Friday Afternoon News Updates - 1/2/26

Hi everyone. Ben here. We’ve made it to our first Friday of 2026! I want to walk you through what has unfolded today. As always, it’s quite revealing as to where Trump and the GOP’s priorities are at this moment.

Before I begin, a quick thank you to those who joined me live last night on Substack. I’m going to try to do that a whole lot more, so make sure you’re subscribed and have your notifications on so you don’t miss the next one.

Also, our first long-form MeidasTouch Podcast of the year featuring me and my two brothers is out now! I hope you have a chance to listen wherever you find podcasts, like Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Add the show on your favorite platform today (it’s 100% free!) and consider leaving a 5-star review. It’s truly such a massive help to the network and helps us continue to beat out the MAGA podcast propaganda ecosystem.

Ok, let’s get into it. My report today began with Trump insisting, again, that he is in “PERFECT HEALTH.” He posted that he “ACED” a cognitive exam, claiming he answered 100 percent of the questions correctly and boasting that he’s taken the test for the third straight time. He added that no other president or vice president was willing to do this and said cognitive exams should be mandatory for anyone seeking those offices.

Let’s pause there. As a reminder, the test Trump is talking about, a MoCA (Montreal Cognitive Assessment) exam, is designed to screen for cognitive decline. It’s not something doctors have patients repeatedly take. That right there is a warning sign. The fact that Trump keeps bragging about taking it raises far more questions than it answers. Or as my brother Brett concisely put it on social media, “Yeah so having to take 3 straight cognitive tests is bad actually.” Trump has claimed to have taken this exam so many times now that it’s hard to keep track of the number. And yet this is what he chose to focus on during a Friday morning in 2026, while Americans are dealing with serious economic stress and global instability.

From there, things spiraled further.

Trump followed up his health posts by sharing images he claimed showed bald eagles being killed by wind turbines in the United States. The problem is that none of it was true. One of the photos he shared was taken in Spain in 2010. The bird in the image isn’t even a bald eagle. It’s a red kite. Another image Trump posted came from Taiwan and dates back to 2006, when the wind turbines in question weren’t even operational. Still, Trump captioned the post with claims about turbines “killing birds by the millions.”

It’s worth noting that these posts came in the same breath as his insistence that he is mentally sharper than anyone who’s ever held the office. Sorry Donald, you’re not helping your case.

At the same time all of this was happening online, Trump’s motorcade pulled over in South Florida so he could go shopping.

According to the White House press pool, Trump stopped at a shopping center in Lake Worth, Florida, around 9:46 a.m. Reporters were held in vans while a White House official explained that the president was purchasing marble and onyx at “his own expense” for the White House ballroom. Additional reporting showed Trump was at Arc Stone and Tile, a wholesale supplier located just a few miles from Mar-a-Lago, walking through the warehouse and picking out stone for what he refers to as the Golden Ballroom.

So to recap Trump’s priorities on Friday morning: posting about his cognitive exams, spreading fake images about wind turbines, and personally shopping for luxury stone.

But it didn’t stop there.

While Trump was browsing marble and onyx, he also posted a message threatening military action against Iran. He wrote that if Iran “shoots and violently kills peaceful protesters,” the United States would “come to their rescue,” adding, “We are locked and loaded and ready to go.”

Iran’s leadership responded quickly. Ali Shamkhani, a top adviser to the Ayatollah, warned that any foreign threat to Iran’s national security would be met with a response that would make the aggressor regret it. Ali Larijani, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, said the American people should be mindful of their soldiers’ safety and accused Trump of starting “dangerous adventurism.”

Now let me recap this scene. Trump was shopping for luxury building materials, posting misleading and false images, boasting about repeated cognitive tests, and casually threatening war with Iran, all within the same stretch of time.

We are watching the protests in Iran closely. These widespread protests have erupted across the country, fueled by a collapsing economy and skyrocketing inflation, marking the largest demonstrations since 2022. Anger over living costs has turned into broader anti-government sentiment, with many calling for the overthrow of the country’s theocratic regime. These protests are large. Al Jazeera reports that by New Year’s Eve, they had “spread to 17 of Iran’s 31 provinces.” Deaths have already been reported as a result of clashes between regime security forces and protesters. I will bring you the latest as this develops.

Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal editorial board published a scathing piece on Trump’s tariff policy. The board pointed out what it called a “striking contradiction,” that Trump and his allies loudly claim tariffs are a roaring success, even as he quietly carves out hundreds of exceptions. The editorial noted that rarely has a president worked so hard to cover up the damage from his own policies without admitting it.

MeidasTouch Full Podcast - 1/2/26 [AD-FREE]

That editorial came as Trump announced delays on higher tariffs for items like upholstered furniture, kitchen cabinets, and vanities. Just a day earlier, his administration had also backed off proposed tariffs on Italian pasta after exporters warned they might pull out of the U.S. market entirely. It’s good that these tariffs are being delayed or scrapped, but it begs the obvious question: why impose them in the first place?

Trump then turned around and claimed tariffs have been “the greatest success” for the United States, even as he was removing them. We’ve seen this story before. He creates a problem, partially undoes it under pressure, and then declares victory. When things go well, he takes credit. When they don’t, he blames former President Biden.

As all of this unfolded, a story that deserves far more attention surfaced from Curtis Yarvin, a key figure behind the authoritarian ideas that influenced Project 2025 and many figures in Trump’s orbit. Yarvin warned that the second Trump administration already looks like a “failure” and a “tragedy” that has lost momentum and that, without a manufactured crisis, Republicans could face a wipeout in the midterms and legal consequences down the line. This is somebody who many MAGA faithful look to for guidance, especially figures like VP JD Vance. So pay attention.

And while Trump was focused on tiles and social media posts, Ukraine continued to suffer relentless attacks from Russia. Tens of thousands of drones, bombs, and missiles have been launched, with civilians injured, including children. Here’s footage of two Russian ballistic missiles striking a residential building in the city center of Kharkiv. Is this what Trump meant when he said Russia wants what’s best for Ukraine? Ukrainian intelligence is now warning of a possible large-scale Russian provocation designed to derail peace negotiations, potentially involving mass casualties.

That’s all for today’s midday update. Ron Filipkowski will be publishing his full bulletin later in the day. I hope you had a chance to read his series, which covered all the horrors of the first year of the Trump regime. At MTN, we will continue to relentlessly document everything as we fight for democracy both at home and around the globe.

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