 million. The
deal marked an unprecedented instance of
a foreign government official taking a
major ship major ownership stake in an
incoming US president's company. Two
months after a March meeting between
Tanoon and the Trump administration
officials, the administration committed
to give the UAE access to around 500,000
advanced AI chips annually. Annually. As
Melanie Drigo points out, this was a
bribe. UAE royals gave the Trump family
$500 million. And Trump in his
presidential capacity gave them access
to tightly guarded American AI chips.
The most powerful person on the planet
also happens to be the most shamelessly
corrupt. Okay, now with all that
context, here is Deputy Attorney General
Todd Blanch being grilled by George
Stephanopoulos on live TV about this
bombshell report.
But a report breaking in the Wall Street
Journal overnight. I want to show the
headline right now. It's the headline
saying the spy chic bought secret stake
in Trump company $500 million investment
for 49% of world liberty came months
before UAE won access to tightly guarded
American AI chips. It's referring to the
national security adviser to the UAE
Shik Tanoon and he made this investment
just before President Trump uh was
inaugurated. The the article goes on to
say the deal marks something
unprecedented in American politics. A
foreign government official taking a
major owner ownership stake in an
incoming US president's company. This is
the company of President Trump's family.
Eric Trump is the uh is the president of
the company. Trump, President Trump is
listed as the founder ameritus, though
he's not running it directly right now.
How do you respond to those who say this
is a serious conflict of interest?
I love it when when these papers talk
about something being unprecedented or
never happening before, as if the Biden
family and the Biden administration
didn't do exactly the same thing. And
they
never happened. straight up flatout
[ __ ] lie. I want to be so clear about
this. I Please understand this. Please
understand this. There is nothing
nothing in the Obama or Biden families
that come close to this. Nothing. The
most serious allegations made against
Hunter Biden, who was not a member of
the Trump administration, is that he
benefited from his father's name. There
is no evidence, none, that President
Biden directed any sort of government
deal or government capacity within his
capacity as president to benefit Hunter
Biden. None. Not one. Not one shred of
evidence. This idea, well, as if the
Biden family didn't also like have make
create a company and then give about 50%
of that company to foreign investors to
the tune of 500 million. And as if the
Biden family then didn't give um the
country that that foreign investor
belongs to access to our highly advanced
AI chips. As if the Biden family didn't
No, the Biden family didn't do that. The
Biden family did nothing similar,
nothing remotely analogous to this. What
are you talking about, man? He's hoping
you don't know.
They were just in office. So I I look, I
saw that article. I I don't have a
comment on it beyond um the President
Trump has been completely transparent.
when his family travels for business
reasons, they don't do so in secret. We
don't learn about it when we find a
laptop a few years later.
What was on the laptop, the Hunter Biden
laptop, that that you're trying to
compare to this? Look how panicked he
is. Like, he knows he's [ __ ] And by
the way, just the stupid and I hear so
many dumb dumb dumb MAGA people, MAGA
commentators, MAGA politicians.
Unfortunately, everyday MAGA people too
who are incredibly stupid say, "Well,
uh, Donald Trump's doing it in public."
Okay, sir. Excuse me. Are you telling me
that if somebody robs a bank without a
mask on, it's okay because they didn't
wear a mask? Oh, it's bank robbers. Bank
robbers who, you know, do it in broad
daylight and they don't wear themselves
a mask. Uh, that's okay. No, it's not.
So, even if I grant the premise that
Trump is out in the open with his
corruption, it doesn't [ __ ] excuse
it.
Unless, of course, you're a right-wing
partisan hack and an unprincipled loser
who should be made fun of for the rest
of your life.
We learn about it when it's happening.
And so, there there's nothing
unprecedented about about a about the
Trump Organization going out and and and
trying to make investments that that
basically all will come back to the
American people and jobs in this
country.
How will the American people benefit
from World Liberty Financial? Are we
getting a dividend check from Donald
Trump's company? Guys, Eric, Don, no,
we're not going to we're not going to
have any money. We're Guys, we're going
to every red cent that we make from this
company, we're just going to start
cutting checks to the American people.
We We get none of it. We get none of it.
Okay? It's for the American people. What
is this dude talking about?
And and so this idea that there's
something untored or unprecedented is
just a a repeated story that that isn't
true. and and and that's and I and I
think that that the American people know
that and the fact that we've talked
about unprecedented and this is
something that doesn't happen is is just
not true and and it's it's it shouldn't
be said by these so-called newspapers
that are saying it.
Well, the president doesn't run the
company, but he does profit from it. His
financial disclosure show he's received
funds from that. And law professor
Kathleen Clark is quoted in the article
saying, "This sure looks like a
violation of the foreign amaluments
clause." Tai Cobb who served as
President Trump's lawyer uh in in during
the first administration said quote my
advice
I want to stop right there for just a
second. We're we're going to go back to
this but when he says you know the
American people know this. Let's talk
about what the American people know.
Trump's this is from Pew Research
Center. One of the most reputable
pollsters in the country. They just
dropped this about 3 days ago. Trump's
qualities and abilities as president.
Today 34% of Americans say they are
extremely or very confident that Trump
has the leadership skills needed to
serve as president. A larger share, 51%
are not too or not at all confident.
Another 14% are somewhat confident.
Similarly, about half say they're not
too or not at all confident that Trump
has the mental fitness or physical
fitness to do the job. Roughly three and
10 express confidence in these measures.
Even fewer say they are confident that
Trump respects the country's democratic
values. 25% are extremely or very
confident or that he picks good
adviserss. Okay, so a majority of
Americans don't think that Trump
respects our democratic values. But
here's the biggest one. Americans
express the least amount of confidence
in Trump to act ethically in office.
Just 21% are extremely or very confident
that he does. While 60% express little
or no confidence. What does this mean?
You want to appeal to the American
people? The American people think you're
[ __ ] corrupt. The American people
think you're more corrupt than any
Democrat. The American people are right
about this. This idea that the American
people are with you. No. They think you
suck, bro. They think you're despicable.
They think you're corrupt. they think
are infinitely worse than any corrupt
Democrat. And they're right. They're
right. So, this is so staggering. But
again, as far as they're concerned, and
this is to the detriment of the American
people, we put his ass there. He's got a
four-year term so he can act as
shamelessly corrupt as possible because
certainly he won't be impeached or
removed from office. As an ethics lawyer
would have been clear, you don't do
business deals with the families of the
leaders of foreign countries. It taints
American foreign policy. How do you
respond to Mr. Cobb?
I don't have a response to that guy. I
mean, that guy hasn't said a a
nonpartisan thing in the past four
years. I mean, I could have predicted
what you just said he would say. That's
what he says every time anything comes
out about the president. I don't have a
we The president is ethical. He talks
more to the press. He says what's
happening more than any president in
history. You have a question about it,
you can ask him. He gaggled on the plane
last night at midnight for like 20
minutes. Okay. So, like the fact that
Tai Cobb claims that he would have
counledled something different to the
president. Okay. I mean that guy I mean
I I don't have
I mean this is this is what this is the
second highest ranking person in the
Trump Justice Department, a former
lawyer, a former personal attorney of
Donald Trump just looking like he [ __ ]
his pants on camera because he's
desperately trying to defend this
bombshell report from the conservative
Wall Street Journal. The conservative
Wall Street Journal.
Conservative Wall Street Journal. $500
million investment for 49% of world
liberty came months before the UAE won
access to tightly guarded American AI
chips. This is not the first. This is
merely the latest just public explicit
demonstration of Donald Trump's
shameless corruption. That's why that
poll says what it says. That's why the a
poll says a majority of Americans like,
"Yeah, he's corrupt as fuck." Because he
is. He is. And we're one year in, folks.
We're one year in.
It's It's stunning. It's truly stunning.
and they're panicking about it because
they don't want the American people to
know. But then when confronted about it,
what you get are stammers and stumbles
and then a a doubling down on the
conduct itself. Not an apology, not I'll
look into this, but just well uh he does
it in public. He robs you in public. He
robs the bank in public. Therefore, it's
not a crime. That's the logic of a
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanch.
It's really gross. We need to be talking
more about Trump's corruption.
Especially, folks, the polls show most
Americans, liberal or conservative, are
not happy with the state of their
personal finances or the economy. Which
means you should give even more of a
[ __ ] that Donald Trump is hoarding
wealth unto himself. He's already
wealthy. He's the richest president in
American history and he's made anywhere
from 1.4 to4 billion dollars in his
first year back in office. We'll talk
about that in a separate video. While
you are struggling, while we are
struggling,
you should care objectively. All of you
should care. All of your friends and
family, every all of us should care.
Even if we weren't struggling,
the American people are struggling,
which means you should care 10,000 times
more and should motivate you even more
to vote Democrat. Get every elected
Republican out of office who's subject
for re-election. Vote all their asses
out because they're not going to do
anything about this. and then demand
that Democrats in power in Congress
investigate the [ __ ] out of this corrupt
loser. And don't do it behind closed
doors. Do it in public. Make a spectacle
of it. Be vicious and ruthless and
humiliate this [ __ ] administration.
And then if and when we get lucky enough
to ever get back into the White House,
there should be prosecutions. There
should be criminal investigations and
prosecutions into this. And an example
should be made of Donald Trump that hey,
when you become president or when you
serve in public office, you don't get to
enrich yourself off the backs of the
American people. I know some people
like, well, Democrats, there are some
corrupt Democrats. Bro, you could
aggregate every corrupt Democrat in who
has ever lived and just objectively
speaking when you look at the scale
billions of dollars from Nancy Pelosi
hasn't made billions of dollars. People
talk about it's I love it. People like,
"What about Nancy Pelosi? You think
Nancy Pelosi is corrupt?" Listen, I 100%
support banning congressional stock
trading. I'm fine with that. I'm cool
with it. I think that's great. But even
if you think Nancy Pelosi is corrupt,
she is infinitely less corrupt than
Donald Trump. And so I will not indulge
or abide to false equivalence here.
Trump is always worse, which means we
always win the debate and you Trump
supporters always lose if the the debate
is about corruption. But the thing is,
MAGA doesn't give a [ __ ] about
corruption. They don't. They really,
really don't because you know what they
hate more than corruption? Libs. They
hate Democrats. They hate libs. And they
will gleefully indulge any amount of
corruption even if they themselves are
the the MAGA voter in rural West
Virginia who makes $35,000 a year and
will never make any more than that, who
lives a life of poverty because of
shitty Republican governance at the
state, local, and federal level.
He will gleefully sit in his squalor as
long as it means that somewhere out
there, somewhere in the ether, a liberal
is suffering just as much or worse. And
he will gleefully tolerate the
corruption of Donald Trump. Which is why
we can't expect Trump voters to check
this guy. What we have to do is take
power congressionally and executively
and hold this [ __ ] accountable.
But it starts with all of us being aware
of specific concrete examples like this
of Trump corruption. So spread the word.
In the meantime, let me know what you
think in the comments.

DOJ Protects Trump From Epstein Accountability as MAGA Attacks "Sanctuary Cities"
by Jon Stewart
The Daily Show
Feb 2, 2026 #DailyShow #JonStewart #Epstein

Trump declares himself "absolved" by the latest release of Epstein files, while Elon Musk’s Christmas wish for a trip to the sex island is put on blast, and Jon Stewart finds himself on Epstein’s list… for documentary voiceovers. Plus, as MAGA continues to shield the president from all accountability, Jon Stewart shines a light on the double standard of sanctuary given to Trump vs. immigrants. #DailyShow #JonStewart #Epstein #SanctuaryCities



Transcript

Jon Stewart's TDS Welcome
Welcome once again to The Daily Show.
My name's Jon Stewart.
We have got a great one for you tonight.
Writer Heather Ann Thompson is going to be out here
to discuss her new book about Bernie Goetz
and the rebirth of white rage, which I didn't know had died.
I--
[CHEERS, APPLAUSE]
But thank you all for coming out tonight here in New York.
It is-- and I don't have to tell these people.
They were kind enough to come out in this weather.
It is the 10th day in a row that we have been
below-freezing temperatures.
And all I can say is, sorry, folks.
You get what you voted for.
That's right.
[LAUGHTER]
Oh, comrade Mamdani been in for less than a month,
and we're already Siberia.
[LAUGHTER]
It is-- it is unusually cold, I will say.
The DOJ Releases Millions of Documents from the Epstein Files
But the big news, of course.
We begin with the breaking news
that the Justice Department has begun
releasing millions more documents
related to the Jeffrey Epstein investigation.
Yep, it's Groundhog Day.
[LAUGHTER]
We call it that-- thank you.
I appreciate that.
[APPLAUSE]
We call it Groundhog Day because this
is the day when Donald Trump sees Epstein's shadow,
and we get six more weeks of not knowing
who any of the co-conspirators are in this multinational sex
trafficking case and also because Punxsutawney Phil is
all over the files.
[LAUGHTER]
[APPLAUSE]
That is-- is that how--
is that to scale, by any chance?
Is that-- that may be the biggest [BLEEP] groundhog.
They literally look like-- they actually
look like they could be friends, Bill Clinton and
Punxsutawney Phil.
The point I'm trying to make is the Epstein files thing,
we've been through this before.
REPORTER: --Donald Trump, revelations
about his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein.
The MAGA fault line seems to be widening from a fracture.
Breaking news, a big break.
Republicans breaking with Trump on Epstein.
The dam could potentially be breaking here with MAGA.
The beginning of the end of the Trump presidency.
After a million more documents in the Epstein files
were discovered last week, will this fracture become
a lasting, irreversible break?
I'm going to go with no.
[LAUGHTER]
You guys are adorable.
The chances of this breaking MAGA
are actually worse than Trump just
lowering the age of consent to be done
with the whole [BLEEP] thing.
Which is not--
[LAUGHTER]
I didn't say we were doing it.
[LAUGHTER]
Which is not to say there isn't awful shit
in this new Epstein dump.
More Names Dropped in the Files
It was a veritable who's who of who
you imagine wanted someone to touch their hoo-hoo.
Allegedly.
Lutnick, Bannon, Musk, Summers, Gates, Clinton Tisch, Melania,
the guy who directed Melania, Prince Andrew, and
Sir Richard Branson.
[LAUGHTER]
[CHEERS, APPLAUSE]
I don't think any of us will ever masturbate again.
That is--
[LAUGHTER]
And, of course, the star of our show,
Donald Josephine Trump, whose thousands of
mentions render Trump as kind of a necessary backdrop
through the entirety of the Epstein
files, kind of like New York City in a Woody Allen movie.
Which, coincidentally, is apropos because he's
also in the files.
And, of course, to get ahead of the story,
I am also in the files.
We all searched our names, right?
[LAUGHTER]
You guys didn't search your name?
You-- all right.
Well, I-- yeah.
No, I know.
Whatever.
[LAUGHTER]
I am in the files.
All right, this is actually true.
I take you to the scene.
It is midnight, August 29, 2015.
Jeffrey Epstein lies wide awake.
His mind turning with ideas.
He jots a quick note to a producer named Barry Josephson,
saying, "I suggested to Woody--" you
all know which Woody, right?
It's the Epstein files.
It ain't Harrelson.
All right.
Or the cowboy from Toy Story.
You know which Woody I'm talking about.
Quote, "I suggested to Woody that he'd do
an exclusive new stand up routine for either
apple TV or amazon."
Oh, Jeffrey Epstein always had his finger
on the pulse of what America was clamoring for in 2015.
But Barry Josephson, thinking like
the out-of-the-box television professional that he was,
pitched this idea.
This is true.
Quote, "Make a true biographical experience
with his stand up being the capper.
Somebody like Jon Stewart could host/narrate
the biographical part."
Excuse me?
[LAUGHTER]
I am offended.
Somebody like Jon Stewart?
Or Jon Stewart.
My point is, do I have the offer, or is this an audition?
[LAUGHTER]
Perhaps the more extensive references
Elon Musk Emails Show Talks of Parties
were reserved for members of the billionaire class who
traveled in Epstein's circles, including
the billionairest of them all.
REPORTER: New emails from Billionaire Elon Musk and
Epstein coordinating a possible visit to the financier's
infamous island.
REPORTER: Elon says, "Do you have any parties planned?
I really want to hit the party scene in St. Barts
or elsewhere and let loose."
[LAUGHTER]
I'm sorry.
I hate to do this.
Can we zoom in on the email on that, please?
Christmas Day?
[LAUGHTER]
You're asking if Jeff Epstein's got
any parties planned on the island on Christmas Day?
I mean, look, Christmas is a tense time.
We've all had that feeling, trapped
in the house with the in-laws and 14 to 16 of our children
over the holidays.
[LAUGHTER]
But generally, Elon, the wanderlust doesn't really
hit till the 28th or the 29th.
But Christmas morning?
You [BLEEP] emailed Epstein Christmas-- dearest Jeffrey.
[LAUGHTER]
I've just seen the joy in all my children's faces
as they opened their gifts.
Get me the [BLEEP] out of here.
[LAUGHTER]
And ever since those revelations,
Elon has been-- how do the kids say it?
Crashing out.
He's posted about the Epstein files
more than 85 times over the last two days.
Oddly enough, mostly on Bluesky.
No, I'm just kidding.
[LAUGHTER]
And if I may, Elon, slow down, brother.
You gotta make some time for tweeting
about the white genocide, too.
Life's a balance.
But this is obviously important to Elon.
So, all right, give us the best argument for your innocence.
REPORTER: Musk denies any wrongdoing,
writing over the weekend, "If I actually wanted to spend
my time partying with young women,
it would be trivial for me to do
so without the help of a creepy loser like Epstein."
"I could do what Epstein does on my own"
is not the moral clarity we were expecting here.
But my favorite part of the Musk-Epstein emails--
you ever have a friend where you don't really
share the same sense of humor but
you share the same interests?
And they share the same interests?
REPORTER: Epstein writes him and
says, "Any plans for New York.
The opening of the General Assembly
of the UN has many interesting people coming to the house."
Mm, many interesting people, Elon.
Wink, wink.
Get it?
REPORTER: Elon replies, "I run and
lead product design engineering for two complicated companies.
Flying to New York to see UN diplomats do nothing would
be an unwise use of time."
[LAUGHTER]
I'm sorry, Jeffrey, could you make it a little
more obvious for your friend?
REPORTER: To which Jeffrey Epstein replies,
"Do you think I am retarded?
Just kidding.
There is no one over 25 and all very cute."
[AUDIENCE EXCLAIMS]
What the [BLEEP]?
We've all had that friend.
Why would I go to the bathroom with you to go skiing?
[LAUGHTER]
Skiing is an outdoor sport requiring a mountain and
equipment and-- oh.
[LAUGHTER]
I see.
Now, another big name in the files
Howard Lutnick Tells Story of How he Met Epstein
is Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, which
in itself is not big news.
Because since Lutwick-- Lutnick admitted
that he met Epstein in 2005 and then said he
immediately cut off all contact.
You know what?
I won't-- let him tell the story.
I say to him, massage table in the middle of your house?
How often do you have a massage?
And he says, every day.
And then he, like, gets weirdly close to me,
and he says, and the right kind of massage.
[AUDIENCE EXCLAIMS]
Shiatsu or, like, a deep tissue or a loamy--
his dick?
I'm sorry.
It's about-- I apologize.
It's-- OK, yeah, yeah.
He's talking about a dick massage.
[LAUGHTER]
Go to the bathroom and go skiing?
OK, dick massage.
Understood.
Carry on with the story.
And in the six or eight steps it takes to get from his house
to my house--
Wait a second.
Hold on.
You live six steps from Jeffrey Epstein?
Six steps?
Jeffrey Epstein's house was six steps?
That's how [BLEEP] up housing is in New York City.
[LAUGHTER]
Even billionaires don't get to live more than six
steps away from each other.
Imagine how the rest of us live in this habitrail hellhole.
[LAUGHTER]
I'm sorry.
Anyway, carry on.
And in the six or eight steps it takes to get from his house
to my house, my wife and I decided
that I will never be in the room
with that disgusting person ever again.
Oh, yeah. I'm sure.
Yeah.
No, no.
You and your wife decided.
Yes, yes, yes.
No, no, no.
Your wife and you were both outraged.
Oh!
You walked out of there like, honey, that guy,
what a creep-o,.
I mean, to think there's a guy with massage tables
and a sex swing and a dildo room
just six steps from our house.
I mean, believe me, honey, you'll
never catch me commuting to [BLEEP]
Palace Avenue ever again.
[LAUGHTER]
Right, honey?
You trust me, right, honey?
And so he never returned, until--
Files released today showed that Howard Lutnick
tried to meet or call with Epstein several times
after 2005.
[SQUEAKS]
[LAUGHTER]
[SQUEAKS]
Ma-ma-ma-ma-ma-ma-ma.
Yes, Jeffrey, it's me, Howard Lutnick.
I'm on your stoop right now.
I just want to remind you, sir, I am disgusted and appalled
and have a tremendous amount of tension in my trapezius muscle.
[LAUGHTER]
You wouldn't happen to know the right kind of massage?
My balls hurt.
[LAUGHTER]
My one-man show called Lutnick on the Stoop.
[LAUGHTER]
By the way, wasn't just Republicans in this email dump.
You had Bill Clinton, pictures having his cake and ogling
it, too.
Economist Larry Summers, seeing if someone was available to rub
his Phillips curve.
Look it up.
And Bill Gates apparently getting gonorrhea
from a Russian hooker.
Allegedly.
Yeah, [BLEEP] true.
[LAUGHTER]
God damn it, Clippy!
Not now!
Clippy!
[CHEERS, APPLAUSE]
You're not helping!
[LAUGHTER]
[BLEEP] Clippy.
All these names, all these emails, images, and videos,
what do they amount to?
Lots of additional pictures and documents,
No One New Can be Prosecuted From the Newly Released Files
but there is nothing in the Epstein files
released today that shows anyone new can be prosecuted.
Well, of course.
Of course they can't be.
It's completely believable that Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell
are solely responsible for supposedly KGB and
Mossad billion-dollar, multinational sex
trafficking, right?
It's really a mom-and-pop operation.
I think that's pretty clear.
I mean, you've already seen the millions of documents
that the FBI has worked on for months to flag
mentions of Donald Trump.
I'm sure the 2.5 million remaining documents
that we haven't seen will be no different, right, Trump lawyer
and also guy in charge of files that
might implicate Donald Trump?
This review is-- is over.
OK, well, I'm satisfied.
That's fine.
[LAUGHTER]
No further questions.
Look, man, we always knew that the people
at DOJ releasing these documents
weren't on a fact-finding mission.
They were running interference.
And the guy they're running interference for
seems very satisfied with these results.
I didn't see it myself, but I was told by some very important
people that not only does it absolve me,
it's the opposite of what people were hoping.
You know, the radical left.
I'm totally innocent.
I mean, look at me.
Do I look like the kind of guy who would fly around
on a billionaire's sex plane?
[LAUGHTER]
None of these dudes--
they've been on the plane.
They've been on the island.
They've been to his house.
They've given him creepy cards with pubic hair.
They've been accused by a multitude of women
of a multitude of wrongdoings, and nothing
has happened to any of them.
Any of them.
Oh, except Prince Andrew.
Oh, Prince Andrew, stripped of the title prince.
Ooh, such a penalty.
Now it's just Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor.
Ooh.
One more time, buddy, and you'll be busted down
to Andy Mountbatten-Windsor.
[LAUGHTER]
You know, I gotta be honest, I'm just not
Jon Stewart Questions Where the Accountability Is
sure anybody is going to be held
accountable for any of this.
I have nothing to do with Jeffrey Epstein.
And in fact, if you look at the DOJ, they announced-- you know,
they released 3 million pages.
It's like, this is all they're supposed to be doing.
And frankly, the DOJ, I think, should just say,
we have other things to do.
And, boy-- and, boy, does the DOJ have other things to do.
You know, looking into this decades-long sex trafficking
network for the rich and powerful
is stopping the DOJ from getting the people
who-- who really deserve to be punished.
If you are here illegally, you gotta go.
Why?
Because you're breaking the law.
No one is above the law.
This creates a two-tiered system.
There's no accountability.
There's no enforcement.
It breeds fraud and crime and all of the other problems
that come--
I want sanctuary city policy to end.
[LAUGHTER]
But, yeah.
No, you're right.
We gotta end the two-tiered system of accountability.
And to quote Lindsey Graham there, [MUMBLES].
Sanctuary city policies have to end.
Well, after watching the politically well-connected
skirt any form of legal accountability
for horrible [BLEEP] crimes, it seems pretty clear to me
that there is a sanctuary city in this country.
But guess what, this kid don't live in it.
The real sanctuary city is where money and power
protect you from the consequences of sex trafficking
or influence peddling or taking half a billion dollars
and giving away America's AI infrastructure.
Not the small Midwestern city where trying to help a lady
get up after she gets maced gets you shot in the back
of the [BLEEP] head.
That's the real sanctuary city.
And these are the mother-[BLEEP] who live there.
Give me the right picture.
Yeah.
[CHEERS, APPLAUSE]