As the Potomac ices over for the first time in decades, Washington is in a deep freeze. Democrats are about to send it into an even deeper one. Intent on icing out ICE, they’re threatening to shutter the federal government over a bill funding the Department of Homeland Security and to impeach Kristi Noem. “Donald Trump must fire Kristi Noem immediately,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries wrote Tuesday in a post on social media. “Or Democrats will initiate impeachment proceedings against her in the House. We can do this the easy way or the hard way.”
Ever since the shooting of Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, the Trump administration has been scrambling to recover its footing – and inadvertently helping the Democrats to get their groove back. On Monday, Trump pulled Border Patrol commander-at-large Greg Bovino, he of the military greatcoat, from the city, sending him back to California, where the sunny weather will likely put the kibosh on his penchant for distinctive winter outerwear. Trump also indicated in an emollient social media message that he would like to work peaceably with Minnesota Governor Tim Walz. Since then, the pressure has been mounting on Trump and his advisors.
Senator John Fetterman, a Pennsylvania Democrat who has enraged the left with his reflexive support for Trump, said on Tuesday that Noem had to go: “She is betraying DHS’s core mission and trashing your border security legacy.” Queried as to whether he will fire Noem, Trump responded with a simple “No,” but he held a two-hour meeting with her on Tuesday. Stephen Miller, who depicted Pretti as a “would-be assassin,” did not attend it. For his part, Trump might have reflected upon Noem’s readiness to shoot her rambunctious 14-month-old dog Crickets as a harbinger of her trigger-happy tenure at DHS.
The Democrats, who have been on the back foot when it comes to immigration, sense an opening. They’re tying up the passage of a spending bill that includes funding for the Department of Homeland Security. “My options are to do nothing or to recognize that two US citizens were recently… executed by federal agents,” Senator Ruben Gallego stated. “We need to at least bring some level of pressure on DHS or on our Republican colleagues to explain to the American public why we are going to continue funding this without any changes.” Whether or not the Democrats fund the agency, however, is of peripheral concern to it. The $75 billion that DHS received in Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill last year has left it awash in federal moneys.
For Trump, the larger issue is the perception of self-induced chaos at a moment when Americans are expressing increased dubiety about the state of the economy. Inflation in December reached 2.7 percent. Consumer confidence plunged in January, reaching a 12-year low over apprehensions about rising grocery prices and tariffs. Add in further tariffs on Canada, which Trump has threatened should it reach a trade deal with China, and you have a recipe for even higher prices. But like his addled predecessor Joe Biden, Trump’s economic credo is that everything is hunky-dory.
On Tuesday, he traveled to Iowa to deliver a speech about affordability. His mood could not have been more chipper. “I’m going to Iowa and what can I say – the economy’s good, it’s all good, prices are coming way down and we have a lot of positive news,” Trump declared as he left the White House.
Prosperity, in other words, is just around the corner. Who will warm to his message?
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