Today in Politics, Bulletin 286. 1/15/26

… Maria Corino Machado gave her Nobel Peace Prize medal to Trump today in the Oval Office. He eagerly accepted, then continued selling her out by backing Maduro’s henchmen in exchange for oil, who continue to run Venezuela: “I presented the President of the United States with the medal, the peace, the Nobel Peace Price.”

… WSJ: “Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado met with Trump at the WH in a highly anticipated visit but was denied a public appearance, reinforcing Trump’s willingness to deal with stalwarts of the socialist regime rather than press for a democratic transition. Machado and Trump met over lunch, their first face-to-face encounter and one her allies hoped would lead to a stronger connection. Machado has repeatedly sought to flatter Trump and went into the meeting saying she would share with him the honor of the Nobel Peace Prize he has long coveted.”

… “But if Machado’s supporters hoped that Trump would give assurances that the US would push for a democratic transition in the near term, they were disappointed. The WH made it clear it was a courtesy meeting and was unlikely to shape Trump’s approach. Since the Jan. 3 military operation that captured Nicolás Maduro, Trump has made clear he intends to work with acting President Delcy Rodríguez, the strongman’s longtime deputy.”

… “Her allies in Washington, including several prominent Republican lawmakers, said they hoped that an in-person meeting with the charismatic opposition leader would bring a democratic transition back on the president’s agenda. But so far, Trump has made it clear he doesn’t see it as a priority, instead indicating he is willing to work with Maduro’s allies to secure concessions, including US access to Venezuela’s oil sector.”

… “Republican allies of Machado are caught between their allegiance to Trump and longstanding demands that the brutal Maduro regime be fully dismantled and the country move swiftly to restore democracy.”

… Semafor: “The Trump admin’s first sale of Venezuelan oil is valued at $500 million. The sale marks an initial milestone in the admin’s stewardship of Venezuela after the US ouster of its former leader, Nicolás Maduro, 11 days ago. Trump has indicated that the US would effectively run Venezuela for an indeterminable amount of time and take control of up to 50 million barrels of its oil - marketing and selling it.”

… “Trump signed an executive order that provided some details on how the US plans to block courts or creditors from tapping any revenue from those oil sales. Venezuela owes international bondholders, oil companies and others as much as $170 billion — one reason why US firms have been reluctant to help rebuild the country’s infrastructure.”

… “Revenue from the oil sales is currently being held in bank accounts controlled by the US govt. The main account is located in Qatar. The second official described Qatar as a neutral location where money can flow freely with US approval and without risk of seizure. Trump’s order noted that at least some of the revenue would be held in US Treasury accounts.”

… “Asked to provide further clarity on the accounts, a Treasury spokesperson told Semafor: ‘The United States Treasury is fully committed to supporting President Trump’s efforts on behalf of the people of Venezuela.’ The spokesperson declined to comment further.”

… CNN: “The Trump admin is preparing to use private military contractors to protect oil and energy assets in Venezuela rather than deploying US troops, setting up a potential boon for security firms with experience in the region and ties to Trump. Some familiar names already being floated - including former Blackwater founder Erik Prince.”

… $810K was raised for TJ Sabula, the Ford worker who yelled at Trump that he was a “pedophile protector,” causing Trump to curse back at him and flip him a middle finger. Sabula is suspended from his from his job pending investigation, but the UAW is strongly backing the exercise of his First Amendment rights. One fundraiser raised $480,925 and the other raised $330,085 to make it a total of $811,010.

… Rep. Pat Ryan (D-NY) to Meidas: Q - “What do you make of this union worker who called out Trump as a pedophile protector? Ryan: He’s a fucking American hero. He is a patriot. He is exercising his First Amend rights and his rights as a hardworking union member to speak truth to power. So we’re proud of him. We stand with him. And you saw how the president responded - he showed exactly how he’s treated workers despite his rhetoric. He is essentially, in real life, giving the middle finger to working-class Americans despite his promises. So super proud of him.”

… Pete Hegseth announced that he is attempting to take over the military publication Stars & Stripes: “The Dept of War is returning Stars & Stripes to its original mission: reporting for our warfighters. We are bringing Stars & Stripes into the 21st century. We will modernize its operations, refocus its content away from woke distractions that syphon morale, and adapt it to serve a new generation of service members.”

… Stars & Stripes will be custom tailored to our warfighters. It will focus on warfighting, weapons systems, fitness, lethality, survivability, and ALL THINGS MILITARY. No more repurposed DC gossip columns; no more AP reprints.”

… Stars & Stripes responded: The Pentagon said on social media it would take over editorial content decision-making for Stars and Stripes. The statement appears to challenge the editorial independence of Stars and Stripes, which while a part of the Pentagon’s Defense Media Activity has long retained independence from editorial oversight from the Pentagon under a congressional mandate that it be governed by First Amendment principles.

… “The move was met with pushback from several Democratic senators, who accused the Pentagon of tampering with the newspaper’s reporting. Stars and Stripes, which is dedicated to serving US govt personnel overseas, seeks to emulate the best practices of commercial news organizations in the US. It is governed by DOD Directive 5122.11. The directive states, among other key provisions, that ‘there shall be a free flow of news and information to its readership without news management or censorship.’”

… Editor-in-Chief Erik Slavin: “The people who risk their lives in defense of the Constitution have earned the right to the press freedoms of the First Amendment. We will not compromise on serving them with accurate and balanced coverage, holding military officials to account when called for.”

… “Stars and Stripes first appeared during the Civil War, and it has been continuously published since World War II. It is staffed by civilian and active-duty US military reporters and editors who produce daily newspapers for American troops around the world and a website, stripes.com, which is updated with news 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.”

… Rep. Lisa McClain (R-MI) on NewsNation: Q - “There are reports your husband bought stock in Elon Musk’s AI company which is not publicly traded, xAI, just days before a report surfaced that the Pentagon was expanding xAI’s role in military systems. Can you assure us this purchase wasn’t based on inside info? McClain: 100%. Because if it was, we wouldn’t have bought 100,000 shares. We would’ve bought a heck of a lot more.”

… These people are so brazenly corrupt.

… Brian Stelter on CNN: “FBI agents searched the home of a WaPo reporter. That reporter is the contact for more than 1,000 federal govt sources. Pete Hegseth said he wanted this reporter’s home searched. That’s why this happened. Conducting a raid and seizing the reporter’s phone and computers is very rare and very serious.”

… Ag Secretary Brooke Rollins was asked about grocery prices rising significantly in December. She said her department has determined that there are plenty of affordable nutritious meals for Americans: “We’ve run over 1,000 simulations. It can cost around $3 a meal for a piece of chicken, a piece of broccoli, corn tortilla, and one other thing.”

… Welcome to Trump’s Golden Age where we feast like kings!

… NYT: “A federal agent shot and injured a man in Minneapolis on Wed evening, an incident that touched off hours of clashes between protesters and law enforcement officers and that came just one week after an immigration agent killed a woman in the city. Tricia McLaughlin, a spokeswoman for DHS, said that agents were trying to arrest a man from Venezuela who was in the country illegally in a ‘targeted traffic stop’. She said that he fled from agents.”

… “As word of the latest shooting spread, at least 200 protesters gathered near the apparent scene. A group of them yelled at Minneapolis police officers who had blocked the street to traffic, telling the local officers that the fed agents should be arrested. Several heavily armed Border Patrol agents arrived in a large, military-style vehicle outside of the crime scene tape. Protesters swarmed the vehicle and yelled and threw snowballs at agents who had gotten out.”

… “The agents eventually retreated, and as they left, they fired at least two canisters of gas that made a loud bang and made it difficult for some to breathe. A few minutes later, at least two ICE agents arrived in an unmarked SUV and sprayed chemical agents in the faces of protesters who approached them.”

… Mayor Jacob Frey: “We have ICE agents throughout our city and throughout our state who, along with border control, are creating chaos. This is not the path that we should be on right now in America. Imagine if your city or town was suddenly invaded by thousands of fed agents that do not share the values that you hold dear. Imagine if your daily routines were disrupted, the local cafe that you eat at was shut down because they’re they’re scared that their own family might get torn apart. Imagine if schools shut down and suddenly parents got to figure out what to do for daycare.”

… Frey: “For anyone that is taking the bait tonight, stop. That is not helpful. Go home. We cannot counter Trump’s chaos with our own brand of chaos. And I have seen thousands of people throughout our city peacefully protesting. For those that are taking the bait, you are not helping and you are not helping the undocumented immigrants in our city. You are not helping the people that call this place home.”

… Rep. Randy Fine (R-FL) to Newsmax: “Jacob Frey is fomenting a second civil war. For Democrat politicians to take the side of foreigners over American is treason. Jacob Frey should be arrested - now there are two people who have been shot justifiably because of the rhetoric of Democrats. They need to be held accountable.”

… Rep. Angie Craig (D-MN) on MS NOW: “I’m hearing stories in my district. A special education teacher had her windows smashed in her school parking lot. She was taken and she was detained for 12 hours. We are hearing reports of immigrant communities who are refusing to come to school, whether they’re citizens or not, because they are afraid of masked ICE agents coming in and taking them away from their families. Every American should be outraged.”

… Protester to CNN: “Where I live, they come in without warrants, without official anything. They just come in and barge into people’s houses, armed up. I am very scared. I can’t go to school without feeling worried that I’m going to be taken at any moment.”

… Another protester: “Clearly, if they’re throwing weapons at us, they’re afraid. They don’t want us here because we know we have power against them. I’m not going anywhere. I’m going to be out here for the coming weeks until ICE is off of our streets and stops terrorizing our neighbors and killing our neighbors.”

… Gov. Tim Walz on MS NOW: “What’s happening in MN right now defies belief. News reports simply don’t do justice to the level of chaos and disruption and trauma the fed govt is raining down upon our communities. They’re pulling over people indiscriminately, including US citizens, and demanding to see their papers. At grocery stores, at bus stops, even at our schools, they’re breaking windows, dragging pregnant women down the street, just plain grabbing Minnesotans and shoving them into unmarked vans. Kidnapping innocent people with no warning and no due process.”

… “Let’s be very, very clear. This long ago stopped being a matter of immigration enforcement. Instead, it’s a campaign of organized brutality against the people of Minnesota by our own govt. This week, he went online to promise that ‘the day of retribution and reckoning is coming.’ That’s a direct threat against the people of this state who dared to vote against him three times and who continue to stand up for freedom with courage and empathy and profound grace.”

… Trump threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act, which would allow him to send in the military and declare martial law: “If the corrupt politicians of MN don’t obey the law and stop the professional agitators and insurrectionists from attacking the Patriots of ICE, I will institute the INSURRECTION ACT and quickly put an end to the travesty that is taking place in that once great state.”

I feel like tomorrow either all hell is going to break loose or nothing is going to happen. It’s all or nothing. Either Trump wants to go into the weekend with chaos and drama, or he wants to play golf and host parties in Palm Beach. I suspect we will have a good idea as soon as we wake up in the morning.

If you missed yesterday’s weekly podcast Uncovered where I do deep dive into the Top 10 stories/issues of this week, you can find it here. Thank you again for fantastic questions for Ask the Editor which is here. It is always a much better show when the questions from you are so good.

… Kristi Noem did a press gaggle today in MN: Q - “The president is threatening the Insurrection Act. How serious is that threat? Will that happen? Noem: I spoke to the president about it this morning. That certainly is within the president’s constitutional authority to use that if he thinks he needs to. I think the president has that opportunity in the future. It’s his constitutional right and it’s up to him.”

… Q: “Do you think ICE officers need deescalation training? Noem: The officers we have out there are very highly trained and skilled specific for the operations they’re