The Underside of the Bus

Good afternoon. Here’s what you need to know.

The Latest

The knives are coming out, and they’re aimed at Stephen Miller. The president said today that he disagreed with Miller’s claim that Alex Pretti was an “assassin,” and multiple sources told Axios that Miller dictated the most incendiary things Kristi Noem said about Pretti’s death.

• Noted: Susie Wiles, Steven Cheung and Karoline Leavitt were all there when Donald Trump met with Noem and Corey Lewandowski last night. Miller was not.

• Hakeem Jeffries said Democrats will initiate impeachment proceedings against Noem if Trump doesn’t fire her immediately.

• Trump told reporters that Noem is “doing a very good job,” but he called Gregory Bovino — who was reportedly demoted yesterday — a “pretty out there kind of guy. And in some cases, that’s good. Maybe it wasn’t good here.”

The Republican backlash to Minnesota began when Kash Patel and other administration officials said that Americans can’t bring guns to protests. Patel has backtracked, telling Sean Hannity he just meant that people should “be smart and be reasonable.” But Trump doubled down today, telling reporters: “You can’t walk in with guns, you can’t do that.”

• Sources tell CNN that Pretti had an earlier encounter with federal immigration agents, and it ended with him having a broken rib. DHS said it has “no record” of the incident.

A federal judge in Minneapolis says ICE has violated “dozens” of court orders. Chief Judge Patrick Schiltz — a George W. Bush appointee who clerked for Antonin Scalia — ordered acting ICE Director Todd Lyons to appear before him Friday.

• “The Court acknowledges that ordering the head of a federal agency to personally appear is an extraordinary step,” Schiltz wrote, “but the extent of ICE’s violation of court orders is likewise extraordinary, and lesser measures have been tried and failed.”

The Hill

John Thune said the shutdown situation is TBD. He said that events in Minnesota have “changed the conversation” but argued that Democrats should be seeking concessions from the White House, not from Republicans on the Hill.

• “I’ve said that many times before [it’s] in everybody’s best interest to see that the government gets funded,” Thune told reporters. “But I think right now we’ll see what, you know, what those conversations, what happens with that in the next day or so, and then we’ll have a much more clear, I suspect, path forward based on how the vote goes tomorrow morning.”
• Chuck Schumer said reforms to ICE have to come from Congress because the public “can’t trust” the Trump administration to make them otherwise.

The heads of ICE and Customs and Border Protection — whoever they are by then — are slated to testify before the House Homeland Security Committee on Feb. 10.

Alexander Vindman is running for Senate in Florida. The former NSC aide testified about Trump’s “perfect” phone call with Volodymyr Zelenskyy during Trump’s first impeachment proceedings. His brother endorsed him.

Vern Buchanan said he’s retiring from Congress. So did Eleanor Holmes Norton, finally.

The Administration

Scott Bessent said Mark Carney walked back his Davos critiques in a call with Trump. Carney said he did no such thing.

• “To be absolutely clear, and I said this to the president: ‘I meant what I said in Davos,’” the Canadian prime minister said today.

The acting head of the U.S. cyber-defense agency uploaded sensitive documents to ChatGPT, Politico reports.

The families of two men killed in U.S. boat strikes are suing the government for wrongful death.

The U.S. population grew at one of the slowest rates ever in 2025, largely thanks to the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigration.

JD Vance will headline two RNC fundraisers in Florida tomorrow, NOTUS’ Reese Gorman reports.

Politics

TikTok said it didn’t mean to suppress posts about Minnesota. TikTok’s U.S. operations are now controlled by American investors, including some with close ties to Trump. But the company said any suppression of anti-Trump posts was the result of “technical issues.”

Philip Glass pulled out of the Kennedy Center. “Symphony No. 15 is a portrait of Abraham Lincoln,” he wrote, “and the values of the Kennedy Center today are in direct conflict with the message of the Symphony.”

‘You Can Do This!’

Buffalo native Kathy Hochul has some “pro tips” for Washington.

Thank you for reading! Today’s newsletter was produced by Matt Berman, Kate Nocera, Christopher T. Fong and Andrew Burton. If you liked it, please forward it to a friend. If someone shared it with you, please subscribe — it’s free! Got a tip or comments to share? Email us at finalnotus@notus.com.