- I'm calling bullshit on the media narrative that Trump is "pivoting" and "deescalating" on his ICE raids. The threshold is this: As long as the military occupations and the treatment of US cities as enemy territory continue, there's no pivot. ICE out. 1/ (New piece) newrepublic.com/article/2057...
- If media is going to claim a "pivot," let's stipulate some threshold questions: Is ICE still treating US cities like occupied territory? Will there be serious governmental investigations into ICE killings? Any accountability for them? If not, nothing is changing. 2/ newrepublic.com/article/2057...
- Trump wants to appear eager to minimize clashes between his government militias and protesters. But he doesn't want them to stop doing the things that are causing the clashes in the first place. The "pivot" is really about getting Dems to back off in budget talks. 3/ newrepublic.com/article/2057...Jan 28, 2026 12:55
- There's no Trump "pivot" until we see real investigations into the government's killings and real accountability for them. As Rep Jamie Raskin notes here, someone in the White House is ordering DOJ to cover up these killings. Someone in DHS is directing this. Who? 4/ newrepublic.com/article/2057...
- But Trump knows all this has gotten away from him. He knows ethnonationalists like Miller/Vance, who despise pro-immigration America and thus smeared the victims, badly miscalculated. He knows the popular passions unleashed here can't be manipulated. He's afraid 5/5 newrepublic.com/article/2057...
