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Trump’s Mortgage Fraud Witch Hunt Is Lawless and Hypocritical
A new investigation by Pro Publica revealed that Donald Trump has, on multiple occasions, signed mortgages for new homes claiming they would serve as his primary residence and instead used them as investment or rental properties. For months, Trump and his administration have been accusing its political enemies of mortgage fraud for claiming more than one primary residence.
Lisa Gilbert, co-president of Public Citizen, issued the following statement in response:
“The cruel and lawless hypocrisy of Donald Trump using the levers of government to dig up so-called mortgage fraud on his perceived political opponents, while doing the very same, is blatant.
“The administration has used the idea of claiming a home as your primary residence without residing there to justify DOJ takedowns of Lisa Cook, Tish James, and more. If this is how they really feel, and the ProPublica reporting is accurate, then Donald Trump should be next in the DOJ crosshairs.”
Public Citizen is a nonprofit consumer advocacy organization that champions the public interest in the halls of power. We defend democracy, resist corporate power and work to ensure that government works for the people - not for big corporations. Founded in 1971, we now have 500,000 members and supporters throughout the country.
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'ICE Has Gone Rogue': Ro Khanna Demands Accountability As New Videos Show Minneapolis Chaos
"We need to hold ICE accountable and we need to uphold human rights in ICE facilities. This is the time for Americans to speak up."
Jan 13, 2026
Rep. Ro Khanna on Monday called for the arrest and prosecution of the federal immigration officer who killed Minneapolis resident Renee Good last week.
In a video posted on social media, Khanna (D-Calif.) made the case for arresting Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer Jonathan Ross, who has faced accusations of murder after he fatally shot the 37-year-old Good and left her 6-year-old son an orphan.
Khanna also said that the problems with ICE weren't merely from one trigger-happy agent.
"ICE has gone rogue," Khanna said. "We need accountability."
I am calling for the arrest and prosecution of the ICE agent that shot and killed Renee Good.
I am also calling on Congress to support my bill with @JasmineForUS to force ICE agents to wear body cameras, not wear masks, have visible identification, and ensure ICE has independent… pic.twitter.com/BmoufcF0fx
— Ro Khanna (@RoKhanna) January 13, 2026
He then referenced legislation he had written with Rep. Jasmine Crocket (D-Texas) that would force ICE agents to wear body cameras and carry visible identification, and would also bar them from wearing masks to conceal their identities while conducting operations.
Khanna also described a recent trip he made to an immigration detention facility in California, where he said he witnessed deplorable treatment of detainees, including one man who reported having blood in his urine but who had not seen any medical professional for the past seven days.
"We need to hold ICE accountable and we need to uphold human rights in ICE facilities," he emphasized. "This is the time for Americans to speak up."
As Khanna called for greater ICE accountability, new videos emerged on Tuesday of chaos caused by federal immigration officials in Minneapolis.
In one video posted by extremism researcher Amanda Moore, federal agents can be seen smashing a woman's car windows, cutting her seat belt, and then dragging her out of the vehicle to be arrested.
Today at 34 & Park in Minneapolis, a woman tried to drive down the street where a protest had broken out in front of a home ICE was raiding, saying she had a doctor apt to get to. ICE agents busted out her windows, cut off her seatbelt, and pulled her out before arresting her. pic.twitter.com/Y9bDF1xfKW
— amanda moore 🐢 (@noturtlesoup17) January 13, 2026
Status Coup News reporter JT Cestkowski shared footage of federal agents lobbing tear gas canisters and firing pepper balls at demonstrators, which he described as "an everyday occurrence in America."
Immigration agents again fired tear gas and pepper balls at Twin Cities area residents today while out raiding neighborhoods. This is now an everyday occurrence in America.
Video by @StatusCoup’s @JonFarinaPhoto pic.twitter.com/SbwPUsMbIA
— JT Cestkowski (@JTCestkowski) January 13, 2026
NPR national correspondent Sergio Martínez-Beltrán posted a video of immigration agents walking around a Minneapolis parking lot and demanding shoppers offer proof that they were legally in the US.
"The drivers were people of color," Martínez-Beltrán observed.
In Minneapolis federal agents are asking people for the immigration status. In this video you can see agents at a parking lot asking people charging their cars to show proof of their immigration status. The drivers were people of color. pic.twitter.com/y8tuI3G88O
— Sergio Martínez-Beltrán (@SergioMarBel) January 12, 2026
Despite multiple videos showing Minneapolis residents angrily confronting federal immigration officials, President Donald Trump dismissed the demonstrations as "fake" during what was supposed to have been a speech on the US economy.
"One of the reasons they're doing these fake riots—I mean they're just terrible," Trump said, referring to largely peaceful demonstrations in Minneapolis. "It's so fake. 'Shame! Shame! Shame!' You see the woman. It's all practiced. They take hotel rooms and they all practice together. It's a whole scam. We're finding out who's funding all this stuff too."
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'Put an End to This Narcissism': New Bill Would Ban Naming of Federal Assets After Sitting Presidents
"It's no secret that President Trump is undermining democracy and moving this country toward authoritarianism," said US Sen. Bernie Sanders. "Part of that strategy is to create the myth of the 'Great Leader' by naming public buildings after himself."
Jan 13, 2026
Legislation introduced Tuesday in the US Senate would prohibit the naming or renaming of federal buildings, land, and other assets after sitting presidents, an effort to counter President Donald Trump's moves to attach his personal brand to government infrastructure and programs.
The measure's backers have filed the two-page proposal as an amendment to government funding legislation that senators are taking up this week.
US Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), one of the new bill's lead sponsors, said in a statement that Trump's penchant for adding his name to federal structures and initiatives is not mere symbolism. It is of a piece, Sanders argued, with his broader assault on US democracy and attempts to impose his will on the country.
"It's no secret that President Trump is undermining democracy and moving this country toward authoritarianism," said Sanders. "Part of that strategy is to create the myth of the 'Great Leader' by naming public buildings after himself—something that dictators have done throughout history."
"For Trump to put his name on federal buildings is arrogant and it is illegal," the senator added. "We must put an end to this narcissism—and that’s what this bill does."
If passed, the Stop Executive Renaming for Vanity and Ego (SERVE) Act would apply retroactively, "returning any federal assets named for the current sitting president to the name given under United States Code," a summary of the bill notes.
The New York Times on Monday published a list of "some federal initiatives and places that have been named (or renamed) for him, or feature his image, in the last year alone":
- The Donald J. Trump and The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts;
- Donald J. Trump United States Institute of Peace;
- Trump-class U.S.S. Defiant;
- The Trump Gold Card;
- Trump Accounts;
- TrumpRx;
- A proposed 2026 Semiquincentennial $1 coin; and
- America the Beautiful National Parks pass.
“Our country desperately deserves leaders focused on working for the people—not their own ego or narcissism," said Sen. Angela Alsobrooks (D-Md.), one of the bill's lead sponsors. "This necessary legislation prohibits the naming, or renaming, of any federal building or land in the name of a sitting president."
"And even more importantly, at a time when Americans can’t afford to put food on the table, pay their rent, or afford health care, this bill prohibits the use of any federal funds for these meaningless vanity projects," Alsobrooks added.
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Newsom Ripped as Billionaire 'Errand Boy' for Opposing Wealth Tax on California Plutocrats
"Gavin Newsom wants a future for the Democratic Party that consists of sucking up to conservative billionaires," said one progressive critic. "That's a path destined for losses."
Jan 13, 2026
California Gov. Gavin Newsom vowed Monday to stop a proposed tax on the state's richest people, drawing condemnation from progressives who argue that the expected 2028 presidential hopeful's literal and figurative friendship with billionaires has no place in a Democratic Party that must center working class people and issues to win.
Last month, the Service Employees International Union—United Healthcare Workers West (SEIU-UHW) led the introduction of the California Billionaire Tax Act (CBTA), a state ballot initiative that would impose a one-time 5% tax on the wealth of roughly 200 billionaires "to protect healthcare, keep hospitals and emergency rooms open, and prevent millions of Californians from losing coverage" amid historic cuts to social safety programs by congressional Republicans and the Trump administration.
Supporters are currently collecting the 900,000 signatures needed for the CBTA to qualify for California's 2026 ballot. Meanwhile, billionaires including venture capitalist Peter Thiel and Google co-founder Sergey Brin are among those fighting the proposal.
Public opinion polling in recent years has shown that around three-quarters of all California voters, and over 9 in 10 Democrats, back a billionaire wealth tax. So do unions, social and economic justice groups, progressive economists, and congressional lawmakers including Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.)—another possible presidential aspirant whose support for the CBTA incensed Thiel and other Silicon Valley billionaires like Larry Page and Elon Musk.
However, Newsom finds himself aligned with Thiel—a seven-figure supporter of President Donald Trump's presidential campaigns—in opposing the proposed tax.
“This will be defeated—there’s no question in my mind,” Newsom said of the CBTA in a Tuesday interview with the New York Times. “I’ll do what I have to do to protect the state."
Two headlines preview the 2028 Democratic presidential primary -- and perfectly reflect the big divide inside the Democratic Party. On one side are those fighting billionaires, on the other side are those who are owned by billionaires.
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— David Sirota (@davidsirota.com) January 13, 2026 at 6:45 AM
Newsom—who has close personal, business, or political ties with billionaires including the Getty family, GAP co-founder Doris Fisher, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff, and Siebel Systems co-founder and cousin-by-marriage Tom Siebel—said he is against the CBTA because it could stifle California's world-leading technological innovation and drive away businesses and wealthy individuals.
"The impacts are very real—not just substantive economic impacts in terms of the revenue, but start-ups, the indirect impacts of … people questioning long term-commitments," Newsom told Politico Monday. “That’s not what we need right now, at a time of so much uncertainty."
Not all plutocrats oppose a billionaire wealth tax. Benioff, Warren Buffet, Abigail Disney, Bill Gates, Jensen Huang, Chris Hughes, and George Soros have all advocated higher taxes on the ultrarich.
Huang, CEO of tech titan Nvidia and one of the 10 richest people on the planet, said last week that he is "perfectly fine" with the CBTA.
Gavin Newsom has terrible political instincts. Cozying up to racists like Charlie Kirk. Attacking trans kids. Defending billionaires. When left to his own devices he always picks the wrong path.
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— Oliver Willis (@owillis.bsky.social) January 13, 2026 at 4:53 AM
Responding to Newsom's opposition to the CBTA, Progressive Mass political director Jonathan Cohn said on Bluesky: "Gavin Newsom wants a future for the Democratic Party that consists of sucking up to conservative billionaires. That's a path destined for losses."
Civil rights attorney and professor Alejandra Caraballo also took to Bluesky, writing, "Another reason I'm never Newsom. He's a billionaires' errand boy beholden to them."
Progressive organizer Jonathan Rosenblum asked on X, "Which side are you on?"
"Gavin Newsom is on the side of the billionaires, not the millions of working people who stand to lose healthcare because of the Trump cuts," Rosenblum added. "Shamefully typical of the Democratic establishment."
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