Today in Politics, Bulletin 292. 1/23/26

… Trump created another international incident with his mouth as he claimed that the US has never needed to call on our NATO allies. Cadet Bone Spurs: “We have never needed them. They’ll say they sent some troops to Afghanistan. And they did but they stayed a little back behind the front lines.”

…. The UK is in an absolute uproar with every media outlet and politician fuming at Trump and, by extension, US citizens for putting him in power again despite what they saw in term one. PM Keir Starmer, who worked hard to try and establish a cozy relationship with Trump, got burned again: “457 of our Armed Services lost their lives in Afghanistan, there were many also who were injured. So I consider Trump’s remarks to be insulting and frankly appalling.“

… UK Armed Forces Undersecretary and highly decorated veteran Alistair Carns: “This is utterly ridiculous. Many courageous and honorable service personnel from many nations fought on the front line. Many fought way beyond it. I served 5 tours in Afghanistan - many alongside Americans. We shed blood, sweat and tears together. Not everybody came home. I’d suggest whoever believes these comments come have a whisky with me. There’s only one worse thing than working with allies, and that is working without them.”

… Before long we won’t have anymore allies. Other than maybe Hungary, Israel, Qatar and Argentina.

… Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-FL) to Meidas: “You saw the Davos speech - just blabbing on random things. Republicans were talking a lot about cognitive decline when it was a president of a different party. Now, we hear nothing from them. Any person who sees the president in his speeches blabbering incoherently knows that there is something bigger going on there.”

… WSJ: The West avoided an open rupture this week. But, instead of celebrating, European leaders are bracing for more serious shocks to the trans-Atlantic relationship in the months ahead. Latvian President Edgars Rinkevics: “We are not yet out of the woods. Are we in an irreversible rift? No. But there is a clear and present danger. If we want to preserve the alliance, both sides need to be very, very careful.”

… Norway Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide: “We are in a much better place today than we were at the beginning of this week. But of course, the very fact that we are relieved that a NATO country is not going to attack another NATO country tells us that we are somewhere where we never thought we would be. And that, in itself, will linger.”

… Roderich Kiesewetter, a lawmaker from Germany’s CDU ruling party: “A trans-Atlantic alliance cannot be built upon surprises. With Trump, we cannot calculate, and we cannot rely on the US. Full stop. And we must be aware that he will come up with other surprises.”

… “Trump’s approach to Greenland has also prompted leaders in Europe and Canada to focus more on reducing their countries’ economic, technological and military dependence on the US, the kind of de-risking previously reserved for China and Russia. Some European officials have started seriously worrying about the exposure of their economies to US software, payment systems and communications platforms that could be switched off or disrupted in case of an escalating conflict.”

… Politico Europe: “Only a few days ago, EU diplomats and officials were whispering furtively about the idea they might one day need to think about how to push back against Trump. They’re not whispering anymore. Trump’s attempt, as EU leaders saw it, to ‘blackmail’ them with the threat of tariffs into letting him take the sovereign Danish island of Greenland provoked a howl of outrage — and changed the world.”

… “Previous emergency summits in Brussels focused on existential risks to the EU, like the eurozone crisis, Brexit, the coronavirus pandemic, and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. This week, the EU’s 27 leaders cleared their diaries to discuss the assault they faced from America. There can be little doubt that the transatlantic alliance has now been fundamentally transformed from a solid foundation for international law and order into a far looser arrangement in which neither side can be sure of the other.”

… Polish PM Donald Tusk: “Trust was always the foundation for our relations with the US. We respected and accepted American leadership. But what we need today in our politics is trust and respect among all partners here, not domination and for sure not coercion. It doesn’t work in our world.”

… “In addition to the Greenland threat, Trump canceled his support for the UK premier’s decision to hand over the Chagos Islands to Mauritius; threatened France with tariffs on Champagne after Macron snubbed his Board of Peace initiative; and slapped down the Norwegian PM over a Nobel Peace Prize. Here was a leader, it seemed to many watching EU officials, so wild and unpredictable that he couldn’t even remain true to his own words.”

… “But what dismayed the professional political class in Brussels and beyond was more mundane: Trump’s decision to leak the private text messages he’d received directly from other world leaders by publishing them to his 11.6 million followers on social media. One senior diplomat: ‘It’s not acceptable - you just don’t do it. It’s so important. After this, no one can trust him. If you were any leader you wouldn’t tell him anything. And this is a crucial means of communication because it is quick and direct. Now everything will go through layers of bureaucracy.”

… Another official framed the new reality as the “post-Davos” world: “Now that the trust has gone, it’s not coming back. I feel the world has changed fundamentally.”

… Trump was fuming that Canadian PM Mark Carney received widespread praise for his speech in Davos while Trump’s trip there was a disaster. He posted this: “Dear Prime Minister Carney: Please let this Letter serve to represent that the Board of Peace is withdrawing its invitation to you regarding Canada’s joining, what will be, the most prestigious Board of Leaders ever assembled, at any time.”

… So now he’s disinviting people from a club they don’t want to join. Powerful.

… Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent was on Fox retaliating against Carney by pushing Albertan independence from Canada: “Albertans are very independent people. There’s a rumor they may have a referendum on whether they want to stay in Canada or not. People are talking. People want sovereignty. They want what the US has got.”

… Canadian political analyst John Michael McGrath: “Having watched these jokers resuscitate the Liberal Party of Canada from something very near death I'm tempted to say ‘please, keep talking, nothing is likely to be better for Canadian unity’ but truly this is dangerous, dangerous stuff they're playing with.”

… Board of Peace member Viktor Orban is still upset about Zelensky calling him out at Davos: “Zelensky crossed a line. There is nothing new in the fact that, as elections approach in Hungary, he once again placed the Hungarian govt, and me personally, in his sights. Last night, Von Der Leyen presented a roadmap for Ukraine’s development. $800 billion for Ukraine, accelerated EU accession by 2027, and further support all the way until 2040. A national petition is coming, through which we can send a clear message to Brussels: we will not pay!”

… Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha to Orban: “This plan is doomed to fail, Mr. PM. Your master in Moscow won’t last 100 years even if you were ready to donate him all organs. And on the day Ukraine joins the EU, we will frame this headline for the Ukraine Parliament building to remember your lies for the next 100 years.”

… A meme on social media of Trump’s new Board of Peace:

… Trump also posted about Gavin Newsom: “Gavin Newscum should not be at Davos running around screaming for the attention of Foreign Leaders, and embarrassing our Country. He made a mockery of himself, and everybody, including his staff, knows it! He should finish out his term, and GO HOME! With a record like he’s got, the ruination of one of the most beautiful places on Earth, where people are leaving in droves, it is unimaginable that he could run for President but, who knows, it’s a very strange World!”

… Trump was asked for some specifics on his claim that he made a deal for Greenland: Q - “On Greenland, we’re trying to understand what exactly the concept is. Is the US going take … Trump interrupts: We’ll have something in two weeks.”

… Q - “President Putin has said that he may use frozen Russian assets to pay for his entry to the Board of Peace. Were you inclined to let him do that? Trump: I don’t know about that. I’ve heard that. Who said that? Reporter: Putin. Trump: He said he was going to use his money? Reporter: Frozen assets. Trump: Yeah, it’s fine. He’s using his money.”

… Russian assets were frozen in the US and Europe when they invaded Ukraine as a sanction. Ukraine has been trying to get those assets unfrozen and turned over to them as reparations to help them rebuild and defend themselves. Both Europe and the US have refused to do that, instead keeping the money as a bargaining chip for any peace deal that may get negotiated. But now Trump wants to play into Putin’s hands and give that away so he can get his hands on the cash.

… Q - “Do you envision being chairman of the Board of Peace past your second term in office? Trump: I have the right to be if I want. We’ll see what happens.”

… Q - “We saw the bruising on your hand. Are you okay? Trump: I’m very good. I clipped it on the table. So I put a little cream on it. I clipped it. I would say take aspirin if you like your heart, but don’t take aspirin if you don’t want to have a little bruising. I take the big aspirin. When you take the big aspirin, they tell you that you bruise. The doctors said, ‘You don’t have to take that, sir. You are very healthy.’ I said, ‘I’m not taking any chances.’ That’s one of the side effects.”

… His right hand is supposedly bruised because of shaking hands and the left hand is supposedly bruised because he hit it on a desk. Got it.

… Trump is gearing up for his next war: “We’re watching Iran. We have a lot of ships going that direction just in case. We have a big flotilla going in that direction. Maybe we won’t have to use it. We’ll see what happens.”

… MS NOW: “The Trump admin plans to deport at least 40 Iranian nationals back to Iran as early as Sunday, the first known deportations to the country since Trump threatened its leaders over their treatment of protesters. Members of the group being deported by ICE fear for their lives if they are sent back to Iran, according to a relative, a lawyer representing some of the Iranians, a former ICE official and a US lawmaker.”

… “The deportation flight is scheduled to depart from Arizona on Sunday, just days after the country’s hard-line regime crushed mass protests by killing at least 3,000 demonstrators. Two of the Iranians, who are gay men, told their lawyer, Rebekah Wolf that they were set to be deported on the flight. Homosexuality is illegal and punishable by death in Iran, which executed two gay men in 2022 and is considered one of the world’s most repressive countries for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.”

… Wolf: “They’re terrified. My client calls every 45 minutes begging me to save his life. We need a court of some sort to fully hear their claims before they’re sent back to a country where being gay is punishable by death.” Wolf said her two clients have no criminal convictions and entered the US in early 2025 on asylum claims.”

… Border Patrol chief Greg Bovino was asked on NewsNation why their approval rating is in the low 30s: “With inner city residents in Chicago, LA, what we’re seeing is fantastic public support. Here in Minneapolis we get a lot of thumbs up and a lot of ‘good jobs.’ Now, a lot of it is under their breath because they are afraid because that 5-10% of agitators are rioters. Host: Come on, Commander. You know as well as I do there are a lot of fair-minded Americans who don’t like this.”

… Joe Rogan: “What ICE is doing, like fucking shooting that lady, seems kind of crazy. Grabbing people that happen to be American citizens and fucking dragging them out onto the snow and asking them for their papers. That seems kind of fucking crazy too.”

… Rogan: “They said they released the Epstein files, but what did they release? The whole thing is weird. Guest: It feels like it’s been drowned out by everything else has been going on with the ICE shooting. Rogan: I think some of that’s on purpose.”

Lots more foreign policy this week than normal because of Davos. If you remember in my Bulletin last week right before it started, I said I had a bad feeling that Trump was going to do something batshit and turn it into an insane week. I know him so well.

Saturday is my off day and we are hunkering down for a big snowstorm that will hit Maine on Sunday and go into Monday. I will see everyone with the weekend Bulletin on Sunday night. If you missed yesterday’s Bulletin, you can find it here.

… JD Vance attacked Laura Loomer, calling her “disgraceful” after she went after JD Vance for giving the keynote speech at the March for Life event in DC today. Loomer: “Why is the GOP pushing more abortion messaging in a midterm election year? Didn’t they learn their lesson in 2018? Trump doesn’t like when the GOP focuses on abortion. How many times does he have to say this? Trump gets it. The GOP will blow the midterms.”

… Vance responded: “The president literally sent a video to the March for Life today and encouraged me to accept their invitation, which I was happy to do. It's interesting that some ‘conservative influencers’ spend all of their time attacking the admin and sowing division. Disgraceful actually.”

… Deranged weirdo Assistant AG for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon made 73 posts and reposts on X yesterday during working hours celebrating the church arrests, including one that told Don Lemon to “lawyer up, bitch”, one AI altered photo of an accused to depict her crying, and a link to a gambling site where people can bet on Lemon’s