Trump’s Base Fractures Amid Soaring Costs and Chaos Within the Department of Homeland Security
Trump voters are regretting their support of the President over increasing prices, DHS reverses a policy that would have allowed swastikas and nooses, and FBI spies on activist's signal chats.
Good morning, everyone. Today is likely to be an intense one. New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani heads to the White House this afternoon for his first face-to-face meeting with Donald Trump.
In the meantime, I’m tracking a major shift inside the right wing. Trump voters who have backed him for more than a decade are now openly turning on him over his administration’s failure to lower the cost of living, and most recently, the stunning decision to allow swastikas and nooses in the Coast Guard, a move reversed only after public outrage.
I’m also keeping front and center something the mainstream media has already moved on from: the President of the United States explicitly calling for the execution of lawmakers. We cannot afford to forget that. We cannot normalize it. My reporting has led to those that support the White House calling for my arrest.
Records obtained by a transparency nonprofit show the FBI secretly accessed a private, encrypted Signal group used by New York immigration court-watch volunteers, quoting their conversations in an August 2025 report that baselessly labeled them “anarchist violent extremists”; the surveillance appears to have come from an inside source, prompting civil liberties advocates to warn that the government is criminalizing lawful, nonviolent observation of public immigration hearings and reviving tactics reminiscent of past FBI spying on activists.
A three-time Trump voter said they feel “very, very let down” by Trump’s promise to lower the cost of living, believing the situation has only gotten worse.
After backlash over an internal draft describing swastikas and nooses as merely “potentially divisive,” the U.S. Coast Guard abruptly issued a stricter policy explicitly banning all hate symbols across its facilities, insisting it never intended to weaken prior rules as lawmakers and advocacy groups condemned any suggestion of softening restrictions amid rising extremism and antisemitism.
The Trump administration unveiled a major plan to expand offshore oil and gas drilling—including new leases off California and Florida for the first time in decades—drawing sharp backlash from Florida Republicans and California Democrats, as the proposal outlines up to 34 leasing auctions from 2026–2031 and underscores Trump’s broader rollback of Biden-era climate policies in favor of fossil fuel expansion.
The Washington Post editorial board opposed releasing the Epstein files—calling them lacking in public interest despite not having reviewed them—and praised Rep. Clay Higgins for being the sole vote against disclosure.
Vice President JD Vance said he texted Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos urging him to hire Breitbart’s Matt Boyle to run the paper’s political coverage, highlighting Vance’s push to shift the Post further right as critics accuse Bezos of courting Trump while the paper faces internal turmoil and an exodus of veteran journalists.
A federal judge sharply criticized the Trump administration for repeatedly violating her orders after it improperly deported an asylum seeker known as “Cristian” to El Salvador—then lost track of him after a U.S.-brokered prisoner swap sent him to Venezuela, where he is now missing—though she declined to initiate contempt proceedings due to diplomatic complexities and the State Department not being a party to the case.
Kennedy Center chief Ric Grenell is under Senate investigation after reports alleging he turned the institution into a favoritism hub for Trump allies, granting steep discounts, waiving millions in rental fees, and canceling programming for politically connected groups, prompting Grenell to angrily deny accusations of corruption, cronyism, and misuse of the prestigious arts venue.
President Trump and New York mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani — political adversaries throughout the campaign — will meet in the Oval Office for the first time, with Mamdani saying he’ll push Trump on affordability issues despite their sharp disagreements as Trump signals he may withhold funds from NYC and continues labeling the democratic socialist mayor-elect a “communist.”
Ukraine is reviewing a new U.S.-backed peace plan reportedly offering major concessions to Russia—including giving up Donbas, capping its military, and renouncing NATO—sparking alarm among allies as Kyiv faces battlefield setbacks and a corruption scandal while Moscow pressures Zelenskyy to accept a deal the Kremlin claims it hasn’t formally seen.
Schumer warns that Congress is stalling on extending ACA premium tax credits expiring this year, urging immediate action as Democrats push back against GOP-backed alternatives like prepaid HSAs that critics say won’t help people struggling to afford insurance premiums.
A grizzly bear mauled a group of elementary schoolchildren and teachers on a trail in Bella Coola, British Columbia, injuring 11 people — including two critically — before fleeing, prompting authorities to warn residents to stay indoors as the community reels and the local First Nation closes schools and offers counseling.
A 70-year-old Air Force veteran, Dana Briggs, had felony assault charges dropped after video showed ICE agents knocking him down at an Illinois protest; he’s now weighing a civil lawsuit over injuries and treatment in custody, as his case joins a growing pattern of military veterans being arrested or hurt during confrontations with federal agents amid Trump-era immigration crackdowns.
Tensions between South Africa and the US have overshadowed the continent’s first G20 summit, as Washington boycotts the event and offers only a junior embassy official for the handover ceremony—prompting sharp exchanges between leaders—while South Africa advances its agenda on debt relief, critical minerals, and global inequality amid protests and a fraught geopolitical moment.
Former Vallejo police chief Shawny Williams testified that he resigned in 2022 after enduring racist harassment, anonymous threats, and internal retaliation for attempting to reform a police department long criticized for excessive force, saying the hostility – including threats from colleagues, “Black Jesus” slurs, and pressure from police union allies – made it unsafe and impossible for him to continue leading.
A thinktank report finds hundreds of English-language websites are inadvertently amplifying a massive pro-Kremlin disinformation operation known as the Pravda network—now publishing up to 23,000 articles a day—with experts warning Russia may be trying to “groom” AI models like ChatGPT and Gemini by flooding the internet with pro-Russia narratives that search engines and chatbots may learn from.
Good news:
A Nova Scotia burger truck received a handwritten apology and $40 from an Alabama man who accidentally ordered food from them believing it was his local Bentley’s Burgers, prompting the owners to share the heartwarming gesture online and send him a Christmas gift in return.
A Gloucestershire community successfully rallied behind longtime cobbler Alan Macdonald, gathering 1,000 signatures and prompting Tesco to drop plans for a competing service center across the street, sparing his small shop and reinforcing his cherished role in the village.
After a decade in safe-keeping during insurgent threats, more than 300,000 medieval Timbuktu manuscripts have been returned home, where scholars continue preserving and studying these richly diverse texts that document West Africa’s scientific, medical, legal, and historical knowledge.
