The month started off with a bang as special forces landed in Caracas, stormed the mansion of Venezuela President Nicolas Maduro and then swooped him and his wife Cilia Flores away, taking them to New York. Both are now facing drug trafficking charges.

Then President Trump declared he was the leader of Venezuela though leaving the day-to-day operation of running the country to Maduro’s Vice President Delcy Rodriguez.

Then things got really strange as Venezuela opposition leader Maria Corina Machado flew to Washington D.C. and presented Trump with the Nobel Peace Prize she had won. Trump gets to keep the medal but the Norwegian Nobel Committee will not recognize Trump as its recipient which of course resulted in a Presidential tweet that can only be described as troubling.

However, the biggest story that gripped our country in January surrounded the ICE shootings of two American citizens in Minneapolis making this Minnesota city the flash point of current civil unrest in our country.

Renee Good was shot dead as she attempted to drive her car away while a couple of weeks later Alex Pretti was beaten and then shot to death by ICE agents.

The administration’s pathetic response has just inflamed the situation and hundreds of thousands have taken to the streets in Minneapolis (and other cities) to protest against ICE and government immigration policy generally.

Homeland Security Kristi Noem declared Pretti a “domestic terrorist” who was there to “massacre ICE agents” but the video of the altercation from several angles suggested anything but, and her remarks, and that of Chief of Staff Stephen Miller and Vice President J.D. Vance, only threw more gasoline on the fire.

In the end, somebody needed to be thrown under the bus and it hasn’t been Noem who has (so far) Trump’s support. But high-ranking Border Patrol leader Greg Bovino, placed in charge of ICE operations in Minneapolis, wasn’t as lucky. He’s been exiled to parts unknown while his government social media account has been frozen.

All this led to Bovino being mercilessly lampooned by The Daily Show’s Desi Lydic who made references to his Nazi-esque trench coat. And when Bovino tossed a teargas canister towards protesters, she remarked that it was “like a mathlete whose arm fell asleep.”

Trump has sent in his border czar Tom Boman but only time will tell whether he can calm the waters. Meanwhile, there have been calls for general strikes and boycotts of large corporations that have supported the President. Some Republicans such as North Carolina senator Thom Tillis have also called for the removal of Noem and for a full investigation of Pretti’s death.

Mid January also saw our President threatening to take over Greenland as Denmark refused to hand it over. As NATO and other European countries supported the Danes, Trump threatened to slap an additional ten percent tariff on these nations. This caused the stock market, particularly the Dow Jones index, to shoot down nearly 1,000 points.

Then at the World Economic Summit in Davos, Switzerland, Trump TACOed, calling off the tariffs and military threats to seize Greenland saying concepts of a deal or framework were in the works to alleviate American security concerns. And the stock markets recovered a bit.

But Trump wasn’t done embarrassing himself, if that’s even possible, and our nation. In one speech he referred to Greenland as Iceland four different times and reminded Europeans that they would all be speaking German if it wasn’t for the United States. All of this probably confuses residents of Davos itself as they actually speak German.

Meanwhile, Canada made a significant trading deal with China, and at his speech in Davos, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney suggested that a rupture in the world economic order has taken place signaling that Canada is tired of being bullied by Trump.

In January the President also created a “Board of Peace” with a billion dollar entry fee. It seems ironic that Canada has said no to the offer while Pakistan, the country where 9-11 mastermind Osama bin Laden hid out for years, ponied up its dues.

Precious metals have soared in price the last several months but on the last trading day of January saw both gold and silver tumble by huge margins, silver by nearly 30 percent. Many are nervous about a possible stock market correction as A.I. company profits don’t match up to their lofty stock market valuations. All of this as the dollar weakens and inflation persists.

At month’s end, Trump announced Kevin Warsh will be the new Federal Reserve chair, that’s if he can get through the nomination process. Meanwhile, current Fed chair Jerome Powell faces criminal charges and the Fed refused to lower interest rates at its last meeting. Powell’s term as Fed chair is set to expire in May, but he still can remain on the board until 2028. He was likely to retire in May but may remain as a voting member to spite the President.

Mother Nature fought hard not to be upstaged by Trump’s antics and people got introduced to the term “bomb cyclone”. Huge snow and ice storms engulfed a large part of the southeastern United States. Cities like Nashville had over a foot of snow and millions lost power. Much like during COVID, Americans went to the stores and bought up all the toilet paper.

The weather has been so weird that cities in northern Florida have received more snow than Salt Lake City. This has led leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints to call for a special fast, along with prayers, that the Beehive State will receive more precipitation as snowpack is currently at record lows.

On the sporting front, Indiana won the national championship in college football, going 16-0. The Hoosiers were the only team since the 12-team format has been adopted to win its game after having a bye in the first round. Though there have been calls to expand the college football playoff to 16 teams, no agreement could be reached so the same format will persist for one more year. It seems the CFP playoff committee is as dysfunctional as our Congress.

Lastly, January ended with the opening of the “Melania” documentary at an empty theater near you. And oh yeah, the Justice Department just released nearly three million pages of documents and photographs relating to Jeffrey Epstein while February began with the government being shut down again.

I’m glad that January 2026 is finally behind us … but now who knows what February will bring?

Brian E. Preece is a retired social studies educator and coach. As a wrestling coach, he was named as the 2006 Utah Coach of the Year by the National Wrestling Coaches Association. He has also co-authored three books and has been a sports journalist for parts of five decades.