‘WE WON’T TAKE THE BAIT’

Will Trump officials lead a credible investigation into the shooting of a Minneapolis mother by an ICE agent? The city’s mayor has serious doubts, he told Pod Save America.

• We’ve learned a lot since a federal officer gunned down a woman in her car on a snowy road in Minneapolis on Wednesday. The victim was Renee Good, a 37-year-old mother of three and poet who had recently moved to the city. Her second husband died two years ago. Good had dropped her son off at school earlier that day. Her ex-husband described her as a devoted Christian, and not an activist.

• Trump administration officials have continued to blame Good for the fact that she was shot to death, insisting the officer fired in self-defense when the car moved in his direction as Good tried to drive away. “He was doing his job,” Vice President JD Vance told reporters today, describing the situation as “a tragedy of her own making.” The FBI blocked state investigators from accessing evidence and taking part in the investigation. Vance said the agent has “absolute immunity.” Administration officials have repeatedly used the phrase “domestic terrorism” to describe Good’s actions.

• The idea that Good was some kind of terrorist is “a load of bullshit,” Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey told Pod Save America, in an interview airing tomorrow. “The Trump administration is looking for some excuse to cause additional chaos and deploy even more military force in our city…. We won’t take the bait.”

• Frey described Vance’s line about “absolute immunity” as “comical,” and said that concerns about the integrity of any investigation of this incident under Attorney General Pam Bondi are “well placed.”

• A former FBI investigator was blunt: “In prior administrations, this shooting would have been entirely outside the scope of the use of force policy and would have been unjustified,” the investigator told What A Day. Will there be a fair FBI probe? “Don’t hold your breath.”

Trump officials insist the officer did nothing wrong. Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA) said the administration is reacting like a tinpot dictatorship.

• The FBI’s move to seize control of the case is “frankly how dictatorial regimes operate,” Schiff told What A Day. “They do phony investigations, they announce phony results. It is all predetermined.” He added: “You can’t trust the leadership of the FBI as long as Kash Patel is there. You can’t trust the leadership of the Department of Homeland Security as long as Kristi Noem is there.”

• What can Democrats do? Leaders have called for investigations. But there’s not much the left can do to keep the FBI and ICE in check unless they win back power in this year’s midterms. Dems are seen as likely to retake the House. The Senate is a much steeper hill. But Schiff insisted Democrats have a fighting chance to win both.

• “If we flip the Senate … we can block bad things from happening,” he said. “We can block funding from being used for illicit purposes. There’ll be an end to the destructive reconciliation bills, like the one that has caused this aggravation of the healthcare crisis. There’s a lot we can do.”

Even Trump seems to know he’s on the wrong side of history. New York Times reporters watched the video of the scene with him, pointing out that the agent wasn’t run over, despite the president’s claims. “Well,” Trump responded. “I — the way I look at it … I think it’s horrible to watch. No, I hate to see it.”

GREENBACKS FOR GREENLAND

Donald Trump’s team has a plan to acquire Greenland: Make it rain.

Trump’s team has discussed sending residents of the icy territory lump sums up to $100,000 Reuters reports. The goal? Convince the locals to secede from Denmark and join the United States.

“It’s not a good idea,” Sen. Schiff told What A Day. “If we ever did use military force in Greenland, it would be functionally, I think, the end of NATO, at least during this administration. Trying to buy them off, I don’t think, is going to be successful either.”

There’s 57,000 people on the island… so this plan would cost almost $6 billion. Greenland First, I guess!

WHAT ELSE? 👀

DHS released a 22-year-old Maryland woman — whose lawyer says she was born in the U.S. and is a citizen — from detention after 25 days. She was arrested by ICE agents after leaving a Taco Bell with her younger sister in Baltimore last month, and she could still face deportation proceedings.

Sean “Diddy” Combs, the recently imprisoned music mogul, wrote a letter asking Donald Trump for a pardon. But the president isn’t considering the request, he told the New York Times.

Trump’s imperial ballroom is expected to be the same height as the White House’s main mansion, the project’s chief architect said today. It’s also expected to be about 45,000 square feet, half the number Trump’s team pitched earlier. So… if the floor space has been cut in half… why has the price tag doubled to $400 million?

The number of Americans who work multiple jobs reached its highest point in 25 years, government data shows. But overall, Trump’s economy is FANTASTIC, and the tariffs are BRINGING IN MORE MONEY THAN EVER!!!

Remember the “QAnon Shaman” who stormed the Capitol wearing face paint and a horned headdress? Welp, that guy is running for Arizona governor. Despite receiving a pardon from Trump, he now calls the president “a corrupt disaster.” And the attack on Venezuela was “essentially using the American military to commit the armed robbery of a nation.” Where are we, as a country, when Trump is making this guy sound like the voice of reason?

The Trump administration withdrew from 66 international organizations, including a pivotal climate treaty and peacebuilding initiatives. As one expert put it: “The U.S. seems to be walking away from entities that promote international law, economic development, environmental cooperation and gender rights.”

LIGHT AT THE END… ☀️

Five Senate Republicans joined Democrats today in voting to rein in Donald Trump’s global aggression, in a rare rebuke of his foreign policy agenda. The Senate advanced a war powers resolution today, which would require Trump to ask lawmakers’ permission before launching further military operations in Venezuela. This was a purely symbolic gesture: The House likely wouldn’t pass the measure, and Trump would certainly veto it. “Unconstitutional,” Trump ranted on social media after the vote. Still, it’s a sign that not everyone in Trump’s party wants to keep banging the drums of war.

Funny side note: Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard was excluded from the planning on Venezuela operations because of her past opposition to military intervention in the country, Bloomberg reports. “Some White House aides joked that the acronym of her title, DNI, stood for ‘Do Not Invite,’” the outlet writes. Awkward.

Gov. Kathy Hochul (D-NY) joined with NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani to unveil a plan to provide free child care for 2-year-olds and under in the city. It’s a major win for Mamdani’s agenda, as Hochul pledged to pursue statewide free child care. Check out Pod Save America’s conversation with Mamdani, airing tomorrow!

A federal judge disqualified a top Trump prosecutor in New York and tossed his office’s subpoenas against NY Attorney General Letitia James. That’s the good news. Here’s the weird news: Now federal prosecutors are looking into James’s… longtime hairdresser? They must be running out of ideas.

Spotify confirmed that ICE recruitment ads are no longer running on its platform. Weird that they ever were, but I’ll take it!

Everyone’s afraid of AI taking their jobs, but research shows that robots won’t replace most of us anytime soon. In one analysis, the best AI system could successfully complete only 2.5 percent of tasks, which included coding, formatting research papers, and transcribing music. “Current models are not close to being able to automate real jobs in the economy,” one of the researchers told the Washington Post. They sure seem to be writing a lot of college papers, though….

Ownership over a mound in North Carolina, which dates back to A.D. 1000, is being returned to the Cherokee after the tribe was pushed out of the town two centuries ago. The mound is one of dozens erected in the area, which served as sacred land in the center of ancient towns.

Teen triplets from Jamaica are dreaming of skiing in the Winter Olympics next month. One of the siblings, Henri, has already earned a spot, while the others have two weeks to qualify. “It would just be groundbreaking for three 18-year-old Black triplets to represent Jamaica, a non-snow sport country, on the global stage,” said Helaina, one of the triplets. “I think about that every time I go to bed.”

A 67-year-old former mapmaker is going viral for making massive art pieces in the snow around the world, using a compass to create giant designs that resemble snowflakes, stars, flowers, and peace signs. He works alone, listening to classical music, and knows his artwork will soon disappear forever. “The Earth is beautiful, and the snow is beautiful, and winter is beautiful,” he told the Washington Post.