Anti-ICE Mob Invades Minneapolis Church on Sunday. Don Lemon Embedded! Davos More Exciting than Usual. Greenland on Agenda. Gutfeld on Scott Adams. More
Welcome to Ice Tuesday—Mob ICE protests in Minneapolis and icy Greenland, suddenly the focal point of the world.
“Mob Storms Minnesota Church During Worship to Target Pastor They Say Has ICE Ties,” is a New York Post headline.
The New York Times headline announces that the mob’s descent on a place of worship adds to “tensions over ICE tactics.” It didn’t seem to add to tensions over mob tactics for Governor Tim Walz, who issued a remarkably tepid statement, while Attorney General Keith Ellison denied that mob participants broke the law. He extended his protection to Don Lemon, former CNN host, who was “embedded” with the mob (and who called the churchgoers “entitled” and “white supremacists). CBS reports that the DOJ is investigating:
Justice Department Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon said her agency is investigating federal civil rights violations “by these people desecrating a house of worship and interfering with Christian worshippers.”
The mobs aren’t going to go away. “We Will Be Ungovernable” is the headline on an Axios story about a change to forthcoming anti-Trump opposition:
Mass movements against the Trump administration are poised to take a different form in year two: more disruptive and potentially more violent.
Tens of thousands of Americans are expected to participate in walkouts on Tuesday, the one-year anniversary of President Trump’s inauguration, setting the stage for what future resistance could look like.
“The vanguard in this are starting to think about how … one day, peaceful, legally permitted marches are not enough to push back” against the administration, Dana Fisher, a professor at American University’s School of International Service, said.
Meanwhile, a group of Minneapolis software engineers was showered with insults after they were mistaken for ICE agents.
In one of the most astonishing developments in memory, Denmark—Denmark!—is beefing up its military presence on Greenland:
Denmark has sent more troops to Greenland as Donald Trump doubled down on his threat to seize the territory.
President Trump is heading to the Davos World Economic Forum, where the president’s Greenland stance will overshadow everything else:
President Trump ratcheted up his feud with European leaders on Tuesday, firing off a series of mocking social media posts that doubled down on his designs on Greenland, as he risked damaging the longstanding trans-Atlantic diplomatic alignment beyond repair.
A day before he was scheduled to join allies at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Mr. Trump insisted that the United States must have Greenland, the semiautonomous Danish territory, repeating a persistent demand that has shaken the foundations of the NATO alliance. “There can be no going back,” he wrote in one of a series of posts on his Truth Social platform.
The Washington Post reports that Davos has turned into an “emergency summit” on Greenland. Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent says that Trump is demonstrating that America is back, amid Greenland tensions. The New York Times reports that the president is linking his quest for Greenland to not having won the Nobel. A National Review “The Corner” item headlined “Greenland as Second Prize?” prints President Trump’s letter to the President of Norway, from which the linking emerged. It begins:
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.
As you can imagine, strong reactions have not been lacking. Fox’s sage Brit Hume regards Trump’s rhetoric as a bargaining tool. Rod Dreher, a close friend of Vice President J.D. Vance, writing at The Free Press, had a distinctly different reaction:
This past weekend, Trump declared that he will punish eight European countries with 10 percent tariffs until Denmark surrenders Greenland to the United States. He then tied his Greenland pique to his failure to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. The mind reels at the insanity of an American president acting with such petulance. He’s an Outer Borough Julius Caesar, the Don(ald) Corleone of Pennsylvania Avenue.
Wall Street Journal columnist Gerard Baker couches his take on the situation as “A Look Back at the War That Is About to Begin.” I mentioned Kimberley Strassel’s Greenland column on Friday in the Wall Street Journal. She said that Trump, who has correctly judged the vast importance of Greenland to the U.S., has been offered a free rein in Greenland and should accept. Europe is threatening the nuclear option (not that nuclear option, thank goodness):
Europe is reportedly mulling bringing out its trade “bazooka” and imposing 93 billion euros ($108 billion) worth of tariffs on the U.S., in response to President Donald Trump threatening to hit eight European countries with tariffs if a deal over the sale of Greenland isn’t reached.
Let’s hope that Brit Hume (above) is right and that this ends well soon.
As is almost always the case, City Journal is popping this morning. “Universal Childcare Could Hurt New York’s Children” is especially relevant in light of Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s plans. Heather Mac Donald’s “Rude but Right on Crime” examines President Trump’s unprecedented response to crime.
This morning’s third City Journal piece is “It’s Not Just Minnesota—Fraud Is Everywhere,” which shows how scammers and state governments routinely pilfer from federal healthcare programs.
We’ve hearing a lot about the President Poll numbers.
Pollster Lee Carter answers a question: What if the polls aren’t telling us Trump is failing; what if they’re telling us he’s delivering? Carter writes:
According to national polling averages, Trump’s job approval sits around 41% to 42%, with disapproval in the mid-50s. Those numbers dominate headlines. But buried in the same data is the statistic that actually defines his first year: According to a Wall Street Journal poll this week, 92% of voters who supported Trump in 2024 still approve of the job he’s doing.
That is not drift.
That is not erosion.
That is alignment.
Trump didn’t lose America; he kept his people.
National Review scribe John Fund discusses former Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin’s “‘Common Sense’ Legacy in Virginia.” Fund calls Youngkin’s tenure “easily one of the most successful of any governor in recent memory.”
An editorial in the Wall Street Journal, which has been one of the most persistent critics of President Trump’s tariffs, is headlined “Why the Supreme Court Tariff Case Is Such a Big Deal”:
The world is waiting for the Supreme Court to rule on the legality of President Trump’s “emergency” tariffs, and Mr. Trump’s weekend tariff spree against European allies underscores again why his abuse of his authority needs to be reined in.
Mr. Trump unleashed a new tariff volley against several European countries (see nearby) to coerce Denmark to sell or cede Greenland to the U.S. He cited no legal authority for doing so. He simply said he is imposing the tariffs.
Though he didn’t say this, presumably he is doing so under what he has claimed is his power in an “emergency” under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. But what emergency? Greenland isn’t under threat of invasion, and Denmark has said the U.S. can have more or less free run of the island for defense purposes.
Everything seems to come back to Greenland today. The Federalist has a good piece on Davos, where world leaders will soon be discussing Greenland. “The World Economic Forum Is a Glorified HOA for Leftist ‘Experts’ and Rich Communists” is The Federalist’s delightful headline.
“The Islamic Republic is a cautionary tale for the left,” Tom Black writes at Spiked Online. The Left embraced the Islamic revolution of 1979 with alacrity.
Don’t miss Greg Gutfeld’s wonderful piece on the late Scott Adams, his mentor and friend.
