[Towered]

Supposedly Miami-Cubans are turning on the administration as their brothers and sisters are being detained and deported by ICE. That's a big bloc of voters that voted Trump last time out. I feel like this sort of death by a thousand cuts - Cubans in Miami, farmers in the Midwest - will do the GOP in, but the median American voter doesn't exactly vote rationally, much like our voters don't here, either.

Meh - he can easily win them back by toppling the Cuban regime.

 

[kEiThZ]

Meh - he can easily win them back by toppling the Cuban regime.

Couldn't topple Venezuela.....

 

[Cobra]

Meh - he can easily win them back by toppling the Cuban regime.

One of the US obvious weakness - they have low tolerance for casualties. To topple the Cuban "government" (can we stop with the regime stuff?) - only boots on the ground will do it and US troops WILL DIE

 

[Richard White]

Couldn't topple Venezuela.....

He could have but that would have been considered an invasion.

I don't think invading foreign countries and occupying them is going to go over well.

 

[Cobra]

Couldn't topple Venezuela.....

Exactly, how long before Rodriguez consolidates power and calls Trump's bluff? Only boots on the ground will topple the Chavista movement and it would be a blood bath

 

[Monarch Butterfly]

Lagarde walks out of Lutnick speech in Davos critical of Europe​

From https://www.reuters.com/world/us/lutnick-heckled-davos-dinner-hosted-by-blackrocks-fink-ft-reports-2026-01-21/

DAVOS, Switzerland, Jan 21 (Reuters) - ECB President Christine Lagarde walked out of a dinner at the World Economic Forum during a speech critical of Europe by U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, and the hosts called off the event before dessert, sources familiar with the matter said.
The European Central Bank president exited during a passage of heavy criticism levelled at Europe by Lutnick that drew heckling at the dinner on Tuesday night, said one of the sources who was briefed on what happened.

The dinner was hosted by BlackRock CEO Larry Fink as co-chairman of the WEF for all of the major members of the forum along with heads of state and other dignitaries, a person who was invited to it said.

A couple of hundred people were invited to the dinner. Fink ended the dinner before dessert after the heckling incident as people were walking out, one of the sources said.
The ECB declined to comment on the report. The U.S. Commerce Department and the World Economic Forum did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

U.S. President Donald Trump's demand to take over Greenland has been met with fierce, emotional opposition from European leaders. He is expected to address the annual gathering of the global elite in the Swiss resort town of Davos on Wednesday.

Reporting by Peter Thal Larsen, Paritosh Bansal, Divya Chowdhury; additional reporting by Ananya Palyekar in Bengaluru; editing by Andrew Heavens and Mark Heinrich

 

[Towered]

Couldn't topple Venezuela.....

Does he need to? As long as he can force them to play ball through economic coercion or the threat of further military strikes it's effectively a vassal state anyway.

 

[Towered]

One of the US obvious weakness - they have low tolerance for casualties. To topple the Cuban "government" (can we stop with the regime stuff?) - only boots on the ground will do it and US troops WILL DIE

I think regime is an apt term for an undemocratic "government" that has ruled Cuba with an iron fist for 67 years.

 

[old boy]

Meh - he can easily win them back by toppling the Cuban regime.

It's not up to him to cherrypick regimes to topple that he doesn't like.

 

[zang]

All this talk of primary challengers and republicans waking up, seeing the light of day, and distancing themselves from Trump... I think you guys have a poor understanding of American public opinion of Trump, tbh.

Trump enjoys an ever-growing 89% (!!!) approval rating among republican voters according to the freshest polling:

And Registered Republicans only represent just over 16.6% of the US voting public, and are outnumbered almost 1.2x by Registered Democrats. The rest of the voters (~55%) are undeclared/independents. In other words, ~35% of the votes were undeclared/independents who swung to Trump. Show me independents happy with him right now.

I'll wait.

 

[Towered]

It's not up to him to cherrypick regimes to topple that he doesn't like.

I'm not necessarily advocating for such an action (though I would not mourn the Cuban regime if it did occur) - I'm just saying it would play well with the sizable Cuban expat community in Florida if he's concerned about losing their support.

 

[Monarch Butterfly]

Trump's 'embarrassing' Davos speech was unreal TV | Opinion​

From https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/media/2026/01/21/trump-davos-speech/88284667007/

On Tuesday, Jan. 20, Donald Trump appeared before the White House press corps to tout his accomplishments in his first year in office. Things quickly went south, with not just the usual airing of grievances and lies, but a weird, meandering affect that was even more pronounced than usual.

Maybe Trump was just having an off day. Maybe he was a little addled because he was about to depart for Davos, Switzerland, for the World Economic Summit, where he would appear in person for the first time since 2020. Surely it couldn't get worse.

To which Trump responded: Hold my beer.

What did Trump say in his Davos speech?​

The speech he delivered in front of European leaders on Wednesday, Jan. 21, was — to put it charitably — bad. Other descriptions like "unhinged," "dangerous" and "what on Earth?" also fit. He confused Iceland and Greenland, he said NATO "called me Daddy," he disparaged Somalis as "low IQ" and insulted some of the leaders to their face. He said he wouldn't use force to take Greenland (sometimes he got the country right) while saying that he could use force to take Greenland if he wanted to.

Political experts can debate the fallout from such a bizarre performance. But as TV goes, it was so weird as to be almost incomprehensible ― not that you couldn't understand what Trump was saying, but because you couldn't comprehend why he was saying it.

CNN's Wolf Blitzer said he has seen presidents speak to the summit before, but had never seen one attack European leaders while they were sitting right there.

Dana Perino, on Fox News, had a different reaction. After Trump sat for a short question-and-answer session following his speech, Perino offered this: "I think the president showed such agility and knowledge and ability to answer any question that was given to him. He dominates the conversation wherever he goes."

Say what? At this point it may sound like a broken record, but it needs to be repeated: This is not normal. To not only normalize such a bizarre performance but somehow find a way to praise it is simply not doing your job. Unless your job is to please Trump. If that's the case, well, mission accomplished.

Or you could take the New York Times approach: "Many of President Trump’s comments about energy in his speech to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, were not grounded in reality."

You don't say.

Gavin Newsom and Andy Beshear trolled Trump after the speech​

After Trump's speech, CNN's Kaitlin Collins caught up with Gov. Gavin Newsom of California, widely considered to be a Democratic presidential candidate in 2028. He called the speech "remarkably boring" and "remarkably insignificant," and then went on to trash Trump and the speech. Did it stand out to Newsom that Trump confused Iceland and Greenland?

"And that every time a windmill turns it costs $1,000," Newsom said. "A lot of stuff stands out. None of this is normal. There's a normalization of deviancy and consciousness and comments and commentary. He's held to the curve, he's graded on a curve. It's really some jaw-dropping and remarkable statements that just fly in the face of facts and evidence and common sense." He also noted that American audiences have heard it all before, but the claims may be new to Europeans.

Yes, it is in Newsom's best interest to troll Trump. The same is true of Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, who was also there. Beshear told Collins that the speech was "dangerous, it was disrespectful and it was unhinged. ... This is really concerning and for the United States, frankly, embarrassing."

Certainly, Newsom and Beshear have ulterior motives. That doesn't make what they said untrue. And good for Collins for interviewing them right after the speech.

What a speech it was. At one point, Trump said, referring to World War II, "After the war, which we won, we won it big, without us you'd all be speaking German and a little Japanese, perhaps." He also said, "Without us, most of the countries don't even work." He said Canada should be more grateful to the U.S. and called out the country's prime minister, Mark Carney, by name. "Remember that, Mark, the next time you make your statements."

"Would you like me to say a few words of Greenland?" Trump asked. "I was going to leave it out of the speech, but I thought, I think I would have been reviewed very negatively."

And there you have it. It's all about appearances and reviews. Fitting for someone who owes his job to reality TV, even though at times what went on Wednesday seemed unreal. But not unusual.

 

[lenaitch]

Lagarde walks out of Lutnick speech in Davos critical of Europe​

From https://www.reuters.com/world/us/lutnick-heckled-davos-dinner-hosted-by-blackrocks-fink-ft-reports-2026-01-21/

I understand diplomacy and all that but we have to stop giving these folks audiences.

 

[kEiThZ]

I understand diplomacy and all that but we have to stop giving these folks audiences.

I personally think Lutnick, Bessent, Miller, etc. are worse than Trump. They have to be given a hearing while in their jobs. But they should never have visas to Europe again after their time in office.

 

[thettctransitfanatic]

Immigration officers assert sweeping power to enter homes without a judge's warrant, memo says

An Immigration and Customs Enforcement memo obtained by The Associated Press reveals that the agency allows immigration officers to forcibly enter homes to make arrests without a judicial warrant.

apnews.com

Federal immigration officers are asserting sweeping power to forcibly enter people’s homes without a judge’s warrant, according to an internal Immigration and Customs Enforcement memo obtained by The Associated Press, marking a sharp reversal of longstanding guidance meant to respect constitutional limits on government searches.

The memo authorizes ICE officers to use force to enter a residence based solely on a more narrow administrative warrant to arrest someone with a final order of removal, a move that advocates say collides with Fourth Amendment protections and upends years of advice given to immigrant communities.

The shift comes as the Trump administration dramatically expands immigration arrests nationwide, deploying thousands of officers under a mass deportation campaign that is already reshaping enforcement tactics in cities such as Minneapolis.




For years, immigrant advocates, legal aid groups and local governments have urged people not to open their doors to immigration agents unless they are shown a warrant signed by a judge. That guidance is rooted in Supreme Court rulings that generally prohibit law enforcement from entering a home without judicial approval. The ICE directive directly undercuts that advice at a time when arrests are accelerating under the administration’s immigration crackdown.