alternet.org

After the United States' 2024 presidential election, Democratic strategists spent months asking what went wrong for their party. It was a close election: Donald Trump won the national popular vote by roughly 1.5 percent. But the fact that Trump flipped six states Joe Biden won in 2020 (Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Nevada, Georgia and Arizona) and made gains among Latinos, Generation Z, independents and swing voters was a source of major frustration for Democrats. Trump, according to Pew Research, won 48 percent of the Latino vote in 2024 compared to 51 percent for Democrati

During his first presidency, Donald Trump's critics often attacked him as an "isolationist" who was uninformed about the rest of the world. But Trump has taken a much more imperialistic turn since returning to the White House, from capturing leftist Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro to threatening to take Greenland by force to calling for Canada to become "the 51st state." Libertarian/conservative Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Kentucky) and MAGA ex-Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Georgia) believe Trump is betraying the "America First" agenda he once championed.Trump went from being called an "isolationist" to being called a warmonger with a belligerent foreign policy.In a

Minneapolis isn't the first city that President Donald Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem have targeted for aggressive U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids; cities ranging from Chicago to Los Angeles have been targeted as well. But Minneapolis has suffered the worst ICE violence, and the fatal shooting of unarmed motorist Renee Nicole Good by agent Jonathan Ross on January 7 continues to generate outrage.Trump is threatening to invoke the Insurrection Act in response to the unrest in Minneapolis. And attorney Ty Cobb — who serv

New York Times columnist David French examined accountability options in the case of Minneapolis resident Renee Nicole Good, who was shot and killed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).Writing Sunday, French discussed legal barriers to accountability in this case.French noted that state laws present limited options for prosecution. According to French, there is a doctrine called supremacy clause immunity that prohibits state officials from prosecuting federal officers when they are acting in their official capacity."There is a doctrine called

After one year into his second term President Donald Trump is losing support from his voters over economic issues. Speaking to CNN, Franz Rowland, a Georgia farmer, complained that someone "dropped the ball in Washington." He's bothered by high prices and those not "looking out for us."The new SSRS poll shows 58 percent of Americans believe that Trump's first year in office has been a "failure.""Trump says, you know, be patient. The farmers are going to be better than ever. We better hurry up because we can't. We can't stand this much," said Rowland, who supported Trump hoping he would improve the economy. "When you hear politicians and others in Washington saying the economy is doing great, the

With President Donald Trump suffering low approval ratings in poll after poll, Democratic strategists are felling increasingly optimistic about flipping the U.S. House of Representatives in the 2026 midterms. And Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) Chair Kirsten Gillibrand (D-New York) is saying that the U.S. Senate isn't out of reach for Democrats.But Salon's Chauncey DeVega, in an article published on January 18, warns that Democrats are facing "a coordinated effort by Trump and the anti-de

Tomorrow we honor the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr.Trump has removed MLK Jr.’s birthday from the National Park Service’s fee-free days and substituted his own birthday of June 14 as a fee-free day.I write this more in sorrow than in anger.All told, I feel profound sorrow for America. Sorrow for the people of Minneapolis who are enduring this Trump-made hell. Sorrow for Renee Good’s three children and wife.I also feel sorrow for Greenlanders and Venezuelans and others around the world fearing what the sociopath in the Oval Office may do next. Sorrow for everyone justifiably worried about the future of America and the planet because of him.I’m old enough to remember whe

President Donald Trump's former attorney, Michael Cohen, penned a column on Friday that detailed coercion from the New York Attorney General's Office. Writing on his Substack, Cohen said that he has witnessed firsthand being "leaned on.""I experienced a similar dynamic in the Attorney General’s civil case. Letitia James made it publicly known during her 2018 campaign for attorney general that, if elected, she would go after President Trump. Her office made clear that the testimony they wanted from me was testimony that would help them do just that. Again, I felt compelled and coerced to deliver what they were seekin

This week, Mayor Jacob Frey basically took a Fox “News” host down, pointing out that Trump’s own federal prosecutors just quit their jobs rather than investigate and prosecute Renee Nicole Good’s wife for “domestic terrorism.”Which raises the question: what is ICE really doing in Minneapolis?Well over a decade ago, the very Anglo daughter of a friend of mine fell in love with a Hispanic fellow who owned a Mexican restaurant he’d started in her little northern midwestern town. They got married, she got pregnant, and everybody in the family was delighted. Until the feds visited the restaurant and discovered her new husband wasn’t a US citizen and had no legal permission to be her

President Donald Trump is deploying old-school tactics against some of his enemies: using FBI files to target them.The New York Times reported Sunday morning that FBI Director Kash Patel is helping Trump target his foes using the information it has collected. Now, the report said, "the bureau has added payback to its portfolio." While Trump spent years alleging the “weaponization” of law enforcement against political foes, the new administration is “using federal law enforcement to carry out a partisan opposition research operation.”The report said that Patel has b