Few Voters Say Trump's Second Term Has Made the Country Better, Poll Finds  —  A majority of voters said that Mr. Trump had focused on the wrong priorities and that they disapproved of his handling of top issues, but the president still enjoys strong support from Republicans.

We Are Witnessing the Self-Immolation of a Superpower  —  With Donald Trump's actions in Greenland, Minneapolis, and Venezuela, a foreign enemy could not invent a better chain of events to wreck the standing of the United States.  —  Imagine you were Vladimir Putin or Xi Jinping and you woke …

Federal ICE agents detain 5-year-old Minnesota boy  —  The Columbia Heights Public School district says federal agents have detained four of its students in four separate incidents over the last two weeks.  One child is a 5-year-old boy who attends a district elementary school and was used as …

Immigration officers assert sweeping power to enter homes without a judge's warrant, memo says  —  Federal immigration officers are asserting sweeping power to forcibly enter people's homes without a judge's warrant, according to an internal Immigration and Customs Enforcement memo obtained …

‘Our American Dream is dead’  —  With help from Eli Okun, Ali Bianco and Makayla Gray  —  Good Thursday morning.  This is Jack Blanchard, nervously eyeing the weather forecast and ordering bottled water, canned beans and plastic sleds for the kids.  Send me your best snow storm tips.

Jack Smith is set to testify at a public hearing about his Trump investigations  —  Republican lawmakers are poised to grill former Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith on Thursday at a congressional hearing that's expected to focus fresh attention on two criminal investigations …

Courageous Carney vs. Demented Donald  —  On Tuesday Mark Carney, Canada's Prime Minister, gave a remarkable speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos.  In effect he announced, calmly and lucidly, that Canada is filing for divorce from the Pax Americana:

Independent autopsy in ICE shooting death of Renee Good released by law firm in civil investigation  —  MINNEAPOLIS — The results of an independent autopsy for Renee Good were released Wednesday evening.  —  It has been two weeks since Good was shot and killed by a federal immigration agent in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

A woman who led a protest at a Minnesota church service has been arrested, Bondi says  —  A woman who led an anti-immigration enforcement protest that disrupted a service at a Minnesota church has been arrested, Attorney General Pam Bondi said Thursday.  Bondi announced the arrest …

Musk's Chatbot Flooded X With Millions of Sexualized Images in Days, New Estimates Show  —  Over nine days, Elon Musk's Grok chatbot generated and posted 4.4 million images, of which at least 41 percent were sexualized images of women.  —  Elon Musk's artificial intelligence chatbot, Grok …

The stunning art trove hidden in a D.C. building marked by Trump for disposal  —  Packed with frescoes, paintings and reliefs, the federal government's Cohen Building has been called “the Sistine Chapel of the New Deal.”  Advocates fear these works could be at risk.

Jimmy Kimmel Exposes Proof Trump, 79, Has Reached ‘Dementia Con 5’  —  ‘BUCKLE IN, FOLKS!’  —  The president's confusion between Greenland and Iceland is another sign that his cognitive abilities are declining, says the late-night host.  —  Jimmy Kimmel says Donald Trump has reached …

Autopsy report classifies ICE detainee's death as a homicide  —  The report comes the same day a federal judge temporarily barred the deportation of two fellow detainees who said 55-year-old Geraldo Lunas Campos was killed.  —  The recent death of a detainee at an immigrant detention camp …

DOGE staffer signed deal to share Social Security data with election deniers  —  After months of denials, the Trump administration has admitted that staffers affiliated with the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) misused Social Security Administration (SSA) data.

Giants outfielder Jung Hoo Lee detained at Los Angeles International Airport  —  San Francisco Giants outfielder Jung Hoo Lee was detained Wednesday evening at Los Angeles International Airport, his agent Scott Boras told the Chronicle.  —  Boras said it was a paper work issue …

The U.S. Is Actively Seeking Regime Change in Cuba by the End of the Year  —  After ousting Venezuela's leader, the Trump administration is searching for Havana insiders who could cut a deal to end Communist rule … Emboldened by the U.S. ouster of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro …

Why Democrats Abandoned the Clintons Over Jeffrey Epstein  —  Democratic lawmakers don't want Republicans to turn Epstein files into political weapon against them  —  Democrats attempted to turn the page on the Clinton era Wednesday, delivering a stunning rebuke of the power couple that dominated their party for more than two decades.

OpenAI chair Bret Taylor says AI is ‘probably’ a bubble, expects correction in coming years … Bret Taylor, co-founder of the artificial intelligence startup Sierra, said Thursday that AI “probably” is a bubble that is causing both “smart money” and “dumb money” to fund competitors at every layer of the tech stack.

A very detailed map of Trump's job approval  —  Explore our new interactive map of Trump's job approval, powered by 12,000 survey interviews conducted in 2025 and 2026  —  This is an extra Thursday post with a quick note about yesterday's poll and a link to a new interactive tool I've been building for the past few months.

The rich are powering spending, with the U.S. economy in a danger zone  —  The health of the economy increasingly depends on rich people spending money, a new analysis of government data finds. … It's a divergence that maps out like the two prongs of the letter K.

White House fences off park as Trump begins new building project  —  The work at Lafayette Square is expected to stretch through May, a White House official said.  —  President Donald Trump's quest to remake the nation's capital has found its next target: Lafayette Square …

Oh NO, Boys and Girls!  Ms. Rachel Is in BIG Trouble for Doing an Antisemitism Then LYING About It (Vid)  —  YouTuber and Zohran Mamdani fangirl Ms. Rachel did an ‘uh-oh’ and liked an antisemitic comment.  —  Now she's claiming she was just tapping and tried to delete.  —  She also claims it was her age ...