Letters from an American - January 7, 2026

Episode Date: January 8, 2026

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January 7th, 2026. This morning, a federal agent from Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, shot and killed 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good as she was driving away from ICE agents on a residential street in Minneapolis, Minnesota. According to Minneapolis leaders, Goode was a legal observer. a volunteer trained to observe police conduct in case of future legal action. Three videos taken at the scene show a maroon SUV perpendicular on a snowy street. A silver SUV driving up the street stops.

Two officers wearing badges that say police and body armor get out of the vehicle and walk toward the maroon car. One of them says, get out of the fucking car. and the other reaches through the open driver's side window while trying to open the door. The driver backs up the vehicle and straightens the wheel as if making a three-point turn. Then she starts slowly to accelerate along the street. A third officer, who has been standing on the side of the road, pulls out a gun as the car is turning away. He shoots three times.

The maroon car does not hit anyone as it rolls up the street, hitting another vehicle and then a utility pole. The shooter walks briskly away, apparently uninjured. Seen in slow motion, a video shows the wheels of the maroon vehicle were fully turned away from the shooting officer, who made no effort to jump away, clearly suggesting he did not feel as if he were in danger. His first shot went through the windshield,

the next two went through the driver's side window as the car moved past him. An onlooker shouted, What the f***? Video taken by another eyewitness shows ICE agents refusing to allow a self-identified physician to tend to the victim and telling him to back up. Although there is no one tending the clearly visible woman in the car, an agent says,

We have medics on scene. We have our own medics. When another bystander screams, Where are they? Where are they? An agent tells her, relax. How can I relax? She shouts. You just killed my neighbor. Yesterday, the Trump administration deployed federal agents and

officers to Minneapolis for what they called the largest federal immigration operation ever carried out, eventually planning to deploy 2,000 agents. The administration has been attacking Minnesota's Somali community and Homeland Security Secretary Christy Nome was present at an ICE arrest yesterday, telling a man in handcuffs, who Homeland Security later said was from Ecuador, you will be held accountable for your crimes. Rebecca Santana and Michael Balsamo of the Associated Press reported that Minnesota Governor Tim Walls called the deployment a war that's being waged against Minnesota. You're seeing that we have a ridiculous surge of apparently

2,000 people not coordinating with us that are for a show of cameras, he said. The Department of Homeland Security, or DHS, insists that its actions are protecting American citizens from the worst of the worst criminal immigrants. So the shooting of a young white woman, the mother of a young child, and how that would look, made it appear eager to smear good. It immediately put out a statement that looked much like what it said after officers shot 30-year-old Chicago teaching assistant Maramar Martinez in October when it claimed she had ambushed agents ramming their vehicle before an agent shot her five times. Footage showed that, in fact, the agents had rammed her car, and after the shooting, one had sent a text message bragging, I fired five rounds and she had seven holes. Put that in your book, boys. The Department of Justice dropped the charges it had filed against her, asking a judge to dismiss the indictment and exonerate

Martinez and her passenger. Today, DHS posted on social media that ICE officers in Minneapolis were conducting targeted operations when rioters began blocking ICE officers and one of these violent rioters weaponized her vehicle, attempting to run over our law enforcement officers in an attempt to kill them. An act of domestic terrorism. An ICE officer, fearing for his life, the lives of his fellow law enforcement and the safety of the public, fired defensive shots. He used his training and saved his own life and that of his fellow officers. The alleged perpetrator was hit and is deceased. The ICE officers who were hurt are expected to make full recoveries. This is the direct consequence of constant attacks and demonization of our officers by sanctuary

politicians who fuel and encourage rampant assaults on our law enforcement who are facing 1,300% increase in assaults against them and an 8,000% increase in death threats. Trump jumped in with his own fact-free post, lying that the shooter had been run over. I have just viewed the clip of the event which took place in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It is a horrible thing to watch. The woman screaming was obviously a professional agitator, and the woman driving the car was very disorderly, obstructing and resisting, who then violently, willfully, and viciously ran over the ICE officer,

who seems to have shot at her in self-defense. Based on the attached clip, it is hard to believe that he is alive, but is now recovering in the hospital. The situation is being studied in its entirety, but the reason these incidents are happening is because the radical left is threatening, assaulting, and targeting our law enforcement officers and ICE agents on a daily basis. They are just trying to do the job of making America safe.

We need to stand by and protect our law enforcement officers from this radical left movement of violence and hate, President Donald J. Trump. That both DHS and Trump posted false accounts of the shooting, even as there are four videos circulating that reveal those accounts to be lies, shows they are no longer making any attempt to justify their actions. Instead, they are demanding Americans abandon reality in favor of whatever the administration says. If this works, it would be a demonstration of totalitarian power, the ability to control how people think. Accepting that lie is a loyalty test. But it is not working.

First of all, Saraj Young of the Verge noted that the reason there are so many videos is because people cared enough to show up where ICE was and record them. It wasn't just one or two legal observers. And when Good was shot, they didn't abandon her. Second, elected Democrats are pushing back. I've seen the video, Governor Walls wrote, don't believe this propaganda machine. The state will ensure there is a full, fair, and expeditious investigation to ensure accountability and justice. To reporters, he said, we've been warning for weeks that the Trump administration's dangerous, sensationalized operations are a threat to our public safety, that someone was going to get hurt. Just yesterday, I said exactly that. What we're seeing is the consequences of governance

designed to generate fear, headlines, and conflict. It's governing by reality TV, and today that recklessness costs someone their life. I've reached out to DHS Secretary Christy Nome and I'm waiting to hear back. He told Minnesotans that like them he was angry, but they want a show. We can't give it to them. We cannot. If you protest and express your First Amendment rights, please do so peacefully as you always do. We can't give them what they want. To Americans, I ask you this. Please stand with Minneapolis. Walls prepared to call out the Minnesota National Guard, if necessary, demonstrating that there would be no need for Trump to invoke the Insurrection Act and send in troops. He reminded Minnesotans that the Minnesota National Guard does not wear masks, and that it is theirs, not Trump's. Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frye told reporters that the DHS statement was bull- this was an agent recklessly using power that resulted in somebody dying, getting killed.

To the family, I'm so deeply sorry, Fry said. There's nothing that I can say right now that's going to make you or your relatives friends of the victim feel any better. to ICE and other federal agents deployed in Minnesota he added get the fuck out of Minneapolis we do not want you here your stated reason for being in this city is to create some kind of safety and you are doing exactly the opposite people are being hurt families are being ripped apart and now somebody is dead but something else was also going on today at the time the administration was pouring gasoline on the domestic fire ice had sparked and the international fire it had set with its attacks on Venezuela and threats against Greenland, it was quietly making

a number of major financial moves. The smallest of these moves was that today Trump asked Fulton County, Georgia for a $6.2 million payout in attorney's fees and costs after the criminal charges against him in Georgia were dismissed. Trump had been indicted for trying to overturn the 2020 presidential election in Georgia by pressuring Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensberger to find 11,780 votes to give him a victory in the state of Georgia. In November 2025, a new special prosecutor dropped the charges, citing the difficulty of prosecuting a case against a sitting president. Trump boasted on social media of his victory over an illegal, unconstitutional, and un-American hoax, and continued to push the lie that Democrats stole the election.

Vicky Guy Huang of the Wall Street Journal reported that the Trump family's cryptocurrency venture, World Liberty Financial, today applied for a national banking license from the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, part of the Treasury Department. A banking license would integrate the Trump family's cryptocurrency more fully into mainstream finance. If the Treasury Department issues the license, a potential outcome that critics say reveals a major conflict of interest for the president,

the president and share of the new company would be Zach Whitkoff, whose father is Trump's envoy to Russia, Steve Whitkoff, who the Wall Street Journal recently reported had been hand-picked for his role by Russian President Vladimir Putin. The younger Whitkoff started World Liberty Financial in 2024 with Trump's sons, Don Jr., Eric, and Barron.

Today, Energy Secretary Chris Wright told an audience at a Goldman Sachs energy industry event in Miami, Florida, that the United States will take control of all oil from Venezuela for the foreseeable future. Lisa Desjardin and Nick Schifrin of PBS News Hour reported this afternoon that Trump administration officials have told lawmakers that they planned to put the money raised from their seizure of Venezuelan oil

into bank accounts outside the U.S. Treasury. Desjardin clarified that sources said they understood these as similar to or decidedly offshore accounts. Yesterday, Trump announced that, as President of the United States, he would control the money from the sale of Venezuelan oil. And then, this afternoon, Trump's social media account first threatened the defense contractor Raytheon, saying that either Raytheon steps up and starts investing in more upfront investment like plants and equipment, or they will no longer be doing business with department

of war. Then the same account posted. After long and difficult negotiations with senators, congressmen, secretaries, and other political representatives, I have determined that for the good of our country, especially in these very troubled and dangerous times, our military budget for the year 2027, should not be $1 trillion, but rather $1.5 trillion. This will allow us to build the dream military that we have long been entitled to, and more importantly, that will keep us safe and secure, regardless of foe. If it weren't for the tremendous numbers being produced by tariffs from other countries, many of which in the past have ripped off the United States at levels never seen before, I would stay at the $1 trillion number, but because of tariffs and the tremendous income they bring, amounts being generated that would have been unthinkable in the past, especially just one year ago during the Sleepy Joe Biden administration,

the worst president in the history of our country. We are able to easily hit the $1.5 trillion number while at the same time producing an unparalleled military force and having the ability to, at the same time, pay down debt and likewise pay a substantial dividend to moderate-income patriots within our country Simon Rosenberg of the Hopium Chronicles wrote

Trump has gone completely mad Letters from an American was written and read by Heather Cox Richardson It was produced at Soundscape Productions Dead in Massachusetts recorded with music composed

by Michael Moss Space, you know.