New York Times:
In Testimony, Jack Smith Defends Decision to Prosecute Trump
The appearance provides Mr. Smith with what is likely to be his best opportunity to challenge President Trump’s assertion that he was persecuted for his politics, not for his misdeeds.
As if to underscore that danger, Mr. Trump took to Truth Social to go after Mr. Smith. Hopefully Attorney General Pam Bondi “is looking at what he’s done, including some of the crooked and corrupt witnesses that he was attempting to use in his case against me,” he wrote.
Trump works by extortion and intimidation. Jack Smith is not susceptible.
Wall Street Journal:
Donald Trump, Not Unchained
His reversal on Greenland shows the limits of his power.
This isn’t to dismiss Mr. Trump’s often wild demands and threats. They have consequences in lost trust among allies and doubts about American reliability. These costs are hard to quantify, but they are real and may show up in a future crisis.
But the reality is also that, despite his over-the-top rhetoric, Mr. Trump can’t get away with whatever he likes. He is constrained by democratic institutions in the U.S., the necessity of maintaining alliances abroad, and public opinion as measured by polls and investors.
The Greenland saga is a telling example. On Saturday Mr. Trump issued his demand to own the icy island and he vowed to impose tariffs on Europe to compel a sale. Opposition built over the holiday weekend, and financial markets cast a decidedly negative vote on the tariffs and threats on Tuesday.
Members of Congress spoke against the use of military force in Greenland, with even GOP leaders expressing doubts. One Senator told us that, if Mr. Trump had gone ahead, Congress would have voted to cut off funds for an invasion, and with veto-proof majorities. European leaders also made clear that taking Greenland by force, military or otherwise, would break the NATO alliance.
And what do you know? On Wednesday in Davos, Mr. Trump issued his familiar criticisms of Europe’s weakness, many of which are accurate. But he disavowed the use of force. And by the end of the day he had canceled the tariffs and claimed victory over what he called a “framework” deal over Greenland that he said will make everyone happy.
New York Times:
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.
Less than a third of voters think the country is better off than it was when President Trump returned to the White House a year ago, with a wide majority saying he has focused on the wrong issues, according to a new poll from The New York Times and Siena University.
A majority of voters disapprove of how Mr. Trump has handled top issues including the economy, immigration, the war between Russia and Ukraine and his actions in Venezuela. And significantly, a majority of Americans, 51 percent, said that Mr. Trump’s policies had made life less affordable for them.
All told, 49 percent of voters said the country was worse off than a year ago, compared with 32 percent who said it was better.
Nate Cohn/New York Times:
One year later, the second Trump coalition has come apart, a Times/Siena poll finds.
When President Trump took office for his second term one year ago, he was — at least compared with his usual polling — relatively popular.
His approval rating was above 50 percent, and he had made enormous breakthroughs among groups that have traditionally voted Democratic, like young, nonwhite and lower-turnout voters. It had some of the markings of a potential political realignment. It even brought a much-noted vibe shift.
One year later, the vibe has shifted back. The results from today’s New York Times/Siena University poll would have looked fairly typical during his first term. Only 40 percent of registered voters say they approve of Mr. Trump’s performance, and the familiar patterns of American politics have returned. The second Trump coalition has unraveled.
Unraveled. Like his mind has.
Will Bunch/Philadelphia Inquirer:
Deaths are occurring in ICE detention facilities at nearly 10 times the rate of the Biden years. It will likely get worse.
Over a 33-day stretch that straddled the arrival of the new year, three ICE detainees at the Texas camp died under murky circumstances. One of the cases — the Jan. 3 death of 55-year-old Geraldo Lunas Campos, also a Cuban immigrant — was on Wednesday ruled a homicide by the county medical examiner, citing efforts by camp guards to restrain him. The medical examiner wrote in his report that Campos died from “asphyxia due to neck and torso compression.”
The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, has continued to maintain that Campos’ death was “a suicide” and that any encounter he had with guards was an effort to prevent him from taking his own life. Two fellow detainees who reported seeing guards choking Campos have now received deportation notices. The mother of two of Campos’ children told the New York Times: “He was being abused and beaten and choked to death.”
The alleged killing of Campos is arguably the worst example of what many critics predicted when Trump won the presidency in 2024 behind supporters waving placards, “Mass Deportation Now.” The squalid, hastily erected tent city in the Texas desert is the flagship of what experts describe as a growing network of concentration camps. And now, one year into Trump’s second term, people are dying in them.
Michael Lange/The Narrative Wars:
A Civil War in The Commie Corridor?
Townies, Transplants, and Tension
This is, personally, somewhat of a strange column for me to write. I’m not sure anyone in New York City has closer combined ties to [retiring Rep Nydia] Velázquez (my former boss), Mamdani (the subject of my forthcoming book), and [candidate Claire] Valdez (my fellow DSA member, I’m not the type to say “comrade,” sorry). But this feels like an inflection point: for the political left, the neighborhoods of Brooklyn and Queens, and, perhaps, the Democratic Party...
“We don’t need to look outside for leaders. We grow our own right here in Brooklyn,” Velázquez told attendees at a rally over the weekend. But the 7th is a district of “outsiders,” as more than half of residents were born outside of New York state, a figure that ranks in the 78th percentile nationwide. The entire history of New York City politics is one of ethnic and ideological successions — from Greenwich Village bohemians dethroning the Italian and Irish-led Tammany Hall to Afro-Caribbeans and African Americans wrestling for power in Central Brooklyn. These fights, endemic to the five boroughs, are nonetheless painful and fraught. And the race for New York’s 7th Congressional District is shaping up to be the latest chapter in this cycle.
This is maybe a local story, but maybe not.
G Elliott Morris/Strength in Numbers:
New poll: Trump loses ground on immigration; Dems lead 2026 House vote by 8 points
The new Strength In Numbers/Verasight poll finds Democrats start 2026 with their biggest lead yet on the 2026 House vote, while the GOP loses ground on immigration, the economy, and public safety
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Immigration approval declining: Trump’s approval on immigration has dropped to 44% approve / 53% disapprove (net -9), and his deportation policy is at 42% / 54% (net -12). Border security remains his only positive issue at 50% / 46% (net +4). Trump’s numbers on all three have declined since our last poll in October, 2025.
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Presidential approval: 40% approve of Trump’s job performance; 58% disapprove (net -18). This is a new low in our tracking. Just 27% of political independents approve of the president’s job performance (63% disapprove).
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Generic ballot: Democrats lead Republicans among registered voters 51% to 43%, with 6% of voters undecided.
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Democrats trusted on top issues: On the issues Americans rank as most important — prices, health care, and the economy — Democrats hold the advantage over Republicans over which party is seen as “best.”
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Venezuela: 45% oppose the military strike; 53% oppose the U.S. temporarily running the country
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ACA subsidies: 64% want Congress to restore the expired health insurance subsidies. 57% blame Republicans in Congress or Donald Trump for the coverage gap (26% say Democrats).
