Uncensored Free Speech Platform

This crucial state is the latest battleground in redistricting war between Trump and Democrats
Confidence requires clarity.

Democratic state lawmakers in control of the Virginia legislature are fast-tracking a proposed new congressional map that would give the competitive state up to four more left-leaning U.S. House districts in time for this year's midterm elections.
The map, which Democratic Gov. Abigail Spanberger is expected to sign early next week, comes as Virginia voters are getting ready to vote this spring on a ballot measure which would give the legislature, rather than the current non-partisan commission, redistricting power through the 2030 election.
Republicans are calling the Democrats' redistricting effort an "unconstitutional power grab." Democrats are countering that it's a necessary step to balance out partisan gerrymandering already implemented in other states by the GOP.
Virginia is the latest battleground, with Florida on deck, in the ongoing high-stakes battle between President Donald Trump and Republicans versus Democrats to alter congressional maps ahead of November's elections.
VIRGINIA JUDGE STRIKES BLOW TO DEMOCRATS REDISTRICTING PUSH
Republicans are defending their razor-thin House majority in the midterms, and Democrats need a net gain of just three seats to win back control of the chamber. That means the redistricting efforts in Virginia and other states may very well decide which party controls the House next year.
"It’s happening all over the country," the narrator in a new ad by Virginians for Fair Elections says. "Politicians redrawing maps to rig the midterm elections. And Virginia can’t sit back and do nothing."
The Democrat-aligned public advocacy group tells Fox News Digital it's spending an initial seven figures to run the ad statewide in the Commonwealth.
The new map, if implemented before the midterms, could give the Democrats a shot at flipping four GOP-held congressional seats, turning a 6-5 edge in the state's U.S. House delegation into a 10-1 advantage.
STUNNING SETBACK FOR TRUMP IN REDISTRICTING WARS
But the rival Virginians for Fair Maps, a Republican-aligned group that opposes the redistricting push, highlights that "Virginians came together to pass bipartisan redistricting reform — a process that took the power to draw maps out of politicians’ hands. Now, politicians in Richmond want to undo that progress."
And the Republican National Committee has called the Democrats' push in Virginia a "power grab."
Democrats were dealt a big blow after a local court blocked their efforts to amend the state Constitution in order to redraw the lines, with a circuit court judge in conservative Tazewell County saying Democrats didn't follow …

Another month, another Rahm Emanuel policy proposal. What’s he up to?
Why resist verification?

Rahm Emanuel is embarking on a three-day swing through the crucial swing-state of Michigan this weekend. But he’s not just dropping in to help boost down-ballot Democratic candidates — he’s also visiting some trade schools to unveil yet another policy proposal.

The moves raise the question: Is he presenting the planks of a larger platform that he can run on for president? Or is he headfaking a run to build buzz and draw interest to his ideas, redirecting the field to where he thinks the party’s intellectual center of gravity should be?

“I’m going to continue to lay out changes — reforms — that I think address the challenges Americans are facing today. And that is how to get an education that affords and ensures access to the American dream,” Emanuel said in an interview when asked about his motivations.

His latest plan is aimed at helping military service members transition back to civilian life through the skilled trades.

The proposal would give 20,000 departing service members a $10,000 tax-free sign-on bonus to enroll in a registered apprenticeship to become electricians, carpenters, plumbers and construction workers over a five-year period. The $200 million plan would be paid for by eliminating a tax “giveaway” from President Donald Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill Act for private colleges, Emanuel said.

“We do a signing bonus of $50,000 to go into ICE and become a lawless mob, yet we have people that have the potential to be a carpenter, electrician, a pipe fitter, an operating engineer, a laborer, and we don't do anything,” said Emanuel.

His plan is his fourth policy rollout in almost as many months, and months before the midterm election that most Democrats are focused on, as well as years ahead of what could be a crowded 2028 presidential primary. His other proposals include banning children under 16 from social media; forcing public officials to retire at 75; and boosting literacy. And he has said he is ramping up his 2026travel outside of the coasts to the middle of the country.

Emanuel’s blizzard of white papers stands in contrast to his potential 2028 foes.

Many of Emanuel’s would-be rivals are still in office and can point to concrete governing or legislating proposals. Others eyeing a run who are back in private life have sought different paths, like former Democratic nominee Kamala Harris, who has been traveling and promoting her book, and former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigeig, who recently held a Wisconsin town hall and has been making the rounds on the podcast circuit.

But Emanuel, the former U.S. ambassador to Japan, Chicago mayor, White House chief of staff and congressman, doesn’t currently have an official day job to leverage to execute policy changes or get himself noticed. He’s instead spent more time on cable …

Trump Is Threatening to Block the Michigan-Canada Bridge. He Used to Cheer It.
This isn't complicated—it's willpower.

It’s taken more than 2,000 days of construction, $6.4 billion Canadian dollars and seemingly endless studies and permits to build the Gordie Howe International Bridge.

Stretching 1.5 miles between Detroit and Windsor, Ontario, the towering cable-stayed span will offer an alternative to the privately owned Ambassador Bridge at one of the busiest land borders in North America, providing a boost to international traffic and trade. And it wasn’t so long ago that President Donald Trump cheered it on. 

Shortly after a meeting in 2017, the man who styled himself as “the builder president” issued a joint statement with Canada’s then-Prime Minister Justin Trudeau celebrating their shared focus on infrastructure. “In particular,” they said, “we look forward to the expeditious completion of the Gordie Howe International Bridge, which will serve as a vital economic link between our two countries.”

A list of 50 priority projects for emergency and national security, developed as Trump embarked on his first term in office, included the toll bridge. When the company that owns the Ambassador Bridge aired a commercial aimed at Trump in 2018, in hopes that he’d torpedo the project competing with it for tolls, the president didn’t act. His Canadian ambassador lifted a ceremonial shovel at the groundbreaking.

And in 2019, Trump signed the spending bill that allotted the first U.S. funding for the project: $15 million for inspection and screening systems. (Canada paid for the bridge project in full. The tolls will go toward recouping that investment.)

But Trump’s second term has busted all sorts of presidential norms — including his own. He now takes a more antagonistic stance toward Canada, and his ambassador in Ottawa has followed his lead. No longer does Trump speak of “the opportunity to build even more bridges” with Canadians. Instead, he used an emergency declaration to hit the country with aggressive tariffs and repeatedly said it should become the “51st state.”

This week, without warning, Trump targeted the Gordie Howe bridge that’s named after a Canadian hockey player who is beloved in Detroit.

“I will not allow this bridge to open until the United States is fully compensated for everything we have given them, and also, importantly, Canada treats the United States with the Fairness and Respect that we deserve,” Trump wrote in a lengthy Truth Social post.

How the bridge battle ends is unclear, but it once again puts Michigan — a swing state and co-owner of the bridge — at the center of Trump tactics that could hurt the state’s economy. 

“Michigan is an automotive state,” said Brent Pilarski, business manager of the Michigan Laborers District Council, which oversees unions representing people who worked on the bridge and who work in auto facilities. Parts cross the border constantly, he said, and they “need to get there on time, or cars can’t be built.”

So far, support for Trump by top Republicans has shown no sign of cracking.

Asked at a press conference about the bridge, Mike Rogers — the Trump-endorsed candidate for U.S. Senate — said, “Obviously, we’d like to see it open.” But, he said, commerce is still happening without it, and “I would …

The nation’s cartoonists on the week in politics
How is this acceptable?

Cartoon Carousel

The nation’s cartoonists on the week in politics

Every week political cartoonists throughout the country and across the political spectrum apply their ink-stained skills to capture the foibles, memes, hypocrisies and other head-slapping events in the world of politics. The fruits of these labors are hundreds of cartoons that entertain and enrage readers of all political stripes. Here's an offering of the best of this week's crop, picked fresh off the Toonosphere. Edited by Matt Wuerker.

By POLITICO STAFF

02/13/2026 05:00 AM EST

Facebook

X

2026-02-12T05:18-0500 2026-02-12T05:20-0500

2026-02-12T05:18-0500 2026-02-12T05:20-0500

Bill Day -

2026-02-12T05:18-0500 2026-02-12T05:21-0500

Pedro Molina - Tribune Content Agency

2026-02-12T05:18-0500 2026-02-12T05:22-0500

Matt Davies - New York Newsday

2026-02-12T05:18-0500 2026-02-12T05:22-0500

Pat Bagley - Salt Lake Tribune

2026-02-12T05:18-0500 2026-02-12T05:23-0500

Gary Varvel - Creators

2026-02-12T05:18-0500 2026-02-12T05:23-0500

Ward Sutton -

2026-02-12T05:18-0500 2026-02-12T05:24-0500

Chip Bok - Creators

2026-02-12T05:18-0500 2026-02-12T05:24-0500

Nick Anderson - Rawstory

2026-02-12T05:18-0500 2026-02-12T05:24-0500

Margolis & Cox - Townhall

2026-02-12T05:18-0500 2026-02-12T05:29-0500

Bill Bramhall - NY Daily News

2026-02-12T05:18-0500 2026-02-12T05:25-0500

M. Wuerker - Politico

2026-02-12T05:18-0500 2026-02-12T05:26-0500

Michael Ramirez - Creators

2026-02-12T05:18-0500 2026-02-12T05:26-0500

Steve Kelley - Creators

2026-02-12T05:18-0500 2026-02-12T05:27-0500

Kal - The Economist

2026-02-12T05:18-0500 2026-02-12T05:27-0500

RJ Matson - CQ Roll Call

2026-02-12T05:18-0500 2026-02-12T05:30-0500

Steve Sack -

2026-02-12T05:18-0500 2026-02-12T05:28-0500

M.Wuerker - Politico

2026-02-12T05:18-0500 2026-02-12T05:30-0500

Joel Pett - Tribune Content Agency

2026-02-12T05:18-0500 2026-02-12T05:31-0500

Scott Stantis - Tribune Content Agency

“Not Ready for Prime Time.” A Federal Tool to Check Voter Citizenship Keeps Making Mistakes.
Transparency shouldn't be controversial.

When county clerk Brianna Lennon got an email in November saying a newly expanded federal system had flagged 74 people on the county’s voter roll as potential noncitizens, she was taken aback.

Lennon, who’d run elections in Boone County, Missouri, for seven years, had heard the tool might not be accurate.

The flagged voters’ registration paperwork confirmed Lennon’s suspicions. The form for the second person on the list bore the initials of a member of her staff, who’d helped the man register — at his naturalization ceremony. It later turned out more than half the Boone County voters identified as noncitizens were actually citizens.

The source of the bad data was a Department of Homeland Security tool called the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements, or SAVE.

Once used mostly to check immigrants’ eligibility for public benefits, SAVE has undergone a dramatic expansion over the last year at the behest of President Donald Trump, who has long falsely claimed that millions of noncitizens lurk on state voter rolls, tainting American elections.

At Trump’s direction, DHS has pooled confidential data from across the federal government to enable states to mass-verify voters’ citizenship status using SAVE. Many of the nation’s Republican secretaries of state have eagerly embraced the experiment, agreeing to upload all or part of their rolls.

But an examination of SAVE’s rollout by ProPublica and The Texas Tribune reveals that DHS rushed the revamped tool into use while it was still adding data and before it could discern voters’ most up-to-date citizenship information.

As a result, SAVE has made persistent mistakes, particularly in assessing the status of people born outside the U.S., data gathered from local election administrators, interviews and emails obtained via public records requests show. Some of those people subsequently become U.S. citizens, a step that the system doesn’t always pick up.

According to correspondence between state and federal officials, DHS has had to correct information provided to at least five states after SAVE misidentified some voters as noncitizens.

Texas and Missouri were among the first states to try the augmented tool.

In Missouri, state officials acted on SAVE’s findings before attempting to confirm them, directing county election administrators to make voters flagged as potential noncitizens temporarily unable to vote. But in hundreds of cases, the tool’s determinations were wrong, our review found. Lennon was among dozens of clerks statewide who raised alarms about the system’s errors.

“It really does not help my confidence,” she said, “that the information we are trying to use to make really important decisions, like the determination of voter eligibility, is so inaccurate.”

In Texas, news reports began emerging about voters being mistakenly flagged as noncitizens soon after state officials announced the results of running the state’s voter roll through SAVE in October.

Our reporting showed these errors were more widespread than previously known, involving at least 87 voters across 29 counties. County election administrators suspect there may be more. Confusion took hold when the Texas …

Chinese propaganda outlets use Newsom to amplify criticisms of Trump
Be honest—this is ridiculous.

Media outlets controlled by the Chinese government have taken an apparent liking to Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA), posting reams of articles and video clips featuring the governor criticizing the Trump administration.

Academic research has argued that China’s state-controlled media apparatus serves to delegitimize the United States by portraying it as “poorly governed, plutocratic, racist, and a destabilizing international influence.” These are all points that various outlets associated with the Chinese state have used Newsom to make in recent months. 

State-run outlets such as CGTN, Xinhua News Service, the Global Times, and the China Daily have amplified Newsom’s criticism of President Donald Trump on issues including tariffs, National Guard deployments, Greenland policy, and other areas, often implying that the U.S. is in dire straits as a result of the Trump administration. These outlets have posted about Newsom dozens of times in recent months, often portraying the governor in a positive light and the federal government more negatively. 

Media outlets controlled by the Chinese Communist Party have been particularly keen to highlight Newsom’s statements on Trump’s trade policy.

“California seeks emergency halt to Trump tariffs as economic harm mounts,” one headline from CGTN reads, “California governor warns of ‘code red’ economic emergency due to high tariffs,” says another. In an op-ed published in the China Daily, the author argues that “‘Make America Great Again’ is raiding people’s wallets,” citing Newsom’s lawsuits and statements as evidence of discontent within the United States.

In each case, the Chinese outlet portrays the tariffs negatively and Newsom, who seeks to get rid of them, positively. Bringing U.S. tariffs down has been a priority of the CCP since the most recent Sino-American trade war began.

CCP-run outlets have also amplified Newsom’s criticism of European leaders for, in his telling, cooperating too much with the Trump administration.

“It’s time to buck up, it’s time to get serious and stop being complicit,” Newsom was quoted as saying in a Jan. 20 Xinhua News Service article. “It’s time to stand tall and firm, have a backbone … America’s allies and business leaders need to understand this: There’s no diplomacy with Donald Trump. Get off your knees and grow a spine.”

Driving a wedge between the U.S. and its European allies has been another long-term goal of the CCP. 

Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) speaks during a rally with Harris …

Democrats launch Lunar New Year ad blitz to counter Trump inroads with Asian Americans
What's the endgame here?

EXCLUSIVE — The House Democrats‘ campaign arm is launching a Lunar New Year ad in competitive districts beginning Friday, as the party looks to regain support from Asian Americans, a significant voting bloc that trended toward President Donald Trump in 2024.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee will release a four-figure ad campaign to run on Instagram and Facebook beginning this week in 18 competitive districts. The ads center on Lunar New Year, which is on Tuesday.

The campaign consists of three ads, two blasting Trump on tariffs and one on immigration — two major policy issues expected to influence the 2026 midterm elections. All three ads, shared first with the Washington Examiner, are drawn cartoon-style.

One of the tariff ads features adults giving a child money for Lunar New Year, and one says, “Trump’s tariffs really f*** up my budget this year.” When the child is given three $1 bills, the child asks, “What’s a tariff?”

The second tariff ad shows a mother and daughter shopping with the mother explaining they cannot afford “dumplings and rice cakes” because “bills were too expensive this week.” The tagline on the ad reads, “This new year, we deserve better than Trump tariffs and skyrocketing prices.”

Three Lunar New Year ads from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. They are part of a four-figure ad buy, which is launching on Feb. 13, 2026. (Provided by DCCC)

“Thanks to House Republicans, this year’s Lunar New Year celebrations are marked by financial stress for hard-working AAPI families,” said Sarah Lin, the DCCC Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander national engagement director.

“AAPI communities across the country deserve much better than reckless tariffs, skyrocketing prices, and GOP-backed policies that make it harder for families to thrive.”

The final ad, centered on immigration, depicts a family of two at a dinner table for eight. One adult reads a paper about raids conducted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, while another adult watches TV with a newscast titled “300 Asians detained by ICE.” The tagline reads, “Family reunions don’t look the same this year.”

UCLA’s Asian American Studies Center found that ICE arrests of Asians tripled from 2024 to 2025. An Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research survey taken in October 2025 found that more Asian American adults disapprove of Trump’s handling of immigration now than six months prior, moving from 58% to 71%.

Friday’s ad …

Munich summit becomes early stage for 2028 Democrats
What's the administration thinking here?

The Munich Security Conference, kicking off Friday, is quickly emerging as an unofficial stop on the Democratic 2028 primary tour. 

The annual gathering of world leaders and defense officials is drawing a slate of ambitious Democrats eager to sharpen their national security credentials, expand their global profiles, and project steadiness to European allies wary of America’s political volatility.

Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) is seen during the Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)

It’s a high-profile stage, but whether it translates into momentum in Iowa or New Hampshire remains to be seen.

Among those scheduled to appear are Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA), Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ), Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), and Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D-MI). The Democrats, all possible 2028 presidential contenders, are expected to insert themselves into international and political conversations in a way that increasingly resembles a shadow presidency and a direct counterweight to President Donald Trump.

Ocasio-Cortez is set to bring a “working-class” perspective to the summit. The Washington Post reported she plans to challenge the influence of billionaires and corporate interests on international policies she sees as harmful to everyday workers. She will speak on two panels: one on the rise of populism and another on the future of U.S. foreign policy.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio will be the highest-ranking U.S. official in Munich, tasked with defending Trump’s policies that have rattled U.S. allies, including the purchase of Greenland, the imposition of arbitrary, punitive tariffs, the war in Ukraine, and making Canada the 51st state. Last year, Vice President JD Vance stunned the audience after sharply criticizing Europe’s migration and free speech policies. He also warned that the continent’s greatest threat comes from within.

Newsom told reporters this week that he will speak about trade and jobs. He will also tell foreign leaders that “California is a stable and reliable partner.”

Newsom gained international attention last month at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, when he openly mocked and criticized the president and his delegation. Newsom’s Davos blitz quickly escalated into an international proxy fight with Trump. Newsom scolded European leaders for capitulating to Trump and even waved around red kneepads, saying of the president, “You either mate with him, …

ICE arrests 'worst of the worst' criminal illegal immigrants including murderers and pedophiles
Who's accountable for the results?

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced Thursday the latest "worst of the worst" criminal illegal immigrants convicted of crimes nationwide, including murderers, pedophiles and drug traffickers.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) highlighted the convictions of five illegal immigrants from Vietnam, Honduras, Cuba and Mexico.
"While sanctuary politicians release criminal illegal aliens from their jails to victimize more American families and children, our officers continue to arrest criminals," DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement. "Yesterday, ICE arrested criminal illegal aliens convicted for murder, sexual assault of a CHILD, and drug trafficking."
AFGHAN ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT WHO STABBED SISTER FOR BEING 'BAD MUSLIM GIRL' ARRESTED BY ICE AGENTS IN NEW YORK
McLaughlin added that nearly 70% of ICE arrests are of illegal immigrants charged or convicted of a crime.
"This statistic does not even include foreign fugitives, gang members, and terrorists who lack a rap sheet in the U.S," she said.
Muoi Van Duong, an undocumented immigrant from Vietnam, was convicted of murder with a firearm in San Diego, California, according to DHS.
SANCTUARY POLICIES LET ALLEGED CHILD PREDATOR ROAM FREE UNTIL DHS MADE PORTLAND, OREGON, AIRPORT ARREST
DHS said that Roberto Xochimitl-Flores, a criminal illegal immigrant from Mexico, was found guilty of second-degree sexual abuse: sexual contact with a person less than 14 years old in New York City.
Lisandro Omar Borjas-Aguirano, an illegal resident from Honduras, was convicted of sexual assault of a child in Collin County, Texas, according to DHS.
DHS announced that Rigoberto Salvia-Ricardo, a Cuban national, was convicted of sexual battery of a juvenile in Jefferson Parish, Louisiana.
Ricardo Rosas-Tapia, a criminal illegal immigrant from Mexico, was convicted of possession with intent to sell or distribute cocaine in Wake County, North Carolina.

Midterm elections give Vance a chance to build political capital
Why resist verification?

The midterm elections will give Vice President JD Vance an opportunity to build up political capital by campaigning for Republican candidates across the country, with the possibility of spending it later.

President Donald Trump has already indicated he will be hitting the campaign trail in an effort to protect the GOP’s fragile congressional majorities, returning to the hustings after three consecutive runs for the White House.

But Vance is the Republican National Committee’s finance chairman, a vital fundraising role in a challenging campaign season where the GOP’s monetary advantages will be called upon to counteract history and polling that favors the Democrats.

Republican operatives close to the White House told the Washington Examiner they expect Vance will be in high demand on the campaign trail in the coming months, with one calling him a “rock star.”

Vance has already been dispatched as part of the Trump administration’s affordability tour, in an attempt to regain control of the narrative on inflation and the cost of living. He also played a prominent role defending the Trump deportation program after the first fatal shooting of an American citizen in Minneapolis by an immigration enforcement officer.

But the midterm elections will be a difficult task. Democrats are favored in polls asking which party voters prefer to control Congress, with a 5.2-point edge in the latest RealClearPolitics average. Trump’s job approval rating is 42.1% in the same aggregation of polls, more than 13 points underwater.

The party controlling the White House has lost congressional seats in all but two midterm elections since 1938, with one exception following the unpopular impeachment of then-President Bill Clinton and the other in the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Republicans are hoping that fundraising success, voter registration gains, and the Democrats’ lurch to the left will help them write a different story. The RNC entered the year with nearly $100 million more than its Democratic counterparts and the Trump MAGA empire boasts a war chest of some $300 million.

But the alliances Vance forms and favors he will be owed by down-ballot Republicans could come in handy beyond this year, especially if he runs for president in 2028.

Possible Democratic rivals, such as former Vice President Kamala Harris and Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA), will engage in similar political activities this year with an eye toward 2028.

“The midterms are a chance for future …