Trump Links His Push for Greenland to Not Winning Nobel Peace Prize; The New York Times, January 19, 2026

Jeffrey Gettleman and Henrik Pryser Libell , The New York Times; Trump Links His Push for Greenland to Not Winning Nobel Peace Prize

In a text, President Trump told Norway’s prime minister that he no longer felt obliged to “think purely of Peace” and that the U.S. needed the island for global security.

"President Trump is now claiming that one reason he is pushing to acquire Greenland is that he didn’t win the Nobel Peace Prize, according to a text message he sent to Norway’s prime minister over the weekend.

Jonas Gahr Store, Norway’s leader, received the text message on Sunday, an official in the prime minister’s office said on Monday.

“Considering your Country decided not to give me the Nobel Peace Prize for having stopped 8 Wars PLUS, I no longer feel an obligation to think purely of Peace, although it will always be predominant, but can now think about what is good and proper for the United States of America,” Mr. Trump wrote in the message, which was first published by PBS.

In the message, Mr. Trump also questioned Denmark’s claim to Greenland, saying, “There are no written documents,” and adding, “The World is not secure unless we have Complete and Total Control of Greenland. Thank you!”"

BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN BLASTS TRUMP AT SURPRISE BENEFIT GIG: ‘ICE SHOULD GET THE F-CK OUT OF MINNEAPOLIS’; Rolling Stone, January 18, 2026

ANDY GREENE, Rolling Stone;  BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN BLASTS TRUMP AT SURPRISE BENEFIT GIG: ‘ICE SHOULD GET THE F-CK OUT OF MINNEAPOLIS’

"Springsteen had no such concerns, and shortly before playing “The Promised Land” with Joe Grushecky and the Houserockers, he delivered some frank remarks. “I wrote this song as an ode to American possibility,” he said. “Right now we are living through incredibly critical times. The United States, the ideals and the value for which it stood for the past 250 years, is being tested like it has never been in modern times. Those values and those ideals have never been as endangered as they are right now.”

He continued, “If you believe in the power of law and that no one stands above it, if you stand against heavily-armed masked federal troops invading an American city, using gestapo tactics against our fellow citizens, if you believe you don’t deserve to be murdered for exercising your American right to protest, then send a message to this president, as the mayor of the city said: ICE should get the fuck out of Minneapolis. This song is for you and the memory of the mother of three and an American citizen, Renee Good.”"

Nobel Prize committee says Machado decision to give Trump award doesn’t change who won; The Hill, January 16, 2026

SOPHIE BRAMS, The Hill; Nobel Prize committee says Machado decision to give Trump award doesn’t change who won

 "The committee that awards the Nobel Prize said Friday that the physical symbols of the prize — a medal and diploma — can be given away, but the honor itself is “inseparably linked” to the winner.  

“The medal and the diploma are the physical symbols confirming that an individual or organisation has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. The prize itself – the honour and recognition – remains inseparably linked to the person or organisation designated as the laureate by the Norwegian Nobel Committee,” the committee said in a statement."

Trump accepts Nobel Peace Prize medal from Venezuelan opposition leader Machado; ABC News, January 15, 2026

Jon Haworth , ABC News; Trump accepts Nobel Peace Prize medal from Venezuelan opposition leader Machado

"President Donald Trump met Thursday with Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, who presented him with her Nobel Peace Prize medal. The president called it a "wonderful gesture of mutual respect."

"María presented me with her Nobel Peace Prize for the work I have done," Trump wrote on his social media platform. He also said that Machado was a "wonderful woman who has been through so much" and that it was a great honor to meet her.

Following the meeting, a White House official confirmed to ABC News that Trump did accept the medal...

Trump has coveted and openly campaigned for winning the Nobel Prize himself since his return to office."

Trump Makes Obscene Gesture at Heckler in Ford Factory Tour; The New York Times, January 13, 2026

 Shawn McCreesh, The New York Times; Trump Makes Obscene Gesture at Heckler in Ford Factory Tour

"President Trump raised his middle finger at a heckler who accused him of being a “pedophile protector” while touring a Ford factory in Dearborn, Mich., on Tuesday afternoon.

It was a fleeting interaction that happened while the president was out of sight of the small group of reporters that travels by his side as part of the press pool. Footage of the moment, which looked like it was filmed on a cellphone, appeared on the celebrity gossip website TMZ shortly after Mr. Trump had left the factory."

Trump Unmasked; The New York Times, January 13, 2026

Thomas B. Edsall, The New York Times; Trump Unmasked

"President Trump is showing symptoms of an addiction to power, evident in his compulsion to escalate claims of dominion over domestic and international adversaries. The size and scope of his targets for subjugation are spiraling ever upward...

Perhaps most spectacularly, during a Jan. 7 interview with four Times reporters, Trump was asked if there were any limits on his global powers.

He replied: “Yeah, there is one thing. My own morality. My own mind. It’s the only thing that can stop me.”

“I don’t need international law,” he added.

Trump may think his own morality and his own mind are the only constraints on his otherwise limitless power, but if we are dependent on either — not to mention Trump’s sense of empathy, compassion or sympathy for the underdog — we are in deep trouble. The nation, the Western Hemisphere and the world at large need to figure out how to place restraints on this ethically vacuous president, or we will all suffer continued and ever-worsening damage."

What unites Greenland, Venezuela and Ukraine? Trump’s immoral lies and Europe’s chronic weakness; The Guardian, January 11, 2026

Simon Tisdall, The Guardian; What unites Greenland, Venezuela and Ukraine? Trump’s immoral lies and Europe’s chronic weakness

 "Donald Trump made 30,573 “false or misleading” claims during his first term, according to calculations published in 2021 by the Washington Post. That’s roughly 21 fibs a day. Second time around, he’s still hard at it, lying to Americans and the world on a daily basis. Trump’s disregard for truth and honesty in public life – seen again in his despicable response to the fatal shooting in Minneapolis – is dangerously immoral.

Trump declared last week that the only constraint on his power is “my own morality, my own mind”. That explains a lot. His idea of right and wrong is wholly subjective. He is his own ethical and legal adviser, his own priest and confessor. He is a church of one. Trump lies to himself as well as everyone else. And the resulting damage is pernicious. It costs lives, harms democracy and destroys trust between nations...

Disrespect for international law, the flouting of sovereign rights and territorial independence, and the ongoing replacement of the UN-backed rules-based order with neo-imperial spheres of influence are evident in all three crises. So, too, is a failure to defend the democratic rights of ordinary people. The US has presumptuously, illegally ruled out elections in Venezuela. Russia is trying to kill Ukraine’s democracy. Greenlanders say they alone must decide their future. But who’s listening to them?

Many of these broader trends were already well established. Yet Trump’s destabilising, unprincipled, lawless, chaotic and fundamentally immoral carrying-on in 2025 has undoubtedly acted as catalyst and accelerant. Of all these ills, his moral turpitude is the greatest. It corrupts, bedevils, darkens and poisons the humanity of the world. It is toxic to all it touches. Trumpism is a corrosive disease. Its latest victims are in Minneapolis and Portland. In truth, they are everywhere.

To mangle Mark Twain: “There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and Donald Trump.” Americans and their too-diffident friends in Britain and Europe must be more forceful in speaking truth to power – before, like the much-reviled George III, Trump does something really crazy."

Trump, Like Sauron, Is Not Inevitable—but Only if We Refuse Despair; The Nation, October 3, 2025

AARON REGUNBERG, The Nation; Trump, Like Sauron, Is Not Inevitable—but Only if We Refuse Despair

[Kip Currier: A good friend sent me this uplifting article tonight. It's good stuff, and even more true and more needed right now than when it was published three months ago.

As the author Aaron Regunberg says:

"If the only way Trump can conclusively win is by convincing us not to fight back in the first place, then every act of resistance matters...Every time we choose hope over despair, and put that choice into practice, our decision echoes out across the Unseen world with real consequences for the Seen one."

https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/trump-sauron-tolkien-hope-despair/#

Pass this article on to as many people as you can.

And then send it again, and again, and again...

Hope is contagious.]

[Excerpt]

"J.R.R. Tolkien has a message for us: Don’t give in to Trump...

If the only way Trump can conclusively win is by convincing us not to fight back in the first place, then every act of resistance matters. It sounds trite, but that doesn’t make it less true. Every time we choose hope over despair, and put that choice into practice, our decision echoes out across the Unseen world with real consequences for the Seen one. (Or, if you’re not yet Rings-pilled and want a more materialist translation: Every time you contribute to the opposition in visible ways, you make it easier and more likely that others will join in next time.)

In this age of nightmares, the siren song of despair is tempting, and resisting it takes work. But The Lord of the Rings reminds us that in every way, the case for hope—the maintenance of which is a necessary (if not sufficient) victory in and of itself—is the more pragmatic option.

So let’s end the debate, just as my favorite Lord of the Rings character—and, I strongly suspect, Tolkien’s favorite, too—Sam Gamgee did during his and Frodo’s last, desperate push through the depths of Mordor to the cracks of Mount Doom.

Sam could not sleep and he held a debate with himself.… ‘It’s all quite useless. You are the fool, going on hoping and toiling. You could have lain down and gone to sleep together days ago, if you hadn’t been so dogged. But you’ll die just the same, or worse. You might just as well lie down now and give it up. You’ll never get to the top anyway.’

‘I’ll get there, if I leave everything but my bones behind,’ said Sam. ‘And I’ll carry Mr. Frodo up myself, if it breaks my back and heart. So stop arguing!’…

No more debates disturbed his mind. He knew all the arguments of despair and would not listen to them. His will was set, and only death would break it.

We may have some dark years ahead of us. And whether we allow them to also be despairing years is a choice—our choice. We must set our wills."

Trump says he will meet Machado — and would accept Nobel Peace Prize from her; The Washington Post, January 9, 2026

Cleve R. Wootson Jr.

 and 

Maham Javaid

, The Washington Post; Trump says he will meet Machado — and would accept Nobel Peace Prize from her

[Kip Currier: It's unfathomable for me to understand how someone could ethically and intellectually accept the Nobel Peace Prize from the individual who won that prize, knowing that the Nobel Committee members made the decision to bestow it on the person they deemed most deserved it.

Fortunately, this scenario remains in the realm of a thought experiment because of Nobel policy that prizes "may not be shared or transferred."]

[Excerpt]

"President Donald Trump said he would accept the Nobel Peace Prize if this year’s prize winner, María Corina Machado, offered it to him when she meets with him next week, but Nobel officials quickly announced Friday that the prize may not be shared or transferred.

“Once a Nobel Prize is announced, it cannot be revoked, shared or transferred to others,” the Norwegian Nobel Committee and the Norwegian Nobel Institute said Friday. “The decision is final and stands for all time.”

“I understand she’s coming in next week sometime, and I look forward to saying hello to her,” Trump said of the Venezuelan opposition leader during an interview with Fox News’s Sean Hannity that aired Thursday. Trump added that he heard Machado wants to give him the prize, and that it would be “a great honor.”"

Trump Lays Out a Vision of Power Restrained Only by ‘My Own Morality’; The New York Times, January 8, 2026

David E. SangerTyler PagerKatie Rogers and Zolan Kanno-Youngs , The New York Times; Trump Lays Out a Vision of Power Restrained Only by ‘My Own Morality’

[Kip Currier: Trump's statement below is contrary to the very founding ideals and precepts of the United States of America. Indeed, this nation is the manifestation of revolutionary action against unaccountable one-person rule.

For Trump to unabashedly declare that "the only thing that can stop me" is "my own morality" and "my own mind" is Shakespearean in its arrogance and grandiosity.

It is hubris immortalized in Greek tragedy.]

[Excerpt]

"Asked in a wide-ranging interview with The New York Times if there were any limits on his global powers, Mr. Trump said: “Yeah, there is one thing. My own morality. My own mind. It’s the only thing that can stop me.”

“I don’t need international law,” he added. “I’m not looking to hurt people.”"

So This Is Why Trump Didn’t Want to Release the Epstein Files; The Atlantic, December 24, 2025

Sarah Fitzpatrick , The Atlantic; So This Is Why Trump Didn’t Want to Release the Epstein Files

"Trump has also insisted that he knew nothing of Epstein’s criminal activity—though his critics have questioned how that could be true given their close relationship and history of chasing women together. Members of Congress from both parties have said they will continue to probe the issue in the upcoming year. Representatives I spoke with told me their takeaway from reading the files is that top officials in the Trump administration have not been honest about what was in them, and that they intend to press Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel for more information.

“Although the files are overly redacted, they’ve already demonstrated that the narrative painted by Patel in hearings, Bondi in press statements, and Trump himself on social media wasn’t accurate,” Thomas Massie, the Kentucky Republican who co-authored the Epstein legislation, told me. “A complete disclosure consistent with the law will show there are more men implicated in the files in possession of the government.”"

Jeffrey Epstein letter to Larry Nassar appears to reference President Trump; USA TODAY, December 23, 2025

Mark GiannottoBart Jansen, USA TODAY ; Jeffrey Epstein letter to Larry Nassar appears to reference President Trump

"A letter from Jeffrey Epstein to disgraced former USA Gymnastics team doctor Larry Nassar is among the more than 29,000 documents released by the Justice Department on Tuesday, Dec. 23.

Nassar was sentenced in 2018 to 40 to 175 years in prison after pleading guilty to seven counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct for assaulting the young athletes he treated while working for both USA Gymnastics and Michigan State University.

The handwritten letter from Epstein to Nassar was postmarked three days after Epstein's death in prison by reported suicide in August 2019, and appears to reference United States President Donald Trump."

U.S. anniversary coins won’t feature any Black Americans or notable women; The Washington Post, December 20, 2025

Emmanuel Felton, The Washington Post; U.S. anniversary coins won’t feature any Black Americans or notable women

"In a preview of the Trump administration’s approach to celebrating the country’s 250th birthday, Treasury Department officials announced earlier this month that the agency would ignore the committee’s recommendation and produce quarters that are far less diverse and more traditional. Instead of addressing the country’s racial history, the five coins will feature images of former presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and Abraham Lincoln, as well as a Pilgrim couple.

The Biden administration was focused on diversity, equity and inclusion and critical race theory, U.S. Treasurer Brandon Beach told Fox News, but the “Trump administration is dedicated to fostering prosperity and patriotism.”...

The administration is also considering a commemorative dollar with President Donald Trump’s face on one side and his raised fist with the words “FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT” on the other, a reference to the widely circulated image of the president following an assassination attempt in 2024. Democratic senators have decried the idea as “un-American” and introduced legislation to prohibit “the likeness of a living or sitting president” from appearing on American currency."

We’re pastors. The fight against Maga Christianity starts locally; The Guardian, December 21, 2025

Doug Pagitt and Lori Walke, The Guardian ; We’re pastors. The fight against Maga Christianity starts locally

"Donald Trump wants us to believe that the “war on Christianity” is spreading across the globe. The US president recently sounded the alarm on the “mass slaughter” of Christians in Nigeria while threatening a US invasion of the African nation. We shouldn’t be surprised. This falls right in line with Trump’s ongoing attempts to project Maga Christianity on to the global stage and crack down on religious freedom.

Maga Christianity represents a self-serving, commercialized version of the Christian faith – putting power over service and empathy – and it is everywhere in our federal government. In February, Trump announced a taskforce led by Pam Bondi with the goal of rooting out “anti-Christian” bias. In September, Trump announced his plans to protect prayer in schools. Later that month, he issued a memorandum identifying anti-Christianity as a potential driver of terrorism. These are not just one-off incidents. This is a national effort to push the Maga Christianity agenda on Americans, and we’re already seeing the consequences.

Despite the Bible’s clear call to “love thy neighbor”, the Maga movement has used its version of the Christian faith to oppress immigrants, oppose the rights of women and condemn the LGBTQ+ community. At the same time, we’ve seen shootings at places of worship and arrests of faith leaders at peaceful protests.

As faith leaders, our greatest strength during Trump 2.0 and the rise of Christian nationalism is our local congregations. It’s our ability to physically come together in our communities, communicate with one another, support our neighbors in need and elevate our own Christian values that set us apart.

Faith leaders have a powerful role to play, especially as the Trump administration continues to use religion to divide us."

The Trump Vibe Shift Is Dead; The New York Times, December 21, 2025

EZRA KLEIN, The New York Times; The Trump Vibe Shift Is Dead

"In January, I made a prediction: “I suspect we are at or near the peak of Trump vibes.” Now, as this long year grinds to its end, I think it can be said more declaratively: The Trump vibe shift is dead. And there are already glimmers of what will follow it...

Political backlash always seeks the opposing force to the present regime. Closed and cruel are on their way out. What comes next, I suspect, will present itself as open, friendly and assertively moral. But it will also need to credibly offer what Trump and Trumpism have failed to deliver: real solutions to the problems Americans face."

White House installs plaques mocking former Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden; NBC News, December 17, 2025

 Sarah Dean, Garrett Haake, Alexandra Bacallao and Rebecca Shabad , NBC News; White House installs plaques mocking former Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden

[Kip Currier: This quote by White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt is jaw-droppingly farcical:

"The plaques are eloquently written descriptions of each President and the legacy they left behind," she said. "As a student of history, many were written directly by the President himself.”

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/white-house-installs-plaques-mocking-former-presidents-barack-obama-jo-rcna249746 

 

To refer to such defamatory and erroneous statements as "eloquently written" is the epitome of George Orwell's 1984 Newspeak, in which words used by propagandists are converse from their true meanings, e.g. Freedom is Slavery, and Ignorance is Strength.]

[Excerpt]

"The White House has installed plaques on the exterior of the building bashing President Donald Trump's predecessors, including Presidents Joe Biden and Barack Obama, and promoting disinformation about their administrations.

The plaques were hung up below presidential portraits that have been on display on Trump’s recently added "Presidential Walk of Fame" in the White House colonnade.

The one placed under the portrait of the “Autopen," which stands in for President Joe Biden's portrait, refers to him as “Sleepy Joe Biden” and calls him “the worst President in American History.” The plaque contains a number of derisive statements about the former president, referring to Biden’s “severe mental decline,” “the Biden Crime Family” and his “Radical Left handlers."

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told NBC News in a statement that Trump wrote the text of "many" of the plaques.

“The plaques are eloquently written descriptions of each President and the legacy they left behind," she said. "As a student of history, many were written directly by the President himself.”"

Fox News hosts blast Trump over 'repulsive' White House plaques; AlterNet, December 19, 2025

Thomas Kika , AlterNet; Fox News hosts blast Trump over 'repulsive' White House plaques

"Donald Trump got a sharp rebuke from his Fox News on Friday as hosts decried the recent addition of insulting plaques about Democratic presidents at the White House as "trolling" and "repulsive."

While not the largest and eye-catching change Trump has made to the White House, his addition of a "Presidential Walk of Fame" has nonetheless made headlines for insulting jabs at his political opponents. When the feature was first introduced in September, former President Joe Biden was represented with a photo of an autopen instead of a portrait, referencing the tool for signatures which Trump has falsely claimed invalidates some of the executive orders and pardons that his predecessor issued.

More recently, reporters noticed the addition of new plaques beneath thephotos of Biden, Barack Obama and Bill Clinton. Under Biden's photo, the new plaque reads "Sleepy Joe Biden was, by far, the worst President in American History. Taking office as a result of the most corrupt Election ever seen in the United States, Biden oversaw a series of unprecedented disasters that brought our Nation to the brink of destruction." It also added references to Trump's long-debunked claim that Biden's win in the 2020 election was the result of widespread voter fraud.

The new plaque for Obama refers to him as "divisive" and attacks him for the passage of the "Unaffordable Care Act" and joining the Paris Climate Accords. It also repeated Trump's unfounded claims that the Obama administration spied on his 2016 campaign and fabricated claims that it colluded with Russia. While less directly insulting, Clinton's plaque was given a new note about his wife, Hillary Clinton, losing the 2016 election to Trump."

Christianity Today Editor Slams Trump’s “Disgusting, Immoral Behavior”; The New Republic, December 15, 2025

Hafiz Rashid, The New Republic; Christianity Today Editor Slams Trump’s “Disgusting, Immoral Behavior”

"The editor-at-large of Christianity Today magazine on Monday sharply condemned Donald Trump’s deranged post about the murders of Rob Reiner and his wife, Michele.

Russell Moore, formerly the magazine’s editor in chief, called out Trump’s post blaming Reiner for the murders “through his massive, unyielding, and incurable affliction with a mind crippling disease known as TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROME.” Moore called Trump’s comments “vile, disgusting, and immoral behavior.”"

Mourning Michelle Obama Rebukes Trump for Psychotic Rob Reiner Post; The Daily Beast, December 16, 2025

Meera Navlakha, The Daily Beast; Mourning Michelle Obama Rebukes Trump for Psychotic Rob Reiner Post

[Kip Currier: Democratic societies are strengthened by those who have the courage and conviction to speak out against hatred, cruelty, and divisiveness and those who traffic in such toxic behaviors.

Hans Christian Andersen's (1837) The Emperor's New Clothes is as timely as ever.]

[Excerpt]

The former first lady said that Rob and Michele Reiner were nothing but decent and courageous people.

"Michelle Obama calmly slammed President Donald Trump’s deranged comments on the murder of Rob Reiner and his wife, Michele. 

In an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live, the former first lady said the 78-year-old film director and his 68-year-old wife were courageous people who cared about their country.

“Let me just say this, unlike some people, Rob and Michelle Reiner are some of the most decent, courageous people you ever want to know. They’re not deranged or crazed,” Obama said, referring to Trump’s descriptions of the couple in the wake of their gruesome slaying, allegedly at the hands of their 32-year-old son. 

“What they have always been are passionate people, in a time when there are not... there’s not a lot of courage going on. They were the kind of people who were ready to put their actions behind what they cared about, and they cared about their family, and they cared about this country, and they cared about fairness and equity,” she said. 

“That is the truth,” Obama, 61, concluded. “I do know them.”

Trump has been condemned for his bizarre comments on the Reiners’ murder. The president said the director suffered from “Trump Derangement Syndrome,” a term often used by Trump and his supporters to undermine his critics."

'Bad for our country.' Trump doubles down on attack of late Rob Reiner; USA TODAY, December 15, 2025

Joey Garrison, USA TODAY; 'Bad for our country.' Trump doubles down on attack of late Rob Reiner

"President Donald Trump doubled down on his widely criticized attack of the late film director Rob Reiner, expressing no regret nor offering an apology for comments that even some Republican supporters have since denounced.

"I thought he was very bad for our country," Trump said on Dec. 15 when asked whether he stands by his social media post about Reiner from earlier in the day."