Innocent journalists arrested as Trump team sets fire to First Amendment

 

Innocent journalists arrested as Trump team sets fire to First Amendment

  Don Lemon is one of the journalists arrested by federal agents for covering an anti-ICE protest at a church in Minnesota.

Trump mocks victimized reporters in official White House X account post

by Oliver Willis

Daily Kos Staff

Friday, January 30, 2026 at 9:00:17a MST

 

REPUBLISHED BY:

Blue Country Gazette Blog

Rim Country Gazette Blog 

Independent journalist Don Lemon, formerly of CNN, was arrested by federal agents Thursday night for reporting on an anti-ICE protest at a church in Minnesota, making him a target in President Donald Trump’s latest attempt to shut down free speech.

Federal immigration officers deploy tear gas at protesters after the killing of Alex Pretti in Minneapolis on Jan. 24.

Lemon’s attorney Abbe Lowell said that Lemon was arrested in Los Angeles, where he was covering the upcoming Grammy Awards.

In a statement, Lowell said that Lemon’s arrest was an “unprecedented attack on the First Amendment” and a “transparent attempt” by the Trump administration to distract from the crises that the country is facing.

“Don will fight these charges vigorously and thoroughly in court,” he added.

Lemon clearly identifies himself as a reporter in a video of the Jan. 18 protest at Cities Church in St. Paul, noting, “We’re not part of the activists, but we’re here just reporting on them.”

Similarly, Minnesota-based independent journalist Georgia Fort, who also covered the protest, has reportedly been arrested.

“This is all stemming from the fact that I filmed a protest as a member of the media. We are supposed to have our constitutional right—freedom to film, to be a member of the press,” Fort said in a live stream Friday morning.

“I don’t feel like I have my First Amendment right as a member of the press because now federal agents are at my door, arresting me for filming the church protest,” she added.

A federal magistrate judge already shut down a previous attempt by the Department of Justice to press charges against Lemon.

“The government lumps all eight protestors together and says things that are true of some but not all of them. Two of the five protestors were not protestors at all; instead, they were a journalist and his producer. There is no evidence that those two engaged in any criminal behavior or conspired to do so,” Judge Patrick Schultz wrote in a letter.

A cartoon by Pedro Molina.

Democratic Rep. Jasmine Crockett of Texas slammed the arrest.

“Are you F-ing KIDDING ME?! [Lemon] has been arrested by the DOJ?! Exercising your first amendment constitutionally “protected” right gets you locked up, exercising your 2nd gets you killed, and actual murder… well in uniform, gets you nothing! This IS NOT NORMAL nor OK!” she wrote on Bluesky.

And Democratic Rep. Robert Garcia of California called Lemon’s arrest “a blatant assault on our First Amendment rights.” 

Time and again, the Trump Administration pursues its own political enemies over real justice,” he wrote on Bluesky.

Meanwhile, the official White House X account shared a photo of Lemon to announce his arrest. 

“When life gives you lemons …” the post reads, along with an emoji of chains.

The arrests of Lemon and Fort are part of a serial pattern of Trump attacking free speech, which is protected by the Constitution.

The administration has gone after small businesses for dissenting, attempted to purge late-night talk show hosts for mocking Trump, raided the home of a reporter for reporting on the administration, and shook down media companies for producing coverage skeptical of the administration.

Much of the mainstream media recently parroted the administration’s spin that Trump was changing his authoritarian “tone” in Minnesota, but these arrests prove that—as expected—that was never the case.

 

Or better yet, we all need to stand up and say, "NO!"  Yes, even you.  This is getting more ominous by the minute.

New TikTok Owners Censoring anything anti-Trump

PARTNERS IN PEDOPHILIA: A statue depicting President Donald Trump, left, and Jeffrey Epstein holding hands stands at sundown on the National Mall with the U.S. Capitol in the background on Oct. 2, 2025.

 

Trump is turning us into a second-rate Russia complete with state-run media 

by Alix Breeden

Daily Kos Staff 

Wednesday, January 28, 2026 at 4:00:05p MST 

 

REPUBLISHED BY:

Blue Country Gazette Blog

Rim Country Gazette Blog 

It didn’t take long for things to get weird after TikTok’s China-based parent company, ByteDance, handed the app’s U.S. reins over to a slate of American investors approved by President Donald Trump. 

In the days after the hand-off was made last Thursday, many users reported their posts were stuck at zero views if they included specific words like “ICE,” “Israel,” “Trump,” or “Jeffrey Epstein.”

At first, TikTok officials tried to quell conspiracies by announcing that the platform’s data center was experiencing an unfortunate “weather-related power outage.”

PARTNERS IN PEDOPHILIA: Sarah Baus, left, of Charleston, S.C., and Tiffany Cianci, who says she is a "long-form educational content creator," livestream to TikTok outside the Supreme Court, on Jan. 10, 2025.

But users claimed that their direct messages were also being blocked if they included mention of convicted sex abuser Epstein—a once-dear friend of Trump’s. TikTok also denied any moves to block messages. 

TikTok’s new controlling board is consistently pro-Trump. Billionaire Larry Ellison’s cloud computing company, Oracle, is a player. Investment firm MGX, founded by a member of the United Arab Emirates’ royal family, is also on the board. 

MGX has been involved in a handful of cryptocurrency deals that were lucrative for the Trump family, including one that funneled $2 billion through the Trump-owned trading platform World Liberty Financial. Other Trump allies, like Dell Technologies’ Michael Dell and Jeff Yass—a multibillionaire MAGA donor who also chipped in on Trump's vanity ballroom—also have a presence on the board.

Whether it’s a matter of the new owners covering for their powerful pal or just a really big fumble after taking over, the timing is uncanny. 

It wasn’t lost on Democrats that the social media blackout occurred in the crucial hours following the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti in Minneapolis by Border Patrol agents. 

During that time, influencers, civilians, and lawmakers could not share videos and information on the senseless death and its aftermath. 

Democratic state Sen. Scott Wiener, who is running for Congress in California, posted to X over the weekend that TikTok had become “state-controlled media” after the U.S. takeover.

“This morning I posted a TikTok about my legislation allowing people to sue ICE agents. It's sitting at zero views, and I'm not the only person this is happening to,” he wrote.

Multiple left-leaning accounts with large followings reported similar issues of zero or significantly impacted views. 

The timing of TikTok’s alleged technical difficulties—and who is being impacted—has caught the attention of other lawmakers, including California Gov. Gavin Newsom. 

“It’s time to investigate,” Newsom said Monday night via X. “I am launching a review into whether TikTok is violating state law by censoring Trump-critical content.”

According to CNN, Newsom’s press office said it received “independently confirmed instances” in which content that was “critical of” President Trump was “suppressed.”

Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut also said he was launching an investigation.

“It’s interesting to me that on the same weekend TikTok was taken over by a bunch of Trump-aligned billionaires, we saw some pretty massive censoring of anti-Trump content,” Murphy told NOTUS. “I don’t know that those two things are connected, but I think it’s really important for us to be vigilant.”

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Related | CBS News disgraces itself as parent company bends to Trump

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With the Department of Justice’s continued delay on releasing the Epstein files and Trump’s continued attacks on media outlets critical of him, it’s possible the shoe fits. 

Media falls for Trump's supposed ‘tone’ switch on Minneapolis occupation

 

Media falls for Trump's supposed ‘tone’ switch on Minneapolis occupation

 

Demonstrators holds signs during a protest outside the office of Sen. Amy Klobuchar on Jan. 26 in Minneapolis, after Alex Pretti was fatally shot by a U.S. Border Patrol officer over the weekend. 

 

Video evidence shows Noem and Trump claims about Alex Pretti's violent intentions are blatant lies. 

 

by Oliver Willis

Daily Kos Staff

Tuesday, January 27, 2026 at 2:00:04p MST

 

REPUBLISHED BY:

Blue Country Gazette Blog

Rim Country Gazette Blog 

Mainstream media outlets are uncritically reporting on a purported shift in “tone” by the Trump administration following the disastrous deployment of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to Minnesota.

But this reporting ignores the reality of President Donald Trump and his underlings creating a hostile atmosphere in the state and Trump’s longtime embrace of law enforcement abuse and brutality.

The mainstream press on Monday seemed to speak in unison about the alleged tone shift:

• Washington Post: “Trump softens tone on Minneapolis violence amid calls for accountability”
• NBC: “Trump strikes a positive tone on Tim Walz after phone call with the Minnesota governor”
• Semafor: “Trump softens tone on Minneapolis shooting”
• CNBC: “White House eases tone on Pretti killing”

These headlines come as the administration is in apparent retreat in Minnesota, following grassroots resistance to ICE and other agencies being deployed there for a chaotic immigration crackdown. ICE and Border Patrol agents shot and killed two civilians while also causing chaos on the streets while harassing children, observers, and others.

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Related | Why Trump is finally waving a white flag in Minnesota

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But the administration’s pullback doesn’t change the main thrust of Trump’s policies and actions: pursuing a mass deportation campaign targeting people because of their race and ethnicity. The mainstream coverage is ignoring or minimizing this reality, even though it is the driving force behind everything that has occurred.

The administration was so invested in pursuing this mission that in the immediate aftermath of Minneapolis ICU nurse Alex Pretti being killed by federal law enforcement agents, figures like Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller falsely labeled him a “domestic terrorist.” They claimed Pretti posed a threat to federal agents and that he was out to “massacre” them when video evidence showed this was a clear lie.

Trump himself issued a series of ransom demands to Minnesota officials as the shootings occurred, and in the immediate aftermath of the shooting death of Minneapolis mother Renee God, Trump justified the execution and mocked residents for their anger.

This was done to advance Trump’s cruel and racist agenda, and while the administration is trying to back away from the resulting fallout, the fundamentals have not changed. Characterizing the administration’s spin as a legitimate softening of tone ignores the current situation and Trump’s track record.

For instance, in a 2017 speech to police officers Trump encouraged them not to protect suspects from hitting their heads on the roof of police vehicles as they were arrested. 

“You can take the hand off,” Trump said. Trump has always held on to this view and Minnesota was just the latest chapter in his hateful book.

Despite more than a decade of covering Trump as a political figure, mainstream media outlets continue to fall for his spin—hook, line, and sinker. This naivete doesn’t help their audiences to understand the world around them, and it contributes to right-wing disinformation efforts.disinformation efforts.

An Urgent Message to Every American

 At one end of the spectrum, ICE goons at work. 

"Don’t light a candle and think it substitutes for showing up."

 

By Matt Moberg 

Chaplain of the Minnesota Timberwolves:

 

(Matt Moberg is a husband and father of three young boys. He also serves as a pastor at The Table, a church in south Minneapolis, and as co-chaplain for the Minnesota Timberwolves. He is also a musician and a self-taught artist.)  

 

“If you’re a church posting

prayers for peace and unity today

while my city bleeds in the street,

miss me with that softness you only wear when it costs you nothing.

 

Don’t dress avoidance up as holiness.

Don’t call silence “peacemaking.”

Don’t light a candle and think it substitutes for showing up.

 

Tonight an ICE agent took a photo of me next to my car, 

looked me in the eye and told me, “We’ll be seeing you soon.”

 

Not metaphor.

Not hyperbole.

A threat dressed up in a badge and a paycheck.

 

Peace isn’t what you ask for

when the boot is already on someone’s neck.

Peace is what the powerful ask for

when they don’t want to be interrupted.

 

Unity isn’t neutral.

Unity that refuses to name violence

is just loyalty to the ones holding the weapons.

 

Stop using scripture like chloroform.

Stop calling your fear “wisdom.”

Stop pretending Jesus was crucified

because he preached good vibes and personal growth.

 

You don’t get to quote scripture like a lullaby

while injustice stays wide awake. 

You don’t get to ask God to “heal the land”

if you won’t even look at the wound.

 

There is a kind of peace that only exists

because it refuses to tell the truth. 

That peace is a lie.

And lies don’t grow anything worth saving.

 

The scriptures you love weren’t written to keep things calm. 

They were written to set things right.

And sometimes the most faithful thing you can do

is stop praying around the pain and start standing inside it.

 

If that makes you uncomfortable - good.”

 

[Original from the author found here: https://www.instagram.com/p/DTPD3TpDCht/?igsh=MW9qdzZzM2cwMHFwZg==]

 

 At the other end of the spectrum, Matt Moberg at work.

The Subtext of Trump’s Batshit Speech in Davos

Little man-child with a little brain and little hands makes a little fist.  How about that lopsided double chin?  The man-child is way too old to be president.

The president’s walkback of his demands for "Iceland" (aka Greenland) were bracketed by more belligerence and bombast. 

 

Alex Shephard / The New Republic / 22 January 26

 

It feels odd to describe a speech as “good news” when it involves the president of the United States rambling incessantly and threatening America’s European allies. But, taken one way, Donald Trump’s stark raving mad speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Wednesday was good news.

A day earlier, the stock markets had tumbled, for two related reasons. One was that Trump continued to escalate his threats to seize Greenland by military force, a move that would almost certainly mean the end of the NATO alliance. The second was that Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney—whose country has long been one of America’s closest allies, if not its closest—gave a rousing speech at Davos about the need for a new global order without the U.S. as its leader.

“I will talk today about the breaking of the world order, the end of a pleasant fiction and the beginning of a brutal reality where the geopolitics of the great powers is not subject to any constraint,” he said. “Let me be direct: We are in the midst of a rupture, not a transition.” He later added, “The middle powers must act together because if we’re not at the table, we’re on the menu.”

This was a potential inflection point. The United States was at risk of losing its hegemonic position in the West, for what may be the dumbest imaginable reason: Trump wants Greenland because it looks very big on a map, and perhaps because the U.S. once temporarily protected it.

Trump’s speech was demented. There were several moments when he talked up American military supremacy in a way that was clearly meant to intimidate those who stood between him and the frozen Danish territory in the North Atlantic. 

But the speech also was the beginning of a walkback that would continue throughout the day. Trump may have saber-rattled, reminding Europe of America’s big battleships and superior armed forces, but he also pledged not to use the American military to attack Greenland.

“We probably won’t get anything unless I decide to use excessive strength and force, where we would be, frankly, unstoppable. But I won’t do that,” he said. “OK, now everyone’s saying, ‘Oh good.’ That’s probably the biggest statement I made because people thought I would use force. I don’t have to use force. I don’t want to use force. I won’t use force. All the United States is asking for is a place called Greenland.”

He was right: That was the biggest statement, at least as far as the major news organizations were concerned, as they blasted out breaking-news alerts declaring that Trump promised not to take Greenland by military force—though generally failed to acknowledge the very long history of Trump breaking his supposed promises.

Anyway, later in the day, Trump took an even bigger step back, releasing a statement that more or less said he was forgetting about acquiring the island for the time being and dropping his threat to slap 10 percent tariffs on Europe in retaliation for opposing his demands for Greenland.

“Based upon a very productive meeting that I have had with the Secretary General of NATO, Mark Rutte, we have formed the framework of a future deal with respect to Greenland and, in fact, the entire Arctic Region,” he posted on Truth Social. “This solution, if consummated, will be a great one for the United States of America, and all NATO Nations. Based upon this understanding, I will not be imposing the Tariffs that were scheduled to go into effect on February 1st. Additional discussions are being held concerning The Golden Dome as it pertains to Greenland.”

The stock markets stabilized. Those headlines about Trump promising not to invade Greenland, which understandably irked people given the missing context, seemed to have gotten it right. Yes, the speech was crazy. But it was a crazy speech that marked the start of our crazy president walking back one of his many crazy missteps—for now.

As far as wind-downs go, few have been more Trumpian. He mocked NATO repeatedly and told the visiting dignitaries that they would be “speaking German” if it wasn’t for the United States. (For all the video evidence of Trump’s cognitive decline, the best evidence comes in moments like these—he just isn’t as clever as he was five, or especially 10, years ago.) He still huffed and puffed, talking up the U.S. military in a way that was obviously meant to be intimidating: I’m ruling out invading Greenland now, but if I didn’t, you’d be in real trouble.

“We want a piece of ice for world protection and they won’t give it,” Trump whined later in his speech on Wednesday. “We’ve never asked for anything else … so they have a choice: You can say yes and we will be very appreciative, or you can say no—and we will remember.”

For Trump, losing always requires these bombastic efforts, which are seemingly deployed only to protect his own frail psychology. But make no mistake, Trump backed down because he had to. 

Though investors have been unfazed by Trump’s belligerence for months, they recognized that an invasion of Greenland—a rather serious and, after the Venezuela invasion, believable threat—would destroy the current international order, causing economic devastation. Trump’s speech was largely aimed at these investors, who are the people who really shackled him. Which is why he was so hostile toward everyone else.

To put it in Axios-ese: Trump touched the hot stove and got burned. But that analogy only goes so far. Children learn from their burns; Trump never does. His face-saving Truth Social statement was by no means definitive. Whether this “future deal” comes to pass is anyone’s guess. But if it does, it will certainly not involve the U.S. owning Greenland, which means this issue will likely flare up again. (For the record, it already did once before, when Trump began his second term by declaring that acquiring Greenland was one of his primary goals.)

This is obviously not a tenable way to conduct American foreign policy, but it’s how America conducts foreign policy under Trump. There’s no changing it. Our allies, meanwhile, are living in the world Carney outlined a day earlier. “The old order is not coming back. We should not mourn it,” he said. “Nostalgia is not a strategy.” Their emerging strategy seems to be to band together and concoct ways to mollify the temperamental nincompoop who’s running America.

"Damn the bone spurs.  Full torpedoes ahead."  He ducked military service, but he doesn't hesitate to send those who didn't into harms way to feed his own ego.

Trump’s Letter to Norway Should Be the Last Straw

 

Norway’s leader sought to “de-escalate” the growing conflict over Greenland; In his arrogant response, Trump heaped fuel on the fire. 

Jeffrey Gettleman / The New York Times

 

20 January 26 

ALSO SEE: Denmark Dispatches Additional Troops to Greenland as Tensions Rise

In a text message over the weekend, President Trump told Jonas Gahr Store, Norway’s prime minister, that since being denied the Nobel Peace Prize, he no longer felt obliged to “think purely of Peace.”

Mr. Store had contacted Mr. Trump to discuss global security, signing his message “Alex and Jonas,” a reference to the Finnish president, Alexander Stubb. The Norwegian prime minister’s office provided the full exchange to The New York Times. Read it below:

Text message from Mr. Store to Mr. Trump on Sunday, Jan. 18, 3:48 p.m.:

Dear Mr President, dear Donald – on the contact across the Atlantic – on Greenland, Gaza, Ukraine – and your tariff announcement yesterday. You know our position on these issues. But we believe we all should work to take this down and de-escalate – so much is happening around us where we need to stand together. We are proposing a call with you later today – with both of us or separately – give us a hint of what you prefer! Best – Alex and Jonas

Text message from Mr. Trump to Mr. Store on Sunday, Jan. 18, at 4:15 p.m.:

Dear Jonas: Considering your Country decided not to give me the Nobel Peace Prize for having stopped 8 Wars PLUS, I no longer feel an obligation to think purely of Peace, although it will always be predominant, but can now think about what is good and proper for the United States of America. Denmark cannot protect that land from Russia or China, and why do they have a ‘right of ownership’ anyway? There are no written documents, it’s only that a boat landed there hundreds of years ago, but we had boats landing there, also. I have done more for NATO than any other person since its founding, and now, NATO should do something for the United States. The World is not secure unless we have Complete and Total Control of Greenland. Thank you! President DJT

Nobel Peace Prize snub is now Trump's justification for invading Greenland

Ann Applebaum

The Atlantic

 

21 January 26

Let me begin by quoting, in full, a letter that the president of the United States of America sent yesterday to the prime minister of Norway, Jonas Gahr Støre. The text was forwarded by the White House National Security Council to ambassadors in Washington, and was clearly intended to be widely shared. Here it is:

Dear Jonas:

Considering your Country decided not to give me the Nobel Peace Prize for having stopped 8 Wars PLUS, I no longer feel an obligation to think purely of Peace, although it will always be predominant, but can now think about what is good and proper for the United States of America. Denmark cannot protect that land from Russia or China, and why do they have a “right of ownership” anyway? There are no written documents, it’s only a boat that landed there hundreds of years ago, but we had boats landing there, also. I have done more for NATO than any person since its founding, and now, NATO should do something for the United States. The World is not secure unless we have Complete and Total Control of Greenland. Thank you! President DJT

One could observe many things about this document. One is the childish grammar, including the strange capitalizations (“Complete and Total Control”). 

Another is the loose grasp of history. Donald Trump did not end eight wars. Greenland has been Danish territory for centuries. Its residents are Danish citizens who vote in Danish elections. There are many “written documents” establishing Danish sovereignty in Greenland, including some signed by the United States. 

In his second term, Trump has done nothing for NATO—an organization that the U.S. created and theoretically leads, and that has only ever been used in defense of American interests. If the European members of NATO have begun spending more on their own defense (budgets to which the U.S. never contributed), that’s because of the threat they feel from Russia.

Yet what matters isn’t the specific phrases, but the overall message: Donald Trump now genuinely lives in a different reality, one in which neither grammar nor history nor the normal rules of human interaction now affect him. Also, he really is maniacally, unhealthily obsessive about the Nobel Prize. The Norwegian Nobel Committee, not the Norwegian government and certainly not the Danish government, determines the winner of that prize. Yet Trump now not only blames Norway for failing to give it to him, but is using it as a justification for an invasion of Greenland.

Think about where this is leading. One possibility, anticipated this morning by financial markets, is a damaging trade war. Another is an American military occupation of Greenland. Try to imagine it: The U.S. Marines arrive in Nuuk, the island’s capital. Perhaps they kill some Danes; perhaps some American soldiers die too. And then what? 

If the invaders were Russians, they would arrest all of the politicians, put gangsters in charge, shoot people on the street for speaking Danish, change school curricula, and carry out a fake referendum to rubber-stamp the conquest. 

Is that the American plan too? If not, then what is it? This would not be the occupation of Iraq, which was difficult enough. U.S. troops would need to force Greenlanders, citizens of a treaty ally, to become American against their will.

For the past year, American allies around the world have tried very hard to find a theory that explains Trump’s behavior. Isolationism, neo-imperialism, and patrimonialism are all words that have been thrown around. 

But in the end, the president himself defeats all attempts to describe a “Trump doctrine.” He is locked into a world of his own, determined to “win” every encounter, whether in an imaginary competition for the Nobel Peace Prize or a protest from the mother of small children objecting to his masked, armed paramilitary in Minneapolis. These contests matter more to him than any long-term strategy. And of course, the need to appear victorious matters much more than Americans’ prosperity and well-being.

The people around Trump could find ways to stop him, as some did in his first term, but they seem too corrupt or too power-hungry to try. 

That leaves Republicans in Congress as the last barrier. They owe it to the American people, and to the world, to stop Trump from acting out his fantasy in Greenland and doing permanent damage to American interests. He is at risk of alienating friends in not only Europe but also India, whose leader he also snubbed for failing to nominate him for a Nobel Prize, as well as South Korea, Japan, Australia. Years of careful diplomacy, billions of dollars in trade, are now at risk because senators and representatives who know better have refused to use the powers they have to block him. Now is the time.

Next thing you know, Trump will be paying her off to pretend he won the award all by himself after all.  And just wait until he changes Greenland's name to Trumpland.

Nobel Foundation voids Trump's back door Nobel Peace Prize

 

Nobel Foundation voids Trump's back door Nobel Peace Prize

d

 

NICE TRY DONNIE: "The decision is final and applies for all time."

 

Story by Rey Harris

TAG24 NEWS 

Stockholm, Sweden - The Nobel Foundation has issued a statement after President Donald Trump received the coveted Nobel Peace Prize as a "gift."

The Nobel Foundation emphasized that the Peace Prize cannot be transferred – "even symbolically" – after Trump was gifted the medal.

In a press release issued Friday, the foundation explained that no matter what happens to the medal, "it is and remains the original laureate who is recorded in history as the recipient of the prize."

"Even if the medal or diploma later comes into someone else's possession, this does not alter who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize," the statement said, later adding, "The decision is final and applies for all time."

The statement came after Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado – the most recently selected laureate – "presented" her medal to Trump during a White House visit on Thursday.

Machado explained it was "a recognition for his unique commitment with our freedom," while Trump posted on social media, "Maria presented me with her Nobel Peace Prize for the work I have done."

"Such a wonderful gesture of mutual respect. Thank you Maria!" he added.

But on Sunday, the Nobel Foundation doubled down with another statement, noting that Alfred Nobel’s will "specifies who has the right to award each respective prize."

"A prize can therefore not, even symbolically, be passed on or further distributed," the statement added.

Machado's gift also came days after Trump – who has repeatedly demanded he be awarded the peace prize – sent US troops to Venezuela and arrested President Nicolás Maduro, who is now awaiting trial in New York City.

Machado was expecting to take power, as the US had backed her and her proxy candidate for president in the last election.

But Trump said Machado does not command the "respect" to lead the country and instead vowed to work with Maduro's vice president, Delcy Rodriguez, whom he warned would pay a "very big price" if she does not cooperate with US demands.

Hey, maybe if you resign, they'll give you your own Nobel.

Author warns problem Trump can't outrun is about to come roaring back

With Epstein deposed, Donald anoints the Queen Consort. 

   

"Thing about Epstein: It always comes back." 

 

Story by Robert Davis

 

Raw Story

472.9K Followers

President Donald Trump's latest distraction "operation" is about to come to a screeching halt, forcing him to face a problem that he has never been able to outrun, according to a high-profile author.

Over the last couple of weeks, the Trump administration has invaded a foreign country and captured its leader, threatened military action against a NATO ally to gain control over a sovereign country, turned ICE loose on Minnesota, and threatened to arrest multiple world leaders. 

These moves followed the release of some files from the FBI's investigation into disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein that painted Trump's relationship with the convicted sex offender in an unsavory light.

Also Read: ‘A lot of anxiety’: Top senators fear Trump is serious about grabbing Greenland

Michael Wolff, a journalist who has written four books about Trump, said on a new episode of "Inside Trump's Head," a podcast he co-hosts with Joana Coles of The Daily Beast, that these actions are right out of the Trump distraction playbook.

"He has done what he always manages to do, which is to change the subject through a fundamental reordering of the narrative of the drama that we're living in," Wolff said.

Want more breaking political news? Click for the latest headlines at Raw Story.

Wolff also warned Trump that he won't be able to outrun the Epstein files forever.

"The thing about Epstein and we might trust this is that it never goes away," Wolff said. "It always comes back."

Last year, Congress overwhelmingly passed a law requiring the Department of Justice to release all of the Epstein files by December 19. The Trump administration has stalled the release and has told the courts that it will need weeks to review more than two million documents that it still possesses.

The DOJ has only released about 1% of the files in its possession so far, according to court filings.

"In the short term, it's going to be Venezuela and Minnesota, and then old reliable Epstein will be back again," Wolff said. "It hasn't gone away."

And if this isn't a tangled web...