Donald Trump’s unhinged newest as new ICE boss dashes hopes of peace in Minnesota

Donald Trump’s border czar Tom Homan isn’t there to rein in ICE, he’s there to try and get better TV coverage for the President. Here’s everything that happened in Trumpworld in the last 24 hours that you need to know

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Donald Trump’s border czar Tom Homan was sent to Minnesota to try and calm down the outrage against ICE’s invasion of the state. To be clear, he wasn’t sent there to change the strategy, or ICE’s behaviour, or prevent more random people getting bundled into vans, or shot. His job is to make it look like something is changing, so the unremittingly negative “reviews” Trump is getting on TV might calm down a bit.

So it shouldn’t have been much of a surprise when he stood up in Minneapolis this morning and blamed the unrest in the state on “anti-ICE rhetoric” and “agitators”. Nor should it be a surprise that he was using military terms like “theatre” and “deployment” in his appearance – which is weird if what you’re doing is law enforcement and not an invasion.

The key takeaway was that nothing will change unless Governor Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey agree to total cooperation with the invading force.

Meanwhile, in Trumpworld

• Fox News mixes up two black women
• FBI raids election HQ in Georgia
• Trump hangs pic of Putin in the White House
• White House tells Americans not to buy toys for kids. Again.

Here’s what you need to know

1. Homan signals little change in ICE approach in Minneapolis

Tom Homan, Trump’s Border Czar, gave his first press conference since being assigned to Minnesota this morning.

So we got our first good look at what the “de-escalation” of the situation will look like. Short version, nothing much has changed.

Homan acknowledged that not everything in the invasion of the state had been perfect. But that was pretty much it.

• There was no apology for the shootings of peaceful protesters or the brutal assaults on and detention of bystanders
• He claimed under his leadership that all ICE raids were targeted and based on intelligence. This is something ICE has claimed all along, and is wildly untrue.
• He blamed unrest on “inflammatory rhetoric” aimed at ICE. “If the rhetoric doesn’t stop, there is gonna be bloodshed,” he said.
• While he said peaceful protesters won’t be targeted, his definition of peaceful protest needs fleshing out a bit. “Obstructing” ICE, which is what people filming agents and people blowing whistles have been repeatedly accused of, will still in Homan’s view be grounds for agents to get physical. And he made a distinction between peaceful protesters and “agitators”, which has yet to be properly defined.
• He kept using military terms like “deployed” and saying ICE agents were “in theatre”, which is weird considering the line remains that this isn’t an invasion, just enforcing the law.

The key moment was discussion of what conditions had to be met for the surge of ICE agents to “draw down”. For that to happen, Homan said, there would have to be cooperation from local officials to assist with ICE’s operation – something that would in most cases go against the twin cities’ status as “Sanctuary Cities”. The idea of Sanctuary Cities is that law enforcement and other agencies won’t ask people about their immigration status when they come forward for help – meaning undocumented people can do things like report crimes and seek medical attention without fear of being deported.

2. Agents in Pretti shooting on administrative leave

The two agents involved in the shooting of Alex Pretti have been placed on administrative leave while an investigation takes place into the shooting. Which given the idea of suspending officers accused of misconduct is to preserve the chain of evidence and prevent them colluding to get their stories straight, seems like something that’s worth doing nearly a week after the event.

3. Trump’s FBI raids election HQ in Fulton County, Georgia

Donald Trump’s FBI last night raided an election hub in Fulton County, Georgia – a key target of the US President’s false claims about the 2020 election being “stolen”. The shock move has sparked fears he’s trying to rewrite history – or worse, interfere in this year’s midterm elections.

Trump lost the election fair and square to Joe Biden, but has spent much of the last five years trying to convince Americans he won. And he’s threatened to use the US Justice Department to take vengeance on the people he claims were behind the stolen election – most recently during his speech in Davos, Switzerland where he said charges were imminent.

Here’s why this one could be a big story in the coming months…

READ MORE: Donald Trump ‘SPIRALLING out of control’: Why he really sent FBI to raid election HQ

4. US Embassy in Denmark under fire fore removing memorial to Afghanistan troops

The US Embassy in Denmark yesterday removed 44 Danish flags that had been placed in planters outside the building to honour the Danish soldiers killed in Afghanistan. This has, understandably, sparked outrage from the country’s veterans, according to The Washington Post.

A State Department spokesperson told the Post the flags were removed by accident as part of a routine cleanup of the embassy’s grounds.

It comes after Trump’s incendiary comments about the role NATO countries played in the Afghanistan war – saying: “You know, they’ll say they sent some troops to Afghanistan, or this or that, and they did; they stayed a little back, a little off the front lines.”

5. Trump hangs picture of him and Putin in White House

As part of the refurbishment of the White House’s Palm Room, Trump has hung up some new pictures. And one of them is the image of him and Vladimir Putin on the tarmac in Alaska. Which is certainly a choice.

6. Bessent: Don’t give kids toys for their birthday

The Trump Administration’s deeply weird war on kids having toys continued last night, as Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent urged people nt to buy toys as birthday or Christmas presents for children.

Instead, he suggested, they could make a donation to said kid’s “Trump Account”, a trust fund launched by the President last night – which was almost immediately ripped to pieces for being based on wildly suspect maths.

Bessent told (who else?) Fox News: “Rather than giving a toy for a birthday or holiday, they can contribute to these accounts.”

7. Fox News gets their black women mixed up

Fox News’ Laura Ingraham got two black women mixe up on live TV last night. And not just any two black women. Two of the most famous black women in America.

It came after Nicki Minaj took to the stage with Donald Trump last night, declaring herself his “Number one fan” and defending him against what she called “bullying” and “smears”.

Ingraham decided to weigh in on air, urging people to be cautious about welcoming Minaj into the fold.

“Conservatives, including myself, were disgusted by lyrics in some of her songs over the years,” she said. “WAP—I won’t say what that stands for.”

Someone immediately squawked into her earpiece pointing out WAP was, of course, a Cardi B hit.

“Oh, that’s how bad I am,” Ingraham said. “I stand corrected.”

8. While we’re on the subject of Nicki Minaj, please enjoy this absolutely wild picture

The most striking thing to come out of Nicki Minaj’s love in with Donald Trump last night was this moment, where Trump risked getting another bruise on his hand by holding the rapper’s hand.

9. Amy Klobuchar is running for Governor of Minnesota

When Tim Walz announced he would not stand for re-election as Governor of Minnesota, the smart money for his replacement on the ticket was Amy Klobuchar, the four-term Minnesota senator and former presidential candidate. She’ll be the fontrunner for the nomination, and given Republicans haven’t won a statewide race since 2006 – and that was before the ICE invasion – she’ll almost certainly walk it in November.

In her statement, Klobuchar said: “We cannot sugarcoat how hard this is. But in these moments of enormous difficulty, we find strength in our Minnesota values of hard work, freedom, and simple decency and goodwill.”