Trump Takes It Down a Notch

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The Latest

Donald Trump backed away from his threat to invoke the Insurrection Act. “I don’t think there’s any reason right now to use it,” he said, “but if I needed it, I’d use it.”

• A top Trump adviser told Axios that the president is unhappy with the optics from Minnesota: “He wants deportations. He wants mass deportations. What he doesn’t want is what people are seeing. He doesn’t like the way it looks.”

He turned down the heat on Iran, thanking Iranian officials for halting what he said would have been 800 executions.

But he threatened tariffs on countries who oppose his Greenland plans as a bipartisan group of lawmakers was in Denmark, assuring officials there that members of Congress oppose his plans, too.

• Republican Rep. Don Bacon told the Omaha World-Herald that Trump’s Greenland talk has angered “so many Republicans” that “if he went through with the threats, I think it would be the end of his presidency.”

Fifty-eight percent of Americans say Trump’s first year was a ‘failure,’ and 61% disapprove of his handling of the economy, according to a new CNN poll.

The president is en route to Florida to participate in a ceremony in which the road to Mar-a-Lago will be named after him.

Minnesota

HUD said it will investigate whether Minneapolis’s housing plans violate the Civil Rights Act. Secretary Scott Turner said the city has “undermined our American values, united by a common heritage, language and commitment to equal treatment under law.”

The Minneapolis Fire Department says Renee Good suffered gunshot wounds to her right chest, her left forearm and the left side of her head. A new video analysis from The New York Times shows Jonathan Ross was on the side of Good’s car — not in front of it — when he fired his second and third shots.

• Fundraisers for Ross have brought in more than $1 million.

Nationwide, ICE has more than 70,000 people in custody for the first time in history. DHS data shows that more than half have not been convicted or charged with a crime.

The Administration

The president pardoned former Puerto Rico Gov. Wanda Vázquez together with a co-defendant whose daughter gave $2.5 million to a Trump super PAC, NOTUS’ Jose Pagliery reports.

Homebuyers will be able to pull from their 401(k) for a down payment under a plan Trump will unveil in Davos, according to National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett.

Govs. Josh Shapiro and Wes Moore agree with Trump on a plan to make tech companies pay for rising electricity costs, NOTUS’ Anna Kramer reports.

The Department of Justice says it has 500 people reviewing the Epstein files.

The Department of Transportation showed off an autonomous bus. It got hit by a Tesla.

Like Naming a Post Office, Only Different

Rep. Cory Mills has introduced a bill to change the name of the Congressional Budget Office to the China Budget Office.

Thank you for reading! Today’s newsletter was produced by Kate Nocera, Andrew Burton and Christopher T. Fong. 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.