The recent ICE shooting in Minneapolis and Donald Trump's response to the killing of Renee Good has turned the city into a "laboratory of destruction," according to an economist.
Nobel Prize winner Paul Krugman believes the president, his administration, and the Immigration and Customs Enforcement team are dismantling democracy in the city. In a post to his Substack, the economist warned there were failures in both institutions and the elite, ruling class which made the situation in Minneapolis untenable.
He wrote, "So now we have Minneapolis, America’s laboratory of democratic destruction, where ICE agents have gone full Sturmabteilung, terrorizing and even killing not only people with brown skin, but anyone who protests or gets in their way. And the irony is that this may be for the better."
"For a gradual destruction of democracy would have been hard to resist. After all, who wants to rock the boat when there’s money to be made, jobs to keep, perks to be had, convenient bothsideism to be upheld, if you will just be silent and keep your head down?"
Krugman went on to praise those protesting ICE agents and the government as outrage continued over the death of Good. The 37-year-old mother was shot and killed by an ICE agent earlier this month.
The Nobel Prize winner added, "Instead, however, the assault on freedom and civil liberties is open, lurid, and impossible to deny. While our institutions and our elites have failed us, ordinary Americans are rising to the occasion."
"If Minneapolis is a laboratory of democratic destruction, it has also become a laboratory of civil resistance — organized civil resistance, of a kind we haven’t seen since the civil rights movement. When ICE is on the rampage, crowds of brave Americans, summoned by texts and whistles, quickly gather to stand against the masked men with guns."
"As the outrage grows, people of common decency — like the federal prosecutors in Minnesota who chose to resign rather than pervert justice by going after Renee Nicole Good’s wife — are taking a stand."
Krugman went on to suggest those protesting would be responsible for a democracy "forged anew" against Trump and his cabinet.
Conservative New York Times columnist Bret Stephens slammed President Donald Trump's expansion of Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids in a conversation with Frank Bruni published on Thursday.
This follows a rising tide of nationwide outrage at the fatal shooting of Renee Nicole Good in her car after an altercation with an ICE agent in Minneapolis. The administration has closed ranks around the officer, making clear there are no plans for any sort of investigation or accountability, and protests are escalating.
"I’m as law-and-order as it gets," said Stephens. "But what’s happening in Minneapolis seems more like a foreign invasion than law enforcement, with more ICE agents in the city than police. And what I saw in that video was neither law nor order. It was the brute abuse of power. The penalty for civil disobedience used to be a citation, maybe even a night in jail. Now it’s a bullet."
"And the complete, relentless savaging of your reputation," Bruni then chimed in. "Trump and his cabal are pretending that Good deserved this. They’re not just spinning what happened. They’re going to extraordinary lengths to vilify her, to demonize her, ludicrously casting her as some clandestinely funded terrorist. This is what they do, whether they’re rewriting the history of Jan. 6, 2021, or investigating political opponents or justifying the use of military force: They weave gaudy, nasty fictions in the service of utter domination. Where and how, Bret, does that end?"
"Left unchecked? It ends in a police state," wrote Stephens.
However, he added one more point of optimism: "I think our system of checks and balances will continue to function, and — try as they might — wannabe authoritarians like Vance and Noem will ultimately remain wannabes. Our democracy isn’t like the Weimar Republic, fragile and shallow, ripe for overthrowing. Historically we’ve survived a lot worse. We’ll survive this, too."
A former aide to President Donald Trump flagged new data that suggests Republicans are falling out of "lockstep" with his policy priorities.
The ongoing immigration crackdown in Minneapolis has led to the fatal shooting of 37-year-old Renee Good by a federal agent and violent scenes captured on video as government forces clash with protesters and passersby alike, and former White House communications director Mike Dubke told "CNN This Morning" that voters were appalled by the chaos.
"I look at this polling and I look at some of the other polling that has come out recently on other issues, and I think the real telling thing and maybe we'll get to these numbers is when you break down the polls," Dubke said.
A new CNN poll found 56 percent of respondents believe Good's killing was an inappropriate use of force by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer, while more than half believe ICE tactics were making cities less safe.
"I'm bringing this up because there's often a conversation to me that goes, this is bad," said host Audie Cornish, "and someone goes, but you voted for it, and then everyone's supposed to be like, well, they voted for it. So do you see a tide shift or do you think this is heat of the moment?"
Dubke said he believes Trump voters are turning against his mass deportation campaign as a result of the ICE raids and ensuing mayhem in cities across the country.
"I lookat it through three lenses, where Democrats are, whereindependents are, and where Republicans are, because I thinkwe've seen in other polling Democrats and independents havebeen moving away from some ofthe policies of the Trumpadministration," Dubke said."But Republicans havebeen kind of almost lockstepwith the president. Some of thenumbers are indicating,especially on the incident in Minnesota and Minneapolis, thatsome Republicans are having somequestions about whether or notthis ICE presence and the waythat it is being affected in Minnesota is the proper way togo there. So I understand thenumbers, looking at the numbers,they're important. But I thinkfrom the perspective of theadministration, you also have tobreak that down and look to seewhere their supporters are."
According to Politico reporters Alice Miranda Ollstein and Megan Messerly, the president's recent comments regarding government funding for abortion have alarmed anti-choice activists, who question whether Trump remains committed to their agenda.
Trump's fear of impeachment if Democrats regain House control has strengthened the anti-choice movement's negotiating position with the embattled president, according to the report.
"Trump’s recent revelation that he fears being impeached if Republicans lose the fall midterms has only strengthened abortion opponents’ belief that 2026 races can provide them powerful leverage to push the president to take their demands more seriously," they wrote.
Family Research Council President Tony Perkins warned of consequences if Trump wavers: "He'll be impeached, and every one of his Cabinet secretaries will be dragged in for committee hearings on every day that ends in Y, and the result will be nothing happens in the next two years. So there's a lot riding on this."
A specific concern for Perkins centers on Trump's suggestion that Republicans be "flexible" regarding the Hyde Amendment, which prohibits federal funding for abortion. This provision is being debated as part of potential Affordable Care Act extension discussions.
Perkins threatened political consequences: "This type of rhetoric runs the risk of moving this party from a majority party to a minority party. With elections being so close, you don't want people being frustrated or disappointed. You want people motivated."
Anti-abortion groups argue they possess significant influence over competitive House races that could determine congressional control for the remainder of Trump's term. They contend they could affect outcomes by halting door-knocking campaigns and reducing voter mobilization efforts.
Donald Trump could ease off of further actions against Iran for fear of alienating his MAGA and America First voter base, according to one analyst.
The president has taken action against Iran and Venezuela in recent weeks, and has warned further action could be taken against Greenland, Mexico, and Cuba. Whether the administration continues its bombing of Iran or transitions into a more direct military intervention is yet to be seen, but CNN analyst Stephen Collinson believes Trump has lost his nerve.
He wrote, "For all his bluster, Trump could be having second thoughts. The act of ordering American personnel into combat is wrenching for any president. Any attack on Iran designed to blunt the regime’s machinery of repression would have to be broad and deep."
"The kind of quick, sharp shock that characterized US strikes in Venezuela and in Iran last year might be ineffective. The US could get dragged into a longer venture at which Trump’s 'America First' supporters, already discomfited by his global grabs for power, might balk."
There is a chance it could be a ploy from Trump, though, with Collinson suggesting the president must now manage the "huge expectations" he has set.
Collinson explained, "Of course, Trump’s possible blink on military action could be a ruse. Before he struck Iran’s nuclear program last year, he offered the impression that Tehran had days left to make a deal — then sent US stealth bombers on an audacious round-the-world mission to target its nuclear sites."
"Previous presidents have been careful to avoid any impression they were calling Iranian protesters onto the streets, in order to avoid offering the regime an excuse to claim they are acting on behalf of the Great Satan, the United States. Trump had no such concerns."
Collinson also likened the president to a "juggler" whose world politics were at risk of collapse. He added, "It’s hard to see how the president gets himself off this hook. Threats, bluffs and juggling all the foreign policy balls in the world can only work for so long."
"An American president who disdains traditional policy processes, acts on his gut, and says he’s a man of peace while developing an increasing taste for spectacular and violent military action is on the clock."
A former White House cardiologist says Donald Trump "needs to be evaluated" after a recent appearance in the Oval Office.
The president was seen surrounded by a group in the office that included Secretary of Health and Human Services RFK Jr., and Republican Party representative Ben Carson. Despite the large crowd around him, Trump was spotted seemingly falling asleep as he signed off on a policy to bring whole milk back into schools.
A clip of Trump seemingly closing his eyes and nodding slightly has gone viral on X, and Jonathan Reiner believes it is a sign the president needs a check up. Reiner, the former cardiologist to Vice President Dick Cheney, took to X and said an evaluation of the current president is necessary.
He wrote, "The president seems to be struggling with excessive daytime somnolence. Repeatedly falling asleep with a dozen people surrounding your desk is not normal. It needs to be evaluated."
It comes as a separate medical expert, Professor Bruce Davidson of Washington State University Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine, suggested Trump may have had a stroke.
He said, "My impression is that President Trump has had a stroke, and I think there's several lines of evidence supporting that. I think his stroke was on the left side of the brain, which controls the right side of the body." OnThe Court of History, Davidson was asked what formed his belief about the president's health.
He said, "I think the stroke was six months ago or more, earlier in 2025. There's video of him shuffling his feet, which is not what we'd seen him [doing], striding on the golf course … previously. We've seen him holding his right hand in his left, cradling."
"And earlier in the year, in 2025, he was garbling words, which he didn't do previously, and which he's improved upon more recently. And he's also had marked episodes that have been noticed of daytime, excessive sleepiness, — medical term, hypersomnolence — which is characteristic of many patients after they've had a stroke. …
"Most recently, there was video of him walking down the stairs from Air Force One, holding the banister with his left hand, although he's right-handed, and all of this is consistent with having had a stroke on the left side of his brain. A stroke is an area of infarction. It's an area of dead tissue."
Gavin Newsom's Press Office have mocked Donald Trump in a social media thread suggesting the president has "California Derangement Syndrome".
Trump had used the term "Trump Derangement Syndrome" shortly after the death of film director Rob Reiner. Newsom's press office appear to have adapted the term to lash out at Trump and his administration's policies. Taking to X, the press office compared Trump's second term policies with what California's Governor Gavin Newsom had introduced.
The post reads, "Everyone knows that the President has spread California Derangement Syndrome (CDS) for many years — some say he was even patient zero — but in reality he loves California, Governor Gavin Newsom, and our world-leading policies! Trump copies our policies on the regular to bring the riches of California to all the American people."
Comparisons were made between the baby bonds Newsom introduced in 2019 and the "Trump Accounts" the president opened in 2025. Another comparison was made between the government's Department of Government Efficiency, which had been helmed briefly by Elon Musk, and California's own Office of Data and Innovation.
The post reads, "DOGE is a cheap imitation of ODI — In 2021, @CAGovernor Gavin Newsom announced the Office of Data and Innovation to find and develop efficiencies in California’s government."
"While Trump and Elon’s DOGE cut essential jobs and services, released loads of fake numbers, and then fizzled out, ODI continues finding real results that build value for Californians rather than making arbitrary, dangerous cuts."
Newsom's press office also highlight how Trump had done little for Hollywood despite appointing three ambassadors. Mel Gibson, Sylvester Stallone, and Jon Voight were all tipped by the president for the "troubled place".
A post from Newsom's Press Office reads, "Saving Hollywood — California’s Film & Television Tax Credit has been rolling for years. In 2024, @CAGovernor Gavin Newsom announced a historic expansion of the program."
"We’re still waiting for Trump to produce a national model after he proclaimed himself as the savior of Hollywood in 2025."
Another post reads, "Addressing homeless encampments — Imitation is the highest form of flattery, even when done poorly. Trump’s attempt at an executive order on encampments (issued a year after Governor Gavin Newsom’s) fits the bill."
Toobin joined Joana Coles of The Daily Beast on a new episode of "The Daily Beast Podcast" to discuss the Supreme Court's impact on the second Trump administration. The Court is expected to make several key rulings this term that could affect Trump's ability to implement his agenda, including a case over whether Trump can unilaterally impose tariffs without Congress's approval.
Toobin warned that Trump may have figured out a way to bypass the court if they issue a ruling he doesn't like, a move that could effectively end democracy in America.
"The Supreme Court in our country doesn't have any individual enforcement powers," Toobin said. "They don't have an army. They don't have a police force that can do anything except protect their members. So, they rely on the understanding in the other branches of government that the Supreme Court has the last word."
"I think Donald Trump is not going to directly defy the court, but this administration has figured out ways to get around court rulings, and in a way that I don't think it's entirely clear how he would react to an adverse decision, but we'll see," he continued.
CNN law enforcement reporter Whitney Wild was caught in the middle of a standoff between police and protesters in Minneapolis on Wednesday night after an immigration agent shot and wounded an immigrant during an arrest.
The Department of Homeland Security said in a statement that a Venezuelan immigrant was shot in the leg after "violently" resisting arrest during a "targeted" traffic stop. DHS said the man fled the scene in his car, crashed into a parked vehicle, and took off on foot.
The event was broadcast on social media, which helped quickly attract a crowd of protesters to the neighborhood.
CNN cameras captured agents firing tear gas to disperse the crowd. Wild said she also heard flashbang grenades going off in the background.
"It's quite chaotic, andit's going more so," Wild said.
Wild said the crowd also appeared to be growing.
"They're surrounding these immigration officers and letting them know without any ambiguity that they do not like what they see and they want them to leave," Wild said. "This has been an ongoing scene throughout the city of Minneapolis."
After the shooting, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, a Democrat, called on Trump to take his immigration agents out of the state. Trump initially surged more than 2,000 agents into the state to address alleged social services fraud by the Somali community.
CNN reporter Harry Enten lost it on Wednesday night while discussing the results of a new CNN/SSRI poll on "The Source" with host Kaitlan Collins.
The new poll revealed that President Donald Trump's immigration forces have become increasingly unpopular during his second administration. Overall, the popularity of Immigration and Customs Enforcement has dropped by 17 points since Trump's first term, according to the poll. More than half of voters said ICE raids are making their communities less safe.
"I think this sort ofgives the game away!" Enten said animatedly. "ICEenforcement is making U.S.cities less safe."
Trump's approval rating on immigration has also cratered, according to the poll. Since March, Trump's approval rating on immigration has fallen by 16 points.
The poll was released at a time when Trump's immigration policies are facing increased scrutiny. Last week, ICE officer Jonathan Ross shot and killed Renee Nicole Good, a 37-year-old mother in Minneapolis, which sparked protests nationwide.
President Donald Trump may soon prove one of America's founding fathers right, that a government that attacks the press is a "prologue to a tragedy or a farce," according to a new column.
Comedian and actor Michael Ian Black argued in a new piece for The Daily Beast on Wednesday that the Trump administration's raid on Washington Post reporter Hannah Natanson's home should alarm every American. The FBI said that it seized Natanson's devices in relation to an investigation into a national security leak. These raids are typically protected under the Privacy Protection Act, Black noted, and the case doesn't appear to meet the exceptions of that law.
Instead, the Trump administration appears to be sending a very clear message to people who dare to speak out in protest, Black argued.
"Our interests have been betrayed. Our rights trampled. Our lives sacrificed," Black wrote. "To what end? Maybe you don’t care about a single reporter at a single, failing newspaper. But you should. The farce is upon us. The tragedy is underway."
Black also noted the conspicuous absence of Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos in the affair. Bezos's Blue Origin company has millions of dollars in government contracts, which could be influencing his decision on whether to speak out.
"Having already overhauled the Post’s opinion coverage—and its editorial priorities more broadly—to curry favor with the administration, he does not seem inclined to risk even a single dollar for the sake of our pesky First Amendment," Black wrote.
Donald Trump has had a stroke, a prominent clinical professor of medicine said, listing evidence he said he saw in the president's behavior.
"My impression is that President Trump has had a stroke, and I think there's several lines of evidence supporting that," said Professor Bruce Davidson, of Washington State University Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine, in Spokane, Washington. "I think his stroke was on the left side of the brain, which controls the right side of the body."
Davidson was speaking to the Clinton aide turned Lincoln biographer Sidney Blumenthal and Princeton historian Sean Wilentz on their podcast, The Court of History.
Now 79, Trump is the oldest president ever to assume office. Speculation over his health has been a persistent feature of his second term. Physical slips have been noted, as have occurrences in which Trump has appeared to sleep during daytime events. Slurred speech and difficulty forming sentences have been widely remarked upon.
Trump regularly claims to be in excellent mental and physical health — claims backed up by White House statements.
OnThe Court of History, Davidson was asked what formed his belief about the president's health.
He said, "I think the stroke was six months ago or more, earlier in 2025. There's video of him shuffling his feet, which is not what we'd seen him [doing], striding on the golf course … previously. We've seen him holding his right hand in his left, cradling. And earlier in the year, in 2025, he was garbling words, which he didn't do previously, and which he's improved upon more recently. And he's also had marked episodes that have been noticed of daytime, excessive sleepiness, — medical term, hypersomnolence — which is characteristic of many patients after they've had a stroke. … Most recently, there was video of him walking down the stairs from Air Force One, holding the banister with his left hand, although he's right-handed, and all of this is consistent with having had a stroke on the left side of his brain. A stroke is an area of infarction. It's an area of dead tissue."
Davidson also described behavior he said he thought showed Trump's psychological reaction to surviving a stroke.
"People who … have a stroke, it's a very serious, concerning, life-threatening, upsetting, scary thing, and people react in different ways," Davidson said. "Some people respond with humility, grateful to be alive and viewing life as precious. Others become, as they improve, positively euphoric, that, 'I was at the cliff of death, and now I'm back,' and and some view it as, 'That was my chance to die, and I didn't, and now I'm going to do everything I wanted to do, because the next one may be fatal."
The accelerating pace of Trump's policy announcements, military orders, demands for the prosecution of enemies, and attacks on political opponents has been noted around the world.
Referring to Trump's regular claims about his own health, Davidson said: "Another piece of evidence in favor of him having had a stroke is his telling us that he's taking a whole aspirin tablet, 325 milligrams daily."
Trump said that this month, in an interview with the Wall Street Journal, about his health. Saying the aspirin had caused widely noted bruising on his hand, Trump told the Journal: "They say aspirin is good for thinning out the blood, and I don't want thick blood pouring through my heart. I want nice, thin blood pouring through my heart. Does that make sense?"
To Davidson, it did not.
"The instruction to take one full aspirin, 325 milligrams daily, is solely, only for prevention of recurrent repeat stroke after partial 50 percent or more blockage, occlusion of a large vessel in the brain," the doctor said. "It's not recommended for anything for the heart, and we were told that President Trump's chest CT scan was unremarkable, was fine."
Trump recently said he had an MRI, then said it was in fact a CT scan.
Davidson told Blumenthal and Wilentz: "A CT scan of the chest takes three or four minutes, and when you add the abdomen, that's another three or four minutes. An MRI is what we use to most carefully image the brain. You can image the brain pretty well with a CT scan, and that's emergency imaging of the brain, because it's more available, but an MRI gives you far more detail, and an MRI takes a minimum of 20 minutes, and they put this over your head, and it's extremely noisy, it's a banging sound, and they put headphones to block the sounds. So there is no mistaking an MRI for CT. And when President Trump said he had an MRI, he undoubtedly did. Now we do MRIs of the spine, of bone and joints. But that's not what he was talking about when he talked about cognitive testing. So I think it's, it's certainly clear that did not sound like a misspeaking, that he had an MRI of his brain and he had CT, surveillance, CAT scans of his chest and abdomen."
Blumenthal and Wilentz noted that presidents have suffered strokes in office — Woodrow Wilson's was hidden from the public, while Franklin D. Roosevelt died.
Trump has also regularly boasted about passing basic cognitive tests, adding to widespread speculation that the president could be suffering from dementia. Davidson did not think so.
"He doesn't, to me, behave demented," he said, adding: "It seems to me that with thoseNew York Times questions recently and press conferences, he grasps the question and appropriately responds — or inappropriately, depending on your views — but he certainly handles the gist of the question. So I do not see dementia, for which I'm glad, but it is common after strokes for people to behave, as some people say, more like they were beforehand. So if President Trump had a brash personality, I think everyone would say, long ago, he appears to have become even more so."
Davidson said there would be no current reason to invoke the 25th Amendment because Trump appears functionally capable, at least from a superficial perspective. He emphasized that many people recover from strokes while retaining their judgment and ability to perform complex work, though such recovery typically requires support from trusted advisors, whether family or colleagues.
"I think there could be a way for President Trump to thread the needle," he said.
Davidson suggested Trump could navigate this situation by acknowledging a stroke without losing cognitive function, thus avoiding the need for temporary replacement. In this scenario, with proper support from advisors whom he heeds, along with attention to diet, medication, exercise, and intellectual engagement, Trump could continue serving as president despite the health event.
"There is no need to get all exercised about that issue. But I think it'd be good for the public to be informed. That's just the nature of my view of the way I was trained in elementary and junior high school about democracy," he said.
A MAGA firebrand ripped Bari Weiss's rebrand of CBS News during a new broadcast of her podcast on Wednesday, according to a report.
Megyn Kelly, host of the right-wing podcast "The Megyn Kelly Show," trashed the new CBS News during her latest episode, The Daily Mail reported, going so far as to directly attack the new host of "CBS Evening News," Tony Dokoupil. Kelly's comments come at a time when CBS News has taken a rightward turn, prompting many longtime viewers to leave.
Kelly did not mince words when she spoke about Dokoupil, who she said is only in his role because of Weiss's sexual orientation.
"I figured it out. Bari is an out lesbian, and she's in a marriage to another woman, and they have kids, and so on. This is a lesbian's idea of what women want. Like, he's sweet, he's soft, this is what this is going to sell," Kelly said.
She also compared Dokoupil to another popular daytime host, Oprah Winfrey.
"CBS Evening News is officially launched with its new anchor, 'T'Oprah' Dokoupil," Kelly said. "That's what I call him, because he's crying and constantly trying to therapize us through the news."
She also chided him for "patronizing" his audience.
"'Get up and down on the news and stop trying to handhold your audience like they're a bunch of babies who need you to stroke them through every update," Kelly said.
