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Trump, 79, Asks Reporter to Give Him Information on Taliban Hostage

Donald Trump was clearly hearing about this for the very first time.

Donald Trump speaks to reporters outside Air Force One at the Zurich airport
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

President Donald Trump appeared to have never heard of an American held captive by the Taliban for almost a year. 

During an exclusive interview Tuesday with News Nation, host Katie Pavlich touted Trump’s previous efforts to liberate hostages and asked the president about Dennis Coyle, a U.S. citizen who was reportedly kidnapped by the Taliban in Afghanistan last January.  

“What is your administration doing to get him home?” Pavlich asked. 

“Well, if you give me the name,” Trump said, even though Pavlich had just told him.

“Dennis Coyle,” she repeated. 

“Well, if you give me some information, I’ll take care of that,” Trump continued. 

“I know that your administration is working on it—” Pavlich said.

“I know they are,” Trump said quickly. “But I could do some things on the internet that are pretty impactful.”

Pavlich asked if Trump had a message for the Taliban, who had held Coyle “for no crime.”

“Well I’m not happy about them holding anybody. And especially if he’s not guilty of anything. And it sounds—from what I’ve heard, and again I’m not that familiar with it like you are, but I will certainly take a very strong position on it,” Trump said.

But Trump’s remarks made it seem that he’d had never even heard of Coyle at all, and the president’s brilliant plan to free him seemed simply to involve posting a “very strong position” he’d made up on the spot.

Ex-Ally Warns Trump’s Decline Is “Significant” After Disastrous Speech

Former White House lawyer Ty Cobb said Donald Trump’s cognitive decline is “palpable.”

Donald Trump makes a face while standing at the podium in the White House press briefing room
Nathan Posner/Anadolu/Getty Images

A former White House attorney is ringing alarm bells over Donald Trump’s declining mental health.

Ty Cobb, an employee of the first Trump administration and a now outspoken critic of the president, told The Beat on MS NOW Tuesday that the recent shift in Trump’s psychological condition was “palpable.”

That day alone, Trump spent a 90-minute press briefing mumbling to himself over a stack of papers, alleging that “pirating ships” is the only thing that Somalis succeed at, claiming that “God is very proud” of his first year back in office, and alleging that a witness to Renee Nicole Good’s death in Minneapolis earlier this month was a “paid agitator.” Outside the press conference, he continued to damage relations with Europe over his obsession with acquiring Greenland.

“Those are not the comments of a rational human being and certainly not presidential at all,” Cobb told MS NOW’s Ari Melber. “Likewise, yesterday you had the clear, deranged, demented, and insane note that he sent to the leaders of Norway, saying that because Norway, which has no control over the Nobel Peace Prize, hadn’t given it to him, that he was free to disregard peace and very interested in Greenland. I don’t think there’s anybody outside of the United States who believes that Trump is sane.”

Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre told The Wall Street Journal Monday that he had attempted to negotiate with Trump against a new wave of tariffs on European countries after the U.S. leader suddenly turned sour on NATO countries participating in a joint military exercise in Greenland. Trump, according to Støre, responded that the world would not be safe until America had “Complete and Total Control of Greenland.”

“Since you’ve worked for him in the White House, when you make that reference to ‘sane,’ do you mean problems with how he approaches things that have long been there, or are you referring to some decline?” Melber asked.

“No, I think there’s been a significant decline,” Cobb said. “He’s always been driven by narcissism. But I think the dementia and the cognitive decline are palpable, as do many experts, including many physicians.”

ICE Has Cut Its Detainees Off From Medical Care

The organization hasn’t paid third-party medical providers in months.

People protest against ICE in St. Paul, Minnesota
Victor J. Blue/Bloomberg/Getty Images

Immigrations and Customs Enforcement has stopped paying for immigrant detainees to receive health care—and isn’t planning on paying for months, independent journalist Judd Legum reported Tuesday.  

ICE Health Service Corps, the entity that provides immigrants in detention with health care, quietly posted last week that Acentra, the agency’s new third-party administrator for medical claims, would not begin processing claims until at least April 30. “Please continue to hold all claim submissions while IHSC works to bring the new system online in the interim,” the post read. 

ICE had previously paid the Veterans Association Financial Services Center to process claims for reimbursement—but abruptly ended that contract on October 3, 2025. According to government documents reviewed by Legum, ICE was left with “no mechanism to provide prescribed medication” and no way to “pay for medically necessary off-site care.” Immigrants in detention could no longer receive dialysis, prenatal care, oncology, or chemotherapy.

To be clear, ICE is not simply not paying for detainees’ medical treatment: Multiple reports suggest they are not providing it at all, even though federal law requires them to do so. Georgia Senator Jon Ossoff released a report in October documenting at least “85 credible reports of medical neglect” at U.S. detention centers. 

Internal administration data obtained by Legum suggested that ICE has potentially accrued hundreds of millions of dollars of unpaid medical claims. In 2024, the VA processed $246.42 million in medical claims, but despite a significant increase in the detainee population, the VA processed only $157.2 million in claims in 2025.   

“Assuming the medical needs of a typical ICE detainee remain constant, the data suggests nearly a $300 million gap between needed care from third-party providers and what ICE paid,” Legum wrote. “This gap is a combination of unpaid bills since October 3 and ICE detainees who are simply being denied necessary medical treatment.”

As ICE has upended health care access for immigrants in detention, national detentions have hit record levels, and the numbers of people dying in ICE custody have risen with them. 

Seven immigrants died in ICE custody in December, making it the deadliest month since Donald Trump returned to the White House. And 2025 was the deadliest year for immigrants in detention since 2004. 

So far, January is on track to be even worse: At least six people have already died in ICE custody this year, including one man who reportedly was choked to death by an ICE agent

“You’ll Find Out”: Trump Warns Greenland on How Far He’ll Go

President Trump is refusing to back down from his threats against Greenland, even as all of NATO turns against him.

President Donald Trump speaks in the White House press briefing room.
Jim Lo Scalzo/EPA/Bloomberg/Getty Images

At a Tuesday afternoon press conference, President Trump was asked just how far he’d be willing to go to acquire Greenland. His response: “You’ll find out.”

His apparent threat only further reinforces what has been feared for weeks—that Trump will completely fracture U.S. diplomacy with the European Union, or worse, try to take over Greenland regardless of the risk or respect for sovereignty.

“If a consequence of your determination to take control of Greenland is the ultimate breakup of the NATO alliance, is that a price you’re willing to pay?” a reporter followed up later in the press conference.

“I think something’s gonna happen that’s gonna be very good for everybody. Nobody’s done more for NATO than I have.... Getting them to go up to 5 percent of GDP was something that nobody thought was possible,” Trump replied. “I think that we will work something out where NATO’s gonna be very happy and we’re gonna be very happy. But we need it for security purposes.”

That notion of happiness was quickly questioned, as well.

“Mr. President, you said you’re confident something’s gonna get worked out in Greenland, but Greenlanders have made it clear they don’t wanna be part of the U.S. What gives the U.S. the right to take away that self determination—”

“When I speak to them, I’m sure they’ll be thrilled.”


While Democrats and even some Republicans are perplexed and alarmed by Trump’s imperialistic goals, others have thrown their full weight behind them. As Trump himself promised, it seems like only a matter of time before this situation escalates further.

DOGE Goons May Have Used Social Security Data for Election Plot

Two members of the Department of Government Efficiency were flagged for working with a group trying to overturn election results.

Elon Musk wears a DOGE cap and a shirt that reads "The Dogefather," in the same font as The Godfather movies.
Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

Two employees of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency may have been misusing Social Security data.

The Social Security Administration referred two DOGE employees to the Justice Department for being in contact with an advocacy group that hopes to “overturn election results in certain states,” Politico reports, citing court documents. One of them allegedly signed an agreement that could have involved using Social Security data to match with state voter rolls.

The SSA referred the two employees for violations of the Hatch Act, which prohibits government employees from using their jobs for political purposes, according to DOJ official Elizabeth Shapiro. The court filings, disclosed Friday, were part of a list of “corrections” on testimony from SSA officials in the legal fight over DOGE gaining access to Social Security data.

The disclosures also show that DOGE team members shared information on unauthorized third-party servers and could have accessed data prohibited by court orders at the time. Shapiro said that two employees referred to the DOJ were the only known members involved with the political group, which wasn’t identified in court papers.

“At this time, there is no evidence that SSA employees outside of the involved members of the DOGE Team were aware of the communications with the advocacy group. Nor were they aware of the ‘Voter Data Agreement,’” Shapiro wrote, noting that it’s unclear whether the two DOGE employees actually shared data with the group.

However, Shapiro said emails “suggest that DOGE Team members could have been asked to assist the advocacy group by accessing SSA data to match to the voter rolls.”

The news seems to confirm some of the fears surrounding DOGE’s access to sensitive government information: that the data could be used for illegal and nefarious purposes. DOGE’s access went far beyond the SSA to different government agencies including the Department of Education, the Office of Personnel Management, and the Treasury Department. Who knows if Musk and DOGE are also using that information illegally?

Trump, 79, Kicks Off Press Conference by Reading Aloud to Himself

Donald Trump arrived nearly an hour late and proceeded to give a completely disjointed, barely coherent speech.

Donald Trump looks down at a stack of paper he's holding while standing at the podium in the White House press briefing room
SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images

It’s been exactly one year since Donald Trump returned to the nation’s highest office. To mark the occasion, the president secured quality time in front of some of America’s top journalists Tuesday to, apparently, do little other than to talk to himself.

Trump joined the White House press briefing, sidling up alongside press secretary Karoline Leavitt with a large stack of papers that turned out to be more prop than speech. But it was the content of Trump’s remarks—or rather, lack thereof—that caused some onlookers to question whether the president was in a healthy state of mind.

“Hm, I’m just looking at these charges, it’s just pretty incredible,” Trump said, rifling through the stack of papers, intermittently pausing to hold a page up to the camera. “Many murderers. Many, many murderers. People that murdered.”

The president did not stop to name names, or to clarify which people he was targeting in his scrambled monologue, but the entries followed a general template that read at the top: “Minnesota: worst of worst.”

Trump continued to read names and lists of charges, sometimes without even looking at the camera. Instead, it appeared he was simply reading brand-new information aloud to himself.

Mass protests have kicked off in Minnesota since ICE agents shot and killed Renee Nicole Good, a 37-year-old mother and U.S. citizen, on January 7. Since then, federal officers have ripped people from their homes and families, pulled over school buses, attacked teachers and students at a Minneapolis high school, and even clashed with local law enforcement.

In response, some protesters have opted to openly carry their firearms through the city, brandishing their Second Amendment right to bear arms. Locals have formed neighborhood watches to follow ICE vehicles, banging pots and pans and screaming to alert others when agents enter their residential neighborhoods.

Local politicians—including Minnesota Governor Tim Walz—have advised the federal agency to exit their cities and state, arguing that ICE and Border Patrol agents have done more harm than good. In 2025, before Good’s death, the agency killed 32 people—its deadliest year in more than two decades.

But rather than heed the warning, the Trump administration has opted to up the ante, issuing grand jury subpoenas to Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, while placing 1,500 active-duty troops on standby for a potential invasion of Minnesota.

“I’m going through this because I think we have plenty of time. I’m going to a place—beautiful place—in Switzerland, where I’m sure I’m very happily waited for,” Trump rambled. “In Switzerland they don’t know about this. They have other problems, but they don’t have this problem.”

“Look,” Trump said, holding up another page. “Killed someone.”

Minnesota Police Chief Warns ICE Is Targeting His Cops Now

Masked ICE agents are terrorizing Minnesota residents—including local police officers.

Masked ICE and Border Patrol agents in Minneapolis
Octavio JONES/AFP/Getty Images

ICE’s racial profiling and unconstitutional acts in and around Minneapolis are even ensnaring local police.

Mark Bruley, the chief of police in the Minneapolis suburb of Brooklyn Park, said at a press conference Tuesday with other area police chiefs that local police departments have been “receiving endless complaints about civil rights violations in our streets from U.S. citizens,” adding that federal agents were demanding to see paperwork proving U.S. citizenship.

“As this went on over the past two weeks, we started hearing from our police officers the same complaints as they fell victim to this while off-duty. Every one of these individuals is a person of color who has had this happen to them,” Bruley said, narrating an instance from one of his own officers who was boxed in by ICE officers while driving, who even knocked her phone from her hand as she tried to film her interaction with them.

“This isn’t just important because it happened to off-duty police officers.… We know our officers know what the Constitution is, they know when right and wrong is, and they know when people are being targeted,” Bruley continued. “If it is happening to our officers, it pains me to think how many of our community members are falling victim to this every day. It has to stop.”

Bruley’s words show that ICE is not only engaging in racial profiling; they are desperate. It’s now known that the Trump administration feels that it can target just about anyone in its immigration enforcement efforts, contrary to laws and the Constitution. Federal agents began terrorizing the Minneapolis area more than a month ago to target the local Somali community at Donald Trump’s insistence, and those efforts have grown to target people of color more broadly, especially Latinos and Asians.

The revelation that all people of color are in ICE’s crosshairs in Minnesota highlights that the Trump administration shows no signs of stopping and is only escalating its efforts, despite becoming increasingly unpopular. What will it take for all of this to stop, and for Congress to finally intervene?

Trump’s DOJ Subpoenas Top Minnesota Democrats as ICE Terror Spreads

The Justice Department is targeting Democrats in Minnesota as ICE agents crack down on the state.

Minnesota Governor Tim Walz
Jerry Holt/The Minnesota Star Tribune/Getty Images
Minnesota Governor Tim Walz

The Justice Department subpoenaed multiple Minnesota Democrats Tuesday, in what seems to be a clear retaliation against their resistance to President Trump’s aggressive door-to-door deportation campaign. The subpoenas reportedly didn’t cite a specific criminal statute, but the investigation is centered on claims that these leaders conspired to stop the rollout of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other federal agents in Minnesota.  

Governor Tim Walz, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, St. Paul Mayor Kaohly Her, Attorney General Keith Ellison, and Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty were all served subpoenas. 

Walz responded publicly to the subpoena. 

“The State of Minnesota will not be drawn into political theater. This Justice Department investigation, sparked by calls for accountability in the face of violence, chaos, and the killing of Renee Good, does not seek justice. It is a partisan distraction,” Walz wrote. “Families are scared. Kids are afraid to go to school. Small businesses are hurting. A mother is dead, and the people responsible have yet to be held accountable. That’s where the energy of the federal government should be directed: toward restoring trust, accountability, and real law and order, not political retaliation. Minnesota will not be intimidated into silence, and neither will I.”

This story has been updated. 

Trump Sec. Has Brilliant Plan to Lower Food Costs: Just Spend Less

Brooke Rollins’s math is off.

Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins speaks in the White House press briefing room.
Celal Gunes/Anadolu/Getty Images

Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins just made her viral “Let them eat chicken” moment so much worse.

Rollins landed in hot water last week after she claimed that following the Trump administration’s new dietary guidelines wouldn’t force Americans to spend more on groceries. The secretary claimed that “over 1,000 simulations” found that it would cost consumers only “around $3” for a meal consisting of a “piece of chicken, a piece of broccoli, a corn tortilla, and one other thing.”

Setting aside Rollins’s eerie reference to “simulations” rather than grocery store aisles, pretty much the entire internet—including several Democratic lawmakers—started trolling the secretary for doling out such paltry rations for Trump’s so-called “Golden Age.”

Speaking to reporters Tuesday, Rollins doubled down on her meager menu with an important caveat. “We had run almost 1,000 simulations, and between $3 and $4 is a fair number—if you can have access to that food,” Rollins said.

She also rolled out a new and equally outrageous claim based on “new numbers.”

“A full day, meaning three full square meals and a snack, is about $15.64,” she claimed.

While $15.64 is perhaps a slightly more realistic number for the cost of a day of meals, it’s still incredibly low—and it isn’t even consistent with Rollins’s original claim. Let’s do some quick Trump Math: If every Rollins Meal only costs an average of $3.50, then three of them should only cost $10.50. So how much is left for a snack? Just over $5, which is more than the cost of any of the Rollins Meals! Does that make sense? No! But it doesn’t have to because it’s Trump Math!

The Trump administration has continued to claim that consumers can easily afford groceries, even as Americans struggle against a weakening job market and soaring prices spurred by Donald Trump’s outrageous tariff policies.

Meanwhile, the president’s family has raked in a whopping $1.4 billion since reentering the White House one year ago, which is about 16,821 times the median U.S. household income.

Canada Warns That Trump’s America Is Causing “Rupture” in World Order

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney warned world leaders at Davos that the United States can no longer be trusted.

Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney delivers a speech at a podium in front of a blue backdrop that reads "World Economic Forum."
Fabrice COFFRINI/AFP/Getty Images
Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney delivers a speech during the World Economic Forum annual meeting in Davos, on January 20.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney is warning that the global order is in the middle of a “rupture.”

Carney made the remarks at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Tuesday, and without mentioning Donald Trump by name, declared that America’s policies were exposing the flaws in the financial system and causing it to fail.

“We knew the story of the international rules-based order was partially false. That the strongest would exempt themselves when convenient. That trade rules were enforced asymmetrically,” Carney said. “And we knew that international law applied with varying rigor depending on the identity of the accused or the victim.

“This fiction was useful, and American hegemony in particular helped provide public goods. Open sea lanes, a stable financial system, collective security, and support for frameworks for resolving disputes,” Carney continued. “We participated in the rituals, and we largely avoided calling out the gaps between rhetoric and reality. This bargain no longer works. Let me be direct. We are in the midst of a rupture, not a transition.”

Carney’s speech is significant not only because of Canada’s status as America’s largest trading partner but also because of his background in finance prior to entering politics. Carney served as governor of the Bank of Canada from 2008 to 2013 and governor of the Bank of England from 2013 to 2020, leading the British central bank through Brexit and the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic.

“Great powers have begun using economic integration as weapons, tariffs as leverage, financial infrastructure as coercion, supply chains as vulnerabilities to be exploited,” Carney added, making a pointed jab at the U.S. under Trump. “You cannot live within the lie of mutual benefit through integration when integration becomes the source of your subordination.”

Carney is directly pointing out that Trump is attempting to weaponize the integrated economic system against those countries tied the most to it—in effect countries with strong economic relationships with the U.S. like Canada. This speech signifies that Canada, led by Carney, is eyeing a way out to protect itself from retribution from Trump.

Canada already faced down Trump’s ludicrous call to have Canada become America’s fifty-first state, and is now working together with its NATO allies to oppose Trump’s attempt to annex Greenland. It seems that Carney is hoping to end Canada’s dependence on trade with the U.S. so that it won’t be held hostage to Trump’s whims.