It’s a white blank page in the history of the world, the new year.
Perhaps we’ll actually live in precedented times.
The first year of President Donald Trump’s second term in office, 2025 was marked with political upheaval across the country.
It started quickly, with a series of executive orders issued by the president upon his inauguration. The Jan. 29 American Eagle crash over the Potomac thrust the president’s Cabinet and his Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) policies into the spotlight, setting the stage for the chaos that was about to come.
Within the first quarter of his second term, the president made a series of controversial decisions: the banning of the Associated Press from the White House briefing room over its refusal to refer to the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America; the appointment of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as secretary of Health and Human Services and Linda Mahon as secretary of Education; and issuing a series of airstrikes on Yemen — further complicated by Pete Hegseth’s inclusion of a journalist from The Atlantic on a government group chat.
The summer of 2025 began with immigration raids in Los Angeles, California, home to nearly 3.5 million immigrants, with the president announcing on June 8, two days after the beginning of protests, his intention of sending the Marines and National Guard into the city to quell the protests.
This marked the beginning of a summer of collective bargaining for change, culminating with the “No Kings Protests” across the country on June 14 — the president’s birthday.
Los Angeles was not the only instance of the use of federal forces to control and corral the American people, as the president issued deployments to Washington, D.C., and Chicago — the latter blocked by protests by Chicagoans and a lawsuit filed against the administration by the mayor’s office.
The year 2026 was seen as a welcome change from the unprecedented times of 2025, a white blank page in the 250th year of the United States, yet it ushered in the longest January of all Januarys.
Pretty sure you’re not supposed to kidnap another country’s president.
Surely history class taught you that.
Jan. 3, 2026: While half the world slept, the U.S. military launched a series of military strikes against Caracas, Venezuela.
It was first reported at 2:05 a.m. that there was smoke rising from Caracas, with the president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, writing “Right now they are bombing Caracas. Alert to the whole world, they have attacked Venezuela. They are bombing with missiles.”
Two hours later, the president wrote on social media that the U.S. military had captured Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, setting a dangerous precedent for international law.
Maduro is now imprisoned in a Brooklyn jail.
Thus began the longest January.
So now we’re killing civilians?
While they want us to eat chicken and broccoli.
Jan. 7, 2026: As immigration agents began their crackdown in Minneapolis, protests followed over the growing illegality of the treatment of the arrestees and the conduct of immigration agents.
The situation in Minneapolis took a darker turn when immigration agents shot an unarmed white woman, Renee Nicole Good, in the face.
National uproar sparked protests across the nation and calls for the resignation and impeachment of Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.
With a government already in turmoil, the administration announced new federal dietary guidelines through Kennedy and Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins. Despite rising food prices, the guidelines called for the consumption of more protein and fruits and vegetables, the three most expensive food groups on the market.
What did Fiji and the Bahamas ever do to us?
It’s feeling a little too 1920s-ish for me.
Jan. 14, 2026: Furthering the immigration crackdown, the administration announced on Wednesday, Jan. 14, that it would be suspending the application and distribution of visas to immigrants from 75 countries.
Tommy Pigott, a spokesperson for the State Department, said in a statement that visas would be paused “while the State Department reassesses immigration processing procedures to prevent the entry of foreign nationals who would take welfare and public benefits.”
The list is a confusing one; while political turmoil across the globe makes some inclusions — Somalia, Iran, and Yemen — understandable, others like the Bahamas, Fiji, and Liberia (which was founded by the United States) are headscratchers.
The elimination of visas based on the home country of an immigrant is eerily similar to the quota practices implemented by the U.S. government in 1921 and 1924, when quotas were set based on race dictated by previous census data, allowing only a small percentage through immigration harbors like Angel Island and Ellis Island.
It never really was just about the immigrants.
It’s about control.
Jan. 15, 2026: With national outrage over the death of Renee Nicole Good, the president declared his intentions to use the Insurrection Act against protestors in Minneapolis.
Enacting it would allow the administration to quell protests — a right protected under the First Amendment — by force, a violation of constitutional rights.
Not sure who deserves a Nobel Peace Prize.
I’m not sure it’s him.
Jan. 15, 2026: During a visit to the White House, Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado presented the president with her Nobel Peace Prize, given to her in 2025 for her attempts to restore democracy in Venezuela.
The president has criticized the Nobel Peace Prize committee after it elected not to award him the 2025 prize, stating, “Considering your Country decided not to give me the Nobel Peace Prize for having stopped 8 Wars PLUS, I no longer feel an obligation to think purely of Peace,” despite pushback from the Norwegian government, which said it does not have a role in the voting process.
Are we still trying to take Greenland?
What’s so important about it anyway?
Jan. 17, 2026: In response to the president’s repeated threats to annex Greenland, protests erupted across the island and in Denmark, with some protesters donning hats reading, “Make America Go Away” (MAGA).
The president has long demanded that the United States own Greenland, citing national security (and his own wants and needs), despite outrage in the United States and overseas over what an invasion could mean for international cooperation within NATO.
A child? A literal child?
A citizen of the United States.
Conejo Ramos and his father were then detained in a Texas immigration facility until their court-ordered release on Jan. 31.
In an interview with the Associated Press, Conejo Ramos’ principal, Jason Kuhlman, said more than 200 students were absent one day following the Minneapolis crackdown at a school of 750 students, as many parents feared sending their children to school, possibly sending them into harms way.
The detention of Conejo Ramos was just another instance of the use of authority by the Department of Homeland Security, one that continued in the days that followed.
They say he had a gun.
Do they think we’re all blind?
Jan. 22, 2026: Another day of anti-ICE protests swept Minneapolis. On that Saturday, they again became deadly, with ICU nurse Alex Pretti becoming the sixth person killed by immigration agents in a matter of months.
At noon, DHS announced that the person who had been shot — unnamed at the time — had been armed, sharing a photo of a weapon and claiming the agent who shot Pretti feared for his life and acted in self-defense.
Around the same time, Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara revealed that the man shot had been an American citizen and had a permit to carry a firearm.
Video evidence released later that afternoon contradicted DHS statements. Pretti was not armed, like they had originally claimed, but holding a phone as he assisted protesters who had been pepper sprayed.
He was then tackled and pinned to the ground by DHS agents, and once he was subdued, a DHS agent fired on Pretti. Evidence shows Pretti was not a threat to agents or the public.
The New York Times reported that at least 10 shots were fired into Pretti within five seconds.
How is January still not over?
I thought you were supposed to release these files months ago.
Jan. 30, 2026: Amid the chaos of yet another partial government shutdown over DHS funding — due to the House not being in session until the following week — the Justice Department (DOJ) released millions of documents and videos related to the Jeffrey Epstein case.
The release came more than a month after the Dec. 19, 2025, deadline set by Congress requiring the documents to be made public. More than 4,000 of those documents mention the president, as well as other high-profile figures.
The release closed out the first month of 2026, ushering in February, a month hopefully dominated by Olympic headlines.
When is enough just enough?
So much for a white blank page.
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