Saturday Morning Covfefe: Where the Pressure Shows

Power abroad. Accountability at home. The lines being tested this week.

This week’s big news wasn’t just domestic. From Davos, Trump rattled allies, talked up U.S. control of Greenland, and repeatedly confused Greenland with Iceland. Sincere apologies to both.

And back home, something else mattered just as much. To everyone who showed up in subzero temperatures to march in Minneapolis: thank you. The country is watching. So is the world. One shapes America’s standing abroad. The other reminds us what actually gives it strength.

Those protests aren’t happening in a vacuum. New reporting shows the Justice Department leadership declined to open a criminal civil-rights investigation into the fatal shooting of Renee Good by an ICE officer, a step that would normally follow a federal officer-involved death, and internal conflict over the handling of the case helped prompt the resignation of an FBI agent who sought to pursue accountability. A federal judge rejected a flawed warrant attempt after the focus shifted away from examining the shooting itself.

Let’s get into it.

1. A Foreign Jet. A U.S. Presidency. A Problem.

It’s about to be Air Force One—just in time for a very on-brand patriotic flyover.

Remember that Qatari jet Trump brushed off as a harmless "gesture"? It’s now on track to become a working Air Force One by this summer, potentially debuting during America’s 250th birthday celebrations. The roughly $400 million aircraft donated by foreign donors is being fast-tracked for presidential use. The renovation is classified, funded by money pulled from a nuclear modernization program, and wrapped in ethical and security concerns that never went away. Trump, meanwhile, has already floated turning the jet into a showpiece for his future presidential library. Because of course he has.

Nothing says “America First” quite like flying a foreign-donated jet over the Fourth of July.

✈️ That Qatari Jet? It’s Becoming Air Force One: Wall Street Journal

2. When Reporting Becomes a Crime

A federal judge just blocked the Justice Department’s attempt to charge journalist Don Lemon for documenting a protest in Minnesota, something that used to be called reporting.

Lemon was covering public backlash to aggressive ICE actions when a protest spilled into a church. On video, he repeatedly stated he was there as a journalist, not a participant. DOJ still moved to charge him, arguing his presence and the disruption justified prosecution.

The judge disagreed, ruling the work was protected by the First Amendment. That matters, not because of who Don Lemon is, but because of what the government tried to do.

This wasn’t about disorderly conduct. It was a test: can on-the-ground journalism be reclassified as a crime when it becomes inconvenient to power?

Here’s the part that should land for anyone working independently: Lemon was reporting without a legacy newsroom behind him. This could happen to me someday. It could be any journalist, writer, or documentarian showing up to record what’s happening in real time.

The judge blocked it this time. But the attempt shows where the line is being tested, and who it’s being tested on. Press freedom rarely disappears all at once. It erodes at the edges.

📰 Reporting Isn’t a Crime. DOJ Tried Anyway: Politico

3. The Honeypot Sting Playbook Is Back

A former DHS employee is suing the department after being fired for something that used to be protected in this country: privately expressing a critical opinion, off duty, to someone he believed he was on a date with.

Brandon Wright worked at DHS for eight years. According to his lawsuit, a woman he met on Bumble secretly recorded him, steered the conversation toward politics, and encouraged criticism of DHS Secretary Kristi Noem. That footage was later edited, spliced, and amplified by operatives linked to James O’Keefe’s media operation.

Wright wasn’t accused of misconduct on the job. DHS fired him because his private, off-duty speech was deemed “undermining” to the administration’s agenda. That distinction matters. Wright’s attorney, Mark S. Zaid, P.C. Zaid, says this case is about extinguishing dissent, not enforcing workplace rules.

And this isn’t new. Last year, a former FBI agent and Pentagon contractor was secretly recorded on a date, selectively edited, smeared as “deep state,” and fired. Same method. Same network. Same goal.

Private conversations are baited. Recordings are manipulated. Outrage is manufactured. Institutions are pressured. Careers are destroyed.

When the operation was exposed, the response was intimidation. Zaid filed a second federal lawsuit this week after learning the woman was a paid undercover operative linked to James O’Keefe. O’Keefe responded by publicly threatening retaliation, exposure, and personal ruin.

That response says the quiet part out loud.

This isn’t about dating apps. It’s about power, and how surveillance, propaganda, and intimidation are used to teach people to stay quiet. That’s how normalization happens. Not all at once. Case by case.

🎣🎥 Secret Recordings and Career Destruction: The Guardian; Ex-FBI Agent Sues Over Recordings: WJHL

4. The Affordability Crisis Was Built—47 Policy Decisions at a Time

If it feels harder to pay rent, buy groceries, or save even though you’re working just as hard, it’s not your imagination.

Here’s what policy looks like in real life:

• Lower wages for workers on federal contracts

• Pay cuts for farmworkers that ripple into food prices

• Fewer overtime and minimum wage protections

• Jobs lost from canceled infrastructure and apprenticeship programs

• Weaker enforcement when employers break labor laws

• Cuts to health care, food assistance, and consumer protections

The biggest myth is that affordability is just about prices going up. When wages are held down, everything feels more expensive, even when inflation cools. That’s a policy choice.

And if you want a preview of what’s coming next on health care, student loans, immigration, trade, crypto, retirement—economists at Brookings just laid out what they’re watching in 2026. Spoiler: none of it gets easier for working families if these policies stay in place.

Bottom line: life didn’t get less affordable by accident. Workers lost power. Someone else gained it.

Use that.

💸 This Is Why Your Paycheck Isn’t Stretching: Economic Policy Institute

5. This Isn’t Oversight. It’s a Funding Hit List.

This week, the Trump administration quietly ordered most federal agencies to compile detailed data on federal funds sent to 14 mostly Democratic-controlled states and Washington, D.C. The stated reason? To identify "improper and fraudulent use" of federal money.

Context matters. This directive came days after Trump publicly threatened to cut off federal funding to so-called "sanctuary" states and cities.

Nothing has been cut, yet. But agencies are now being required to report a wide range of grants flowing to states, cities, universities, and nonprofits, on a tight deadline. Disaster aid and child-care funding are already tied up in court.

Trump has a long history of viewing federal aid, including FEMA relief, through a partisan lens. And states are the pressure point.

This isn’t about fraud. It’s about leverage. I witnessed him do this when it came to disaster relief during his first administration.

"Data gathering" is how you build a pretext. It’s how you sort winners and losers. And it’s how you lay the groundwork to turn federal funding, meant to serve Americans regardless of party, into a political weapon.

🎯 The Blueprint for Punishing Blue States: Associated Press

🤲 One Thing for Your Soul: Courage Doesn’t Mean You’re Not Scared

I read this story, and I cried.

A 12-year-old girl in Minneapolis got her first period and was too afraid to leave her house. Too afraid to walk to the corner store. What should have been a simple errand became an underground operation–faith leaders, neighbors, mothers, daughters, street watchers, group chats, back alleys–all to get one child a menstrual pad.

This is where we are. Ordinary care now requires extraordinary coordination. It’s okay to be scared. Several people who helped said they were afraid, but they showed up anyway. Fear didn’t stop them. It just didn’t get the final word.

You don’t have to save the world to make a difference. Sometimes helping one scared kid feel normal again is enough. Together, a million small acts like this are how a country holds itself together.

💞An Underground Network of Care: NPR

I try to keep most of this work free so people can stay informed without barriers. Paid subscriptions are what allow me to go deeper, stay independent, and keep doing this work week after week.

If you’re in the path of this looming storm, please stay safe and warm,

-Olivia