That Was The Month That Was---January, 2026

Donald Trump had a very busy 2025.

As we entered 2026 the obvious question was whether that pace would continue into the new year.

The month that just ended suggests that things are not slowing down.

There are entire years in which we don't see as much significant activity as we did in January. 

I do not believe I could improve very much on this summary of big events that Travis Kling posted on X.

You can add to this list that Trump also had the United States withdraw from participating and funding 31 United Nations entities that he believed were operating contrary to U.S. national interests, security, economic prosperity, or sovereignty. 

The United States continues to be a member of the main body of the United Nations and its Security Council . The withdrawal is from entities such as the cultural agency UNESCO and its Human Right Council.

It only took weeks after that announcement for the UN to state that it is facing "imminent financial collapse".

Source: https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/united-nations-faces-imminent-financial-collapse-urgent-action-129717606

The documentary movie "Melania" also premiered on January 30.

The mainstream media predicted it would be a financial flop.

Its first weekend brought in over $8 million in ticket sales which is the best opener for a documentary in over a decade.

I have not seen the film yet but the early views confirms that there is a large divide between the liberal elites who are film critics and the rest of the country.

What should we expect in February?

The only thing I know is that there are only 28 days on the calendar.

Can we expect only 3/4 of a ton in big events as a result?

 

Insurrection in Minnesota

 It is hard to look at what has been going on in Minnesota and not describe it as an insurrection.

When people are actively obstructing and harassing federal agents from enforcing federal law we are not witnessing mere protests and the exercise of free speech.

Federal law (18 U.S. Code Sec. 2383) states that anyone engaging in rebellion or insurrection by inciting, assisting or engaging against the authority of the United States or the laws thereof shall be fined or imprisoned for a period of not more than ten years.

Source: https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/2383

Federal law also give the President broad authority to take steps to quell insurrections and rebellions under the Insurrection Act that was first passed in the administration of Thomas Jefferson.

Under this law the President may use the U.S. military to enforce federal law and/or to suppress the insurrection if state and local authorities are incapable or unwilling to do so.

This is the primary exception to the Posse Comitatus Act, under which federal military forces are generally barred from participating in civilian law enforcement activities.

Source: https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/10/252

The continuing harassment of ICE officers and the obstruction that has occurred to prevent them from enforcing federal law in Minnesota would seem to be a textbook example of insurrection.

Evidence gathered this week from internet sleuths has further shown there is an extensive behind the scenes network that is funding and coordinating the chaos. 

The evidence also indicates that elected officials in Minnesota were some of those orchestrating the actions against ICE including a couple of state representatives and a Minneapolis city council member.

One of the leaders behind the scenes is alleged to be this woman---Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan.

It is hard to believe that she is either... 

1) this committed to the "cause" or 2) this stupid.

I guess we will find out in due course.

The failure of state and local authorities to assist and protect ICE in their duties (let alone organizing the insurrection behind the scenes) would also seem to clearly allow President Trump to deploy the U.S. military to enforce the law and suppress the rebellion in Minnesota.

This becomes even clearer when you see the perspective of this former Special Forces Warrant Officer who has experience overseas with multiple rotations running counterinsurgency operations.

This was posted by Eric Schwalm on X on January 26, 2026.

As a former Special Forces Warrant Officer with multiple rotations running counterinsurgency ops—both hunting insurgents and trying to separate them from sympathetic populations—I’ve seen organized resistance up close. From Anbar to Helmand, the pattern is familiar: spotters, cutouts, dead drops (or modern equivalents), disciplined comms, role specialization, and a willingness to absorb casualties while bleeding the stronger force slowly.

What’s unfolding in Minneapolis right now isn’t “protest.” It’s low-level insurgency infrastructure, built by people who’ve clearly studied the playbook.

Signal groups at 1,000-member cap per zone. Dedicated roles: mobile chasers, plate checkers logging vehicle data into shared databases, 24/7 dispatch nodes vectoring assets, SALUTE-style reporting (Size, Activity, Location, Unit, Time, Equipment) on suspected federal vehicles. Daily chat rotations and timed deletions to frustrate forensic recovery. Vetting processes for new joiners. Mutual aid from sympathetic locals (teachers providing cover, possible PD tip-offs on license plate lookups). Home-base coordination points. Rapid escalation from observation to physical obstruction—or worse.

This isn’t spontaneous outrage. This is C2 (command and control) with redundancy, OPSEC hygiene, and task organization that would make a SF team sergeant nod in recognition. Replace “ICE agents” with “occupying coalition forces” and the structure maps almost 1:1 to early-stage urban cells we hunted in the mid-2000s.

The most sobering part? It’s domestic. Funded, trained (somewhere), and directed by people who live in the same country they’re trying to paralyze law enforcement in. When your own citizens build and operate this level of parallel intelligence and rapid-response network against federal officers—complete with doxxing, vehicle pursuits, and harassment that’s already turned lethal—you’re no longer dealing with civil disobedience. You’re facing a distributed resistance that’s learned the lessons of successful insurgencies: stay below the kinetic threshold most of the time, force over-reaction when possible, maintain popular support through narrative, and never present a single center of gravity.

I spent years training partner forces to dismantle exactly this kind of apparatus. Now pieces of it are standing up in American cities, enabled by elements of local government and civil society. That should keep every thinking American awake at night.

Not because I want escalation. But because history shows these things don’t de-escalate on their own once the infrastructure exists and the cadre believe they’re winning the information war.

We either recognize what we’re actually looking at—or we pretend it’s still just “activism” until the structures harden and spread.

Your call, America. But from where I sit, this isn’t January 2026 politics anymore.

It’s phase one of something we’ve spent decades trying to keep off our own soil.

 

The President of the United States has invoked the Insurrection Act about 30 times over its history.

The most recent instance was in 1992 by President George H.W. Bush in response to civil unrest after the acquittal of four police officers who had beaten a Black motorist in Los Angeles.

The most famous use of the Insurrection Act in modern history involved the use of federal troops to assist in desegregation efforts and the protection of Civil Rights activists in the South in the 1960's.

In my view, President Trump has shown remarkable restraint in not invoking the Insurrection Act in Minnesota already.

It appears he wants to give Governor Tim Walz and Minneapolis Jacob Frey every opportunity to own up to their responsibilities and provide the necessary cooperation for ICE to do their jobs and provide the appropriate protection. 

There is no doubt that a political and PR dimension is in play here as well. 

Trump does not want to further feed the narrative that he is an authoritarian nor does he want to create martyrs of Walz and Frey who become bigger heroes of the Left by standing up to Trump.

We will have to see where this leads.

Will Trump get the cooperation he needs to bring the temperature down in Minnesota or does this eventually end with invocation of the Insurrection Act?

I have to believe that, at a minimum, we will see some prosecutions of those who were directing this insurrection on the front lines or behind the scenes.

At the same time, it is important to remember exactly how popular Trump's deportation policies are despite the mainstream media and the Left's attempt to demonize Trump and ICE.

Donald Trump was very clear when he ran what his policy would be on illegal immigration.

He did say he would focus first on the criminal element among illegals.

ICE's efforts in Minnesota and elsewhere have been focused on apprehending and deporting illegal aliens who have committed crimes in the United States.

Yes, at times in those efforts ICE comes across illegals that have not committed crimes in the U.S. other than crossing the border illegally. ICE would be negligent in their duties to ignore these people. After all, their job is immigration enforcement.

The fact is that over two third's of ICE detainees last year had either been convicted of a crime of were facing pending criminal charges.

However, Trump ran on a platform stating that he would deport all illegal aliens but focus first on the worst of the worst.

He was elected with voters having full knowledge of that promise.

CNN recently went over the latest polling on the issue which still shows a vast majority of American voters favor deporting all immigrants here illegally.

This is true despite all of the negative news coverage and attempts to paint ICE's actions as extreme.

90% favor deporting those in the country illegally and who have criminal records.

The American people knew what they were voting for when they elected Trump.

They still hold the same views despite the attempts by the Left and the mainstream media to create an alternative narrative.

The Left likes to say that Trump is a threat to democracy and the rule of law

The only visible threat to democracy I see right now are those who do not want to accept what the people voted for in 2024 and those in Minnesota and elsewhere who want to foment rebellion and insurrection against the rule of law.

Simply stated, we cannot continue as a civil society when people ignore and obstruct the laws of the land.

The insurrection in Minnesota has to cease one way or the other.

The Indefatigable Iconoclast and Greenland

Donald Trump made headlines over the last year by setting his sights on having the United States acquire Greenland.

He floated the idea in his first term but he starting talking about it seriously shortly after being elected in 2024.

Trump ramped up the rhetoric in the last month and many in the EU and the mainstream media painted him as unhinged and unreasonable.

This narrative made Trump's Greenland push unpopular in public polling.

Source: https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-doubles-down-greenland-push-polls-show-little-public-support

By a 55%-37% margin, respondents in a Quinnipiac poll did not support Trump's efforts to buy Greenland.

Source: https://poll.qu.edu/poll-release?releaseid=3945

However, neither the bad press, the poor polling or the indignation of the Europeans dissuaded Trump from continuing his efforts on Greenland.

He knows how critical Greenland is for America's future security.

I have written before that the two attributes that set Donald Trump apart from almost all other human beings.

Trump is both an iconoclast and is indefatigable.

There are no words that better describe the man.

He is an iconoclast.

Donald Trump is not afraid to challenge conventional wisdom. He is not afraid to attack and call out institutions like the WHO, NATO and the WTO when he thinks they have not served the interests of the United States of America. He is not satisfied with the status quo.

Trump is also indefatigable.

Trump doesn't tire. He doesn't quit. He is persistent and unrelenting in pursuing his goals.

Both of these qualities were clearly witnessed in his pursuit of a deal on Greenland.

Greenland has been seen as a national security priority for the United States for well over 100 years.

Woodrow Wilson attempted to purchase Greenland in the period before World War I over concerns that the Germans might gain a foothold there as well as in the Caribbean islands.

Denmark agreed to sell what is now the U.S. Virgin Islands to the United States for $25 million in gold in 1917. Denmark was not interested in giving up Greenland.

This actually led to a 1917 treaty in which the United States recognized Denmark's sovereignty over Greenland.

Similar concerns arose during World War II when Denmark fell to Nazi Germany within two hours of being invaded.

The United States then took control of Greenland to protect against German occupation of the island on our doorstep and protected it during the duration of the war.

This led to the establishment of three permanent U.S. military bases on Greenland that continued in operation after the war.

One remains today---the Pituffik Space Base which was formerly the Thule Air Base.

Right after the war, President Harry Truman offered Denmark $100 million in gold for Greenland which Denmark rejected.

Greenland took on added importance as intercontinental missiles became the greatest threat to the United States in the 1950's and 1960's.

Greenland lies directly between the most direct paths for missiles to be launched at the United States by Russia (and China).

You can easily see the strategic importance of Greenland by looking at these graphics.

China lies just below the Russian sites on the globe.

Any movements of the Russian navy that night threaten the East Coast of the United States must go through the Giuk gap that abut Greenland.

It is also clear that Denmark neither has the financial wherewithal or will to protect and defend Greenland.

The United States has actually been doing that for well over the last 100 years.

Greenland has taken on even added national security significance with the development of hypersonic missiles that greatly compress the time frames for decisions on defensive responses.

President Trump is focused on developing a Golden Dome anti-missile defense system that would be most optimally deployed in Greenland since the shortest and fastest path to attack the United States is by missiles over the Arctic.

The big point here is that the strategic defense advantages of Greenland have been well known to a long line of American Presidents but none were willing to confront the issue directly and challenge the status quo.

Trump was willing to state the obvious.

Denmark is not capable of protecting Greenland.

But for the United States, Greenland would already be controlled by Germany or Russia.

Denmark had also given Greenland the right of self determination in 2009 which provides a legal right for its 57,000 residents to decide their own future, including independence.

That might include selling out to Russia or China.

If China can bribe American officials what would stop them from paying off a few thousand Greenlanders to take control of that territory?

Why shouldn't the United States be first on that list if Greenland was for sale by its own residents?

Trump the iconoclast was not afraid to challenge the status quo and be willing to take the heat that came with it.

The indefatigable Trump was unrelenting in his quest to get what the United States needed with Greenland and persisted when almost anyone else would have wilted from the criticism.

As a result, Trump got what he believes the United States needed in Greenland and boxed out Russia and China at the same time.

He also got it all without paying anything or deploying any armed forces to do it.

The art of the deal with Trump is to talk tough and use all the leverage he has to get what he wants.

We don't know the exact details of the final deal.

However, this is the reported outline of what Trump got for the United States with Greenland.

Another observer summarized it more simply.

Trump's critics say that he didn't really get anything we didn't have already.

If that is true, then why did Denmark and the Europeans complain so much along the way?

The truth is that it took an indefatigable iconoclast to get the United States what it nows has with Greenland.

It did not just happen automatically.

Like him or not, Trump is a change agent.

He is not only changing the United States... but also the world.

We have not seen anything like him for a long, long time.

We likely will not see another like him anytime soon as well.

What's Going On With Housing?

The prices and affordability of housing have received enormous attention during the last couple of years.

Apollo Global Management recently released a voluminous report on the U.S, Housing Outlook, January, 2026 which contains over 100 charts and graphs to provide context on what's going on with housing.

I have selected a few charts and graphs from the report that I found particularly interesting and enlightening.

The traffic of potential homebuyers is near 40 year lows. 

The only other sustained period when potential homebuyers were lower was in the Great Recession Period of 2008-2012.

A major reason for the weak demand is housing affordability.

However, what is interesting in looking at the data, if it were not for the improvement in housing affordability during the decade between 2009-2019 (driven by ultra low interest rates), I don't believe this would be the issue it is in the media and with young people

In fact, housing affordability was much worse in the early 1980's when 30 year mortgage rates surged as high as 18% in October, 1981.

Right now housing affordability is about the same as it was in the 20 years between 1989 and 2009.

A big reason for the low traffic in prospective homebuyers is that first-time buyers are largely absent from the market, 

The number of first-time buyers has declined from 40% in 2004 to 20% today.

At the same time, the median age of first-time buyers has increased from age 30 in 2008 to 40 today.

The median age of all homebuyers is now 59 meaning half of all buyers are 60 or older.

It was 31 in 1980!

The share of those with ultra-low mortgage rates below 3% has been declining in recent years as interest rates have risen.

There are now as many homeowners with 6% or higher mortgage rates as those with sub 3% rates.

The chart below shows how short-lived most mortgages are.

On paper, most mortgages are for 30 years but most last no longer than 7 or 8 years.

The chart title below is not as accurate as it should be.

In reality, 63% of all mortgages outstanding today were issued in 2019 or later.

This is despite the fact that 95% of mortgages outstanding today in the United States are 30 years.

It seems that very few people are taking the advice I gave my children---get a 15 year mortgage. 

You will save a ton of interest over the life of the mortgage!

Here are some typical mortgage amortization in other countries.

It blows my mind that some mortgages in Sweden can be up to 105 years!

Trump's proposal to create 50 year mortgages does not look quite so crazy with that context in mind.

Source: Grok

It should be noted that 40% of all homes in the United States are not subject to a mortgage today.

That percent has been steadily increasing with the aging of Baby Boomers.

Boomers paying down mortgages and increasing home values has resulted in owner's equity in real estate increasing by almost $25 trillion over the last 10 years.

The inventory of homes for sale has improved since 2022 but is still well below historical averages.

This apparently is a function of the number of homeowners who have low rate mortgages who do not want to sell and face the prospect of a higher rate but also the fact that there has been an ongoing structural decline in those moving each year.

In the mid-1980's about 20% of the population moved each year.

That number is now under 8%.

The increase in home values and mortgage rates has resulted in it being more financially advantageous today to rent versus owning a home.

 

Rents may soon be getting even more attractive as the current national apartment vacancy rate is the highest it has been in the last 10 years.

Credit for this is due to increased apartment construction with an assist from immigration easing demand pressure on apartment rents.

Those factors do not seem to be in play in Manhattan where residents now face a median monthly rate of $4,750 per month.

That is an increase of about 60% since November, 2020.

It will be interesting to see how this number evolves during the administration of Mayor Mandami.

He might get that rent number down but more likely than not it will be due to the law of unintended consequences.

Where are housing prices headed?

A lot of this depends on where you live.

The West, the East Coast and parts of Florida and Texas have the highest median prices and would seem to be most vulnerable to price compression over the next year.

Driven by price reductions in these areas it would not surprise me to see national median home prices  come down 10% or so over the next year to get us back within historical trends.

This chart shows how far home prices have gotten above historical trends.

Notice how home prices really spun out of control right after the Federal Reserve initiated quantitative easing policies in response to the Great Recession (2009-2012) and again with the money printing in response the Covid Pandemic (2000-2022).

In my view this is the primary reason that housing prices soared.

Too much easy money chasing a limited supply of housing.

This was exacerbated by the flood of illegal immigrants beginning in 2021 that increased overall demand for housing.

You simply could not bring in over 10 million people in a short period of time that needed shelter without having an adverse effect on housing costs (rents and, and by extension, home prices).

The biggest factor that potentially could prevent a decline in house prices in the near term is the fact that there is sizeable population of those in their 30's that are potential first time home buyers.

Demographics is providing a nice tailwind in the near term for housing demand and potential protection against falling prices.

However, as the Baby Boomers age out, more and more housing supply will become available.

This suggests to me that the long-term appreciation on residential real estate will be much harder to come by looking to the next decade and beyond.

I would expect to see home prices to be well within the historical trend channel by that time.

We will see it sooner if we experience an economic recession of some magnitude in the interim.

What goes up, can come down.

That may be truer today regarding housing prices than it has been in a long time.

A Podcast You Don't Want To Miss

My good friend Ron Beshear just started doing a podcast at the beginning of the year.

I am honored to be among his first guests.

I can think of no one better to host a podcast.

First, Ron has an incredibly broad and diverse network of friends and acquaintances to draw on for guests.

Second, Ron is naturally curious, is a good listener and asks great questions.

Finally, Ron is the very definition of a servant leader who is genuinely interested in helping everyone achieve the goal of serving their purpose.

Ron's objective in his podcast is to provide his listeners with insights, perspectives and principles to better identify and serve everyone's purpose in life

https://6c470374-e23a-498b-9bde-090da2e81f56.libsyn.com/

You can listen to my conversation with Ron at one of the following links.

Apple Podcast:

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/facts-freedom-and-the-power-of-context-scott-beeken/id1865749506?i=1000745737524

Spotify Podcast:

https://open.spotify.com/episode/6Df9R0WCSaETFrR45R7ExD

A short summary of some of what Ron and I talked about in our conversation is included below.

Serve your purpose today and give Ron's podcast a listen.

What A Difference A Year Makes

Tomorrow marks the first anniversary of Donald Trump's second term as President.

What a difference a year makes.

It is impossible to argue that point whether you voted for Trump or not.

Some like the difference. Others abhor it

Those with Trump Derangement Syndrome seem to be even more unhinged than they were before.

Look no further than what is going on in Minneapolis. They are not happy that the immigration laws are being enforced. They yearn for a year ago.

However, a recent Wall Street Journal recent polling shows that Trump voters are overwhelmingly supportive of the difference.

92% of Trump voters in 2024 approve of his job performance thus far and 70% of those give him a "Strong"approval.

Overall. the WSJ poll has Trump at 45% approve/54% disapprove for a net approval of -9 points.

The RealClearPolitics average of all polls has Trump at 42.4% approval at this point.

Remarkably, this is almost identical to where Barack Obama and George W. Bush stood at the same point in the their second terms.

Source: https://www.realclearpolling.com/polls/approval/trump-obama-bush-second-term

Have you heard anyone in the mainstream media telling you that Trump actually has a higher approval rating at this point in his second term than Barack Obama did?

Let's take a closer look at a few of the differences we have witnessed over the last year.

I have written many times in these pages that Donald Trump would never have gotten the attention and traction he got in politics without his strong views on immigration.

It is his signature issue.

He is doing exactly what he said he would do and many on the Left are not happy.

Source: https://newhampshirebulletin.com/2024/09/03/trump-promises-mass-deportations-of-undocumented-people-how-would-that-work/

They apparently did not believe that he would follow through on his campaign promise.

We were also told by Democrats that nothing could be done to stop the illegals pouring over the southern border without new immigration legislation.

In December, 2023, over 300,000 illegals crossed the Southwest border.

In December, 2025, that number was 10,000. 

All of this without one new law. All it took was the will to enforce the laws already on the books.

You can also see from this chart how quickly the border was sealed once Trump became President.

Source: https://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/stats/nationwide-encounters

The small number of illegals entering, combined with the ICE removals and those who have deported voluntarily, has resulted in negative net migration for the first time in 50 years.

Source: https://abcnews.go.com/US/us-1st-time-50-years-experienced-negative-net/story?utm_sf_post_ref=651237589&cid=social_twitter_abcn&id=129175522&utm_sf_cserv_ref=28785486

This has also resulted in a reversal of trends of the last few years that have seen almost all of the job gains go to foreign born workers.

In 2025, native-born Americans gained over 2 million jobs while the number of foreign born workers decreased by 662,000.

Real wages were also up 1.6% for the year.

Real wages fell 4% during the previous four years under Biden.

Securing the border also appears to be having an effect on drug overdose deaths.

For the 12 months ending August, 2025, the CDC reports that drug overdose deaths were down 23.3%

Drug overdoses were down in every state.

Source: https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/vsrr/drug-overdose-data.htm

Murders across the nation were also down 20% compared to a year ago for the period ending in October.

Source: https://realtimecrimeindex.com/

What a difference a year makes.

The Atlanta Fed just projected that 4th quarter, 2025 GDP growth will come in at 5.4%.

This is stronger GDP growth than China is experiencing right now.

The U.S. trade deficit also just fell to its lowest level since 2009.

Trump's tariffs seem to have had a large impact on reducing imports while exports increased.

Many economists said that the tariffs would fuel further inflation but inflation has been trending down.

The most recent Truflation Index revealed a 1.56% inflation rate for the last 12 months.

 

Declining gasoline prices have been a big reason that inflation has moderated.

Source: https://www.gasbuddy.com/charts

Everybody was complaining about egg prices at this time last year.

Eggs are now down 95% from where they were last February.

Eggs are now at the lowest price they have been in five years.

Source: https://tradingeconomics.com/commodity/eggs-us

Despite these positive developments many respondents in the WSJ are not feeling the progress.

Trump is in negative approval territory on the economy, tariffs and inflation and most see the economy as worse now than it was last year.

Source: The Wall Street Journal

Are the economic numbers ahead of the sentiment?

Or are the numbers a mirage?

We should find out in the next six months.

The biggest drag on Trump's approval is that voters believe he is focusing too much on foreign affairs and not enough on the economy.

Of course, what has been going on in foreign affairs with Trump also confirms what a difference a year makes.

Israel/Gaza war in a ceasefire.

Iran's nuclear capability destroyed by Trump.

Iran's Islamic regime on the verge of collapse.

Venezuela's Nicolas Maduro arrested and brought to the U.S. for trial. 

The European NATO countries which did not want to commit 2% of GDP to defense when Trump took office in 2017 have now agreed to a new target of 5% by 2035 due to Trump's pressure.

Trump has failed in his desire to end the Russia/Ukraine war but prospects for an end of the war have improved substantially compared to a year ago.

Trump is aggressively pursuing his desire for the United States to acquire Greenland

It remains to be seen how all of this works out but Trump has the potential to remake the world order to the benefit of the United States in a way not seen since the fall of the Soviet Union and the Iron Curtain.

What a difference a year makes.

Compared to last year the number of federal government employees is down by over 250,000.

When has that ever happened before?

Source: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/CES9091000001

DEI and Woke policies are under pressure.

As are men playing women's sports and transgender surgeries for minors.

We are 180 degrees away from where we were a year ago.

What a difference a year makes.

How big is that difference?

It is like comparing night and day. Or north vs. south.

Or Trump's energy level and Biden's.

In many respects it is hard to believe that we are living in the same country we were last year.

And that is something everyone should be able to agree on no matter your political persuasion.