White House X account alters protester photo to add tears

By AFP
January 22, 2026


Image: — © AFP/File Nicolas TUCAT

Marisha Goldhamer and Anuj Chopra

The White House’s X account on Thursday posted a doctored photo of a protester arrested in Minnesota, showing her face contorted with tears without disclosing that the photorealistic image had been altered.

The edited photo of Nekima Levy Armstrong — among three people arrested for allegedly disturbing a church service while protesting an immigration crackdown — illustrates how President Donald Trump’s administration is increasingly using deepfakes or AI imagery to make political arguments.

On Thursday morning, Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem posted an image on X showing Armstrong’s arrest, her face calm and expressionless.

About 30 minutes later, the White House posted the same image on the platform, but altered to show Armstrong sobbing, her mouth open, forehead wrinkled, and tears streaming down her face.

A caption superimposed on the image read “ARRESTED,” labeling Armstrong a “far-left agitator.”

The White House post offered no disclaimer that the image had been edited, and it was not immediately clear whether the alteration was done using an AI tool or other photo editing software.

In the first year of his second term in the White House, US President Donald Trump ramped up his use of hyper-realistic but fabricated visuals on social media.

When reached for comment, the White House redirected AFP to a post on X by White House Deputy Communications Director Kaelan Dorr, who tacitly acknowledged that the image had been modified.

“YET AGAIN to the people who feel the need to reflexively defend perpetrators of heinous crimes in our country I share with you this message,” Dorr wrote on X, resharing the White House post featuring Armstrong’s altered photo.

“Enforcement of the law will continue. The memes will continue. Thank you for your attention to this matter.”

Underneath the White House post, several users questioned why the image had been altered to make Armstrong appear to be crying.

“We should be disturbed by any party using AI to manipulate photographs and presenting them as fact, which appears to be the case here,” one user wrote.

“This point of view should have bipartisan agreement.”

– ‘Lack of decorum’ –

In the age of deepfakes and AI, such edited images are now “commonplace in partisan politics,” said Walter Scheirer of the University of Notre Dame.

“They are frequently used to humiliate opposition figures or make exaggerated political statements that resonate with a political base,” Scheirer told AFP.

“One could consider this the contemporary version of newspaper political cartoons, but there is a notable lack of decorum when it comes through official government communication channels.”

During the first year of his second White House term, Trump ramped up his use of hyper-realistic but fabricated visuals on Truth Social and other platforms, often glorifying himself while lampooning his critics.

Trump or the White House have similarly shared AI-made images depicting the president dressed as the pope, roaring alongside a lion, and conducting an orchestra at the Kennedy Center — Washington’s premier arts complex — where he installed himself as chair of the board.

Underscoring the strategy’s potential appeal to younger voters, similar AI-driven messaging has also been adopted by other arms of the Trump administration as well as by some of the president’s political rivals.

‘Dark, Bizarre Stuff’: White House Posts Deepfake Image of Arrested ICE Protester Crying

“All of us are on full notice that this White House feels no compunction about concocting obvious lies, concedes nothing when its lies are exposed, and should be presumptively disbelieved in all matters.”



The official White House social media account posted a digitally altered photograph (R) of Nekima Levy Armstrong being arrested for her participation in a protest against US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on January 22, 2025.
(Original photo from Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, altered photo from the White House)

Stephen Prager
Jan 22, 2026
COMMON DREAMS

Continuing its bizarre and often legally questionable use of social media to publicize law enforcement operations, the official White House account published an artificially generated deepfake image of a protester arrested on Thursday by the FBI.

Earlier that day, Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem had posted about Nekima Levy Armstrong, one of three people who were arrested for disrupting a service last week at the Cities Church in St. Paul, Minnesota, where an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer and field office leader, David Easterwood, reportedly serves as a pastor.




‘Goebbels Could Not Have Improved On This’: DHS Spreads ‘Propaganda’ on ICE Killing as Violence Mounts



‘Filled With Lies’: Trump White House Releases False History of Jan. 6

Noem described Levy Armstrong, who leads a local civil rights organization known as the Racial Justice Network, as someone “who played a key role in orchestrating the Church Riots in St. Paul, Minnesota.”

There is notably no evidence that the protesters engaged in or threatened violence, as implied by her use of the word “riot.” Video shows protesters disrupting the service by chanting slogans like “ICE out” and demanding justice for Renee Good, who was fatally shot by an ICE officer in Minneapolis earlier this month.

Attorney General Pam Bondi said the protesters had been charged under the 1871 Ku Klux Klan Act, which makes illegal any conspiracy to “injure, oppress, threaten, or intimidate,” people from exercising “any right or privilege secured to him by the Constitution or laws of the United States.”

In her post, Noem shared a photo of Levy Armstrong being led away by an agent, whose face is pixelated to hide his identity. In the photo, Levy Armstrong appears stone-faced and unfazed by the arrest.

Hours later, the official White House account shared the exact same image—accompanied by text describing her as a “far-left agitator”—but with one notable difference. Levy Armstrong’s face was digitally altered to make it appear as if she was sobbing profusely while being led out by the agent. Nowhere did the account make clear that the image had been doctored.



“Did the White House digitally alter this image of Nekima Levy to make her cry???” asked Peter Rothpletz, a reporter for Zeteo, who described it as “bizarre, dark stuff.”

Sure enough, CNN senior reporter Daniel Dale later said the White House had “confirmed its official X account posted a fake image of a woman arrested in Minnesota after interrupting a service at a church where an ICE official appears to be a pastor,” and that “the White House image altered the actual photo to wrongly make it seem like the defendant was sobbing.”

Asked for comment, Dale said the White House directed him to a social media post by Kaelan Dorr, the White House deputy communications director, who wrote: “Enforcement of the law will continue. The memes will continue.”


Posting artificially generated images of their targets sobbing has become a house style of sorts for the White House account.



In March 2025, the account posted an image, altered to appear in the style of a Studio Ghibli film, of Virginia Basora-Gonzalez, an alleged undocumented immigrant and convicted fentanyl trafficker, crying while handcuffed during her ICE arrest in Philadelphia.

In July, the White House posted an AI-altered photograph of Rep. Jimmy Gomez (D-Calif.) after he criticized an ICE raid in which agents arrested hundreds of farmworkers in Ventura County, California. They edited Gomez’s congressional photo to make it appear as if he was crying, referring to him as “Cryin’ Jimmy.”



But the fake image of Levy Armstrong hardly appeared as a “meme.” It was subtle enough that, without having seen the original, it was not immediately apparent that it had been altered, raising concerns about the White House’s willingness to publish blatantly deceptive information pertaining to a criminal investigation.

Anna Bower, a senior editor at Lawfare, suggested that for the government to post a fake, degrading image of a criminal suspect could be considered a “prejudicial extrajudicial statement,” which can undermine the case against Levy Armstrong.

The Trump administration has been caught in an untold number of lies, particularly about those arrested, brutalized, and killed by its law enforcement agencies. This includes Renee Good herself, whom members of the Trump administration tarred as a “domestic terrorist” within hours after her killing, without conducting an investigation and despite video evidence to the contrary.

Bulwark journalist Will Saletan said that with this deepfake post, “all of us are on full notice that this White House feels no compunction about concocting obvious lies, concedes nothing when its lies are exposed, and should be presumptively disbelieved in all matters. Nothing they say should be accepted without independent confirmation.”

SINOPHOBIA

China bombards LinkedIn in 'astounding' effort to recruit US spies: experts

Alexandria Jacobson, Investigative Reporter
January 20, 2026 
RAW STORY


Donald Trump and Xi Jinping talk in Busan, South Korea, last October. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein

China is not recruiting its spies through meetings in dark alleys, nor by courtship over covert drinks. Rather, the intelligence agency and military of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) are using LinkedIn, the professional networking site, to send as many as 30,000 messages per hour to recruit spies, according to a new book, “The Great Heist: China’s Epic Campaign to Steal America’s Secrets.”

David R. Shedd, a former director of the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), called the book he co-wrote with Andrew Badger, a former DIA case officer, “a real, urgent call” to Americans, from corporations to government, to better respond to China’s success in stealing tech and defense innovations.

“I still don't think America has woken up on how serious the problem is,” Shedd told Raw Story.

“We’ve got to take this much more seriously, but also much more urgently, in terms of responding to the threats, because I don't see any let-up by China.”



David R. Shedd (provided photo)




From nanotechnology to chip manufacturing and artificial intelligence, Shedd said, China succeeded in accomplishing ahead of time eight of 10 objectives under “Made in China 2025,” a 10-year national strategic plan by President Xi Jinping to turn his country into a global technology and manufacturing powerhouse.


China is now the leader in 37 out of 44 emerging critical technologies, according to Shedd and Badger.

“They are on a trajectory to overtake us and have overtaken us already in a number of areas, and that's only going to get worse,” Shedd said.
‘An enormous behemoth’


Shedd and Badger interviewed William Evanina, former director of the U.S. National Counterintelligence and Security Center. He offered insight into the use of LinkedIn by China’s Ministry of State Security (MSS) and People’s Liberation Army (PLA) to contact intelligence targets.



Andrew Badger (photo provided by David Shedd)



“This astounding number — never before reported— showcases Beijing's commitment to mass recruitment that can be best described as a ‘flood the zone’ strategy,” the authors write.


“The MSS doesn't need all its targets to respond. Just a handful can be enough; a single successful recruit can make the entire endeavor worthwhile.”

Examples of LinkedIn outreach might include contacting an academic about writing a research paper or meeting a worker at a coffee shop to discuss their expertise, exchanges possibly unknowingly resulting in intelligence reported back to the MSS, the authors write.

“The MSS is the CIA, the FBI, the National Security Agency, Cyber Command and all other cyber components,” Shedd said.


“It is an enormous behemoth of internal or domestic and international security, and over the … last 13 years, it has become one, if not a premier, service in terms of its capabilities.”

In response to Raw Story’s questions about the use of LinkedIn by the MSS and PLA, Autumn Cobb, a LinkedIn spokesperson, shared links about verification and spotting scams.
‘Threatens lives’


When it comes to China stealing intellectual property from Americans, the stakes are high.

“American military technologies once considered strategic advantages — stealth aircraft, silent propulsion systems, hypersonic missile platforms – are now widely found in the inventories of China’s armed forces,” Shedd and Badger write.

“These thefts are not abstract; they represent the very real threats to the American warfighters who one day may have to face down such advanced technology. The theft of these assets doesn't just threaten markets; it threatens lives.”


Corporations are also threatened.

When Tesla became the first foreign-owned automaker in China, with CEO Elon Musk building a factory in Shanghai from 2019, concerns rose about theft of intellectual property.



The Great Heist (provided image)

Shedd and Badger quote a former senior Tesla staffer: “Elon always worried about the so-called billion-dollar thumb drive. A single USB stick with the Autopilot source code. That was the nightmare.”

Tesla did not respond to a request for comment.

‘National security at stake’

Since President Donald Trump returned to the White House, Shedd said, an apparent “diminishment” of U.S national security policies on China has been observable, compared to the first Trump administration, which took China more seriously.

Shedd speculated that the shift has to do with China’s control of the majority of rare earth minerals, which are used in magnets manufacturing and technology.

President Xi is definitely watching how Trump has made taking over Greenland a priority, as well as Trump’s decision to “run” Venezuela after capturing President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Shedd said.

“My fear is the administration has turned it into everything's transactional,” Shedd said.

“Our national security is at stake, and I … fully expect Xi Jinping to move on Taiwan next year.”

Taiwan is a major U.S. trading partner. In December, the Trump administration announced the largest-ever U.S. arms package for Taiwan, valued at $11 billion.
‘Great Heist’

Prior to Trump’s arrival in the White House, Chinese threats to American intelligence and national security were not a priority for the FBI or DIA, Shedd said.

During his tenure at DIA from 2010 to 2015, Shedd said, much of the agency’s focus was on wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, concerns which became “all consuming.”

“There was this almost fear of taking on China operationally, and to really focus in on it was viewed in the FBI counterintelligence as second-rate to Russia,” Shedd said.

“China, I won't say it was a total afterthought, but it certainly wasn't the main focus.”

Shedd and Badger’s book explains how China pulled off its theft of so many American ideas, tracing the effort back to when President Bill Clinton advocated for China to join the World Trade Organization (WTO).

When China joined the WTO in 2001, both Democrats and Republicans had a “naivety” that China would “play by the rules of international trade,” Shedd said.

That set the stage for a flood of Chinese-made, cheaper versions of other country’s products.

“It was framed as diplomacy, as engagement with a potential trading partner, possibly even a future ally,” Shedd and Badger write.

“In hindsight, it was the moment the proverbial virus entered the global trade system and the launching pad for the CCP’s Great Heist against America.”

In 2017, China’s National Intelligence Law legalized espionage, meaning citizens could be required to spy for the CCP.

‘Counter Heist’

To take on China, Shedd said, the U.S. must invest in research and development as well as Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education, in which China is "leaping way ahead of us.”

Shedd and Badger also outline a seven-pillar “Counter Heist” strategy to put America on an “active counteroffensive” against China and disrupt the “Chinese espionage apparatus and to reassert America’s place as the world’s innovation superpower.”

If Washington doesn’t get ahead of Beijing’s spying, Shedd said, he fears China will beat the U.S. to a quantum computing breakthrough that will decode all cryptology.

“It will have enormous, dramatic implications for the United States and for the west more generally, and we won't ever have seen it coming,” Shedd said.

The Great Heist is out now

Alexandria Jacobson is a Chicago-based investigative reporter at Raw Story, focusing on money in politics, government accountability and electoral politics. Prior to joining Raw Story in 2023, Alex reported extensively on social justice, business and tech issues for several news outlets, including ABC News, the Chicago Sun-Times and the Chicago Tribune. She can be reached at alexandria@rawstory.com. More about Alexandria Jacobson.

This conservative lie made Trump possible and will hasten our downfall

Thom Hartmann
January 21, 2026 

RAW ST0RY


Donald Trump gestures at the College Football Playoff National Championship game. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

For decades, Americans were told that “conservative values” stood for restraint, responsibility, and respect for the rule of law. The rise of Donald Trump forces an unavoidable question: were those values abandoned, or were they a generational lie that made his authoritarian takeover possible?

The billionaires and CEOs funding Trump and the Republicans in Congress believe they’re invincible. They believe the GOP’s abandonment of the principles that animated John McCain and Mitt Romney in favor of authoritarianism and oligarchy will keep them fat and happy.

They’re wrong.

Former Republican congressman Joe Walsh said something on my radio program on Monday that would have been shocking just a few years ago but now is becoming increasingly self-evident to anybody with a conscience and an honest view of American politics and history.

He said the GOP as a party with an ideology, a set of principles, or even a governing philosophy is now almost entirely dead.

It’s been replaced by a violent, racist, lawless, unprincipled cult organized entirely around Trump. It’s a cult that demands total loyalty and punishes dissent with both political annihilation and, increasingly, with threats of real-world violence.

Remember when Romney said there were plenty of Republicans in the Senate who wanted to vote to convict Trump in his impeachment trial, but they began flipping when senators started getting death threats against their families?
His biographer, McKay Coppins, wrote that Romney told him “story after story about Republican members of Congress, Republican senators, who at various points wanted to vote for impeachment — vote to convict Trump — and decided not to, not because they thought he was innocent, but because they were afraid for their family’s safety.”

That terror is delivered from the hands of both prosecutors who can threaten imprisonment and MAGA lone-wolf assassins like the one who murdered Melissa Hortman and her husband in Minnesota, and those who routinely terrorize federal judges who rule against Trump.

Republican elected officials, Walsh said, echoing Romney, now live in a state of deep fear. Not a metaphorical fear, but genuine terror.

It includes a fear of physical violence, the fear of being primaried and losing their jobs, and the very legitimate terror that Trump will turn the power of the state against them and thus break them financially with legal fees and the threat of prison, as he’s trying to do today with Letitia James, James Comey, Adam Schiff, etc.

Mark Twain noted that history rhymes, and this one is getting downright alarming.

The end of the modern-day GOP and its conversion into a fascist-tolerant party started with Ronald Reagan flipping classical economics on its head with his “supply side” scam and his scapegoating Black people to justify gutting social and educational programs, all to benefit his morbidly rich donors.

Reagan’s policies destroyed the American union movement, exploded the costs of health care, housing, and college education, and stole $51 trillion from working class people, putting almost every penny of it into the money bins of the GOP’s morbidly rich patrons.

He did this because devastating the working class was actually part of the plan to return “stability” to the American social order, following the outline of Russell Kirk in his 1951 book The Conservative Mind, the Heritage Foundation’s 1980 Mandate for Leadership, and Lewis Powell’s infamous memo.

Out of the chaos of the collapse of the middle class, Republicans believed they could rebuild our nation along the lines of a new form of feudalism, one of the most stable of the ancient governing systems. And when Trump came along, riding the wave of outrage at the economic devastation Reaganism had caused, they thought they could control him, too.

Pro tip: you can’t control the madman.

Fritz Thyssen, the steel baron who was one of Germany’s richest industrialists in the 1930s, wrote a book about how he’d made the same bet American billionaires and Republican politicians are making today: he thought he could ride a tiger that would make him massively richer but never turn and devour him.

His book I Paid Hitler (my book-collecting father gave me a copy 54 years ago for my 21st birthday) — which lays out how he personally convinced Paul von Hindenburg to make Hitler chancellor and raised the Nazi Party’s first 3 million Reichsmarks so they could win their first national election — reads like a modern-day tragedy.

At first, Thyssen got along with Hitler and even believed he was influencing the man, but when he began to object to some of the Nazi leader’s worse excesses he had to flee the country with his family to avoid being murdered.

Dictators, he learned — even those who only start out as a “dictator for a day” — play for keeps.

Thyssen described how traditional German conservatives also convinced themselves they could ride a demagogue into power and then control him. They feared the left more than they feared authoritarianism, believed “order in society” mattered more than democracy, and were certain that once Hitler’s power was secured, moderation would follow.

What followed instead, however, was a demand for total submission or the threat of total personal and national destruction.

Thyssen’s story shows us how fear dissolves loyalty to principles and power silences the soft voice of conscience. Loyalty to a man replaces loyalty to the law and its traditions.

By the time conservatives realized what they’d enabled, escaping Germany was the only remaining option; Thyssen fled the country in 1939 (although the Vichy French captured him and turned him over to the Nazis, who imprisoned him until the end of the war).

That brings us back to Russell Kirk and his landmark book The Conservative Mind that I write about at length in The Hidden History of American Oligarchy. Although Kirk argued strongly for “classes and order,” claiming that inequality is both natural and good, he also tried to anchor American conservatism in moral restraint, historical humility, institutional continuity, and a deep suspicion of demagogues and mass movements.

He warned repeatedly that if conservatives were to abandon those restraints out of fear or resentment, they’d become something else entirely. He explicitly feared rightwing hate ideology, leader worship, and the belief that force could substitute for virtue.

There’s little doubt Kirk would have despised Trump. Trump embodies almost everything Kirk warned against: contempt for history and institutions, appetite over restraint, grievance over stewardship, and power over a moral order. Trump is not even remotely a conservative in any Burkean or Kirkian sense.

He was able to seize control of the GOP because, over the past four decades, much of American conservatism has simply hollowed itself out as it embraced racism (Southern Strategy); promoted lies about trickle down, voter fraud, and tax cuts; and conducted debt-financed foreign adventurism including Iraq and Afghanistan.


What survived was hierarchy, nationalism, hostility to the left, cultural grievance, and the protection of wealth. Tragically, the GOP has discarded the moral restraint, constitutional humility, reverence for truth, and respect for institutional limits that were once elevated by men like Dwight Eisenhower, Barry Goldwater, and Mitt Romney.

Starting in the 1980s, American conservatism became less a philosophy than a set of race- and gender-based resentments married to perpetual deregulation and tax cuts for the party’s morbidly rich donors. Once that happened, the GOP was defenseless against a charismatic authoritarian who promised dominance and control instead of democracy.

Trump didn’t hijack conservatism from the outside: he stepped into a vacuum created by the GOP’s abandonment of constitutional and traditional American principles. Like Thyssen’s peers, today’s Republican donors and leaders believed they could use the wannabe dictator, ride his popularity, placate his followers, and keep the machinery of government power under control.

They were wrong in the same way German conservatives were wrong, and for the same reasons. Once fear takes over as a governing principle, the most ruthless and outspoken leader will inevitably own the party. Everybody else gets destroyed, some sooner, some later.

Now the GOP exists as a sort of permanent loyalty test. Tell the truth and you’re exiled, uphold the Constitution and you’re primaried, defy the leader and you’re threatened with death or imprisonment.

As Walsh pointed out, most Republicans know exactly what’s happening. They know the lies are lies, the elections weren’t stolen, and under Trump and Kristi Noem violence is being normalized. Many know where this road leads, but fear of Trump’s wrath silences them more effectively than their conservative ideology ever unified them.

This is where the comparison between today’s Republicans and their donors to Thyssen becomes unavoidable. In Germany, conservatism didn’t just die the day Hitler seized power. It began to collapse a decade or more earlier, when conservatives decided that democracy, law, and moral restraint were simply political tools rather than binding commitments.

Once they crossed that line, they lost both the authority and the moral courage to resist Hitler and his Nazi Party. As a result, when the time of real terror directed at them arrived a few years later, that terror was all that was left of the system.

That is where the GOP now stands. It’s no longer a party arguing about tax rates or regulation or even federalism. It’s become, instead, an cult of personal loyalty dedicated to the deification and enrichment of one man and his family. That’s neither conservatism nor democracy.

Which brings us to the question Democrats — and the rest of us — today find ourselves confronting: what do we do about it?First, Democrats must stop treating this as a normal partisan contest. This isn’t a disagreement over policy, it’s a struggle over whether the United States remains a constitutional republic governed by law or becomes a fascist regime organized around loyalty and fear. Democrats must say that plainly, repeatedly, and without euphemism. Not “threats to norms,” not “concerns about rhetoric,” but the clear truth: one of our two major parties has abandoned democracy and embraced fascism.
Second, Democrats should relentlessly frame Trumpism not as strength but as weakness. Authoritarian movements thrive on the myth of invincibility, and Thyssen tells us how that myth collapses when its confronted. Democrats should point out, over and over again, that a party that can’t tolerate dissent, won’t allow truth-tellers, and must rely on hate, fear, and intimidation is not strong, but is fundamentally brittle and weak.
Third, Democrats should invite disaffected conservatives like Joe Walsh and independents into a pro-democracy coalition without demanding ideological conformity. This is not the moment for purity tests: traditions — including our democratic traditions — survive by coalition and continuity. As fanatic a progressive as I am, I also know Democrats must welcome former Republicans, libertarians, faith conservatives, and business leaders who still believe in the Constitution, even if they disagree on taxes, healthcare, or regulation. The message should be simple: democracy first, arguments later.
Fourth, Democrats must model the courage of our Founders and the generations since who fought for democracy. That means unrelentingly defending courts, free speech, and the rule of law. The contrast matters: as we saw in South Korea when Yoon Suk Yeol was removed from power last year, authoritarian movements collapse when their opponents are willing to fight for democracy rather than flee or hide in panic.
And finally, this isn’t just about politicians. We average citizens have the biggest role to play, and Thyssen’s story makes clear what happens when we don’t.

Speak up loud and frequently. Support local journalism. Show up to school board meetings, city councils, and your local Democratic Party meetings. Defend your neighbors who’re being targeted by Trump and his ICE goons. Double-check your voter registration every month at vote.org.

Authoritarianism feeds on isolation; democracy survives on solidarity and participation.

The most chilling part of Thyssen’s book isn’t that he and his family had to flee Germany: it’s that by the time they did in 1939, it was the only option left.

For those of us who Trump identified in his National Security Presidential Memorandum-7 (NSPM-7), it might be a matter of months or a year or two unless he and his regime are blocked from moving forward with their repression. America’s top three experts on fascism have already fled the country; if we don’t win this battle for the soul of America, the same may become necessary for many Americans sooner than we’d like to imagine.

Although the media covered it as a one-day story, NSPM-7 directs the FBI, ICE, other federal police agencies, and over 200 local police departments coordinating with them to begin putting together dossiers on any person or group who meet it’s “indica” (indicators) of potential domestic terrorism.

They include, as Ken Klippenstein first reported:
“[A]nti-Americanism, anti-capitalism, anti-Christianity, … extremism on migration, extremism on race, extremism on gender, hostility towards those who hold traditional American views on family, hostility towards those who hold traditional American views on religion, and hostility towards those who hold traditional American views on morality.”


If that list includes you or people you love, now is the time to speak up and take positive political action to stop this missile aimed at the heart of our democracy and our Bill of Rights.

Russell Kirk warned that social and political order without moral restraint becomes despotism. Fritz Thyssen taught us that conservatives who empower authoritarians don’t survive the experience. Joe Walsh is describing the end state of that process in real time: a party that has ceased to exist as a governing institution and now operates only as an extension of one demented man’s will.

History doesn’t guarantee outcomes, but it does show us trajectories. Fear is never a stable foundation for politics and only delays the day of reckoning. And the longer the party exploiting it delays, the more catastrophic that reckoning becomes.

The lesson here isn’t that conservative values inevitably lead to authoritarianism: it’s that any political movement without courage, conscience, and adherence to constitutional principles and individual freedom eventually dies.

If “conservative values” can be so easily discarded in favor of fear, loyalty, and power, then they were never values at all, only a story they cynically told us to get elected.

Hopefully that’ll sink in for enough Republicans — and be loudly pointed out by enough Democrats — soon enough to rescue our republic from Germany’s fate.

Thom Hartmann is a New York Times best-selling author and SiriusXM talk show host. His Substack can be found here.

Trump's Davos embarrassment proves who is pulling his strings

Thom Hartmann
January 22, 2026 

RAW STORY

Donald Trump attends the 56th annual World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. REUTERS/Romina Amato

Donald Trump went to Davos on Wednesday morning and gave the speech that Vladimir Putin wanted him to, lying and pissing off Europe and shaking the North Atlantic alliance to its core.

Our president has refused to help Ukraine in any meaningful way for a year now, giving Russia the room to destroy much of that country’s electric and heat infrastructure so badly that President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had to cancel his trip to Davos to deal with the crisis.

Trump’s now invaded Venezuela and is threatening the same with Greenland, legitimizing Putin’s land-grabs in Georgia and Ukraine.

Trump’s ICE goons are destroying the rule of law in America, running amok in Minneapolis, punishing — and killing — the residents of that city for having elected politicians who’d dare advocate democracy over autocracy.

Russian media is proudly proclaiming that their own internal crackdowns on immigrants, dissidents, and people of color aren’t so bad because Trump’s doing the same thing in America. We’ve legitimized Putin’s racist police state.

Trump’s destroyed much of America’s “soft power,” our friendly relations with resource-rich developing nations, by killing off John F. Kennedy’s USAID program, directly causing the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people with more to come.

Many of the countries we’ve abandoned are now re-aligning themselves with Russia and China, to Putin’s delight.

Trump’s duplicating Putin’s “enemy within” rhetoric to amplify the Russian-promoted “Great Replacement Theory” meme that claims wealthy Jews are paying to have Black and brown people “replace” white men in their jobs and lives.

It’s become the operating system for ICE and is tearing America apart, pitting friends, neighbors, and relatives against each other while Russian media celebrates.

The biggest thorn in Putin’s side has been NATO, all the way back to his days as a murderous KGB intelligence officer, and Trump is now shaking that organization all the way down to its foundations by threatening to seize Greenland and trash-talking alliance member states.

Early on as Putin was rolling out his dictatorship, having destroyed Russia’s brief experiment with democracy, he put himself above the law by simply refusing to enforce rights the Russian constitution and laws gave to average citizens.

Trump’s today doing the same thing, simply defying the Epstein Transparency Act and other laws while approving as his ICE goons routinely violate Americans’ civil rights.

From Russia’s point of view, America’s biggest historic strength hasn’t been our formidable military (they have just as many nukes) but was our rock-solid multi-century relationships with allies.

Today, Canada is — for the first time in over a century — preparing to fight back against an American invasion, while the European Union is trying to figure out how to disentangle itself from our economy in the event we start a war with them.

Meanwhile a bigoted Australian billionaire family continues to pump daily pro-Russian-worldview (racist, nationalist, anti-democratic) poison into the minds of Americans.

In the 1940s, Sir Keith Murdoch built his family’s media empire, in part, by running sensationalist articles about Black American GIs stationed in Australia during World War II “raping” and having affairs with white Australian women. Now Fox “News” is one of the most frequently quoted American sources for Putin’s captured domestic media, according to The New York Times.

Everything Trump does, when it doesn’t involve soliciting bribes, hustling pardons, or making himself richer inures benefit directly to Putin. Which raises the question diplomats and leaders across Europe are increasingly asking out loud: why are elected Republicans tolerating this?

Is it just because five corrupt Republicans on the Supreme Court legalized bribery and thus billionaire oligarchs who don’t believe in democracy now own them?

For example, billionaire Peter Theil, who financed JD Vance’s rise to power as the senator from Ohio, has said:
“I no longer believe that freedom and democracy are compatible,” and “Since 1920, the vast increase in welfare beneficiaries and the extension of the franchise to women — two constituencies that are notoriously tough for libertarians — have rendered the notion of ‘capitalist democracy’ into an oxymoron.”

Could it be that most Republican politicians simply agree with those types of sentiments, that democracy is mob rule and inconvenient, and that strongman autocracy is a more stable and predictable form of government? That they’d love to jettison European and Asian democracies in favor of corrupt police states like Russia and Hungary where they can get away with just about anything just so long as they keep the emperor happy?

After all, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas was nakedly taking millions in “gifts” from rightwing billionaires with business before the Court and became the deciding vote in the Citizens United case; are Republicans going along with Trump’s corruption because they, themselves, are also taking bribes and using otherwise illegal insider information to make themselves rich?

Or is it because six corrupt Republicans on the Supreme Court gave Trump immunity from crimes and he thinks of himself as America’s monarch, as if he were mad King Ludwig of yore?

Are Republicans afraid — as Mitt Romney told his biographer, McKay Coppins — that Trump will use the force of law or activate his lone-wolf white supremacist terrorists to bring GOP politicians to heel or even have their families intimidated or their homes attacked like the Trump supporter who went after Paul Pelosi?

Could it be that Republicans know that most Americans — at least those who haven’t bought fully into the Fox “News” and MAGA cults — have figured out that the GOP’s only loyalty is to billionaires and massive corporations?

All they’ve done since the Reagan Revolution is cut taxes on the morbidly rich while gutting the agencies that catch criminal or unethical activity in government and the military; maybe the GOP now realizes we’ve got their number and that’s why they’re working so hard to purge voting rolls in Blue cities?

Trump’s shocking behavior — and the even more shameful docility of elected Republicans and the lickspittles he’s surrounded himself with — raises questions that will probably only be answered by future historians.

Nonetheless, we must push back. Democrats need to grow a spine, and the upcoming vote on the DHS budget is a great place to start. Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) and Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) have indicated they may support the legislation, while Reps. Ro Khanna (D-CA) and Ilhan Omar (D-MN), and Sen. Rubén Gallego (D-AZ) are signaling a fierce opposition. The battle will almost certainly play out in the Senate over a Democratic filibuster; you can call your two senators and Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) at 202-224-3121.

Democrats also must signal now and repeatedly that Trump’s pro-Putin, anti-American rhetoric and actions are so unacceptable that impeachment is necessary, both for him and his brownnosers at DHS, ICE, and the FBI.

And if there are any Republicans who have left an ounce of decency, now is the time for them to stand up and speak out. And not to back away as soon as Trump growls, the way Sens. Josh Hawley (R-MO) and Todd Young (R-IN) just did with the proposed Venezuela war powers legislation.

Republican senator Barry Goldwater famously walked from the Capitol to the White House to inform Richard Nixon that his criminality had become so severe and obvious that Republicans in Congress could no longer support him and would, if necessary, vote to impeach and convict him.

America needs today’s Republicans to find their spines, reclaim their integrity and patriotism, and politically stop Trump in his tracks. And maybe it’s starting to happen: Republican Rep. Don Bacon (R-NB) just told reporters he’s threatening impeachment:
“I’ll be candid with you: There’s so many Republicans mad about this [Greenland issue]. If he went through with the threats, I think it would be the end of his presidency. And he needs to know: The off-ramp is realizing Republicans aren’t going to tolerate this and he’s going to have to back off. He hates being told no, but in this case, I think Republicans need to be firm.”

It’s a start, but there’s a long way to go if Trump is to be held to account.

When future historians ask what Putin wanted from Trump, the answer may be painfully simple: “Everything America once stood for.”

Whether that happens is not yet settled and ultimately depends on what we Americans — across the political spectrum — do next.

Thom Hartmann is a New York Times best-selling author and SiriusXM talk show host. His Substack can be found here.

Trump the Davos diva only made this key weakness more obvious — and more costly

John Casey
January 22, 2026 
RAW STORY


Donald Trump attends the 56th annual World Economic Forum. REUTERS/Denis Balibous


Donald Trump didn’t just fly to Davos, after a false start thanks to problems with Air Force One, to attend the World Economic Forum. He fled there to be with his brethren.

Some say he fled mounting scrutiny of the Epstein files. More likely, he fled the affordability crisis crushing working Americans, and the reality that his central campaign promise, to lower the cost of living, has collapsed under the weight of his obsessions with revenge and self-enrichment, and his insatiable need to dominate the global spotlight.

Davos gave Trump what he craves: billionaires, deference, a room full of powerful people forced to listen to his garbage and kowtow. A far cry from the poor, obtuse, gauche MAGA crowd he secretly loathes like everyone else.

In the days before Davos, Trump kicked up a geopolitical kerfuffle, threatening to acquire Greenland, floating military action against Venezuela, aiming reckless rhetoric at allies. None of it was accidental, none of it served American interests. It served Trump.

Trump is obsessed with attention, and Davos, an annual gathering of the world’s wealthiest elites, was the perfect stage. He didn’t want to attend as a participant; he wanted to be the main character. He wanted to dominate the news cycle, command the room, and surround himself with flunkies eager to flatter, validating his delusions of dominance.

And it worked. Everyone scampered around him, wanting to know about Greenland, and wouldn’t you know it, as evening fell, he miraculously announced that one of his “framework” agreements had been reached with NATO. It happened so quickly because Trump got the attention he wanted.

It was from his patented playbook of pandemonium: Trump creates a problem, and lo and behold, Trump fixes the problem, and Trump is the hero.

But Trump has also created an affordability problem, and he has no idea how to fix it. While he hobnobbed in Davos, working Americans were being crushed at home.

Prices are rising. Groceries cost more. Health insurance premiums are surging. And now even executives aligned with Trump’s economic worldview are admitting the obvious. Amazon CEO Andy Jassy recently acknowledged that Trump’s sweeping tariffs are beginning to show up in consumer prices, as sellers pass costs on to shoppers.

Economists warned this would happen, the moment Trump launched his tariff tantrum last year. Consumers picking up the tab was never a question of if, but when.

That “when” is arriving now. The only question is whether it will wake people up.

Democrats are rallying around two simple words: affordability and accountability. As the midterm campaigns ramp up, affordability will only grow more urgent. By summer, after the primaries, as messaging crystallizes, the cost-of-living crisis will hit an inflection point. Prices will continue rising, largely unchecked, and voters will start looking for answers.

Trump has none. And Republicans are having hissy fits, panicking that he’s coming up empty-handed on the issue that put him back in power.

Accountability stretches across the wreckage of Trump’s second term: Justice Department retribution, Homeland Security overreach and ICE raids, legally dubious experiments like the Department of Government Efficiency, reckless military action, and an administration increasingly untethered from the Constitution.

But Trump’s most glaring failure is personal. He promised to lower costs for working families, and he has abandoned even the pretense of trying.

Instead, he is enriching himself at breakneck speed.

He surrounds himself with gold. He covets prizes, accepts luxury gifts, and monetizes everything: Bitcoin, branding, real estate, and influence. Billionaires flocked to his inauguration. Tech CEOs and luxury executives parade through the Oval Office, bearing tribute. Trump isn’t governing. He’s cashing in like he always planned to do, because he couldn’t do it in the business world.

When Trump failed as a businessman, he didn’t regroup or reform. He declared bankruptcy. Six times. The lazy way out. That instinct hasn’t changed. Faced with an affordability crisis he created and cannot solve and a working-class base he can no longer plausibly serve, he is once again walking away. He’s declaring political bankruptcy on the very people who put him in office.

And he knows it.

Trump may be unread and uninformed, but he isn’t stupid. He understands that his MAGA base, especially its lower-income core, will be hit hardest by rising prices and economic instability. He also knows he doesn’t need them the way he once did. If he wants to retain power, he’ll pursue it through intimidation, exploiting legal loopholes, or he’ll do it illegally. He won’t go to the trouble of stumping red states.

Trump has turned the People’s House into a personal palace, complete with ballrooms and gilded excess. The choice before him is simple: invest in affordability or indulge in opulence. For Trump, there is no choice.

At Davos, surrounded by the world’s richest men, Trump tried to sell a fairy-tale economy built on lies and bravado. “Nobody thought it could be done.” “Numbers nobody’s seen in years.” But those numbers aren’t real, and working Americans feel it every time they pay a bill.

Some of Trump’s base will never see this. They live in an echo chamber where imperial bullying sounds like strength and every hardship is blamed on Democrats or invented statistics. Even an economic calamity may not shake their loyalty.

But independents are paying attention. Casual voters will notice. People who don’t follow Davos or cable news will still recognize betrayal when their bills rise and Trump is nowhere to be found, except on a global stage, basking in billionaire adoration.

Trump is inching away from MAGA. He knows he can. He knows many will never leave him. And he knows the elite world he always wanted has finally opened its doors.

That’s what makes him so dangerous and so offensive. He doesn’t just exploit his supporters. He holds them in contempt.

Empathy for MAGA was always a lie. Davos just made it more obvious.

John Casey was most recently Senior Editor, The Advocate, and is a freelance opinion and feature story writer. Previously, he was a Capitol Hill press secretary, and spent 25 years in media and public relations in NYC. He is the co-author of LOVE: The Heroic Stories of Marriage Equality (Rizzoli, 2025), named by Oprah in her "Best 25 of 2025.”

Trump's White House ballroom may hit brick wall as judge finds plan dubious: 'Be serious!'

Matthew Chapman
January 22, 2026 

RAW STORY

The demolition of the East Wing of the White House during construction of U.S. President Donald Trump’s proposed ballroom is seen from the reopened Washington Monument, following the longest shutdown of the government in Washington, D.C., U.S., November 15, 2025. REUTERS/ Jessica Koscielniak

A federal judge appeared less than credulous on Thursday that the Trump administration has the authority to build his massive new ballroom on the footprint of the demolished East Wing.

According to CBS News, "U.S. District Judge Richard Leon heard arguments Thursday on a motion brought by the National Trust for Historic Preservation to block the ongoing construction of the East Wing until the Trump administration goes through the appropriate approval processes, which it alleges the Trump administration has ignored."

During the hearing, Leon said "there's been an end-run around this oversight from Congress" in the process, and barked "Come on, be serious!" when the Justice Department lawyer argued that the project was legally equivalent to when former President Gerald Ford built a swimming pool at the White House in 1975.

Trump has promised that the ballroom, which will be around twice the size of the central White House building, is to be financed exclusively through private donations, without any taxpayer money. However, the price tag continues to go up and up over time, and experts are fearful that the massive corporate donations for the project could lead to conflicts of interest and favor-trading.

Leon raised this point as well, per the report, as he "repeatedly called the financing arrangement a 'Rube Goldberg,' referring to the cartoonist and inventor who made complex contraptions to perform simple tasks."

The ballroom project is one of many that the president has proposed or enacted to try to leave his mark on Washington, D.C., in his second term. Another controversial change, approved by a board of Trump's hand-picked allies, was to add Trump's name to the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, which has prompted a lawsuit.

ANTI-D.E.I.

'Absolutely sickening': Trump admin tears down slavery exhibits near Independence Hall

Matthew Chapman
January 22, 2026

RAW ST0RY


Independence Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Photo credit: f11photo / Shutterstock)

President Donald Trump's officials took down the educational exhibits on slavery in Independence National Park in Philadelphia on Thursday, triggering immediate outrage.

According to The Philadelphia Inquirer, the move, which comes the same week as Martin Luther King Jr. Day, occurred at the site of the President's House, the former mansion of George Washington when Philadelphia served as the national capital. The exhibits were a memorial to nine people whom Washington held in slavery at that location.

The report suggests the removal of over a dozen displays, including "Life Under Slavery" and "The Dirty Business of Slavery," could be in response to an executive order by Trump commanding the Department of the Interior to flag and scrutinize any display in national parks that "inappropriately disparage" the United States.

"Around 3 p.m. Thursday, an Independence Park employee who would not give his name told an Inquirer reporter that his supervisor had instructed him to take down all the displays at the iconic site earlier that day. Three other individuals later joined the employee to help remove the educational exhibits. The final display was removed at 4:30 p.m. The displays were then loaded into the back of a white Park Service pickup truck," said the report. "'I’m just following my orders,' the employee repeatedly said, not acknowledging if he was tasked with removing the displays because of the executive order."

Passersby reportedly objected to the removals, with one man, 47-year-old Jack Williams, calling the removals "absolutely sickening" and telling The Inquirer if NPS officials had any spine, they'd have called in sick rather than carry out the order. Meanwhile, Avenging the Ancestors Coalition's Michael Coard said, “It’s a disgrace, and that’s an understatement. I cannot say what I’m thinking, because as a criminal defense attorney, I know better. What’s going on now is absolutely unheard of in the history of the United States of America.”

Last year, the Park Service was ordered to remove a number of other memorials to slavery and the ethnic cleansing of Native Americans, including a famous image of a man covered in whipping scars at a site in Georgia — all in the name of presenting a more positive image of America at national sites.

Trump also imposed a ban on diversity policies that was so strict it forced the Pentagon to suspend observance of Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Black History Month last year.

‘New Gaza’ Plan by Far-Right Zionist Jared Kushner Decried as ‘Ethnic Extermination’

“Not anchored in law, nor in facts. Just glossy real estate pitch decks dreamt up by Jared Kushner.”


Screengrab of a slide shared by Jared Kushner, US special envoy, on what he billed as the “New Gaza” presented at the Davos summit on January 22, 2025.
(Photo: Screengrab/via Jared Kushner)

Julia Conley
Jan 22, 2026
COMMON DREAMS


The presentation on the future of Gaza given by President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and adviser, Jared Kushner, inyelloe Davos on Thursday, offered what one journalist called “a sanitized, cosmetic image” of an exclave that, due largely to US policy, is actually “a place that needs immediate help and support for people who are on the verge of collapse.”

Kushner presented a four-phase “master plan” illustrated by CGI-generated images of luxury apartments, data centers, and futuristic-looking skyscrapers.

In the “New Rafah,” built over the southern town that the Israel Defense Forces razed last year and forced hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians to leave, Trump’s so-called “Board of Peace” plans to build more than 200 education centers and over 180 cultural, religious, and vocational buildings.

The “New Gaza” plan seeks to build 100,000 permanent housing units in all as well as 75 medical facilities. A map presented by Kushner shows yellow “residential areas,” bright pink zones set aside for what Kushner called “coastal tourism,” sections of land dedicated to industrial data centers and “advanced manufacturing,” and green sections for “parks, agriculture, and sports facilities.”

The presentation showed that “the ethnic extermination plan is two-pronged: Kill as many as possible, then gentrify the rest out,” said entrepreneur David Haddad.

Before Israel began its US-backed destruction of Gaza in 2023, which has killed more than 71,000 people, and destroyed more than 90% of housing units, the exclave’s healthcare system included 36 hospitals, fewer than 14 of which were still partially functional as of October, when a “ceasefire” was agreed to and Trump began moving forward with his 20-point “peace plan.”

The presentation Kushner gave Thursday was part of that plan, with four phases of transformation beginning with the opening of the Rafah crossing and moving northward through Khan Younis and Gaza City, with a seaport and airport also being built.

The master plan, said Kushner, is projected to cost $25 billion, and would ultimately result in “peace and prosperity” in Gaza.

“People ask us what our plan B is, we do not have a plan B. We have a plan, we signed an agreement, we are committed to making that agreement work,” Kushner said. “There’s a master plan. We’ll be doing it in phasing. In the Middle East, they build cities like this, in, uh, you know, 2, 3 million people. They build this in three years. And so stuff like this is very doable if we make it happen.”

International lawyer Itay Epshtain said that as with the “'peace to prosperity’ fantasy,” the so-called master plan “won’t come to pass.”

The proposal, he said, is “not anchored in law, nor in facts. Just glossy real estate pitch decks dreamt up by Jared Kushner. Meanwhile, real humanitarian relief, recovery, and peace for Palestinians are sidelined—sacrificed to delusions of grandeur and war profiteering.”

At the “signing ceremony” for the Board of Peace—which includes no Palestinians and has no support from the United States’ major longtime European allies—Trump said he approached the development of Gaza as “a real estate person at heart.”

“It’s all about location, and I said, look at this location on the sea, look at this beautiful piece of property, what it could be for so many people,” Trump said. “It’ll be so, so great. People that are living so poorly are going to be living so well.”

That outlook, said Hani Mahmoud of Al Jazeera, is one that views Gaza as a “future investment project.”

“That’s the problem,” said Mahmoud. “It is not being dealt with as a place where people are being killed and starved, and being pretty much cornered in every way possible by the acts that the Israeli military is conducting on the ground. The danger stems from the fact that Gaza is being discussed as an investment and a planning site, rather than as a place where people are being killed on a daily basis—largely ignoring the displacement, the genocidal acts, the starvation, and the misery.”

Dilly Hussain of the UK-based news outlet 5 Pillars, said Kushner had proudly presented a plan for a “mega city built on the mass graves of Palestinians after a two-year genocide sponsored by the US.”

“No accountability, just business as usual,” said Hussain, “with the chief genocider [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu sitting on the ‘Board of Peace.’”

Every Nation in the World Should Reject Trump’s Absurd and Dangerous ‘Board of Peace’

Refusal to join will be an act of national self-respect. The UN-based international order, however flawed, should be repaired through law and cooperation, not replaced by a gilded caricature.


US businessman Jared Kushner speaks at the “Board of Peace” meeting during the World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting in Davos on January 22, 2026.
(Photo by Fabrice Coffrini/AFP via Getty Images)


Jeffrey D. Sachs

Sybil Fares
Jan 22, 2026

Common Dreams


The so-called “Board of Peace” being created by President Donald Trump is profoundly degrading to the pursuit of peace and to any nation that would lend it legitimacy. This is a trojan horse to dismantle the United Nations. It should be refused outright by every nation invited to join.

In its Charter, the Board of Peace (BoP) claims to be an “international organization that seeks to promote stability, restore dependable and lawful governance, and secure enduring peace in areas affected or threatened by conflict.” If this sounds familiar, it should, because this is the mandate of the United Nations. Created in the aftermath of World War II, the UN has as its central mission the maintenance of international peace and security.



Trump Invites Putin, Netanyahu to Join Peace Panel Mocked as ‘Board of Billionaires and War Criminals’



Wanted War Criminal and ‘Genocide Architect’ Netanyahu Joins Trump Board of Peace

It is no secret that Trump holds open contempt for international law and the United Nations. He said so himself during his September 2025 speech at the General Assembly, and has recently withdrawn from 31 UN entities. Following a long tradition of US foreign policy, he has consistently violated international law, including the bombing of seven countries in the past year, none of which were authorized by the Security Council and none of which was undertaken in lawful self-defense under the Charter (Iran, Iraq, Nigeria, Somalia, Syria, Yemen, and Venezuela). He is now claiming Greenland, with brazen and open hostility towards the US allies in Europe.

So, what about this Board of Peace?

It is, to put it simply, a pledge of allegiance to Trump, who seeks the role of world chairman and the world’s ultimate arbiter. The BoP will have as its Executive Board none other than Trump’s political donors, family members, and courtiers. The leaders of nations that sign up will get to rub shoulders with, and take orders from, Marco Rubio, Steve Witkoff, Jared Kushner and Tony Blair. Hedge Fund owner and Republican Party mega-donor Marc Rowan also gets to play. More to the point, any decisions taken by the BoP will be subject to Trump’s approval.

If the charade of representatives isn’t enough, nations will have to pay $1 billion for a “permanent seat” on the Board. Any nation that participates should know what it is “buying.” It is certainly not buying peace or a solution for the Palestinian people (as the money supposedly goes to Gaza’s reconstruction). It is buying ostensible access to Trump for as long as it serves his interests. It is buying an illusion of momentary influence in a system where Trump’s rules are enforced by personal whim.

The proposal is absurd not least because it purports to “solve” a problem that already has an 80-year-old global solution. The United Nations exists precisely to prevent the personalization of war and peace. It was designed after the wreckage of two world wars to global base peace on collective rules and international law. The UN’s authority, rightly, derives from the UN Charter ratified by 193 member states (including the US, as ratified by the US Senate in July 1945) and grounded in international law. If the US doesn’t want to abide by the Charter, the UN General Assembly should suspend the US credentials, as it once did with Apartheid South Africa.

Trump’s “Board of Peace” is a blatant repudiation of the United Nations. Trump has made that explicit, recently declaring that the Board of Peace “might” indeed replace the United Nations. This statement alone should end the conversation for any serious national leader. Participation after such a declaration is a conscious decision to subordinate one’s country to Trump’s personalized global authority. It is to accept, in advance, that peace is no longer governed by the UN Charter, but by Trump.

Still, some nations, desperate to get on the right side of the US, may take the bait. They should remember the wise words of President John F. Kennedy in his inaugural address “ those who foolishly sought power by riding the back of the tiger ended up inside.”

The record shows that loyalty to Trump is never enough to salve his ego. Just look at the long parade of Trump’s former allies, advisers, and appointees who were humiliated, discarded, and attacked by him the moment they ceased to be useful to him.

For any nation, participation on the Board of Peace would be strategically foolish. Joining this body will create long-lasting reputational damage. Long after Trump himself is no longer President, a past association with this travesty will be a mark of poor judgment. It will remain as sad evidence that, at a critical moment, a national political system mistook a vanity project for statesmanship, squandering $1 billion of funds in the process.

Ultimately, refusal to join the “Board of Peace” will be an act of national self-respect. Peace is a global public good. The UN-based international order, however flawed, should be repaired through law and cooperation, not replaced by a gilded caricature. Any nation that values international law, and the respect for the United Nations, should decline immediately to be associated with this travesty of international law.



Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.


Jeffrey D. Sachs
Jeffrey D. Sachs is a University Professor and Director of the Center for Sustainable Development at Columbia University, where he directed The Earth Institute from 2002 until 2016. He is also President of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network and a commissioner of the UN Broadband Commission for Development. He has been advisor to three United Nations Secretaries-General, and currently serves as an SDG Advocate under Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. Sachs is the author, most recently, of "A New Foreign Policy: Beyond American Exceptionalism" (2020). Other books include: "Building the New American Economy: Smart, Fair, and Sustainable" (2017) and "The Age of Sustainable Development," (2015) with Ban Ki-moon.
Full Bio >

Sybil Fares
Sybil Fares is a specialist and advisor in Middle East policy and sustainable development at SDSN
Full Bio >

Trump's Board of Peace snubbed on world stage: 'How disappointed is the White House?'

Tom Boggioni
January 22, 2026

RAW STORY


U.S. President Donald Trump walks after charter announcement for his Board of Peace initiative aimed at resolving global conflicts, alongside the 56th annual World Economic Forum (WEF), in Davos, Switzerland, January 22, 2026. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse

At the same time that Donald Trump was making a big show of signing the initial charter of his so-called “Board of Peace” at Davos, Bulwark editor Sam Stein was quick to observe that the smattering of government leaders who joined him on the dais was lacking in star power.

The much-maligned new organization that the president has been hyping has attracted a collection of countries agreeing to sign up — none of them even remotely close to being considered a world power capable of doing much internationally.

As the American president signed the charter, Stein told the MS NOW “Morning Joe” panel that he’s not sure the White House is too pleased that the world’s major powers are snubbing him.

The Trump administration has raised hopes that at least 35 countries would sign on, but the turnout has been a slim 21 so far, which led Stein to point out, “There is no one from Europe on that stage, or was known from Europe on that stage. It is a list of semi-autocratic countries and Trump allies.”

“How disappointed is the White House that there is no one on the stage? Or are they totally comfortable with the idea that you do not have to have European countries, the likes of which [Treasury Secretary]Scott Bessent called — what did he call Denmark? — irrelevant.”

“Yeah, maybe you don't need relevant countries in there,” the analyst joked.

Trump sparks fury among allies with 'grossly offensive' take on 9/11: 'How dare he!'

Robert Davis
January 22, 2026 
RAW STORY

U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a reception with business leaders, at the 56th annual World Economic Forum (WEF), in Davos, Switzerland, January 21, 2026. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

President Donald Trump's comments about 9/11 during his speech at the World Economic Forum on Wednesday rankled America's allies in Europe, according to a new report.

During the speech, Trump asserted that America's NATO allies stayed "a little off the front lines" in Afghanistan when the coalition joined U.S. forces to combat Al-Qaeda following the 9/11 attacks. Trump also questioned whether NATO would come to the U.S.'s defense again if it were called upon.

Trump's comments called into question NATO's Article 5, which requires member states to mount a collective defense if any of them is attacked. The only time Article 5 has been invoked was following the 9/11 terror attacks in the U.S.

Foreign leaders and dignitaries described Trump's comments as "grossly offensive," Sky News reported.

"I saw first hand the sacrifices made by British soldiers I served alongside in Sangin where we suffered horrific casualties, as did the US Marines the following year," Tory MP Ben Obese-Jecty, who served in Afghanistan as a captain in the Royal Yorkshire Regiment, told Sky News. "I don't believe US military personnel share the view of President Trump; his words do them a disservice as our closest military allies."

"We have always been there whenever the Americans have wanted us, we have always been there," Dame Emily Thornberry MP, chair of the Commons Foreign Affairs Select Committee, told Sky News.

Others chided Trump's comments about the military.

"Trump avoided military service five times," said Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey MP. "How dare he question their sacrifice. [Nigel] Farage and all the others still fawning over Trump should be ashamed."

Read the entire report by clicking here.