Along the Potomac, a cruise to celebrate Trump’s deportation campaign: More than 150 conservatives gathered on a party yacht Thursday evening to reinforce their commitment to expelling undocumented immigrants. wapo.st/3Rj1IQQ

Along the Potomac, a cruise to celebrate Trump’s deportation campaign

More than 150 conservatives gathered on a party yacht to reinforce their commitment to expelling undocumented immigrants.

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Pope Leo named a formerly undocumented immigrant who was smuggled into the U.S. in a car trunk to be bishop of WVa. and also elevated Howard University’s chaplain who called attacks on diversity “un-American” + “un-Christian.” @michelleboorstein.bsky.social www.washingtonpost.com/religion/202...

Pope Leo picks formerly undocumented immigrant to lead West Virginia Catholics

Pope Leo, who elevated Bishop Evelio Menjivar-Ayala and the Rev. Robert Boxie III, has drawn a clear contrast with the Trump administration on immigration and the Iran war.

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Americans reject Trump’s planned WH ballroom by a 2-to-1 margin, according to a Post-ABC-Ipsos poll, and they appear largely unmoved by the intensified calls from the president to allow the project to go forward. @ddiamond.bsky.social @sfcpoll.bsky.social www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...

Public rejects Trump’s ballroom by wide margin

The president’s planned 250-foot arch and a Treasury department plan to put Trump’s signature on paper money are also unpopular ideas.

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NEW (my signal: mariapost.45) A lawyer who vowed to “fight exclusively for the rights of men.” An attorney who championed ICE in MN. A judge who denied protection to a man because he didn’t look “overtly gay.” All are among the new "deportation judges." www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/...

Trump officials hire ‘deportation judges’ with less training, experience

The president is remaking courts to clear a backlog of asylum cases. Hires include an attorney for Jan. 6 rioters and a lawyer who championed Minneapolis ICE raids.

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April 17, 1999: D.C. holds Rat Summit to intensify war on “severe” rat problem www.washingtonpost.com/archive/loca...

City to Intensify War on Rats

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Cecillia Wang was born in Oregon, three years after her parents emigrated legally from Taiwan as graduate students, making her a U.S. citizen by birth. Today the ACLU’s top lawyer makes the case against Trump’s birthright citizenship ban at the Supreme Court. www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/...

Daughter of immigrants brings history to bear in fight for birthright citizenship

Cecillia Wang was born in Oregon after her parents left Taiwan. That path has animated her work over two decades at the ACLU and will inform her case at the Supreme Court.

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Trump tonight shared the first renderings of his planned presidential library in Miami — a skyscraper that would be filled with memorabilia from his presidency, recreations of the White House, and at least two gold Trump statues.

Cecillia Wang’s parents emigrated from Taiwan as grad students in 1968 and three years later she was born, a U.S. citizen by birth. Now the ACLU’s top lawyer, Wang will argue at the Supreme Court this week against Trump’s effort to ban birthright citizenship. www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/...

Daughter of immigrants brings history to bear in fight for birthright citizenship

Cecillia Wang was born in Oregon after her parents left Taiwan. That path has animated her work over two decades at the ACLU and will inform her case at the Supreme Court.

washingtonpost.com

President Trump spent five minutes of Thursday’s Cabinet meeting boasting of his thrift with a story about negotiating for $5 personalized Sharpies. The company that makes the markers said the exchange never happened. via @iarnsdorf.bsky.social www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...

Trump imagines negotiation with Sharpie maker for $5 signature pens

Trump told a lengthy story about negotiating over the price of Sharpie pens. The company says it has no record of any such conversation.

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Trump is the biggest threat to D.C.’s architectural splendor since War of 1812 @philipkennicott.bsky.social www.washingtonpost.com/style/2026/0...

Column | Trump is the biggest threat to D.C.’s architectural splendor since War of 1812

President Trump’s garish, piecemeal changes to Washington’s urban design and architecture are poised to destroy symbolism upheld for centuries.

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www.washingtonpost.com/style/2026/0... More than a year into his second term, Trump is settling on recurring themes of resolution, anger and determination over his earlier displays that referenced personal vitality, competence, vision and sometimes even humor or irony. @philipkennicott.bsky.social

Column | The message on Trump’s coin is clear. And it’s chilling.

Julius Caesar also broke with tradition by putting himself on a coin. It didn’t go over so well.

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Trump 2.0 was supposed to be younger and cooler than what came before. The vibes have shifted. via @karavoght.bsky.social www.washingtonpost.com/style/power/...

Analysis | Is MAGA in its cringe era?

Trump 2.0 was supposed to be younger and cooler than what came before. The vibes have shifted.

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Despite withering airstrikes, U.S. intelligence officials see a weakened but more hard-line government in Tehran, backed by the powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps security forces. @ellenwapo.bsky.social www.washingtonpost.com/national-sec...

U.S. intelligence says Iran’s regime is consolidating power

Despite withering airstrikes, officials predict a weakened but more hard-line government in Tehran, backed by the powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps security forces.

washingtonpost.com

There’s going to be an IndyCar race in downtown Washington. Here’s what we know. www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2026/...

There’s going to be an IndyCar race in downtown Washington. Here’s what we know.

Drivers are expected to zoom past downtown landmarks at speeds as high as 185 mph during the Freedom 250 Grand Prix, part of the nation’s 250th anniversary programming.

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The guy who voices Master Chief from the video game "Halo," who was featured in a White House meme video showing missiles blowing people up in Iran, calls it "disgusting and juvenile war porn" wapo.st/3NhffGm

The Post examined cases of 66 people arrested in Minneapolis: 52 involved immigrants with pending applications for asylum or another legal status. None had final deportation orders. Most weren’t criminals; more than a third lived in US for over a decade. @mariasacchetti.bsky.social wapo.st/4sF7tp3

Dozens of case files showcase how ICE violated court orders in Minneapolis

Officers have repeatedly detained people under a reinterpretation of a 1996 law that states that anyone in the United States illegally “shall be detained” without bond, indefinitely.

wapo.st

The hiring push is unfolding under new rules designed to give the White House greater influence over the government’s 2 million-person civilian workforce. via @emilydavies.bsky.social @merylkornfield.bsky.social www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...

After slashing federal jobs, Trump administration ramps up hiring

The hiring push is unfolding under new rules designed to give the White House greater influence over the government’s 2 million-person civilian workforce.

washingtonpost.com

U.S. was only country in a worldwide survey to say most fellow citizens are bad people www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2026/...

U.S. was only country in a worldwide survey to say most fellow citizens are bad people

A new Pew survey shows that other countries’ citizens tend to look more favorably on their neighbors.

washingtonpost.com

Camp East Montana was supposed to be the Trump administration's model for a new breed of large-scale, makeshift immigrant detention centers. Eight tumultuous months, 60 violations and three deaths later, ICE is preparing to close it. New from me: t.co/jOIIRAMJCo

ICE taking steps to close detention center at Fort Bliss, document shows

Preparations to shutter Camp East Montana in El Paso come less than eight months after facility’s opening, according to an internal ICE document.

washingtonpost.com

Very sweet essay about being present in fatherhood. via @drtedj.bsky.social www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/202...

Opinion | I was a Gen X ‘man cave’ dad. Then I learned better.

Fathers know best when the door to the dad retreat is unlocked.

washingtonpost.com

NEW: A federal judge said in an opinion issued today that the Trump administration violated the tax law “approximately 42,695 times” in turning over immigrant data to ICE

Washington Post exclusive: Trump, seeking executive power over elections, is urged to declare emergency - via @iarnsdorf.bsky.social www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...

Trump, seeking executive power over elections, is urged to declare emergency

Activists who say they are in coordination with the White House are circulating a draft executive order that would unlock extraordinary presidential power over voting.

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Candace Owens is aiming to take down Erika Kirk with a new video series that so far has managed to enrage just about everyone without really making any specific allegations at all. I wrote about the attention-economy logic behind Owens' attacks on a "grieving widow:" wapo.st/3OKDYmU (gift link)

As MAGA embraces Erika Kirk, Candace Owens goes on the attack

The right-wing influencer launched a video series about Charlie Kirk’s widow that is provoking outrage among conservatives — and raising Owens’s profile.

wapo.st

Flashback: I interviewed Miracle on Ice hero Mike Eruzione amid backlash after the 1980 team donned MAGA hats at a Trump rally in Feb. 2020: "A lot of the stuff I got was, 'You guys said it’s not political, but when you put the hats on, you made it political.'” www.washingtonpost.com/politics/onc...

Once Cold War heroes, ‘Miracle on Ice’ team struggles with backlash from donning ‘Keep America Great’ hats at Trump rally

The team became the latest group entangled in the fierce cultural fight over the meaning of the Trump campaign’s most successful piece of merchandise, which critics view as a symbol of hate and racism...

washingtonpost.com

A few headlines today as Trump preps for SOTU next week.

New: 58% of Americans think Trump’s deportation campaign is going too far, up from 50% last fall according to a Washington Post-ABC News-Ipsos poll finds. Story with @davidnakamura.bsky.social & Isabelle Gibson Gift link -> wapo.st/4qOsvAb

🚨 SCOOP: The IRS improperly disclosed confidential immigrant tax information to DHS, per sources. It opens up HUGE liability for the US government. Trump is suing the IRS over substantially the same disclosures -- for $10 billion. 🎁 Gift link:

IRS improperly disclosed confidential immigrant tax data to DHS

The tax agency only recently discovered it improperly disclosed tax information on thousands of the wrong people to immigration enforcement.

wapo.st

From the amazing Becca Rothfeld, laid off by the Washington Post last week and immediately hired by the New Yorker:

Erin Cunningham@erinmcunningham.bsky.social · 6mo ago

“A newspaper is—or ought to be—the opposite of an algorithm, a bastion of enlightened generalism in an era of hyperspecialization and personalized marketing … From now on, the Post will no longer accommodate the admirably omnivorous avidity of its best readers.” www.newyorker.com/books/page-t...

“Katie Mettler, a former chair of the Washington Post guild, said: “I’m glad Will Lewis has been fired. I wish it had happened before he fired all my friends.”” www.nytimes.com/2026/02/07/t...

Today the Post published 3 stories that explore the nation's fraught political + cultural moment through the global stage of the Super Bowl and Olympics. 1. We look at why Colin Kaepernick's impact on the NFL has waned 10 years after his social justice protest www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2026/...

What do we make of Colin Kaepernick now?

The Super Bowl is being played in his former home stadium, at a societal moment that echoes the issues he forced football fans to confront. So why is he out of mind?

washingtonpost.com