"President Trump Gaggles with Press on Air Force One En Route Palm Beach, FL, Jan. 31, 2026."

I'm going to pick through the transcript and will update in about an hour. Meantime, you can pick over the text and pull out your favorite highlights

ADDED: From the YouTube transcript:

"The weekly gatherings of knitters at Needle & Skein, a yarn store in Minneapolis, are typically filled with giggles and storytelling."

"But, earlier this month, a heaviness hung in the air. 'It was just collective exhaustion,' said Paul Neary, a shop employee. 'Minnesotans — we're not going to say the big thing, but we often know what the big thing is just by looking at each other.'... They pulled out their knitting needles and got to work. Neary created the pattern that has now become the well-known 'Melt the ICE' hat, a red beanie-shaped cap topped with a braided tassel.... As a history buff, Neary chose the pattern based on a Norwegian hat used to protest the Nazi occupation of Norway in the 1940s. The hats were called 'nisselue,' which roughly translates to Santa hat...."

From "A red hat, inspired by a symbol of resistance to Nazi occupation, gains traction in Minnesota" (NPR).

"Peter Fritzsche, a history professor at the University of Illinois, said the Nazis were operating on 'obviously a very, very different scale,' but with ICE's presence in Minnesota, people can still feel 'occupied.'... Wendy Woloson, a history professor at Rutgers University at Camden and fellow knitter, said the red hats are a classic response of the crafting world. When knitters want to help in their community, they put their hands to work, she said.... She recalled the pink 'pussy hats' from the 2017 Women's March...."

It's poignant, this urge to do something that finds its release in knitting. It's something very calm indoor people can do when they want to feel they too are engaging in activism. 

ADDED: Speaking of hats in Minnesota, I just ran across this fascinating passage in a NYT article from April 2025:

"Federal agents arrested the former CNN anchor Don Lemon late Thursday..."

"... on charges that he violated federal law during a Jan. 18 protest in St. Paul, Minn., against the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown, his lawyer said. The case had been rejected last week by a magistrate judge. Attorney General Pam Bondi said that she had ordered the arrests of Mr. Lemon and three others in connection with the demonstration at a church.... Mr. Lemon, who was scheduled to appear in federal court in Los Angeles on Friday morning to contest the charges, has said he was reporting as a journalist when he entered Cities Church in St. Paul to observe a demonstration against the immigration crackdown...."

The NYT reports.

"Um, the President of the United States called me Monday morning and asked me to deploy here. I got here Monday evening, and I'm staying until the problem's gone."

Said Tom Homan, in Minneapolis, just now. I'm quoting from the transcript at YouTube, here, along with video.

What follows is my edit of the high points from the 35-minute performance:

"Governor Tim Walz called me with the request to work together with respect to Minnesota. It was a very good call..."

"... and we, actually, seemed to be on a similar wavelength. I told Governor Walz that I would have Tom Homan call him, and that what we are looking for are any and all Criminals that they have in their possession. The Governor, very respectfully, understood that, and I will be speaking to him in the near future. He was happy that Tom Homan was going to Minnesota, and so am I! We have had such tremendous SUCCESS in Washington, D.C., Memphis, Tennessee, and New Orleans, Louisiana, and virtually every other place that we have 'touched' and, even in Minnesota, Crime is way down, but both Governor Walz and I want to make it better!"

That's from PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP at Truth Social.

That's nice. I can think of a couple cynical things to say, but I'll leave them unsaid.

"The killing of Alex Pretti is a heartbreaking tragedy. It should also be a wake-up call to every American, regardless of party..."

"... that many of our core values as a nation are increasingly under assault. Federal law enforcement and immigration agents have a tough job. But Americans expect them to carry out their duties in a lawful, accountable way, and to work with, rather than against, state and local officials to ensure public safety. That's not what we're seeing in Minnesota. In fact, we're seeing the opposite."

So reads the "Statement by President Obama and Mrs. Obama," posted on X by Barack Obama.

"The right to publicly carry weapons is a centerpiece of Second Amendment advocacy and has emerged as a key issue in the shooting of 37-year-old ICU nurse Alex Pretti...."

"Bill Essayli, Los Angeles' top federal prosecutor and a Trump ally, received fierce blowback from gun-rights groups over his Saturday claim that there is a 'high likelihood' law enforcement will be 'legally justified' in shooting someone who approaches them with a gun. The National Rifle Association responded on X that this sentiment was 'dangerous and wrong.' Gun Owners of America condemned Essayli's statement, writing that the Second Amendment 'protects Americans' right to bear arms while protesting—a right the federal government must not infringe upon.' Essayli claimed that condemnation 'mischaracterize[d]' his statement...."

From "Gun rights groups challenge shooting of legally armed Minneapolis man" (Axios).

And here's Jonathan Chait, in "What MAGA Really Thinks of the Second Amendment/Now Americans know" (The Atlantic)(gift link).

"The Minnesotans I met on the streets of Minneapolis and St. Paul were determined to resist and fight back."

"The Trump administration has tried to paint the anti-ICE activists as hard-left agitators, 'blue-haired' domestic terrorists bent on stirring up mayhem. But I found they looked a lot more like a woman I met named Hillary Oppmann, a blonde, 50-something solar energy consultant who lives in South Minneapolis. I stumbled upon Oppmann on a frigid morning last week, when I rolled up on a corner near a high school in South Minneapolis.... A few minutes before I had come upon her, Oppmann had heard the sound of whistles like the one that she wears around her neck, and hustled to the spot.... Oppmann had gotten involved as a volunteer in this group through a parents’ group at the local high school.... She told me she wasn’t surprised at how quickly her neighbors had sprung into action. The community groups that formed in the wake of the murder of George Floyd quickly reactivated, she told me, making it much easier to organize a response. The killing of Renee Good was a horrific shock, but it has not deterred the volunteer observers — if anything, Oppmann said, their ranks have swelled. 'Minnesotans are really good at chipping away at ice,' she dryly noted...."

Writes Lydia Polgreen, in "In Minneapolis, I Glimpsed a Civil War" (NYT).

I remember when "blue-haired" was used in descriptions of little old ladies, nice grandmas, who got their white hair tinted slightly blue to keep it from tending toward yellow. Oppmann is portrayed as someone like that even as she is contrasted to "hard-left agitators, 'blue-haired' domestic terrorists." That's a different blueness, an aggressively intentional unnatural look. The little old lady blueness was a byproduct of gentle dithering over the appearance of age.

"I’m raging and sobbing simultaneously"/"This makes me weep. What are we?"

"I haven’t heave-sobbed like this in a long time. Dang, that hit HARD"/"Well this hit home. Minnesota girl here."

Comments on this TikTok video:

"If the corrupt politicians of Minnesota don’t obey the law and stop the professional agitators and insurrectionists from attacking the Patriots of I.C.E., who are only trying to do their job..."

"I will institute the INSURRECTION ACT, which many Presidents have done before me, and quickly put an end to the travesty that is taking place in that once great State. Thank you for you attention to this matter!"

Writes "President DJT" at Truth Social.

"Look at these terrible people who are interfering with law enforcement. Don’t they deserve to get executed in the middle of the street in the United States of America?"

Said State Representative Aisha Gomez, a Minneapolis Democrat, sarcastically characterizing the motive behind the release of new video, which you can see at "New Cellphone Video Shows ICE Agent’s Perspective Before Minneapolis Shooting/The Department of Homeland Security posted a clip of the video on social media and said it was taken by the agent, who killed a 37-year-old woman in the shooting" (NYT)(gift link).

And consider this:

"So I feel like white tears are not always something that's helpful or necessary when black and brown people have been experiencing this for a long time."

A woman at the makeshift memorial for Renee Good told me it felt wrong for her to be there.

Because she’s a white woman with a lot of “privilege”

“I feel like white tears are not always helpful or necessary.” pic.twitter.com/B6ZASuWLEZ

— Brecca Stoll (@breccastoll) January 9, 2026

What is this person really saying? At first, you might think the idea is that she is a white lady and so perhaps she should minimize herself and not put herself forward as the crier of tears. That's self-dramatizing, privileged, and performative. But if you listen again and pay attention to the last part — "black and brown people have been experiencing this for a long time" — it sounds as though she is minimizing Renee Good! It seems that she is imagining persons of color who have suffered from violent law enforcement for many decades and who might be hurt to see extreme grief over the death of a white woman. It's confusing and she seems to understand herself as a good person in need of instruction in a complex situation.

"In a wide-ranging conversation with four Times reporters, President Trump talked about the Minneapolis ICE shooting, immigration, Venezuela and even his plans for further White House renovations."

I see "Trump Sits Down With Times Reporters for Two-Hour Interview," the headline in the NYT.

There's no substance, just an announcement:

The Times’s coverage of the president’s remarks will include stories, newsletters and videos over the coming days, as well as an episode of The Daily on Friday. A transcript of the interview will be published.

Very bold of Trump to give all that access — and right in the middle of a week packed with quickly unfolding action and with only the full transcript to protect him. I like that the Times is breaking out the material in separate bits.

The first bit is: "We Pressed Trump on His Conclusion About the ICE Shooting. Here’s What He Said. The exchange was a glimpse into the president’s reflexive defense of his federal crackdown on immigration." It could have been a much more reflexive defense of the ICE agents. His first take was balanced: "I want to see nobody get shot. I want to see nobody screaming and trying to run over policemen either." And later, he says: "She behaved horribly. And then she ran him over. She didn’t try to run him over" — I would say that's a reflexive defense of the woman. How does he know she didn't try to run the agent over? 

Also, the NYT writes "When we pressed Mr. Trump on his conclusion that the victim, Renee Nicole Good, tried to run over the agent," but technically, the first quote is not a statement that she tried to run anyone over. It's a distanced, abstract statement: "I want to see nobody get shot. I want to see nobody screaming and trying to run over policemen either." I'm not seeing the follow-up question quoted, but I think it shouldn't have been "Why are you concluding that Good tried to run over the agent?" but "Are you saying you've determined that Good tried to run over the agent?" [Or better, to avoid ambiguity: "Are you saying you've determined that Good intended to run over the agent?"]

The second article based on the interview is "Trump Says U.S. Oversight of Venezuela Could Last for Years/In a wide-ranging interview with The New York Times on Wednesday, President Trump said 'only time will tell' when it comes to how long the United States aims to control the country" (NYT).

"Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) said the National Guard is ready to deploy if riots break out, something he was too slow to do after George Floyd’s murder in 2020."

"But he pleaded with protesters to remain peaceful. 'They want a show,' he said. 'We can’t give it to them.' Walz is right that Trump could use unrest to invoke the Insurrection Act and deploy U.S. troops to Minnesota. (A recent defeat at the Supreme Court otherwise limited his authority to commandeer the National Guard.) The president posted on social media: 'We need to stand by and protect our Law Enforcement Officers from this Radical Left Movement of Violence and Hate!'... Before the shooting, Walz described the federal enforcement surge as 'a war that’s being waged against Minnesota.' After the incident, MAGA allies quickly sought to blame Walz’s rhetoric, including his previous comparison of ICE to the Gestapo, for raising tensions...."

 
Writes the Editorial Board of The Washington Post, in "The woman fatally shot by ICE in Minneapolis did not deserve to die/Rioting in response to fatal shooting plays into Trump’s hands."

Minnesota in rapid decline.

🚨 BREAKING: Minneapolis Police has now PULLED OUT as hundreds of protestors begin pushing police officers

Antifa is going to be allowed to take over the city AGAIN.

The National Guard may need to be deployed VERY soon, as Democrats will let this place BURN! pic.twitter.com/ntr0OmK4xh

— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) January 7, 2026

ADDED: The rowdy mob is throwing snowballs. Reminiscent of the Boston Massacre.

AND: From David McCullough's "John Adams" (commission earned):

The NYT puzzles over the Nick Shirley video.

I'm reading "An Intense White House Response From a Single Viral Video/A video purporting to expose extensive fraud at child care centers in Minnesota shows the relationship between the Trump administration and self-described citizen journalists" (NYT).

A 43-minute video posted online in the past week, purporting to expose extensive fraud at Somali-run child care centers in Minnesota, has been viewed by millions of people. It has also set off a series of events that show the symbiotic relationship between the Trump administration and self-described citizen journalists.

If the Minnesota fraud was so huge, why didn't government officials notice and take action?

The question is asked on today's episode of the NYT podcast "The Daily."

The answer is two-fold:

1. A group called Feeding Our Future accused the state of racism for "slow walking" their application. This wasn't long after the "national reckoning" that followed the death of George Floyd, and "at that time, nobody wanted to be called a racist, even it was wholly unfounded" and "that really had a paralyzing effect on people in state government who knew something funny was going on, but didn't really want to stick their necks out and stop it."

2. Money was cycling back to the Democratic Party. "Somali Americans have become politically quite powerful in the state... and... became important donors to their campaigns.... [S]ome democratic elected officials... worried that any action they took to question or intervene in a way that would maybe stop these schemes, could have alienated a really important constituency."

Now, the podcasters clearly wish the fraud problem could be solved by Minnesota. But Trump has jumped at the opportunity to emphasize what reads as racial. He forthrightly — brutally — connected the fraud problem to immigration from the wrong places:

"Over the last five years, law enforcement officials say, fraud took root in pockets of Minnesota’s Somali diaspora as scores of individuals made small fortunes..."

"... by setting up companies that billed state agencies for millions of dollars’ worth of social services that were never provided.... Outrage has swelled among Minnesotans.... Gov. Tim Walz and fellow Democrats are being asked to explain how so much money was stolen on their watch.... Many Somali Americans in Minnesota say the fraud has damaged the reputation of their entire community, around 80,000 people, at a moment when their political and economic standing was on the rise.... Critics of the Walz administration say that the fraud persisted partly because state officials were fearful of alienating the Somali community in Minnesota.... The episode has raised broader questions for some residents about the sustainability of Minnesota’s Scandinavian-modeled system of robust safety net programs bankrolled by high taxes...."

I'm reading "How Fraud Swamped Minnesota’s Social Services System on Tim Walz’s Watch/Prosecutors say members of the Somali diaspora, a group with growing political power, were largely responsible. President Trump has drawn national attention to the scandal amid his crackdown on immigration" (NYT).

"Minnesota, under Governor Waltz [sic], is a hub of fraudulent money laundering activity. I am, as President of the United States, hereby terminating, effective immediately..."

"... the Temporary Protected Status (TPS Program) for Somalis in Minnesota. Somali gangs are terrorizing the people of that great State, and BILLIONS of Dollars are missing. Send them back to where they came from. It’s OVER!"

Writes President Trump, at Truth Social.

Here's the Washington Post article on the subject, "Trump says he will cancel temporary protected status of Somalis in Minnesota/The Trump administration has previously sought to terminate TPS safeguards for multiple countries. The designation shields particular nationalities from deportation" (gift link). Excerpt:

"When we did a search of the [fake police car], there was a manifesto that identified many lawmakers and other officials."

Said Police Chief Mark Bruley, of Brooklyn Park, Minnesota, quoted in From "'No Kings' protests in Minnesota canceled as authorities search for suspect who shot 2 lawmakers/Police in Minnesota are cautioning residents to avoid 'No Kings' protests after two state lawmakers and their spouses were shot early Saturday" (WaPo)(free-access link).

Melissa Hortman, a former Minnesota House Speaker, and her spouse were shot and killed early Saturday in their Brooklyn Park home. A second state lawmaker, Sen. John Hoffman and his wife, were shot multiple times in Champlin. Officials say both Hortman and Hoffman were mentioned in the suspect’s writings.....

State Patrol Col. Christina Bogojevic asked people “out of an abundance of caution” not to attend any of the “No Kings” protests that were scheduled for across the state on Saturday. Bogojevic said authorities didn’t have any direct evidence that the protests would be targeted, but said the suspect had some “No Kings” flyers in their car. Organizers announced that all of the protests across the state were canceled....

UPDATE: "A former appointee of Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz is being sought in connection with the assassination of a state lawmaker and the shooting of another, police sources said. Vance Luther Boelter...." (NY Post0).