Are you ready for some good news?

The reality of its limitations starts to set in for the Trump Administration.

About this time last week, things were looking dark. Anger and resentment were building after the death of Alex Pretti at the hands of armed immigration officers. The Administration was threatening escalation, and it was looking as if the spark that might ignite the country could be generated soon.

Then, suddenly, a lot seemed to change.

The Light at the End of the Tunnel, image by Chat GPT

The phrase, “TACO” (Trump Always Chickens Out), made a comeback as the Trump Administration looked at the wellspring of popular anger over the events in Minneapolis and blinked. Border Patrol chief, Greg Bovino, was pulled out of the state, and replaced with Tom Homan, Trump’s border czar.

“You’re going to see some massive changes occurring here in this city,” Homan told USA Today. Homan called the plan a “draw down” that would result in “less agents in the streets,” although Trump denied that the government was pulling back.

“I'm not here because the federal has carried its mission out perfectly,” Homan said. “President Trump wants this fixed and I'm going to fix it.”

That admission is big news in itself, coming as it does from an Administration that never admits to a mistake or a lie and never apologizes. Typically, the Trump Administration doubles down and barges forward. Not this time. There is no agreement yet on how to proceed, but Minnesota officials might want to consider leaving $50,000 from the state budget in a bag where Homan will find it to grease the skids.

This is encouraging, but the crisis is not over. The most important point, however, is that the Trump Administration could have pushed harder and they likely would have gotten the civil disturbance that many of us believe that they want to provoke in order to justify using the Insurrection Act.

This doesn’t necessarily prove that Trump doesn’t want to use the Insurrection Act. He has talked about invoking the law many times. It may just be that he doesn’t want to be on the 20-percent side of an 80-20 issue when he does.

Another takeaway is that Trump does care about public opinion. If the president was totally ignoring the will of the people, he would have ignored the massive public outcry over Minneapolis, including a new Bruce Springsteen song (it’s actually a good song). He didn’t ignore it. He backed down.

Likewise, even though the Trump Administration often tends to ignore laws and judges (ICE has violated innumerable laws, rights and hundreds of court orders), the fact that the Department of Justice released another tranche of Epstein files is proof that they aren’t yet willing to flout the law and Congress completely. True, the 3.5 million newly released pages came more than a month after Congress’s deadline and they still don’t represent a full release of the files (379 days after Trump promised to release them on Day One), but the fact that they were made public at all is a testament to the fact that the Trump Administration does not feel like it can totally ignore the law… yet.

And these documents are both embarassing and damning, both to Trump and other members of his Administration and entourage. Many of the potentially guilty men mentioned in the files had their names redacted, but Elon Musk, Prince Andrew, and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, were mentioned by name. There were graphic accusations of rape against Donald Trump. (Bill Clinton was also mentioned, but there seems to be no indication of unlawful activity on his part.)

These files would never have seen the light of day (at least under the Trump Administration) without congressional intervention. I am positive that Donald Trump did not voluntarily approve of the release of the files, so I am left to wonder if DOJ officials followed through despite the possibility of retaliation, perhaps for fear of being held accountable if they did not do so.

And then there was the shutdown. Back in the fall, Republicans were champing at the bit for a shutdown so they could take advantage of administrative rules to lay off more federal workers. No longer.

Democrats forced the current shutdown over funding for the Department of Homeland Security amid ICE’s rising unpopularity. Trump did not want this shutdown and, as a result, the two sides were able to come to an agreement that would strip DHS funding from the general appropriations package to be dealt with later. The Senate passed the deal (after a hissy fit by Lindsey Graham over banning senator lawsuits about the Jack Smith investigation), but Mike Johnson’s House was not around to vote. As I write this, the government is currently shut down, but the situation is expected to be resolved quickly.

Again, working with the opposing party is very unlike Trump and MAGA. Typically, there is a “my way or the highway” attitude, that has resulted in almost no serious legislation being passed on Trump’s watch.

The fact that we hopefully aren’t headed for another record-breaking shutdown is probably attributable to yet another piece of good news about the Trump Administration: They are realizing that elections will be held in nine months, and they can’t stop them.

There have been several alarm bells for Republicans over the past few months with Democrats wildly overperforming in special elections, but a state senate contest in Texas took the cake over the weekend. Democrat Taylor Rehmet won a shocking victory in a solid red district in Fort Worth. Trump won Senate District 9 by 17 points in 2024, but Rehmet won the seat not held by a Democrat for 34 years by 14 percent. This represents a swing of 31 percent since hte 2024 election.

If Republicans aren’t terrified at the prospect of the building blue tsunami, it’s only because their blind loyalty to Donald Trump has so stunted their imaginations that they can’t conceive of Democrats winning anything. Republicans who still think for themselves are undoubtedly dreading November.

There has been a lot of concern about the possibility that Trump will cancel elections. That won’t happen. There is no legal mechanism for canceling elections. Even if Trump invokes the Insurrection Act and overtly occupies American cities, elections will go on.

And such an action would probably be counterproductive. Minnesota had unusually high turnout for 2025, and voters were not friendly to the occupiers. A Democrat won a Minnesota state house election with 94 percent of the vote while a Republican gubernatorial candidate dropped out, citing Administration policies toward his state.

What is more likely is that the Administration might try to cheat or not accept election results. One potential fear is that Trump might deploy ICE agents to polling places to intimidate voters. (Currently ICE doesn’t have nearly enough manpower to do this in any widespread fashion.) Another is that shenanigans similar to Trump’s attempted theft of the 2020 election might be used, especially considering restrictive voter laws passed by many red states since then.

I am reminded of Herman Cain’s aphorism, “They can’t cheat if it’s not close.” The answer is to summon the intestinal fortitude of our founding ancestors, the same courage that Iraqi voters displayed when they braved al Qaeda violence to dip their fingers in purple ink to vote, and go to the polls regardless of red hat intimidation, bad weather, or even a bad case of the sniffles.

We are perilously close to losing our constitutional republic and with it, a large measure of our freedom. The good news is that Americans are waking up. Trump and MAGA know this. They know it, and they are terrified. They can be beaten. We know it now, and they know it too.

I’m not saying it will be easy. There may be violence. A dying regime filled with lawless people who are out to protect themselves may lash out at the people. I hope this isn’t the case, but history, including the history of MAGA, suggests that it is a likely possibility. (I am not advocating for violence. I hope it is avoided by both sides.)

I’m encouraged though. It seems increasingly likely that the American people will not allow our democracy to go quietly into the night. I think we are about to come together. I think we will win and save our country.

As Benjamin Franklin said so many years ago, “We must all hang together, or most assuredly we shall all hang separately.” That is just as true now as it was during the Revolution.

GOVT GONE WILD Here’s a new occasional feature. I’m going to post some of the ICE videos with links to their context. See for yourself what your government is doing.

Here is the story from Minnesota Public Radio: https://www.mprnews.org/story/2026/01/30/st-peter-police-chief-intervenes-prevents-federal-agents-from-arresting-resident

LEMON LAW I am going to hold my fire concerning Don Lemon’s arrest. I do not support interrupting church services, but I’m not convinced Lemon or his fellow journalist will be convicted, or even that they will go to trial. The FACE Act is constitutional and applies, but the question is whether Lemon was an activist taking part in the incident or a journalist covering it. Four judges didn’t think the DOJ had a case. Forum shopping to get an arrest warrant smells a lot like lawfare. This may be another case of the maxim that the Trump Administration cares more about headlines than results.

LIAM RELEASED Five-year-old Liam Ramos and his father have been released. Read the federal judge’s scathing opinion here. It’s only three pages and it is definitely worth your time.

THE STREETS OF MINNEAPOLIS Here is the new Springsteen video:

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