Photo illustration by Emma Spainhoward with photograph by Getty Images.
Good morning. Cloudy today with a high around 54 and a chance of showers this morning. Rainy and windy overnight, with a low near 27. The Wizards visit the Clippers tonight, and the Capital City Go-Go host the Long Island Nets. You can find me on Bluesky, I’m @abeaujon.87 on Signal, and there’s a link to my email address below.
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I can’t stop listening to:
Derek Gripper andBallaké Sissoko,untitled improvisation. The South African guitarist Gripper and the Malian kora harp master Sissokoplay the Birchmere tonight.
Take Washingtonian Today with you! I’ve made a playliston Spotify andon Apple Music of last year’s music recommendations. I’ll make one for 2026 soon.
Here’s some administration news you might have blocked out:
Trump flips Michigan: President Trump raised his middle finger and mouthed “fuck you” to a Ford worker in Michigan who heckled him about his ties to Jeffrey Epstein yesterday. (TMZ) “I don’t feel as though fate looks upon you often, and when it does, you better be ready to seize the opportunity,” said Trump’s target, line worker TJ Sabula. The White House said Trump’s reaction was an “appropriate and unambiguous response.” (Washington Post) The President was in Dearborn for a factory tour before a speech at the Detroit Economic Club where he claimed “Inflation is stopped” and called Fed Chair Jerome Powell a “jerk.” (NBC News) Not long after the speech, the Labor Department reported that the pace of inflation didn’t change in December, during which prices rose 2.7 percent over the same period a year earlier. (WSJ) This may surprise you, but Trump made numerous other false claims, including that grocery prices were “starting to go rapidly down.” (CNN) In fact, the administration said yesterday that consumers’ grocery costs “rose at the fastest pace in three years” last month. (Axios) Meanwhile: It’s not just you who’s feeling the pinch. The US Treasury said the federal government “posted a $145 billion budget deficit for December.” (Reuters) GOP lawmakers on the Hill aren’t on board with Trump’s idea to cap credit-card interest rates for a year. (Politico) Asked about the $2,000 checks he promised Americans this year, Trump said, “I did do that? When did I do that?” (USA Today) The timeline for a Senate deal to revive Covid-era Obamacare subsidies has grown longer. (The Hill)
Target run: US Senator Elissa Slotkin of Michigan said the feds were investigating her over a video in which she and other lawmakers who served in the military reminded troops they don’t have to obey illegal orders. (NYT) Trump yelled at federal prosecutors at a photo shoot last week, “calling them weak and complaining they weren’t moving fast enough to prosecute his favored targets.” (WSJ) US Attorney for DC Jeanine Pirro didn’t tell her bosses at DOJ that her office had opened an investigation into Powell, a move that is currently blowing up in Trump’s face and that he claims to have had nothing to do with. Pirro, a former Fox News star, “speaks to Mr. Trump regularly by phone.” (NYT)
The ICE storm: The administration has intensified its crackdown on Minnesota after an ICE agent shot and killed Renee Good, spurring confrontations between protesters and immigration agents. (NYT) Unions and community groups in Minnesota are calling for a general strike on January 23 to protest the administration’s actions. (In These Times) Six federal prosecutors in Minnesota resigned yesterday over DOJ’s push to investigate Good’s wife. (NYT) DOJ won’t open a civil rights investigation into Good’s shooting, a departure from standard practice. (AP) Someone leaked what they claim is personal information of thousands of ICE and Border Patrol employees. (Daily Beast) Joe Rogan criticized ICE tactics, saying, “Are we really going to be the Gestapo? ‘Where’s your papers?’ Is that what we’ve come to?” (NBC News) Most Americans think Good’s shooting was unjustified. (Quinnipiac University) Oglala Sioux Tribe President Frank Star Comes Out said ICE has illegally detained four tribal members during the crackdown in Minnesota. (Axios) Good’s shooting could hold up an agreement to fund the government, which will run out of cash at the end of the month. (NOTUS) Minnesota is among the states that Trump said yesterday will lose federal funding on February 1 because they won’t cooperate with his crackdown. (Politico)
Administration perambulation: Transcripts from Trump’s Georgia election-interference case “show just how alarmed and exasperated a number of senior Republicans felt about the president’s efforts to overturn an American presidential election.” (NYT) A DOJ memo argues that Trump “was not limited by domestic law” in the matter of arresting Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. (CNN) The Supreme Court appears likely to rule narrowly in a case about state bans on trans kids playing sports. (Law Dork) The FDA deleted a webpage that warned parents about “dangers of bogus autism treatments” favored by anti-vaxxers like Health Secretary RFK Jr. (Ars Technica) The administration keeps reusing Nazi slogans. (USA Today) Faculty groups at the University of Pennsylvania criticized the administration’s request for the names of Jewish members of the school’s community, which it says is necessary to fight antisemitism. (The Guardian) Fifty-three Democrats in the House have signed on to an effort to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. (Axios) US Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana’s book “How to Test Negative for Stupid: And Why Washington Never Will” has “quietly sat atop The New York Times’s top 10 best-seller list for 13 weeks.” (NYT) Trump and NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani are text buddies. (Axios)
Recently on Washingtonian dot com:
• This waterfront wedding had a a sophisticated, chic vibe.
Local news links:
• Kenyan McDuffie officially kicked off his campaign to become DC’s next mayor. (WTOP)
• Elizabeth Bennett-Parker easily won the “firehouse primary” to replace Adam Ebbin in the Virginia Senate. (ALXnow) She’ll face Julie Robben Lineberry, the only Republican who sought the seat in Ebbin’s very blue district, in a special election next month. (ALXnow)
• Democrats in Virginia are poised to redistrict the state so it has only one GOP rep in Congress. (Politico)
• The administration wants to install Trump’s National Garden of American Heroes in West Potomac Park. (Washington Post)
• Ruby Corado got 33 months in prison. (Washington Post)
• Politico laid off ten people in its newsroom. (The Wrap)
• Ashburn high school student Calina Yu was killed after she was struck by a truck driven by a Loudoun County Public Schools employee. (NBC4 Washington)
• Prince George’s County Council member Ingrid Watson will resign to lead the county’s Economic Development Corporation. (WUSA9)
• A groundhog in Frederick tested positive for rabies. (DC News Now)
• NORAD flew fighter jets over the area last night. Did you hear anything? I didn’t, but I sleep like the dead. (WTOP)
Wednesday’s event picks:
• The a cappella chamber musical “Octet” opens at Studio Theatre.
• A People’s Choir DC returns for the first time since Covid for a sing-along at DC9.
See more picks for today and this week from Briana Thomas, who writes our Things to Do newsletter.
Join the conversation!
Senior editor
Andrew Beaujon joined Washingtonian in late 2014. He was previously with the Poynter Institute, TBD.com, and Washington City Paper. He lives in Del Ray.