Axios:
Trump's immigration erosion worries his team
Why it matters: The worries in part of Trump's brain trust are the first signs of internal second-guessing of his controversial ICE enforcement tactics.
- The private polling suggested a rupturing of the coalition of independent, moderate and minority voters who were key parts of Trump's victory in 2024. Such voters will play a big role in determining whether Republicans keep their slim House majority in November's midterms.
- If Republicans lose the House, Trump will head into his final two years in office as a lame duck who, he acknowledges, could face a third impeachment.
I just want to hammer home just how unpopular ICE is becoming.
POLITICO:
Trump’s stated reasons for taking Greenland are being picked apart
Trump claims he wants to counter Russia, but allies say threatening Denmark plays right into Putin's hands.
Trump doesn’t need to seize Greenland to counter Russia. The U.S. has military bases on the island and has traditionally worked closely with Denmark on security.
Instead, some see dubious claims about imminent Chinese and Russian aggression as one of several pretexts for some future action, up to and including a military strike.
The president and administration officials have also suggested the United States needs Greenland for its Golden Dome missile defense shield, “economic security” and access to minerals — all areas where Denmark has signaled an openness to stronger collaboration.
“The President’s arguments about Greenland are self-evidently bullshit from top to bottom,” said Jeremy Shapiro, a former State Department official during the Barack Obama administration who’s now research director at the European Council on Foreign Relations in Washington.
Here’s that WSJ poll:
It’s Trump’s Economy, and Voters Are Unhappy With It, WSJ Poll Finds
Poll offers warning signs for the president and Republicans as they prepare for a pivotal midterm election
By several measures, the poll shows that even while many voters disapprove of Trump’s economic management, they don’t see the Democrats as a better alternative. Republicans in Congress are favored over Democrats as better able to handle the economy and inflation.
Read the questions and responses
But that cushion for the GOP is deteriorating on matters where voters disapprove of Trump. The Republicans’ 6-point lead as best able to handle the economy had been 12 points in July, and its 6-point lead on handling inflation had been 10 points in the prior survey.
Moreover, Democrats in Congress held a small lead when voters were asked which party looks out best for middle-class families and cares about “people like you.”
POLITICO:
‘Dumbest thing I’ve ever heard’: Republicans amp up their resistance to Trump’s Greenland push
GOP lawmakers are stepping up their warnings and engaging in diplomacy as the president's threats escalate.
Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) predicted members on both sides of the aisle would lock arms and require congressional signoff if it became clear Trump was preparing imminent military action.
“If there was any sort of action that looked like the goal was actually landing in Greenland and doing an illegal taking … there’d be sufficient numbers here to pass a war powers resolution and withstand a veto,” Tillis said.
Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.) went further, predicting that it would lead to impeachment and calling Trump’s Greenland obsession “the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard.”
G Elliott Morris/Strength in Numbers:
Trump has made ICE a 70-30 issue — for Democrats
By using brutal force in public, ICE has given Democrats a chance to change how voters think about immigration policy. Will they take it?
New polls released this week show U.S. voters breaking just 20-30% in favor of the way ICE is enforcing President Donald Trump’s immigration agenda. Polls on things like zip-tying children during raids, detaining U.S. citizens, ICE agents wearing masks, and, of course, shooting and killing citizens such as Renee Good show a public that is moving dramatically away from the president on his once-best issue.
The conventional wisdom in Washington throughout most of 2025 was that the president had a large edge on immigration, and that it would be a huge strategic error for Democrats to campaign on the issue. That case was wrong, but perhaps arguable, in March and April 2025 (before the polls had so clearly moved away from the president). But new data proves it is irredeemably flawed.
Trump has given Democrats a chance to turn immigration into a 60-40 or even 70-30 issue, favoring them. Will they take it?
Gabe Fleisher/Wake Up to Politics:
What You Should Know About the Insurrection Act
Plus: Is Trump serious about Greenland?
Q: Could you give us an explanation of what would happen if Trump were to enforce the Insurrection Act?
President Trump wrote yesterday on Truth Social that “if the corrupt politicians of Minnesota don’t obey the law and stop the professional agitators and insurrectionists from attacking the Patriots of I.C.E., who are only trying to do their job, I will institute the INSURRECTION ACT, which many Presidents have done before me, and quickly put an end to the travesty that is taking place in that once great State.”
Before we explain the Insurrection Act, it’s important to know about something called the Posse Comitatus Act, which President Rutherford B. Hayes signed into law in 1878. That law prevents the president from using the military as an arm of domestic law enforcement “except in cases and under circumstances expressly authorized by the Constitution or Act of Congress.” (Posse comitatus is Latin for “the power of the county.” In the legal context, it refers to a group of citizens who help the police keep the peace. Basically, the 1878 law is saying the military can’t be a posse comitatus, unless otherwise authorized.)
Since then, there are a fair number of laws that Congress has passed allowing the president to use the military for domestic law enforcement, essentially creating the exceptions that the Posse Comitatus Act hinted at. Per 16 U.S.C. § 23, the president can send troops if needed to protect Yellowstone National Park. Per 18 U.S.C. § 351, the military can help investigate the kidnapping or assassination of a member of Congress, Cabinet secretary, or Supreme Court justice. And so on.
The most famous (and perhaps broadest) of these exceptions is the Insurrection Act, which was originally enacted in 1807 but has been amended at various points since then.
Trump Cabinet secretaries conspired to violate Constitution, judge says
“The Cabinet secretaries and, ostensibly, the president of the United States, are not honoring the First Amendment,” U.S. District Judge William Young declared.
In remarks laced with outrage and disbelief, U.S. District Judge William Young said Donald Trump and top officials have a “fearful approach” to freedom of speech that would seek to “exclude from participation everyone who doesn’t agree with them.”
Young, who was appointed to the federal bench by President Ronald Reagan, leveled the searing critique during a hearing in Boston to determine the appropriate remedies for the administration’s detentions of pro-Palestinian students last year. The judge had ruled in September that senior administration officials engaged in an illegal effort to arrest and deport noncitizen students based on their activism.
Washington Post:
What’s to blame for political violence? Here’s what Americans say.
A new survey found a stark partisan divide in how people view the causes of political violence in the United States.
Sixty-seven percent of Americans said politicians’ reticence to criticize violent rhetoric from their supporters “contributes a lot to violent actions in society,” while 64 percent blame false or misleading information generated by AI that spreads on social media, the survey released Friday showed. Sixty-one percent said public displays of hate — such as Nazi symbols — play a role. Roughly half blame violent rhetoric itself, and an equal share blame easy access to guns.
Guardian:
CBS News report on ICE officer’s injuries drew ‘huge internal concern’
Anonymously sourced report that Jonathan Ross ‘suffered internal bleeding’ after killing Renee Good faced skepticism inside CBS newsroom
Some CBS News employees expressed concern after the network cited two anonymous “US officials” on Wednesday to report that the ICE officer who fatally shot Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis “suffered internal bleeding to the torso” after the incident.
CBS initially published the account about officer Jonathan Ross on X, formerly Twitter. About 30 minutes later, the network followed up with another post, containing a link to an article by two correspondents that similarly cited “two US officials briefed on his medical condition”.
The report, which was not extensively covered by other news organizations, drew an immediate response on social media from critics who questioned the network’s sourcing – and whether it aligned with the Trump administration’s preferred focus.
