• The 2017 Donald Trump lavished praise on the multi-billion-dollar plan crafted by Michigan and Canada to build the much-needed connector for our two economies. The 2026 Donald Trump sees the bridge as nothing more than a bargaining chip.
  We’ll get into the details of the potential economic disaster with former U.S. Ambassador to Canada … and former Michigan Governor … Jim Blanchard.
• For Michigan Republicans, Bridgegate poses a new choice: Michigan workers, or Donald Trump. Most apparently are choosing Trump.
• In Washington D.C. (District of Chaos)Trump’s Justice Department-led war on his critics loses again. It’s said a prosecutor can get a ham sandwich indicted, but Pam Bondi couldn’t get a federal grand jury to indict Elissa Slotkin, Mark Kelly and 4 House Democrats for sedition. Slotkin and Kelly told reporters they refuse to be intimidated by the White House bully.
• Another federal court, this time in Michigan, has rejected efforts by Bondi to get confidential details of Michigan’s qualified voter list. The decision came from a Trump-appointed judge.
• 8 years after running on a pledge to “Fix the Damn Roads,” Gretchen Whitmer is celebrating bipartisan legislation that’s doing just that. Her new budget calls for an extra $2 billion in road and bridge funding, a continuation of the budget deal enacted last October. The executive budget for Fiscal Year (FY) 2027 will fund both state and local roads as it executes the first full-year of funding for Michigan’s roads.
• Whitmer’s 88-billion dollar budget based on roughly $800 million in tax increases, $630 million in cuts and $400 million from the rainy day fund. It calls for increasing the state’s “sin” taxes to fill the gap left by Trump’s federal budget cuts to Medicaid and nutrition programs. House Speaker Matt Hall says any tax increase, even if it’s taxes on tobacco and gambling, is a non-starter. Senate appropriations chair Sarah Anthony counters: if that’s your position, show us what you’ll cut. WIll Michigan House Republicans dare to cut Medicaid benefits to ¼ of the state’s population in an election year?
• Trump’s economy is hitting Michigan auto workers. Ford reports that 2026 profit-sharing checks will be one-third less than 2025 checks. That drop impacts not just the UAW members, but also the businesses where those workers spend money.
• Two of three people accused in a case regarding fake nomination petition signatures for candidates in 2022, including gubernatorial candidates, were found guilty of numerous charges by a Macomb County Circuit Court jury after two days of deliberations.
  A third person, the wife of one of the other defendants, was acquitted of all the charges filed against her.
  The signature fraud likely contributed to the GOP nominating Tudor Dixon for Governor … who was swamped by Gretchen Whitmer in the election.
  Unfortunately, the scores of persons who actually forged the signatures remain at large and available to do it again.

We are joined this week by former U.S. Ambassador to Canada (and former Michigan Governor) Jim Blanchard who played a pivotal role in negotiating details of the Michigan-Canada agreement to build the Gordie Howe Bridge. After 8 years as Michigan’s Governor, Blanchard was named as the nation’s representative in Ottawa by President Clinton. He served in that role for two-and-a-half years. Governor Blanchard holds two degrees from Michigan State University, and a law degree from the University of Minnesota.

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• This week in Trump includes:
• Claims that the latest partial release of the Epstein files exonerates him … it doesn’t. His name appears 38,000 times, including allegations involving 13- and 14-year-old girls.
• A demand for a federal takeover of elections in democratic areas of swing states, including Detroit … accompanied by a declaration from Steve Bannon that ICE will be used to enforce Trump’s will
• Ordering the seizure of Georgia 2020 voting files from a county he lost, and assigning his Director of National Security to lead the new attack on the 2020 election.
• Filing a $10-billion lawsuit against the IRS (and effectively himself) for leaks of his tax returns during his first term, tax returns he often promised to release voluntarily. The ultimate decision on whether the IRS settles and pays up will be made by … Trump.
• Deciding to close the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts for 2 years as artists continued to cancel performances.
• Announcing plans for a White House statue honoring Christopher Columbus, an explorer who ended up landing in the wrong continent.
• Making it known he wants Dulles Airport and New York City’s Penn Station renamed in his honor.
• Reposting an AI video that includes a shot depicting the Obamas as apes, something that even Trump-loving GOP Senator Tim Scott (the Senate’s only black Republican) called “the most racist thing I’ve seen out of this White House”
• Bailing from attending the Super Bowl, after aides reportedly warned him he’s get booed even more than he was at the Lions-Packers game.

Elsewhere in the District of Crazy:

• The Washington Post, long considered one of the nation’s most important newspapers, is being gutted by Jeff Bezos to save money. (Jeff’s net worth is around a quarter-of-a-trillion dollars, and he recently launched his $500-million yacht, and spent $75-million on the Melania disaster.) 30% of reporters are being fired. The paper’s masthead reads “Democracy Dies in Darkness.” Jeff Bezos just dimmed the light.
• Senator Elissa Slotkin has told the FBI and Department of Justice to take their requests for an interview and shove it. They want to talk about the video in which she reminds military personnel they should not and cannot obey illegal orders. She’s thinking about suing them.
• With Trump’s economy sagging, Ford car sales are down and GM is warning of slowing sales. So much for the promise of a manufacturing rebirth in the “hottest economy on the planet.”
• In Michigan politics, the stage is set for a special election on May 5th that will decide control of the state Senate. It’s a Marine Corps veteran slash firefighter for the Dems against a Republican lawyer.
• The field continues to clear for Lt. Governor Garland Gilchrist in the Democratic race for Secretary of State, with former state Senator Adam Hollier the latest to drop out of the race.
• Attorney General Nessel has rolled out a new “Immigration Action Reporting Form” urging residents to document ICE and Border Patrol activity while warning that some federal immigration operations are endangering people in Michigan.
• A Republican-aligned group says it has enough signatures to get a voter-suppression constitutional amendment on the state ballot. The proposal would require providing proof of citizenship to register to vote – something hundreds-of-thousands don’t have.

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The first-ever recipient of a previously owned Nobel Peace Prize apparently wants to be the Genghis Khan of the 21st Century.

In the last week, Trump has

• Threatened to invade Venezuela if his hand-picked government doesn’t do his bidding;
• Stationed an armada near Iran in preparations for an aerial war;
• Hinted at an imminent effort at regime change in Cuba;
• Doubled-downed on his armed assault on the Constitution in Minneapolis with a change in messaging but little else, He replaced one Nazi-adjacent ICE commander with a fascist-adjacent ICE commander in Minneapolis with vague promises of a future future drawdown on masked thugs roaming the streets, but not now.
• Sent his FBI and Tulsi Gabbard to investigate the 2020 presidential election in Georgia, a continuation of his b.s. claims of fraud costing him a win over Joe Biden, and
• Had his FBI raid the home of a reporter in violation of federal law; and,
• Arrested reporter Don Lemon for covering a peaceful Minneapolis protest because it “disrupted” a religious service

Trump’s war on Minneapolis inspired a powerful anthem from “The Boss.”

Bruce Springsteen’s “The Streets of Minneapolis” pulls no punches in denouncing Trump, ICE Barbie and Stephen Miller. Due to copyright restrictions we can’t play it here … but it’s well worth a visit to YouTube.

Trump World is also having a direct impact on Michigan politics.

• Trump has reportedly inserted himself in the battle for the party’s gubernatorial nomination, torpedoing frontrunner John James and encouraging 78-year-old rich guy Perry Johnson’s newly announced campaign.
• Michigan Democrats have launched their first attack ad on independent gubernatorial candidate Mike Duggan even as the party’s contests for Attorney General and Secretary of State are all but over.
• A Republican dark money group is promoting one of the Democrats in next week’s primary to fill a state Senate primary … with the belief that State Board of Education President Pamela Pugh would be easier to beat in the April general election. Democrats, including Saginaw Dem chair Jennifer Austin and Saginaw state Representative Amos O’Neal, are crying “foul.”
• Senator Elissa Slotkin says Kristi Noem has to go. In a Senate speech, Michigan’s junior senator noted she had voted to confirm Noem … but the cabinet member derided as “ICE Barbie” has betrayed fundamental American values.

We’re joined this week by political science guru Norm Ornstein, emeritus scholar at the conservative think-tank American Enterprise Institute with his assessment of congressional dysfunction and Trump’s drive for one-person government.

He is the co-author, with Thomas E. Mann, of It’s Even Worse Than It Looks: How the American Constitutional System Collided With the New Politics of Extremism.

Norm is a Minnesota native. He was a child prodigy, graduating from high school when he was fourteen and from college when he was eighteen. He received his BA from the University of Minnesota and PhD in political science from the University of Michigan.

By the mid-1970s, he had become a professor of political science at Catholic University in Washington, D.C., establishing a reputation as an expert on the United States Congress.

Ornstein is a frequent contributor to The Washington Post, The Atlantic and the National Journal. He wrote a weekly column for Roll Call for 11 years, and was co-director of the AEI-Brookings Election Reform Project. He helped draft key parts of the 2002 Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act, also known as the McCain–Feingold Act. Ornstein is a registered Democrat but considers himself a centrist and has voted for individuals from both parties.

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Taco Trump went to Davos intent on taking over Greenland or Iceland (depending on the moment) … calls our allies stupid and worthless … and comes home with the “concept of a framework for a future agreement” that amounts to little more than total surrender to a united Europe. That, after a one-hour rambling, disjointed speech to the assembled world leaders who watched in stunned silence.

Trump’s really bad week continued at home with a series of defeats:

• His beauty pageant runner up is forced to resign after a federal court reminds her that she was not, in fact, the U.S. Attorney for northern Virginia
• The Supreme Court seems poised to veto his efforts to stack the federal reserve with stooges
• Former special counsel Jack Smith verbally filleted Trump, testifying to the House Judiciary Committee in detail about the case proving “beyond a reasonable doubt” it was Trump who instigated the January 6 insurrection in an effort to overturn the 2020 election
• Another federal court struck down the blatantly unconstitutional tactics used by ICE in Minneapolis
• A newly uncovered ICE memo directing Trump’s goon squad to break down doors without a warrant has put “Homeland Barbie” Kristi Noem on the defensive … again
• In Michigan, legislation has been introduced pushing back on ICE tactics by designating no-arrest zones, prohibiting masking of law enforcement with common-sense exceptions, and prohibiting the release of government information to ICE without a judicial warrant

Michigan’s research universities are pushing back on Trump efforts to effectively stifle free speech on college campuses. We talk with University of Michigan Regent Jordan Acker about the challenges facing one of the world’s leading research institutions. Acker is Mark’s longtime friend and law partner at the Goodman Acker law firm. Prior to law school, Jordan worked as a communications aide to the U.S. House Judiciary Committee. After law school, he served as an associate in the White House Office of Presidential Personnel before being appointed by President Obama to be an attorney-advisor to Secretary Janet Napolitano at the Department of Homeland Security. While at DHS, Jordan worked on cyber, immigration and other homeland security issues. He was elected to the UM Board of Regents in 2018.

Acker was named one of Crains Detroit 40 under 40 in 2020, Michigan Lawyers Weekly Up and Coming Lawyers, and is an alum of the non-partisan Michigan Political Leadership Program Fellowship at Michigan State University. Since joining the University of Michigan Board of Regents, he has focused on reforming sexual misconduct reporting and adjudication at the University, NCAA reform, including the future of NIL, expanding the Go Blue Guarantee, and making the University affordable for Michiganders.

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Donald Trump’s reaction to a heckler at his Detroit Economic Club speech was symbolic of his administration: flipping the bird to all of us as he simultaneously destroys the economy, government services and NATO. The irony: his target, who was suspended by Ford, has received more than 800-thousand dollars through two Go Fund Me appeals launched by friends.

Listing Trump’s weekly rundown of outrages could easily fill out the podcast, so we’ll go with the most outrageous. His week of destruction and dementia include:

• Openly threatening to use the U.S. military to steal Greenland over the objections of Greenlanders, Denmark and our angry allies in NATO.
• Taking on another political critic with former Fox News screamer Jeanine Piro, now U.S. Attorney for D.C., investigating Michigan Senator Elissa Slotkin for the crime of quoting federal law, a followup to the Pete Hegseth assault on Senator Mark Kelly.
• Also under investigation by Trump’s retribution machine: Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, who made it clear it’s nothing more than another Trump retribution charade.
• Trump gave a 60-minute speech to Detroit area business leaders, a speech long on fantasy and lies. We learned that those increases in grocery and housing prices are apparently going down, much to the surprise of anyone buying groceries or trying to find a home. The fact checkers may be facing PTSD.
• And his administration is using a right-wing video as the excuse to cut off food benefits to millions … but only in blue states.

In Michigan:

• New polling shows the races for Governor and U.S. Senator are both statistically tied.
• State Democrats are working to make sure voters know it’s Michigan Republicans who are responsible for skyrocketing health insurance premiums.

The new state legislative session faces multiple challenges: housing shortages, never-ending potholes, continuing calls for more openness … and an ongoing battle between Republican House Speaker Matt Hall and a state Senate controlled, at least for now, by Democrats…pending the outcome of an upcoming special election. Caught in the middle of all of this is Senate Majority Floor Leader Sam Singh.

Singh is the son of Indian immigrants. His political career dates back 30 years when, at age 24, he was elected to East Lansing City Council and later served as the city’s mayor. He is a past president of the Michigan Nonprofit Association and Public Policy Associates. In 2012 he was elected to the first of 3 terms in the state, serving as Democratic floor leader in his final term. Singh moved to the state Senate two years ago and was elected to the #2 leadership slot as Majority Floor Leader. He’s a graduate of Michigan State University.

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There is a lot on our radar along with Santa’s sleigh…

• It was inevitable from the day Donald Trump sent his masked, unqualified, undertrained stormtroopers into American cities. An American citizen was summarily executed; Trump, Vance, and Kristi Noem immediately called the shooting justified self-defense and branded the dead American mother a domestic terrorist. But, we have clear unrefutable evidence we have all seen with our own eyes … which proves everything they have said in the aftermath are lies. It. Was. Murder.
  And now – Kash Patel has decided he, and he alone, will investigate.
• Trump is in full land acquisition mode, launching an invasion of Venezuela and making it clear he’s looking hard at Cuba, Columbia and Greenland … although his minions say he wants to buy Greenland. And he admits we could be in Venezuela for years. He apparently learned nothing from the George W. Bush’s Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan…or the Vietnam War he avoided with those dreaded bone spurs.
• Trump adds the title of pirate to his resume with the seizure of a 50-million barrels of oil … saying he, and he alone, will illegally and unconstitutionally control the billions raised by selling his booty.
• Trump says it out loud: if Democrats flip the U.S. House, he expects to be impeached for a third time. Could this be an effort to motivate the MAGA vote?
• In Michigan, Attorney General Dana Nessel has ruled House Speaker Matt Hall’s unilateral cancellation of more than a half-billion dollars from the state budget is unconstitutional … probably setting up a major court battle.
• State Democrats have rolled out the first blasts aimed at independent gubernatorial candidate Mike Duggan with polls showing Duggan’s Independent candidacy could help elect a Republican as Governor.

West Michigan has been trending more Democratic over the last decade. The transition culminated with the 2022 election of Hillary Scholten to a congressional seat once held by Gerald Ford in a district that had only just two years of Democratic representation in Michigan’s history. In 2026, Democrats see the opportunity to flip another longtime Republican district by defeating 8-term Republican congressman Bill Huizenga. They’re counting on state Senator Sean McCann of Kalamazoo to do that. McCann’s political career began 26 years ago as a member of the Kalamazoo City Committee, followed by election to the Michigan House of Representatives in 2011, and moving to the state Senate 8 years later. He’s now completing his 2nd term in the Senate. McCann is a graduate of Western Michigan University with a degree in political science.

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There is a lot on our radar along with Santa’s sleigh…

• • The Justice Department is dipping into the National Black Toner Cartridge Strategic Reserve as it redacts tens-of-thousands of pages of the Epstein files. Even so, the scandal continues to grow in a way not seen since the days of Monica Lewinsky.
• Larry Nassar, the disgraced onetime MSU sports doctor, is now a part of the scandal. A note allegedly from Epstein celebrates their shared perverted interest in vulnerable teenage girls. The FBI says the letter is a fake – and we know that Kash Patel would never tell a lie. The newly released files also show Trump was an Epstein Frequent Flyer … after saying for months he never flew on Lolita Airlines.
• Attorneys General are increasingly in the political bullseye. Democrats in the U.S. House may be joined by some Republicans to impeach Pam Bondi over the Epstein files debacle, even as Bondi continues to fail in efforts to indict New York AG Leticia James. In Michigan, state House Republicans are mulling over an attempt to impeach Attorney General Dana Nessel, something that would be totally symbolic but make MAGA Republicans feel good.
• The MAGA movement may need to get some couples therapy after an unhinged verbal brawl at the Turning Point USA weekend conference. We’ll be joined later in the podcast by Politico senior Adam Wren who’s been covering Turning Point’s efforts to be a major political force.
• The next key political battle in Michigan: a special election for the state Senate. The primary for replacing now-Congresswoman Kristen McDonald Rivet is set for February 3 … a swing district that will determine control of the state Senate for 2026. We’ll take a look at the candidates on both sides.
• CBS News has gone from The Gold Standard for broadcast news to the toilet with Trump-favorable censorship of 60 Minutes. Murrow, Cronkite, Severeid, et. al. are spinning in their graves, and the very much alive Katie Couric calls it a “disgrace.”
• First it was the Donald Trump Institute for Peace, then the Kennedy Center, Trump Saving Accounts, Trump $1 coins. Now Donald Trump has decided an entire class of battleships will bear his name…and he’ll play a role in designing them because, he says, “I’m a very aesthetic person.” Is the world’s first gold-plated Navy fleet in our future? And will he continue his years-long business of licensing use of his name on other people’s projects?
• Trump has raised the possibility of awarding himself a $1-billion settlement of the lawsuit he’s filed against the government he runs…in effect, judge, jury and beneficiary. Why stop at a billion? Why not a trillion or gazillion? Of course he’ll say tariffs will cover the check.

We’re joined this week by Adam Wren, a national political correspondent for POLITICO, based in the Midwest. He is a contributor to POLITICO Magazine, Playbook and West Wing Playbook, focusing on Donald Trump’s remaking of the federal government and the Democratic response to his return to power ahead of what could be a wide-open 2028 presidential contest. Wren previously served as a national politics features correspondent at Business Insider. He has also written for The New York Times and Washington Post. Originally from Ohio, Adam graduated from Indiana Wesleyan University and has a master’s from Northwestern University’s prestigious Medill School of Journalism.

You can find Adam online X/Twitter and Instagram.

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