Tom Friedman:
"All are driven, in my view, by terrible leaders who prefer easy, violent solutions to the hard work of negotiated problem-solving. These leaders see an iron-fisted approach as the best way to win their next elections: Trump in the 2026 midterms; Netanyahu of Israel, who is expected to call elections around the same time; and Hamas, in its desperate effort to lead the Palestinian movement in the postwar era, despite having lost the war."

nytimes.com/2026/01/25/opinion…
#UsPol
2/n

NYT Op-Ed:

"Trump has never been a man to ask what he can do for his country. In his 2nd term, as in his first, he is instead testing the limits of what his country can do for him.

He has poured his energy and creativity into the exploitation of the presidency — into finding out just how much money people, corporations and other nations are willing to put into his pockets in hopes of bending the power of the govt. to the service of their interests."

nytimes.com/interactive/2026/0…
#UsPol
3/n

Opinion | How Trump Has Used the Presidency to Make at Least $1.4 Billion

The president took an oath to serve the American people. Instead, he’s focused his second term on enriching himself and his family.

^{The Editorial Board (The New York Times)}

In a private meeting with donors in 2025 , Ted Cruz said he told trump -
"Mr. President, if we get to November of [2026] and people's 401(k)s are down 30% and prices are up 10–20% at the supermarket, we're going to go into Election Day, face a bloodbath.

You're going to lose the House, you're going to lose the Senate, you're going to spend the next two years being impeached every single week."

Trump's response, according to Cruz: "F**k you, Ted."
😮
More at axios.com/2026/01/25/cruz-trum…
#UsPol
4/n

Insightful photo essay by Charles Homans -

"Trump’s most profound break with American democracy, evident in his words and actions alike, is his view that the state’s relationship with its citizens is defined not by ideals or rules but rather by expressions of power, at the personal direction of the president. That has been clear enough for years, but I had not truly seen what it looked like in person until I arrived in Minneapolis, my hometown, ..."

nytimes.com/2026/01/25/magazin…
#UsPol
5/n

Steven Beschloss:

"We should also call what happened to Pretti an execution because, as we learned in the hours that followed, the monstrous Trump regime essentially sanctioned this killing in the rush to exonerate the perpetrators and blame the victim.

This should be all the evidence that lawmakers in a position to deny ICE funding need—indeed to abolish this death squad that commits extra-judicial killings in broad daylight with our tax dollars."

americaamerica.news/p/the-exec…
#UsPol
6/n

The Execution of Alex Pretti

ICE is committing extra-judicial killings with the Trump regime's support

^{Steven Beschloss (America, America)}

Timothy Snyder:

"terrorist and extremist - these two words are known to us from history as those used by tyrants. And these are the words used by the Trump people to defame those killed by their polices.

This is their “messaging,” their banality of evil, as Hannah Arendt called it.

The moral horror of those killings is enough. But there is a political logic as well. And the two are connected. Those who resist the lawlessness and the lies are doing right."

snyder.substack.com/p/lies-and…
#UsPol
7/n

Lies and Lawlessness

The Camps, the Executions, and the Future

^{Timothy Snyder (Thinking about...)}

M. Gessen:

"Trump is using all the instruments: the reported quotas for ICE arrests; the paramilitary force made up of thugs drunk on their own brutality; the spectacle of random violence, particularly in city streets; the postmortem vilification of the victims. It’s only natural that our brains struggle to find logic in what we are seeing. There is a logic, and this logic has a name.

It’s called state terror."

nytimes.com/2026/01/24/opinion…
#UsPol
8/n