THE DAILY BLAST with Greg Sargent

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Trump Spirals into Crazed Fury after Harvard Humiliates Him Very Badly Feb 04, 2026

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After The New York Times reported that President Trump has backtracked on a major demand he’d made on Harvard University, he spiraled out of control in three wild tirades. He angrily insisted on a correction from the Times, and levied unhinged new threats against Harvard, demanding a new billion-dollar extortion payment while calling for the university’s criminal prosecution. Harvard officials clearly leaked word of Trump’s backtracking to humiliate him at a moment of political weakness. It worked: Trump appeared panicked and weak as he fired off half-cocked threats. Which raises a question: Why don’t more institutions grasp that standing firm against Trump is the only way? We talked to Ryan Enos, a Harvard political scientist who has long argued for a strong stand. He explains the internal politics at Harvard leading to its current posture, why this fight’s outcome has broader significance amid our slide into authoritarianism, and what the prospects are for Harvard holding firm.

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Trump ICE Threats Take Darker Turn as MAGA Erupts in Demands for Blood Feb 03, 2026

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Donald Trump is making it explicit. In an angry diatribe to a right-wing podcaster, Trump told his usual lies about vote-cheating by undocumented immigrants, but this time he explicitly called on Republicans to “take over the voting.” He also darkly promised something new out of Georgia, where his FBI is investigating an election center. He singled out supposed fraud in Minnesota, lying that he won it three times. And he said he’s not backing down in the state. Taken all together, the threat is clear: Trump may try to use federal forces to interfere in the midterms, in part by using ICE to intimidate voters and foment crisis. Notably, this comes as MAGA media figures are loudly calling on Trump to escalate the ICE crackdowns, as Media Matters documents. We talked to reporter Gillian Brockell, who regularly scrutinizes ICE and has a new piece detailing how ICE is getting more cruel. We discuss what Trump can do to interfere in the elections, how far his threats can really get, and how MAGA conceives of ICE as an instrument of authoritarian state terror.

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Trump Tirade over Protests Goes Off Rails as Crushing Fox Poll Hits Feb 02, 2026

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Donald Trump appears in deep denial about how widely hated his ICE raids have become. He let out a strange, rambling tirade to reporters about how the “silent majority” is still behind what ICE is doing, bizarrely citing approval of the raids among his own White House employees to make the case. In another rant, he lied uncontrollably about the protesters, about crime in Minneapolis, and more. Interestingly, this comes as a poll from none other than Fox News finds Trump deeply under water on immigration. It also finds that very large majorities of independents think ICE is being too aggressive. Incredibly, even majorities of rural whites and non-college whites—loyal basevoter groups—think the same. We talked to pro-immigrant organizer Lia Parada, who represents groups losing lawful status under Trump. She recounts what she’s seeing out there, shares details about surprising new signs of opposition to ICE, and explains how Democrats can seize this moment to effect a more durable shift in public opinion.

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Trump-GOP Panic over ICE Grows as MAGA Goes Off Rails: “Race Traitor!” Jan 30, 2026

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President Trump and the GOP are in a growing panic over ICE. Trump’s advisers are sinking into recriminations. Republican officials are publicly admitting that his immigration agenda “seems to be not working” and that the GOP is “losing” the political battle over it. Others are suggesting that Alex Pretti’s killing was “murder” and that it’s time to “recalibrate.” Yet MAGA figures are pulling in the other direction. Media Matters has a good roundup: Many are urging Trump to escalate, with white supremacist Nick Fuentes labeling Pretti a “race traitor.” MAGA doesn’t want to let the GOP even appear to moderate. We talked to Jennifer Rubin, editor-in-chief of The Contrarian, who has a new piece urging Democrats to seize this moment. We discuss how MAGA’s white nationalism has landed “moderate” Republicans in a trap, why this provides an opening to divide the Trump coalition, and what Democrats can do to demonstrate that they side with the American people against Trump-MAGA’s violent lawlessness.

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Trump Erupts at GOPers over Kristi Noem as Her Support Suddenly Slips Jan 29, 2026

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GOP Senators Thom Tillis and Lisa Murkowski have now called for the resignation of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. This angered Donald Trump, who lashed out at them as “losers” and “terrible Senators” and belittled them in other ways. But Noem’s tenure does look shaky. A new government review of the killing of Alex Pretti undercuts Noem’s initial account. Senate Majority Leader John Thune is declining to back Noem. And Stephen Miller undercut her, blaming DHS for a potential breach in protocol by the officers and even suggesting the initial smearing of Pretti was rooted in info supplied by the agency. This whole thing has gotten away from Trump. So we talked to New Republic contributor and Substack author Virginia Heffernan, who’s been documenting the popular backlash against ICE. We discuss why Noem’s standing will likely keep declining, what that tells us about Trump’s own miscalculations, and how ordinary people have taken charge of this story in a manner Trumpworld cannot fathom.

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Trump Advisers Quietly Turn on Stephen Miller as Brutal ICE Poll Hits Jan 28, 2026

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After we recorded this episode, we noticed that Axios is reporting that anger is rising at Stephen Miller inside Donald Trump’s inner circle. Some White House officials blame Miller for smearing ICE murder victim Alex Pretti. This comes as reports in The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times suggest that other top advisers want ICE to change course in a way that is running afoul of Miller’s designs. That all this is leaking out shows internal dissatisfaction with Miller is growing. Meanwhile, a new YouGov poll finds 55 percent of Americans and 67 percent of independents have very little confidence in ICE. Both reflect large recent spikes. We think all this reflects a deeper Miller-MAGA miscalculation. So we’re talking about all this with The Atlantic’s Adam Serwer, who spent time in Minneapolis and wrote a good piece on the outpouring of popular energy there. We discuss what he saw on the ground among ordinary people, why it badly undermines the Miller-MAGA theory of American politics, and how MAGA poses a far bigger threat to social cohesion than immigrants do.

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Dem Senator’s Harsh New Takedown of Trump Hits Home: “Breaking Point” Jan 27, 2026

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As the country absorbs the shock of Alex Pretti’s murder by federal agents in Minneapolis, President Trump is politically on the defensive. He sent his border czar there and sort of made nice with Minnesota’s Democratic governor. Meanwhile, Republicans and senior ICE officials are panicking about the situation. Democratic Senators are vowing to oppose funding for the Department of Homeland Security absent major restrictions on ICE. Will they hold the line? We talked to Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut. He offers a bracing indictment of Trump-ICE lawlessness, saying bluntly that we’re at a “breaking point” that will decide whether “we condone the federal government murdering our own citizens.” Murphy also lays out how Trump is losing the argument over immigration, what Democrats should demand to restrict ICE and explains why it would be disastrous—for his party and the country—if Democrats cave at such a critical moment.

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Trump Accidentally Wrecks His Own Case for Tariffs in 3 Crazed Tirades Jan 26, 2026

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The Supreme Court is about to rule on Donald Trump’s tariffs, which lower courts deem illegal. But guess what: Trump himself has badly undermined his own case for them. He’s claimed broad tariff powers by absurdly declaring trade deficits an economic emergency. But he keeps admitting to other rationales for them. In a crazed tirade in Davos, he said he threatened Switzerland with tariffs partly because a female leader’s voice annoyed him. He unleashed a long rant in a letter threatening Brazil with higher tariffs over its treatment of ally Jair Bolsonaro. And in another tirade, he threatened to impose tariffs on European countries opposing his quest to seize Greenland. We talked to MS NOW’s Steve Benen, who identified this pattern in a good piece. We discuss all these threats, the GOP’s complicity with the Mad King’s whims, and what it’ll mean for our country if the high court greenlights such obviously absurd abuses of power.

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Trump Explodes in Wild Fury at Poll that Hits Him with Worst News Yet Jan 23, 2026

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Donald Trump exploded in fury on Thursday at polling and media companies. He raged over “Fake and Fraudulent Polling,” said this should be a “criminal offense,” lashed out at numerous news organizations, and vowed to put a stop to the “Polling SCAM.” He’s plainly talking about The New York Times’s new poll, which finds Trump absolutely flailing on most major issues. He’s 18 points underwater on immigration, a majority of working class voters disapproves of his handling of it, and public opposition to ICE is overwhelming. These are the worst numbers on the issue he’s ever gotten. Trump’s rage is a reminder that he thinks he’s immune to the laws of normal politics. But is he really? We think not. We talked to political theorist Alan Elrod, author of a good piece for Liberal Currents on the extent of Trump’s power. We discuss the meaning of the pro-immigration public backlash, whether normal politics can ever constrain Trump, and how Democrats should prepare for the post-Trump era.

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Trump Press Sec Goes Full Cult as Reviews of Davos Fiasco Turn Brutal Jan 22, 2026

Show notes

By now you’ve seen President Trump’s big speech at Davos. The slurring, the confusing of Greenland and Iceland, the nonsense about wind power, and the racist smearing of Somalis before the whole world—it wasan unmitigated disaster. But things got worse when Trump’s propagandists spun it all as a world-historical triumph: White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt unleashed an extraordinary stream of obsequious praise, absurdly declaring that “America is back” and that Trump played “leader of the free world.” When reporters savagely noted the Greenland-Iceland confusion, she offered a true knee-slapper of buffoonish damage control. We think it all exposed the scam at the core of MAGA in a fresh way. We talked to Mona Charen, a podcast host at The Bulwark and penetrating critic of Trump’s lawless unfitness. We discuss the brutal criticism of the speech, how this may have killed NATO, why other countries can never trust the U.S. to refrain from electing another Trump, and how it all revealed MAGA’s anti-globalism as a sick scam.

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