MELANIA VS WAPO

Jeff Bezos trashed a major American newsroom for savings worth 0.04% of his fortune. Trumpworld is rejoicing.

• Pour one out for the Washington Post, folks. The Jeff Bezos-owned newspaper that once took down presidents and earned worldwide praise self-immolated today, laying off more than 300 journalists — more than a third of the entire newsroom. The Post has struggled financially for years, offering occasional buyouts. But these cuts are an “absolute bloodbath.”

• Yes, this is happening just days after Bezos rolled out “Melania,” the notoriously terrible $75 million documentary that reportedly personally enriched President Donald Trump’s wife. The result is a stunning splitscreen: Bezos spends millions to glaze Trump’s family on the big screen, while decimating a legendary newspaper. A big lesson is clear: The billionaire class simply cannot be trusted to safeguard American news media, when the pressure is on to please Trump.

• “This ranks among the darkest days in the history of one of the world’s greatest news organizations,” Marty Baron, the Post’s legendary former editor, wrote in a statement. The paper’s challenges “were made infinitely worse by ill-conceived decisions that came from the very top.”

• Those bad decisions include when Bezos alienated readers by spiking a presidential endorsement of Kamala Harris and MAGA-fying the opinion section — moves clearly aimed at pleasing Trump, at the cost of hundreds of thousands of subscribers.

• Trumpworld is popping bottles. “Just a reminder that printing fake news is not a profitable business model,” White House Communications Director Stephen Cheung tweeted.

Bezos’s cuts don’t even make clear business sense.

• True, the newspaper has been losing money. But its $100 million annual losses equal about 0.04% of Bezos’s $250 billion fortune. Bezos recently spent $500 million buying a mega-yacht — twice as much as he did buying the newspaper back in 2013. For comparison’s sake, if Bezos’s fortune were just $1 million, then proportionally speaking, these cuts would save him four bucks a year.

• The median salary of a Washington Post Newspaper Guild member is $99,904. Bezos’s wife Lauren Sanchez married him wearing a dress estimated to be worth $300,000. Bezos could cover five years of the Post’s losses with what he earns next week, as NYT reporter Peter Baker pointed out.

• The paper’s losses are barely a rounding error to Bezos. At this rate, he’d “have to close the place in … 2,500 years,” wrote Glenn Kessler, the former Post fact checker.

• Bezos is cutting local news, sports and international coverage to focus on national politics, where there’s heavy competition. The plan doesn’t fill industry-watchers with confidence. “I don’t know how you make this downsizing work economically,” Jack Shafer, a longtime media columnist who recently worked at the paper, told What A Day.

• The cuts risk significantly narrowing the paper’s audience, Shafer said. “Is the guy who works at Chick-fil-A, the guy who drives the bus, or the guy who works in the grocery store gonna want to read the Washington Post that exclusively reports stories about national security and national politics?” he asked.

• The cuts look less like a solid business decision or a financial necessity than part of a series of moves to please the White House. “Bezos is not trying to save the Washington Post. He’s trying to survive Donald Trump,” Kessler added.

In a heartwarming sign of support for the talented journalists laid off, a GoFundMe has already raised more than $200,000.

THAWING ICE

Donald Trump’s immigration agenda is suffering fresh setbacks.

Trump’s team is pulling 700 federal agents from Minnesota, border czar Tom Homan announced today, in a sign that public backlash to the deployment has helped convince the White House to back down. Some 2,000 agents will remain on the streets, which is roughly the same number who were sent early last month, Homan said.

A judge also ruled that ICE agents have to stop throwing tear gas and other weapons at protestors and journalists in Portland, Oregon. And several states are working to curb Trump’s efforts, by barring local authorities from helping immigration officials.

The Trump administration’s immigration agenda is pushing the Department of Justice’s own lawyers to the breaking point. In a hearing yesterday, DOJ prosecutor Julie Le melted down in court after a judge asked her why the administration failed to comply with court orders to release immigrants in Minnesota.

“The system sucks. This job sucks. I wish you could hold me in contempt so that I could get 24 hours of sleep,” she reportedly told the judge. Her exhaustion is understandable: “A search of the court’s public docket showed Le listed as a lawyer in 88 cases, all filed since Jan. 8,” the Wall Street Journal writes.

The DOJ pulled Le from the U.S. attorney’s office in Minnesota after her remarks, according to Bloomberg. Here’s hoping she finally gets that nap.

WHAT ELSE? 👀

Donald Trump is planning to install a statue of Christopher Columbus outside the White House, the Washington Post reports. “In this White House, Christopher Columbus is a hero,” a White House spokesperson told the outlet — and, yes, this spokesperson is likening Trump to Tony Soprano, a mob boss.

The White House posted images on social media falsely accusing a man of committing child sex crimes — and deleted the post after a news outlet asked about its accuracy. The explanation? “In the process of highlighting the dangerous criminal illegal aliens arrested by law enforcement, two images of criminal illegal aliens were mistakenly swapped,” a White House official told the outlet. Outrageous.

Trump boasted that India won’t buy oil from Russia anymore… but Russia doubts that. “We haven’t heard any statements from Delhi on this matter yet,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov reportedly said.

MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell’s campaign for Minnesota governor bought nearly $190,000 worth of the candidate’s own biographies, which is titled, “What Are the Odds? From Crack Addict to CEO.” The MAGA fanatic’s explanation? “When we’re going around to all the places in Minnesota, other people are giving a flyer,” Lindell told the Minnesota Reformer. “I’m giving them the whole book so they know who I am.” Suuurreeeeeee.

LIGHT AT THE END… ☀️

The Supreme Court will allow California’s newly redistricted electoral map to stand, which will give Democrats a boost in the midterms.

A majority of Trump voters like solar energy, according to a new poll conducted by a Trump pollster. Even Trump aide Stephen Miller’s wife, Katie, is on board. “Solar energy is the energy of the future. Giant fusion reactor up there in the sky - we must rapidly expand solar to compete with China,” she tweeted. That’s one way to think about it, I guess!

“Harry Potter” villain Draco Malfoy is suddenly an icon in China, as the year of the horse approaches. As the Guardian explains: “In Mandarin, Malfoy’s name is transliterated as ‘mǎ ěr fú.’ The first character means ‘horse’ while the final character, ‘fú,’ means “fortune” or ‘blessing’ — a powerful symbol found across lunar new year celebrations. Put together, Malfoy’s name can be loosely read as ‘horse fortune.’”

A German opera making fun of Donald Trump, titled “Monster’s Paradise,” premiered today. The performance features President-King Trump in a gold crown and a diaper-laden fat suit, throwing a tantrum in the Oval Office, with a Coca Cola-stocked fridge in the background. Can they bring this to the Kennedy Center, please?

MAGA fans are triggered by Bad Bunny’s anti-ICE activism at the Grammys, and his upcoming Super Bowl show. “America gave him such a great opportunity to really amplify his career on another level,” Emily Austin, a conservative influencer, told the Wall Street Journal. “Now he took that platform that he’s built here and has now completely turned into bashing this country … ‘ICE out’ is not realistic, and it is reckless and dangerous.” Snowflake!!!

Need a romantic Valentine’s date idea? McDonalds has you covered… or something. The fast food chain will sell a limited-time McNuggets caviar set, which includes a one-ounce tin of sturgeon caviar, a $25 gift card to buy the nugs, crème fraiche, and a caviar spoon. The kit, which is free, will be available at McNuggetCaviar.com next Tuesday.

A 4-year-old Doberman pinscher named Penny won the Westminster dog show. It’s the first time a Doberman has won since 1989. Everyone, give it up for Penny!

A 9-year-old Yorkshire Terrier named Apple, who was found at the bottom of a trash chute in a D.C. apartment building, is happy, healthy, and “nonstop wagging her tail.” A local shelter has collected more than $3,000 in donations to help cover Apple’s medical care, and several people have offered to adopt her. “She’s been so joyful seeing that people want to love on her and be kind and gentle,” the shelter director said.