by Steve Benen | Jan 20, 2026 | Congress, Maddowblog, Politics
Shortly after the 2022 midterm elections in which House Republicans reclaimed a majority in Congress’ lower chamber, GOP leaders created the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, which would be chaired by Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio. At the time, this was supposed to be a pretty big deal.
The purpose was obvious: In GOP circles, there’s a popular conspiracy theory about rascally Democrats and the “deep state” working in secret to politicize agencies and use the levers of power against innocent Republican victims.
Jordan and his like-minded colleagues, the party assumed, would use the “weaponization” panel to uncover evidence of such plots and prove that Democrats had engaged in outrageous abuses.
Or that was the idea. Unfortunately for the right, Jordan failed spectacularly to uncover much of anything, leading to complaints from disappointed conservatives and headlines about the GOP-led crusade being “a dud.” The Washington Post reported in 2023 that the subcommittee’s work had proved “lackluster” and “lacking in substance.”
The problem, however, wasn’t limited to Jordan’s woeful efforts. The real concern was foundational: Republicans were chasing a conspiracy that didn’t exist. GOP lawmakers failed not because they were incompetent, but rather because they were chasing a mirage.
That’s what happened in the last Congress. In the current Congress, the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government has become something of an afterthought, but it apparently still exists and is still led by Jordan.
According to the panel’s website, it hasn’t done anything in roughly 16 months. But to the extent the subcommittee, its members and its staff are interested in trying to do some meaningful work, I have good news:
by Steve Benen | Jan 20, 2026 | Maddowblog, Politics
There are all kinds of questions about what, exactly, Donald Trump intends to do with his so-called Board of Peace, but the president is apparently looking for countries to become members of said board, which will ostensibly have something to do with the future of Gaza.
The Republican’s pitch is, however, facing some predictable international skepticism, even as he seems to believe he can blackmail some U.S. allies into participating in the endeavor. The New York Times reported:
President Trump threatened on Monday to impose 200 percent tariffs on French wine, including Champagne, if President Emmanuel Macron of France declined to join his proposed ‘Board of Peace’ for Gaza.
France was among the countries the Trump administration invited last week to join the body, which Mr. Trump has said he plans to lead to oversee the cease-fire between Israel and Hamas and supervise the rebuilding of Gaza.
During a brief Q&A with reporters on Monday night, Trump initially acknowledged that he’d invited Vladimir Putin to join the “peace” panel, which seemed utterly indefensible given the Russian leader’s obvious rejection of peace in Ukraine. Soon after, a reporter asked the American president if he had a reaction to the French president saying he doesn’t intend to be part of the endeavor.
Q: Did you invite Putin to be on the Board of Peace?TRUMP: Yeah. He’s been invitedQ: Thoughts on Macron saying he won’t join?TRUMP: Did he say that? Nobody wants him bc he’s going to be out of office very soon. If they feel hostile, I’ll put a 200% tariff on his wines & champagnes & he’ll join— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) 2026-01-20T05:21:07.205Z
“Oh, did he say that?”
by Steve Benen | Jan 20, 2026 | Maddowblog, Politics
There’s no legal requirement that American officials put their hands on a religious text during swearing-in ceremonies, but it’s a custom that’s existed for generations.
Because most U.S. officials have traditionally been Christians, there’s a norm that people take their oaths with a Bible (a custom Donald Trump bypassed when he neglected to put his hand on the Bible during his second inaugural), but given the rich diversity of faiths that’s long existed in the United States, plenty of officials from minority religious traditions have used their own sacred texts.
Evidently, Republican Sen. Tommy Tuberville isn’t comfortable with this.
On New Year’s Eve, the Alabama senator responded to a report on Zohran Mamdani being sworn in with the Quran at the New York City mayor’s inauguration. “The enemy is inside the gates,” Tuberville wrote via social media.
Nearly three weeks later, Tuberville did it again.
Highlighting a video clip of Lt. Gov. Ghazala Hashmi of Virginia being sworn into office with her hand on the Quran, the Republican used social media to push the same six word message: “The enemy is inside the gates.”
Tuberville didn’t elaborate, though the Alabaman’s missive wasn’t exactly subtle. It also generated a swift response from Democratic Sen. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, who responded to the Republican’s message with a condemnation published to Bluesky:
This is pure, unabashed bigotry. If a politician said this about any other faith, they would rightfully be run out of their party.
But this kind of despicable anti-Muslim rhetoric is so normalized that a sitting Senator uses it without consequence.
Van Hollen concluded that Tuberville’s anti-Muslim message represented “a stain on our Congress.”
This is the same Tuberville who
by Steve Benen | Jan 20, 2026 | Maddowblog, Politics
On Friday morning, at a White House event ostensibly about rural health care, Donald Trump mentioned that he was prepared to use trade tariffs to impose economic penalties on countries that stand in the way of his crusade to acquire Greenland. The president made the unscripted comment in passing, however, leading to some questions as to whether he seriously intended to follow through on this or not.
Those questions were soon answered: One day after floating the threat, Trump announced that he intends to impose a new 10% tariff on goods from Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Finland — countries that have long been allies of the United States — effective Feb. 1. According to the American president’s weird online declaration, the penalty will increase to 25% on June 1 unless his demands are met.
In Europe, where officials and the public have been increasingly confused about the Republican’s obsession, Trump’s latest escalation has generated accusations of betrayal, emergency meetings, growing talk of an unnecessary trade war, pointed reminders about international law, and sizable protests — including no shortage of hand-painted “Yankee, go home!” signs — in Greenland and Copenhagen.
In Washington, D.C., meanwhile, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent tried to defend the legality of Trump’s move by arguing on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” “The national emergency is avoiding a national emergency.” (Left unsaid: The American president is creating an emergency.)
But in case these circumstances didn’t seem quite ridiculous enough, Trump managed to take matters to a whole new level in a message he sent over the weekend to Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store, in which he
by Steve Benen | Jan 20, 2026 | Maddowblog, Politics
It’s not every day when a sitting federal judge refers to an incumbent American president as an “authoritarian,” so when it happens, it tends to raise some eyebrows. The Washington Post reported:
A federal judge Thursday decried what he said were ‘breathtaking’ constitutional violations by senior Trump administration officials and called the president an ‘authoritarian’ who expects everyone in the executive branch to ‘toe the line absolutely.’
In remarks laced with outrage and disbelief, U.S. District Judge William Young said Donald Trump and top officials have a “fearful approach” to freedom of speech that would seek to ‘exclude from participation everyone who doesn’t agree with them.’
At issue was a federal case dealing with the administration’s treatment of pro-Palestinian students. Young, appointed to the bench by Ronald Reagan, was unrestrained in his criticisms of the administration, declaring, “The big problem in this case is that the Cabinet secretaries and, ostensibly, the president of the United States, are not honoring the First Amendment.”
As part of a condemnation that accused Donald Trump of being an “authoritarian” — a word, Young said, he chose “carefully” — the jurist also concluded that Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Secretary of State Marco Rubio engaged in an “unconstitutional conspiracy to pick off certain people.”
“These Cabinet secretaries have failed in their sworn duty to uphold the Constitution,” Young added.
The judge’s outrage was striking, but it’s worth emphasizing that Young has plenty of company.
Last year, for example, U.S. District Judge John Coughenour, another Reagan appointee, not only rejected Trump’s executive order on birthright citizenship, he also took aim at the president’s twisted approach to the law.
“It has become ever more
by Steve Benen | Jan 19, 2026 | Maddowblog, Politics
Ahead of a White House press conference on autism in September, Donald Trump made a deliberate effort to hype the information he said he was eager to share. The president boasted the week before the event that he was poised to deliver an announcement that was “very, very big.” A day later, he added that the information he was ready to share was “so big.”
Those who tuned in to the White House announcement, however, quickly learned otherwise. Trump, standing alongside Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., instead stood at a podium and said, “Don’t take Tylenol” — 11 times.
Paul Offit, a pediatrician and vaccine researcher at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, told The Washington Post after the event, “That was the most dangerously irresponsible press conference in the realm of public health in American history.”
Undeterred, the president kept going in the weeks and months that followed, publishing an online screed to his social media platform two weeks ago that began, “PREGNANT WOMEN, DON’T USE TYLENOL UNLESS ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY, DON’T GIVE TYLENOL TO YOUR YOUNG CHILD FOR VIRTUALLY ANY REASON.”
It remains a mystery why Mr. “Inject Disinfectants” believes that he has the credibility and expertise needed to give Americans guidance on matters of public health, but for those interested in evidence, The New York Times reported over the weekend:
A scientific review of 43 studies on acetaminophen use during pregnancy concluded that there was no evidence that the painkiller increased the risk of autism or other neurodevelopmental disorders.
‘We found no clinically important increase in the risk of autism, A.D.H.D. or intellectual disability,’ Dr. Asma Khalil, a professor of obstetrics and maternal fetal
