1. ALL EYES ON MINNEAPOLIS: Protests and vigils continued in Minneapolis after an ICE agent shot and killed Renee Nicole Good, with demonstrators at times clashing with federal agents today as the city remained stricken and tense, The Minnesota Star Tribune reports. This analysis from WaPo’s Aaron Davis and Jonathan Baran casts some doubt on the administration’s claims. Local officials said Good was blocking traffic. Then, her “SUV did move toward the ICE agent as he stood in front of it. But the agent was able to move out of the way and fire at least two of three shots from the side of the vehicle,” they write. Videos “do not clearly show whether the agent is struck or how close the front of the vehicle comes to striking him.” The investigations: Minnesota state officials said today that the Trump administration has blocked them from participating in the probe into the shooting, per the AP. Bureau of Criminal Apprehension Superintendent Drew Evans said federal officials told them the FBI would have ownership of the investigation and prevent the state from accessing evidence. Quite a moment: After Trump told NYT reporters that Good was at fault, they watched a video of the shooting with him as a White House aide played it on a laptop in the Oval Office. “It’s a terrible scene,” he then said. “I think it’s horrible to watch. No, I hate to see it.” Unpersuaded: DHS Secretary Kristi Noem today maintained that the ICE agent “followed his training,” and she responded to Evans’ claim by saying that his bureau has no jurisdiction in the probe. Vance posted multiple rejoinders on X this morning, insisting that the agent was acting in self-defense and that Good was “a deranged leftist who tried to run him over.” Still pressing hard: Following Noem, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz declared that “Minnesota must be part of this investigation” and warned that Minnesotans probably can’t trust the Trump administration to produce a fair outcome after officials rushed to judge the incident yesterday. 2. WEAPONIZATION WATCH: A federal judge today said U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of New York John Sarcone III was illegally installed in his role and trashed the subpoenas that the Trump-loyalist prosecutor has sent to New York AG Letitia James, POLITICO’s Erica Orden reports. 3. BIG INVESTIGATION: “Trump administration jails migrant teens in facility known for child abuse,” by WaPo’s Douglas MacMillan in Morgantown, Pennsylvania: “[F]or the past three months, [HHS’ Office of Refugee Resettlement] has also locked some teenage migrant boys inside a secure juvenile prison in southeast Pennsylvania with a long and publicly documented history of staff physically and sexually abusing juvenile offenders in its care … [They’re] sleeping inside locked cells the size of walk-in closets.” Abraxas Alliance, which runs the facility, didn’t respond to questions. 4. BILL OF HEALTH: As the House gears up to vote on a three-year extension of enhanced Affordable Care Act subsidies this afternoon, a new CBO estimate projects that it would lead to 4 million more people having health insurance by 2028 — and balloon the deficit by more than $80 billion. Meanwhile, some Republicans trying to strike an Obamacare deal are frustrated that Trump openly encouraged the party to have flexibility on the Hyde amendment, provoking a blowback from conservatives, Punchbowl’s Laura Weiss and Andrew Desiderio reports. The negotiators had thought they might be on track to omit an expansion of the abortion-related restrictions, but the public attention has made a deal more difficult. Mark your calendars: Health insurance executives have been invited to a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee hearing on Jan. 22, when they could be pressed on health care costs, POLITICO’s David Lim reports. About those drug prices: Trump has lavished attention on his “most favored nation” Medicaid drug pricing deals, urging Republicans to highlight them as a big accomplishment for the midterms. But experts tell NBC’s Berkeley Lovelace Jr. that they may not provide relief to many people who have private health insurance or Medicare, where costs could remain lower than on TrumpRx. The deals are more likely to make a difference for the uninsured. 5. TRAIL MIX: New York Assemblymember Claire Valdez today became the latest democratic socialist to launch a prominent political campaign in NYC — to fill retiring Rep. Nydia Velázquez’s (D-N.Y.) seat, NYT’s Nicholas Fandos reports. She’ll be up against Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso, also a progressive, in the primary. Mayor Zohran Mamdani, for whom this is an opportunity to build his movement’s political power in the city, has privately supported Valdez. Crossed off the list: Democrat Stacey Abrams said today she won’t run for governor of Georgia, per The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Greg Bluestein. She said she wants to keep her focus on fighting against Trump’s “authoritarianism.” Cash dash: Rep. Randy Feenstra (R-Iowa) pulled in a 2025 haul of $4.3 million across seven months of his gubernatorial campaign, Fox News’ Liz Elkind and Paul Steinhauser report. Saying goodbye: The nonprofit Supermajority is shuttering after seven years of working to galvanize female voters, The 19th’s Jennifer Gerson scooped. 6. AD ASTRA: “Inside Donald Trump’s Attack on NASA’s Science Missions,” by The Atlantic’s Ross Andersen: “If the cuts in [Trump’s budget] request were implemented, satellites that monitor the advance and retreat of Earth’s glaciers, clouds, and forests would splash down into an undersea graveyard for spacecraft in the remote Pacific Ocean. A robot that is on its way to study a gigantic Earth-menacing asteroid would be abandoned mid-flight, as would other probes that have already arrived at the sun, Mars, and Jupiter. … Future missions to Venus, Mars, and Uranus would also be scrapped. … Existing missions have been destabilized by the mass departures. Planning remains difficult, if not impossible.” 7. WALL STREET RIDES FREE: “Push to Audit Private Equity and Venture Capital Falters Under Trump,” by NYT’s Jesse Drucker: “Two years ago, Internal Revenue Service officials announced an ambitious plan to fix a gaping hole in federal tax law enforcement. For decades, the agency had not conducted significant audits of private equity, venture capital or real estate investment firms … Now the effort [to change that] is falling apart. Since President Trump returned to office, nearly all the senior leaders of the operation have left the I.R.S. — taking the newly acquired partnership tax expertise with them. Audits have been abandoned, they have decreased in number and the initiative is foundering.” 8. TRADING PLACES: In a surprise, the latest Commerce Department data shows that the U.S. trade deficit plunged to its lowest level in 17 years in October, per Bloomberg. The 39 percent monthly drop brought the trade deficit to $29.4 billion in the government shutdown-delayed report. 9. THE MUSEUM CRACKDOWN: “The Smithsonian Faces New Pressure to Submit to Trump’s Will,” by NYT’s Graham Bowley and Robin Pogrebin: “After a monthslong lull in tensions, the Smithsonian is facing an ultimatum from the White House to comply next week with a comprehensive review of the institution’s content and plans — or risk potential cuts to its budget. … [Secretary Lonnie Bunch III] noted that it would be impossible to turn over the full volume of records sought in the time frame, and he reiterated that the institution is autonomous.”
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