Rogue State

Week of January 2-8, 2026

Welcome to TRACKING THE CRISIS, a weekly round-up from The Democracy Collaborative tracking the administrative, legislative, and other actions of the Trump Administration as well as the many forms of legal and movement response from across a broad range of social, political, and economic actors. TDC is providing this service for collective informational purposes, as a tool for understanding the times during a period of disorientingly rapid flux and change in the U.S. political economy. This round-up is produced by humans, not by Artificial Intelligence. TDC should not be understood as endorsing or otherwise any of the specific content of the information round-up.

TRUMP TRACKER: Administration actions

• ICE agent carries out summary execution of 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis; protests break out across the U.S. as tensions between communities, feds reach boiling point. Communities across the country that have endured waves of ICE raids over the last several months are reeling this week after videos surfaced on Wednesday, December 7, showing the murder of 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good by an ICE agent in Minneapolis. Good, a devoted Christian who described herself as a “poet, writer, wife and mom” on Instagram, moved to Minneapolis last year with her wife and 6-year-old son; and, as ICE raids escalated throughout the city, volunteered with her local ICE Watch organization as a legal observer out of “caring for her neighbors,” according to state and local officials. Video of the incident from three different angles examined in detail by ABC, CNN and the New York Times initially show Good’s SUV stopped in front of ICE vehicles on Portland Avenue, as community members gather around to observe. About 22 seconds before the shooting, two agents exited their truck and approached Good’s vehicle as another woman, identified as Good’s wife, filmed them on her phone. Ordering Good to get out of the car, one agent is seen putting his hands on the vehicle’s door handle as if to force it open; Good backs up slowly, stops, and had just turned her wheels away from where the agents are standing as one of agents, later identified as Jonathan Ross, fired at least three shots into the vehicle which suddenly lurched forward before hitting a parked car on the other side of the street. Good’s wife and shocked community members are heard screaming “you shot her in the face!” and “murderer!” at Ross, as he is filmed briefly inspecting the car before calmly walking away.
  
  The killing follows a surge of federal activity in Minneapolis this week as the Trump Administration deployed nearly 2,000 agents to the city in what DHS advertised on X as “the largest DHS immigration operation ever.” The crackdown on the Somali community in Minnesota – about 87% of whom are U.S. citizens by birth or naturalization – was ordered after federal investigations of an alleged multi-million-dollar pandemic fraud scheme involving a local nonprofit, initiated after allegations from a right-wing content creator went viral, has resulted in 78 indictments so far, primarily against Somalis. Trump has singled out the Twin Cities’ Somali community over the last several weeks, unleashing a slew of xenophobic rants calling Somalis ‘garbage’ and expressing his desire to throw them out of the country. DHS issued a statement shortly after the incident to confirm that ICE had shot and killed a woman, but declared that the shooting was justified, calling Good a “rioter” who had “weaponized her vehicle and was attempting to run over federal agents” in what Kristi Noem described as an “act of domestic terrorism.” Administration officials and MAGA influencers quickly reinforced the narrative in their echo chambers, as did Trump himself, referencing footage of the incident filmed from a distant and obscured angle that had circulated among MAGA groups, as numerous AI deepfakes and misrepresentations flooded the internet. JD Vance called Good’s death “a tragedy of her own making,” while Stephen Miller repeated the spurious claim that ICE agents were entitled to “federal immunity” from prosecution. Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey appeared visibly shaken at a press conference later on Wednesday afternoon as he excoriated DHS’ claim of self-defense, saying that “having seen the video myself, I want to tell everybody directly… that is bulls**t”; concluding his remarks by telling ICE in no uncertain terms to “get the f**k out of Minneapolis.” Minnesota Governor Tim Walz announced that he had issued a ‘warning order’ to the National Guard to be ready to support local law enforcement; walking a fine line, he urged Minnesotans to “remain peaceful” and refrain from “unsafe or illegal actions” while also encouraging people across the country to “exercise your First Amendment rights” to protest. Addressing Noem and Trump directly, he said “we do not need any more help from the federal government… you’ve done enough.” Walz also condemned the DHS account of the shooting, shaking his head as he mused “maybe this is their McCarthy moment,” before repeating Joseph Welch’s famous quote: “Have you no decency?”
  
  Controversy over competing interpretations of Good’s death and motive continued even after Trump appeared to backpedal on his claims after watching the close-angle video with New York Times reporters, and independent frame-by-frame scrutiny of the videos definitively contradicted Noem’s narrative, which had rapidly taken on the character of a classic MAGA disinformation campaign. Speaking at the White House, JD Vance blasted the media for publishing headlines pointing out the contradiction as the video actually shows Good turning away from the agents before she was shot; he yelled at reporters for failing to emphasize that “this was an attack on law and order” and called Good a “deranged leftist,” accusing her of conspiring with a “broader left-wing network to attack, to doxx, to assault and make it impossible for our ICE officers to do their job.” Other Republicans fixated on Good’s use of ‘she/her pronouns’ on social media as evidence of her radicalization as a ‘terrorist’, while Noem insisted Ross did his duty and “followed his training” even after leaked comments from DHS officials indicated that Ross had clearly violated the department’s use-of-force protocol. On Thursday afternoon, Minnesota’s Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, which had opened a joint investigation into the incident with the FBI, issued a statement announcing their ‘reluctant’ withdrawal from the case, citing that the U.S. Attorney’s office had determined that the investigation “would now be led solely by the FBI” and cut off state investigators’ access to all case materials. Insider sources later revealed to independent journalist Radley Balko that the Trump-appointed U.S. Attorney for Minnesota, Daniel Rosen, had personally intervened to bar the FBI from working with state law enforcement; meaning, says Balko, that “there will be no independent police agency investigating the shooting.” Democrats on the Homeland Security Committee immediately raised concerns that “the cover-up of the murder of a U.S. citizen” was in the works. When asked by reporters at a press conference later in the day, Noem claimed that Minnesota’s law enforcement agency “had no jurisdiction” over the incident that took place in Minneapolis. Governor Tim Walz held his own press conference expressing grave concern and calling for federal accountability over the move, saying he felt it would be “very, very difficult to get a fair outcome” given that the Administration had “already passed judgement” on Good, saying that Noem had “basically acted as judge, jury and executioner yesterday” and has “stood and told you things that are verifiably false.” He concluded the presser by quoting Orwell: “The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command."  

  Ken Klippenstein, who leaked news of the Trump Administration’s NSPM-7 memo that criminalized antifascists and opposition of any kind – including ‘obstructing ICE’ – to the Trump agenda in September, warned on Thursday that the DHS narrative of Good’s murder “has NSPM-7 written all over it.” Michelle Goldberg in the New York Times writes that Good – for whom MAGA influencers have coined the term “Affluent White Female Urban Liberal” or ‘AWFUL’ – is being held up as a warning to the rest of the Trump Administration's opponents. Good – who was killed less than one mile from the spot where George Floyd was murdered by police officer Derek Chauvin – is not the first person to have been killed by ICE; the Economist lists her as the 14th person to be shot by ICE since Trump took office, and by the New York Times’ count, since September, nine people in five states have been shot by ICE agents – all nine having been shot in their cars. Speaking to The Intercept, Christopher Parente, lawyer for the woman who was shot 5 times by Border Patrol in Chicago last October, said that Good’s killing came as no surprise to him or his client; “of course it happened,” they both said, “and it will continue to happen.” The Border Patrol agent who shot her, Charles Exum, who bragged about his ‘shooting skills’ in text messages, has not faced any prosecution or discipline to date and continues to work for CBP. Parente noted that the Administration labeled his client “a terrorist from day one,” and warned that “I would caution anybody reading any press releases or statements about this from the government right now to be very cautious.” The message the Trump Administration wants to send with this case, journalist Wajahat Ali avers, is very clear: “If Renee Good is ‘a domestic terrorist’ according to Kristi Noem, it means the label is meaningless and will be used by the Trump Administration to murder anyone it wants – from Venezuelan fishermen to anti-Trump protestors. Eyes wide open, friends.”

• Border Patrol agents shoot two people in Portland a day after Renee Nicole Good’s murder in Minneapolis; local officials call for ICE to leave the city. As protests over Good’s murder raged across the country on Thursday, two more people were shot by Border Patrol agents outside a medical facility in Portland during what DHS described as a ‘targeted’ stop of a vehicle allegedly carrying suspected members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Agua. Police sources told local reporters that the victims were a man and a woman, one of whom was wounded in the leg and other in the chest, and were being treated at a nearby hospital. DHS claimed that after being pulled over, the couple “weaponized their vehicle” and “tried to run them over,” at which time agents “shot them in self-defense.” Local police could not verify the course of events. An eyewitness to the shooting, who was seeking care in the medical office at the time, said that he saw the couple’s red truck boxed in by CBP agents who had followed them into the parking lot and approached the vehicle; one agent began pounding on the truck’s window, at which time the witness noted that the driver “appeared scared.” The truck then backed up away from the agents, striking the car behind them at least twice, before turning and speeding away as agents fired at least five shots; another witness also heard the truck peeling out of the parking lot as gunshots were fired. The couple, identified by DHS on Friday as Venezuelan nationals Luis David Nico Moncada and Yorlenys Betzabeth Zambrano-Contreras, were apprehended about 40 blocks away from the scene of the shooting and were taken to separate hospitals for treatment. Hundreds of protestors who gathered at the South Portland ICE facility were forcibly dispersed by Portland police, who arrested six people for disorderly conduct as protestors called on them to arrest immigration officers instead. 

  DHS called both Moncada and Zambrano-Contreras ‘criminal illegal aliens’ that “Biden had let loose on American streets”; although no evidence has been made public, they claimed Moncada and Zambrano-Contreras were “suspected Tren de Agua affiliates” whom they claimed were allegedly tied to a recent shooting in Portland. Police had no comment on DHS’ allegations about the Venezuelan couple’s affiliations with Tren de Agua or their criminal histories, although reporters confirmed that no federal charges had been filed against them as of Friday morning. Portland Mayor Keith Wilson appeared alongside Governor Tina Kotek at a press conference to condemn the shooting, which he said threw their community into a “moment of fear, confusion, and heartbreak” just a day after Renee Nicole Good’s murder; and said “Portland is not a training ground for militarized agents.” He also expressed doubt regarding DHS’ account of events – which echoed nearly verbatim the narrative that supposedly justified Good’s killing – and said, “There was a time when we could take them at their word; that time has long passed." He described being on a call earlier with Minneapolis Mayor Frey in which they commiserated over the twin shootings, and called on ICE to “halt all operations” in the city until a full and transparent investigation could be conducted. Oregon State Senator Kayse Jama echoed Frey’s sentiments, telling federal immigration enforcement to “get the hell out of our city.” The Multnomah County Board of Commissioners voted unanimously on Thursday to extend the emergency declaration that sought to limit federal overreach, as they decried the shooting and said, “enough is enough. The terror and violence ICE is causing in our neighborhoods must end now.” The FBI will be leading an investigation into this shooting as well; Portland police chief Bob Day said he did not know the facts of the case, if it was ‘immigration-related’, or if the couple was related to a previous shooting or any other local crime; he said, “We don’t know who those individuals are”; nor did he have any information that could confirm that Tren de Agua was active at all in Portland. Late Thursday, Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield, a Democrat, announced his own investigation into the incident, focused on whether any federal officer “acted outside the scope of their lawful authority.”

• ‘Donroe Doctrine’ off to a blustery start as Trump threatens more countries; Delcy Rodriguez concedes oil to ensure survival of the Bolivarian project. In the aftermath of the January 3rd abduction of Nicolas Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores by U.S. troops, Trump lauded the operation as a ‘perfect attack’ as he touted the ‘Donroe Doctrine’ at a Mar-A-Lago press conference over the weekend. Explicitly citing the nineteenth century Monroe Doctrine to which many observers have compared his emergent foreign policy, Trump, shedding last year’s “Peace President” persona, embraced the ‘aggressive ambition’ of a muscular neocolonial foreign policy, telling reporters that the United States will ‘run’ Venezuela for the foreseeable future and threatening other nations in the hemisphere. After the attack on Venezuela, Rubio spent the weekend firing warning shots at Cuba, telling NBC News’ “Meet the Press” that he believes Cuba is “in a lot of trouble,” and suggesting it may be next on the regime change agenda (a prominent prize among Rubio’s south Florida coterie). Trump took digs at Gustavo Petro – the Colombian president who excoriated Trump at the United Nations over Gaza in September, and was the first head of state to denounce the attack in Venezuela – calling him a ‘sick man’ who ‘makes cocaine for the United States” and warning, “he better watch his ass.” Speaking from Air Force One on Sunday, Trump renewed threats toward Mexico, saying “we’re going to have to do something” about the cartels, prompting a rebuke and re-assertion of sovereignty from Claudia Sheinbaum. Greenland became its own latest chapter in the growing rift between Trump and Europe; and although much of the new National Security Strategy was about turning away from the quagmires of the Middle East, Trump renewed his bellicose tone towards Iran after Netanyahu’s White House visit last week and amid growing unrest and street protests inside the country, saying the government was prepared to attack Iran if the government harmed protestors. It appeared that in the wake of the successful operation in Venezuela, regime change was back on the agenda.

  
  WIRED magazine, however, observes – if Trump’s ‘retro’ approach proceeds in keeping with historical echoes of past U.S. military engagements in Latin America – that generally, ”the U.S. is good at coups, bad at what follows.” The New York Times published an account of the early-morning operation on Tuesday, revealing that the U.S. military did not quite have as much of a walk in the park as was touted by Trump and Rubio. After U.S. “Growler” cyberattack aircraft cut power and jammed communications in Caracas, about 150 U.S. military aircraft flew towards Caracas from more than 20 bases in the region and came under fire from Venezuelan forces; at least one helicopter was hit and nearly crashed as it approached Miraflores, and Delta Force troops encountered and engaged an intense firefight with Venezuelan and Cuban members of Maduro’s honor guard before completing its mission. The Venezuelan government this week confirmed its final death toll at 100 lives lost, including 32 members of the Cuban military and at least two civilians, and Rodriguez declared a seven-day period of national mourning for the ‘young martyrs’ who fell while defending the president. On Saturday, January 4, hundreds of thousands of Chavistas took to the streets to demonstrate support for Maduro as Vice President Delcy Rodriguez activated a decree signed by Maduro in September to declare a ‘state of external commotion,’ a special state of exception that empowers the executive to activate the Bolivarian Armed Forces and civilian militias for guerilla resistance and ensures continuity of essential services in the event of an invasion. She also rallied the people to continue resisting in the streets and condemned the kidnapping of Maduro and Flores, demanding their return as she reasserted Venezuelan sovereignty, vowing defiantly that “Venezuela will never be the colony of any empire.”
  
  On Saturday night, the Venezuelan Supreme Court ruled that Vice President Delcy Rodriguez should assume the role of ‘acting’ or ‘interim’ President under Article 233 of the Bolivarian Constitution, a provision which allows for the continuity of government and avoids a dangerous power vacuum by endowing Rodriguez with the powers of a head of state for a 90-day renewable term while maintaining Maduro’s legal status as president under a “situation of impediment caused by external aggression.” As TeleSUR explains, “Kidnapping does not create a vacancy; it creates a usurpation of the president’s freedom that the Venezuelan state does not recognize as legitimate for the purposes of political succession.”  As acting head of state, Rodriguez walked a tightrope, keeping the people activated on the streets while maintaining channels of negotiation with Rubio and Trump to shift the ground towards more ‘balanced and respectful’ diplomatic relations; a move which, according to former Chavez advisor Eva Golinger, may have been seen as the only option for the survival of the government and the Bolivarian project given the scale of the threat, and a course Maduro had previously attempted to pursue with the United States. Maduro and Flores appeared in court on Monday and pleaded not guilty to charges of narcoterrorism; Maduro, represented by Julian Assange attorney Barry Pollack, told the judge he was still considered president of Venezuela and had been ‘illegally captured’ in his home, while Flores’ attorney said she was seriously injured in the attack and required medical attention. Their next hearing was set for March 17.
  
  To the consternation of many Miami exiles, Trump recognized Rodriguez’s authority as interim president and has left the Bolivarian government intact; Rubio appeared to walk back the claim that the United States would ‘run’ Venezuela, instead endorsing a ‘three-stage’ plan for transition and saying that for now, the United States would not interfere in the day-to-day affairs of the country other than enforcing the oil ‘quarantine’ and taking control of oil sales. In doing so, he deliberately sidelined opposition figure Maria Corina Machado, who had “gone out of her way to please Trump” in the months since she won the Nobel Peace Prize that Trump coveted, and had expected to take a leadership role in a transitional government. At Mar-A-Lago, Trump told reporters that Machado was “a very nice woman” but “doesn’t have the support” or “sufficient respect” within the country to be able to maintain stability, especially given that in the last few months, up to 15 million Venezuelans have signed up to defend the country through armed struggle in the event of a ground invasion or a destabilizing event. Trump signaled his willingness to work with Rodriguez as long as she played ball, threatening that she could pay a “very big price, perhaps bigger than Maduro” if she fails to respect the Administration’s wishes. The decision also appears to have been informed by the opinion of longtime U.S. officials who, while acknowledging their ideological opposition to the Marxist labor lawyer and militant Chavista, still respected her technocratic capabilities in the running of economic affairs, especially in the management of PDVSA. According to El Pais, CIA officials also apparently advised the Trump Administration that Machado would have extreme difficulty in controlling the military, due to the high degree of ideological and structural embeddedness of the “civic-military unity” built into the Bolivarian military and state institutions.
  
  On Monday, January 5, the military re-affirmed its loyalty to Rodriguez as she formally assumed the office of Acting President, and thousands of women marched in the streets of Caracas to show Rodriguez she is “not alone” and that she has an “army of women who will accompany her as she continues working so that our people feel cared for.” For her part, Rodriguez, accompanied by Maduro’s son Nicolas Maduro Guerra, again denounced the kidnapping of Maduro and Flores and re-affirmed the continuity of the Bolivarian government, announcing through the Foreign Ministry that Venezuela would “confront the aggression through diplomatic means” in order to preserve sovereignty.  Urging national unity, she focused her domestic efforts on legislation aimed at a “shift towards a non-rentier economy,” strengthening the population’s communal production and defensive capabilities and reducing dependence on oil. She touted the achievements of the agri-food sector, quoting a report that it had produced enough for a national reserve that could feed the nation for 111 days in an emergency. On Tuesday, Rodriguez conceded control over Venezuelan oil to the Trump Administration as part of a “diplomatic exploratory process” with the United States, and released five political prisoners as a ‘peace gesture’ as the Foreign Ministry and State Department opened a dialogue on re-opening their respective embassies. On Friday, Trump announced he would be cancelling a planned second wave of attacks on Venezuela, crediting its ‘cooperation,’ and said he was ‘getting along very well’ with Rodriguez and the Venezuelan government. Trump also appeared to back off of his threats to Colombia on Wednesday night after a phone call with Petro that was brokered by Sen. Rand Paul, and the two heads of state agreed to meet in Washington next week. For now, Petro said he will wait to “see the consequences of the reestablishment of diplomatic conversation”; while in the borderlands between Colombia and Venezuela, FARC leader Nestor Gregorio Vera called for a united front between guerrilla groups to resist U.S. interventionism.
  
  In the meantime, Trump Administration officials scrambled to push forward with Trump’s sweeping plans to rebuild Venezuelan oil and gas infrastructure, despite a lack of enthusiasm from U.S. oil companies that, while briefly enjoying a surge in stock prices after Maduro’s ouster, have so far expressed reluctance due to the elevated costs and risks associated with upgrading Venezuela’s antiquated oil infrastructure, which could run up to $58 billion over the next decade just to get to pre-sanctions levels. Companies are also disincentivized by the current low price of oil, which would dip even further if massive amounts of Venezuelan oil were to come online. Trump met with top oil executives on Friday to discuss the matter.

• Rogue State: Trump blows up rules-based international order as he pulls United States out of dozens of UN treaty orgs, antagonizes Russia, and presses to annex Greenland, threatening intra-NATO conflict. Trump began 2026 with a number of “bold but seemingly ill-considered assertions of strength” that challenged both the ‘rules-based international order’ and the ‘America First’ orientation of his own base. On Wednesday, January 7, the White House announced that it would be withdrawing the United States from a total of 66 international organizations and bodies associated with the United Nations. In a statement, the White House said it will withdraw and/or halt funding for these international bodies because they “operate contrary to U.S. national interests, security, economic prosperity, or sovereignty.” Of the sixty-six treaties and organizations, perhaps the most prominent and consequential was the withdrawal of the United States from the United Nations Framework on Climate Change, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and the Green Climate Fund, which is the primary financial mechanism for the UNFCCC’s efforts to aid nations most impacted by the effects of global warming. The move, Politico reports, “could have destabilizing effects on international programs to reduce climate pollution.” Officials warned that the abandonment of “the world’s leading climate, biodiversity, and scientific institutions” by the world’s second biggest greenhouse gas emitter could have serious consequences that eventually “threatens all life on Earth”. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement, “Our nation will no longer fund radical organizations like the GCF whose goals run contrary to the fact that affordable, reliable energy is fundamental to economic growth and poverty reduction.”  Other bodies included the Department of Economic and Social Affairs, the International Law Commission, the Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Violence Against Children, and the UN Democracy Fund. UN Climate chief Simon called the move “a colossal own goal which will leave the U.S. less secure and less prosperous.” Jean Su of the Center for Biological Diversity said “Letting this lawless move stand could shut the U.S. out of climate diplomacy forever.” Marco Rubio said the UNFCCC and other organizations “constrain American sovereignty.”

  After his act of aggression on Venezuela, Trump’s go-it-alone approach to foreign policy still appeared consistent with his recent embrace of the Monroe Doctrine, which many observers perhaps assumed would mean that Trump’s vision was to ‘carve up’ the world, perhaps with Russia and China, and that his neocolonial ambitions would largely be focused on his own hemisphere. Which is why the revival of his rhetoric about taking over Greenland this week, including floating a ‘military’ option to acquire the island, left U.S. allies stunned and further eroded the stability of the NATO alliance. Given the aggressive nature of his actions in Venezuela just days before, Trump’s reiteration of his desire for the territory was taken much more seriously – and was much more acknowledged as a direct threat – by the leaders of Denmark and other European countries. Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen took a somber stance Monday as she warned the Trump Administration that an attempted takeover of Greenland would amount to the end of the NATO alliance, as the heads of European nations and Canada rallied behind her in support. Residents of Greenland, particularly the island’s indigenous Inuit people, responded strongly to Trump’s threats, and some took the moment to renew calls for independence. Inuit parliamentarian Nivi Rosing’s message to Trump was firm: “I know Donald Trump is a businessman. But Greenland is not a product. We are a people.” Canada’s Indigenous Governor General Mary Simon announced plans to visit Greenland in early February, where she is expected to open a diplomatic mission.
  
  Trump insisted that “we need Greenland” in order to provide NATO with strategic defenses against Russia and China, although experts have taken note of Trump’s desire to mine and control its rare earth mineral resources, as well as possible shipping routes that have opened up as the ice cap retreats due to global warming. Greenlanders are still dealing with the literal fallout from two U.S. military bases that had been established there during World War Two, and toxic chemicals from oil, asbestos, and undetonated dynamite still seep into the soil. An Inuit resident angrily pointed out that more places will suffer a similar fate or worse were the United States allowed to take over and establish mining operations. One Inuit resident said “You people left a disgusting mess for us… and it’s there just polluting everything.” Later in the week, Marco Rubio told reporters that the ‘military option’ rhetoric was intended to scare Denmark into selling the territory to the United States, as Karoline Leavitt attempted to reassure Europe that Trump remained committed to the alliance, and was holding “active discussions” with his national security team around purchasing the island. European leaders banded together to speak as a unified bloc as they responded to Trump that “Greenland is not for sale.” Trump escalated his rhetoric to all-caps rants about NATO on Truth Social as the week went on, and as the reality of a possible military confrontation sank in, European leaders began to rethink their strategy of appeasement and flattery towards Trump and weigh the prospect of having to defend Europe on their own on two fronts, once again: fending off Putin to the East, and a possible intra-NATO conflict to the West. At a closed-door meeting in Brussels on Thursday, European members of NATO agreed to send military assets to the Arctic to beef up their defensive presence. Danish and Greenlandic envoys reached out to Rubio, who agreed to meet with them next week; Republicans in Congress tried to downplay the likelihood of adversarial actions from the United States, but they were immediately undermined by Rubio as well as Leavitt, who used Venezuela as an example of the lengths Trump would go to annex the territory. 
  

  Trump’s provocation of Russia this week did not help to ease the tension. On Wednesday, January 7, U.S. forces seized the oil tanker Marinera, which was sailing under a Russian flag and was being escorted by the Russian navy. The ship had left Venezuela several weeks before under the unregistered name Bella 1, and had been sanctioned by the United States as a ‘ghost ship’ smuggling sanctioned oil out of Venezuela. After being pursued by U.S. Coast Guard ships for two weeks, the crew painted a Russian flag on the side of the hull and reportedly called out to Russian contacts for help, and the next day, the ship had been renamed and registered under the Russian flag. On New Years’ Eve, the Kremlin sent a formal diplomatic request to the United States to halt its pursuit of the ship, which was now sailing under Russia’s maritime authority. The Coast Guard continued to pursue the vessel all the way into the North Atlantic, and on Tuesday, Russia deployed a navy submarine to escort the ship to Russian waters. On Wednesday, Coast Guard officers and Navy SEALs boarded the vessel, which was found to be empty. Russian officials condemned the seizure, with its Transport Ministry accusing the U.S. of violating international law by seizing a legitimately flagged ship in international waters; Russian lawmaker Andrei Klishas decried the action, accusing the United States of “engaging in outright piracy on the high seas.” The Russian navy submarine escorting the ship had reportedly stayed in the area, but kept its distance to avert a military confrontation between the two powers. On Thursday, the Russian Foreign Ministry accused the Trump Administration for using the sanctions to ‘frame the seizure’ of the tanker as a claim on Venezuelan oil, calling the move an “utterly cynical” reflection of “neo-colonial ambitions.” Saying the seizure could “only lead to a further escalation of military and political tensions in the Atlantic region,” he added that “Washington’s willingness to generate acute international crisis situations, including in relation to already extremely strained Russian-American relations, which are burdened by disagreements from past years, is a cause for regret and concern."
  
  Putin himself has stayed silent on the issue; Former Trump adviser Fiona Hill revealed that in 2019, Putin had approached Trump with a deal: he would “hand Venezuela” to the United States in exchange for letting Russia take Ukraine. Overnight on Friday, Russia launched a massive missile attack on Kyiv, including the launch of a hypersonic missile at a target in western Ukraine and a drone swarm striking Zelenskyy’s hometown, in an action widely believed to be retaliation for the alleged strike on Putin’s home, and a ‘warning to the West’ over the provocations and stalling peace talks less than a day after Trump agreed, after months of reluctance, to commit U.S. forces to provide security guarantees for Ukraine, bragging that “Putin fears the U.S., but not Europe”; and that with the agreement, he felt “strongly” that Putin would not invade Ukraine again. On Friday, U.S. forces captured a fifth oil tanker in the Caribbean, which Trump characterized as ‘semi-Russian’; he appeared to be openly taunting Putin to stop buying sanctioned oil by telling him directly that “the U.S. is open for business.” Meanwhile, Sen. Lindsey Graham revealed that Trump had “greenlit” a bipartisan bill imposing a 500% tariff on countries that knowingly purchase oil or uranium from Russia as a bid to force Putin to the table, and as a warning to India and Iran. Also on Friday, warships from China, Iran, and Russia joined the South African Navy off the coast of Cape Town for a series of voluntary joint military exercises among members of the ‘BRICS Plus’ trade bloc. The week-long exercise, which had been scheduled for late last year but was postponed, was named “The Will For Peace 2026” and touted by South Africa as “a vital response” to rising maritime tensions. In case there was any doubt about the message it sent, South Africa’s joint task force commander said explicitly that more than an exercise, it was a “statement of intent among the BRICS group of nations” and “a demonstration of our collective resolve to work together… In an increasingly complex maritime environment, cooperation such as this is not an option, it is essential.” The same day, Trump doubled down on annexing Greenland, saying the United States needs to “own” Greenland to prevent Russia or China from taking it; giving an ultimatum to the Danish, he said they can do it the “easy way or the hard way,” but his Administration will take action on Greenland, “whether they like it or not.”
  

MOVEMENT TRACKER

• Protests erupt nationwide, communities double down on defense and mutual aid after the murder of Renee Nicole Good. In the hours and days after ICE agent Jonathan Ross murdered Renee Nicole Good, protests erupted around the scene of the shooting and, within hours, in dozens of cities across the country as communities who have endured months of militarized incursions from federal immigration enforcement – in which agents have abducted people off the street, separated families, violently repressed protests and terrorized immigrant families into hiding – boiled over in anger at the ‘extrajudicial killing’ of a U.S. citizen in broad daylight. People marched in Seattle, Tulsa, Los Angeles, Detroit, Sacramento, Philadelphia, Portland, Atlanta, and in New York City, where activists felt the change in administration as they were freely able to march through the streets unpermitted. Thousands in Minneapolis gathered to remember Good at a vigil on Wednesday, January 7, the morning after the shooting, to create a makeshift memorial overflowing with flowers. Among them were members of the Somali community who came to pay respects to the woman who gave her life defending their community; others came to quote Mayor Frey and send a message to ICE to “get the f**k out” of their neighborhood. The No Kings Coalition called for nationwide protests over the weekend, and events were organized and scheduled in over 1,000 cities in less than 48 hours. The thousands of protestors who marched in Minneapolis are bracing for and ready to resist the Trump Administration’s new wave of 1,500 additional ICE officers expected next week. The New Republic sat down with Indivisible’s Ezra Levin to discuss the general mood of the ‘normie’ protestor; he conveyed a pervasive sense, even among new activists, that the Democratic Party did little to help and much to demobilize, and indicated that the moment now calls for a powerful grassroots movement that will pose the necessary challenges to make or break the political leadership.
  

• Communities step up mutual aid and community defense networks in the wake of the Good shooting, aided by actions and policies from local officials. Many communities across the country are stepping up to protect and care for their neighbors in the wake of this tragedy. A post on Facebook shares an expansive list of the many things happening in Minneapolis outside of protests, as businesses, churches, neighborhoods, nonprofits and schools are banding together and coming up with ways to keep vulnerable community members safe and support their basic needs as a new wave of ICE enforcement surges into the city. Renee Nicole Good’s wife, Becca, shared an emotional message of gratitude after the GoFundMe for her wife’s funeral expenses topped out at $1.5 million, and encouraged people to donate to others in need. In Virginia, communities are building safety nets to help ‘fear-saturated’ immigrant communities, building mutual aid “from commissary to carpooling.” In Hillsboro, Oregon, where high school students walked out last month to protest ICE raids last month, an underground group has developed a secret food delivery system for immigrant families, utilizing code names, encrypted messages, and other anti-surveillance methods. In Milwaukee, the local Community Defense Network has partnered with the Muslim community to share their experiences and prepare the community with best practices to keep everyone safe from ICE agents in the city. Rapid response networks from the San Francisco Bay Area to Eastern Iowa are experiencing a surge in interest for immigrant rights and defense trainings, and are expanding their community training offerings to more communities throughout the state.

• Elected local, state, and federal officials stand up for their communities. Democratic state and local officials in Minnesota are combining their voices with officials from Good’s home state of Missouri to demand answers and accountability from the federal government; Rep. Ilhan Omar, who has been singled out as a target of Trump’s attacks so often she has described it as a “creepy obsession,” said the attack on Good was an “attack on all Americans,” to whom she felt a heavy sense of responsibility; saying, “I am much more than a representative to these communities, I am one of them, and so we are all collectively hanging on to one another and standing by each other.” The day after Good’s killing, her fellow Congresswoman, Tennessee Rep. Gabby Salinas, introduced House Bill 1482 that would designate schools and churches as safe havens by law. Philadelphia Sheriff Rochelle Bilal struck out in anger at ICE at a press conference with District Attorney Larry Krasner to condemn the shooting, calling ICE officers “made-up, fake, wannabe law enforcement” whose conduct violates both “legal law” and “moral law,” and asserted that if ICE agents commit crimes in Philadelphia, they would be subject to arrest and prosecution, declaring, “You don’t want this smoke, because we will bring it.” In New York City, democratic socialist Mayor Mamdani spared no words on an appearance on CNN, calling the incident “murder” ahead of a meeting with DHS’s Kristi Noem. He reasserted New York City’s sanctuary status, saying he had“made it clear to everyone within my city government – and that extends to NYPD – that we are going to uphold our sanctuary city policies… We are going to adhere to them, that we are not here to assist ICE agents in their work." Noem expressed her disappointment at a press conference on Thursday, reporting that talks between DHS and the New York City government “are not going well” compared to the “productive discussion” she knows he had with Trump, and that she hoped the Mamdani administration would not “harbor criminals” in the city. Mamdani, appearing on CNN again hours later, doubled down on what he said, not only calling the Minneapolis shooting “murder” again, but elaborated on it by saying the tragedy was the result of a “year of cruelty” from Trump, Noem, and their entire Administration. He also blasted Trump for the illegal abduction of Venezuelan President Maduro; Trump almost looked a bit hurt as he talked about being “surprised” by Mamdani’s “unusual” remark, saying of the criticism of his “tremendous victory”: “He hit me a little bit… I thought ‘Gee, you could have waited at least a month’… I do get along with him, he’s a nice guy.”

• Movements across Latin America show up to defend Venezuelan sovereignty, honor the fallen in the wake of Maduro’s kidnapping. On Tuesday, December 7, Interim President Delcy Rodriguez declared a week of mourning for the 100 Venezuelan and Cuban lives that were lost during the January 3rd attack by the U.S. military to kidnap Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores, sharing a moment of grief with Cuba as they stood “united in honor and struggle.” Western media, having focused primarily on the exile community, has maintained a near blackout on the response of popular movements in Venezuela and throughout Latin America as massive demonstrations in Caracas and beyond have condemned U.S. military intervention and demanded Maduro’s return as well as respect for Venezuelan sovereignty, and popular movements follow developments with anxiety and vigilance. More than 1,200 political leaders across South America reaffirmed continental solidarity and ‘revolutionary unity’ with Venezuela, remaining “of one heart” to “guarantee the institutional continuity and sovereignty of Venezuela.” Hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans have hit the streets every day for eight straight days since the attack, as national unions and affiliate groups, from the teachers’ union, to the Women’s Science and Technology Movement, the Theatrical and Artisans’ Movement, the Bolivarian Communes and youth movements, Afrodescendent peoples’ movements, the Civil Service and more mobilized to for Maduro and Flores’ freedom. At a rally held by the PSUV, party secretary Tania Diaz declared, “we will never return to being slaves.” Rallies in solidarity with Venezuela mobilized throughout the world and across the Global South, with demonstrations of support from movements and unions in Cuba, Argentina, Colombia, Ecuador, Costa Rica, Brazil, and Africa. In the contested and unstable borderlands between Colombia and Venezuela, FARC leader Nestor Gregorio Vera has called for unity among the competing guerilla groups to defend either country in the event of a ground invasion. Brazil donated 40 tons of food, medical supplies, and other essentials to Venezuela and especially Caracas, which has been experiencing frequent blackouts and other infrastructure failures since the cyberattack from a U.S. ‘Growler’ jet disabled power grids and communication networks ahead of the attack. The MST in Brazil, which has been organizing ‘International Brigades’ throughout the region to support the Venezuelan people in case of armed struggle, stressed the importance of spreading the word that there has been no regime change, and that “the Bolivarian Revolution is still alive” to combat the ‘psychological warfare’ and disinformation campaigns from the Trump regime and western media. Mexican policy analyst Vivi Rios draws lessons from the “new imperialism” of Trump to address many speculations surrounding the question of whether Mexico will be next. For the immediate future, the Bolivarian Communes, which have been cultivated as the backbone of the revolution, are now in the frontline of the developing struggle, having received support from Delcy Rodriguez’s interim government to diversify the economy and increase production to maintain unity and provide for the needs of the population.