by Steve Benen | Jan 12, 2026 | Maddowblog, Politics
It was in September when MS NOW was first to report on an undercover FBI operation from 2024, in which Tom Homan was recorded accepting $50,000 in cash after indicating he could help the agents — who were posing as business executives — win government contracts in a second Trump administration.
FBI and Justice Department officials planned to wait to see whether Homan would deliver on his alleged promise, but the case ultimately stalled after Donald Trump began his second presidential term and made Homan the White House border czar. In the late summer, Trump appointees officially closed the investigation after FBI Director Kash Patel requested a status update on the case.
The controversy, however, is ongoing.
On Dec. 30, MS NOW also reported that Homan was the subject of a bribery investigation, and DOJ officials believed he’d struggle to obtain a security clearance. Trump tapped him for a powerful office anyway; Homan didn’t receive a normal background check; and the border czar was eventually granted a security clearance.
Two weeks later, the controversial official sat down with NBC News’ Kristen Welker on “Meet the Press” and faced questions about the controversy.
WELKER: Where is that $50,000? Did you keep it?HOMAN: I didn’t take $50k from anybody & that’s a question for the FBI. Bottom line I did nothing illegal.WELKER: But was there $50k in the bag?HOMAN: I’m not addressing itWELKER: But did you keep the money?HOMAN: $50k is ridiculous— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) 2026-01-11T15:12:52.619Z
“Where is that $50,000?” the host asked. “Did you keep it or did you return it?”
Homan replied, “I didn’t take $50,000 from anybody, and that’s a question for the FBI.” He went
by Steve Benen | Jan 9, 2026 | Maddowblog, Politics
As Donald Trump considers a maximalist foreign policy vision rooted in his whims and “psychological” needs, it’s worth appreciating the degree to which the rest of the world has taken note of the president’s erratic radicalism. Consider some of the developments from the past week:
The leaders of France, Germany, Britain, Italy, Poland, Spain and Denmark issued a joint declaration this week that warned the United States that they would “not stop defending” the values of sovereignty and territorial integrity following Trump’s threats related to Greenland.
The U.S. faced a rare rebuke at an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council this week, where even our allies said Trump’s military offensive in Venezuela violated the U.N. charter and “chips away at the very foundation of international order.”
German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who has a largely ceremonial role, warned of a major global realignment this week, insisting that there had been a “breakdown of values by our most important partner, the USA, which helped build this world order.”
The Netherlands announced this week that it’s scaling back its participation in U.S.-led missions to counter drug trafficking in the Caribbean because of its opposition to the Trump administration’s deadly military operations against civilian boats. That came on the heels of a related announcement from Great Britain, which said it would stop intelligence sharing with the U.S. about boats in the Caribbean for the same reason.
If we look back just a few weeks earlier, Denmark’s military intelligence service for the first time also described the U.S. as a potential security risk.
In isolation, each of these stories was and is important, but taken together, the emerging picture
by Steve Benen | Jan 9, 2026 | Maddowblog, Politics
Secretary of State Marco Rubio told lawmakers in a classified briefing earlier this week that the White House is less interested in trying to acquire Greenland through military force and more interested in trying to buy the arctic island — which, by all accounts, is not currently for sale.
House Speaker Mike Johnson said soon after that he thought Rubio was kidding. Leading Trump administration officials — including Rubio — contradicted the Louisiana Republican and publicly confirmed that, no, actually, the White House really does want to buy Greenland.
That led to a great many questions, including a practical one: Who, exactly, is Donald Trump going to pay? Reuters shed some light on one possible answer (as part of a report that has not been independently verified by MS NOW):
U.S. officials have discussed sending lump sum payments to Greenlanders as part of a bid to convince them to secede from Denmark and potentially join the United States, according to four sources familiar with the matter.
While the exact dollar figure and logistics of any payment are unclear, U.S. officials, including White House aides, have discussed figures ranging from $10,000 to $100,000 per person, said two of the sources, who requested anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.
Because nothing says “America First” like writing generous checks to tens of thousands of Danish citizens.
As for why the president has made this such a priority, the Republican spoke to The New York Times this week about his need to acquire the island.
“Because that’s what I feel is psychologically needed for success,” Trump said. “I think that ownership gives you a thing that you can’t do, whether you’re talking
by Steve Benen | Jan 9, 2026 | Economy, Maddowblog, Politics
Expectations heading into this week showed projections of about 73,000 new jobs being created in the United States in December. As it turns out, according to the new report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the totals fell short of those expectations. CNBC News reported:
The U.S. labor market ended 2025 on a soft note, with job creation in December less than expected, according to a report Friday from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Nonfarm payrolls rose a seasonally adjusted 50,000 for the month, lower than the downwardly revised 56,000 in November and short of the Dow Jones estimate for 73,000. At the same time, the unemployment rate fell to 4.4%, compared to the forecast for 4.5%.
The improved jobless rate offers a small silver lining to an otherwise discouraging report, but even this data point needs context: When Donald Trump took office in January, the unemployment rate was 3.7%. In December, it was 4.4%.
Adding to the discouraging news, the manufacturing sector lost 8,000 jobs in December, extending a downturn that lasted much of the year.
As for the larger context, the latest report shows that the U.S. job market added 584,000 jobs in 2025, which might sound like a decent number until you compare it to recent history. In 2024, for example, a year in the Biden administration during which the incumbent president said the economy was terrible, the economy created more than 2 million jobs. A year earlier, the total was almost 2.6 million.
In fact, the job totals for 2025 were easily the worst in the United States since the Great Recession (excluding the job losses from the 2020 pandemic). In fact,
by Steve Benen | Jan 8, 2026 | Maddowblog, Politics
As this week got underway, Donald Trump whined online that the “Fake News Media refuses to talk about” the $600 billion in revenue generated by his trade tariffs. And later the president, who’s earned a reputation for making up numbers that make him happy, told House Republicans that the administration has “taken in $650 billion.”
These numbers were a little closer to reality than earlier claims (last September, he told U.S. military leaders that his tariffs had taken in “trillions of dollars”), but the reason that news outlets “refuse to talk about” Trump’s made-up statistics is that they’re not true. According to the Trump administration’s own estimates, tariffs generated roughly $200 billion in revenue in 2025.
Complicating matters, the Republican continues to make new plans to spend money he doesn’t have. The president published this message to his social media platform on Wednesday afternoon:
After long and difficult negotiations with Senators, Congressmen, Secretaries, and other Political Representatives, I have determined that, for the Good of our Country, especially in these very troubled and dangerous times, our Military Budget for the year 2027 should not be $1 Trillion Dollars, but rather $1.5 Trillion Dollars. This will allow us to build the ‘Dream Military’ that we have long been entitled to and, more importantly, that will keep us SAFE and SECURE, regardless of foe.
He added that this massive increase in military spending is possible “because of Tariffs, and the tremendous Income that they bring.”
Trump concluded his message by boasting that, under his vision, he can boost the Pentagon’s budget by an additional $500 billion while simultaneously paying down the national debt.
At this point, we could
by Steve Benen | Jan 8, 2026 | Maddowblog, Politics
As the public started to learn about the news out of Minneapolis, where an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent shot and killed an unarmed woman, the Trump administration wasted little time in settling on a narrative: The victim, a 37-year-old mom named Renee Nicole Good, was the villain of the story.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem wasn’t alone in the rhetorical push, but she took a leadership role in the propaganda campaign. Talking to reporters at an event in Texas, the South Dakota Republican insisted that the ICE officer was responding to “an act of domestic terrorism.”
Noem later floated a weird conspiracy theory, in which she argued that there’s some kind of “coordinated” effort underway in which “people are being trained” to use vehicles as weapons.
The DHS secretary likely knew local officials were already discrediting her claims as she made them. Similarly, Noem probably realized the video evidence of what transpired left little doubt that her and the Trump administration’s twisted version of events was false.
But the secretary had a counter-narrative to sell, which she pushed without regard for accuracy, decency or concern for her vanishing credibility.
This did not go unnoticed on Capitol Hill. NOTUS reported:
Democratic Rep. Robin Kelly announced on Wednesday plans to introduce articles of impeachment against Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, following a deadly shooting involving immigration officers in Minneapolis earlier in the day.
“Secretary Kristi Noem is an incompetent leader, a disgrace to our democracy, and I am impeaching her for obstruction of justice, violation of public trust, and self-dealing,” Kelly said in a press release. “It’s one thing to be incompetent and dangerous, but it’s impeachable to
