Nearly a decade ago, many of us watched in shock as Donald Trump was elected president of the United States. Until that point, it was easy to write off his presidential run as an egotistical attempt to gain fame and power, with circumstances aligned to allow him to win the Republican nomination. But his victory meant that there was a real audience not disturbed by his bravado, sexism, and race-baiting. Academics like me were eager to understand what happened to the country. Into this breach came the concept of Christian nationalism. Given that an estimated 81 percent of white conservative Christians voted for Trump, it was easy to envision them as the main culprits behind his rise. Several academics (notably Sam Perry, Andrew Whitehead, Philip Gorski, Paul A. Djupe, and Joseph Baker) wrote articles and books on this subject, and as media attention followed, the notion of Christian nationalism quickly caught on among the public.

Vice President JD Vance defended President Donald Trump's Greenland policy push, telling Newsmax on Thursday that the United States already provides implicit protection for the Arctic territory and should share in its resources because of its strategic importance. Trump on Wednesday announced a "framework" for a Greenland deal is in place after talks with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte in Davos, Switzerland. Trump revealed few details of the deal but told CNBC it would include access to mineral rights for the U.S. and its European allies, as well as collaboration on the Golden Dome missile defense system.

Prior to announcing on Jan. 21 that he has reached a "framework of a future deal" on Greenland with the secretary general of NATO, President Donald Trump had insisted that the United States needed to acquire Greenland for national security reasons — and at first, he wouldn't rule out potentially taking the territory over by force. In a Jan. 21 speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Trump said, "I don't want to use force; I won't use force." Throughout his initial push to claim Greenland for the U.S., Trump made several claims about the island in the Arctic, which is home to about 56,000 people, including statements questioning Denmark's documented ownership of Greenland and statements suggesting that the U.S. needs "ownership to defend" Greenland. Some of his claims are false.

Despite "psychologically" needing to acquire Greenland, President Donald Trump Thursday headed back to the United States with just "the framework" of an agreement that appears to exist only in his own mind. Weeks of antagonizing both Denmark and all of NATO with threats of tariffs and even war, in Trump's telling, won the United States key concessions in the Danish territory following a one-on-one meeting with the alliance's secretary general, Mark Rutte, at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. "We're getting everything we wanted ― total security, total access to everything," Trump bragged to Fox Business Thursday morning, acknowledging that the details are still being worked out. "Essentially, it's total access. There's no end. There's no time limit."

The man who promised to drain the swamp has managed instead to drain his transatlantic support pool. Donald Trump's efforts to annex Greenland not only met fierce opposition from the expected corners of Europe; they've also led to condemnation from otherwise Trump-friendly parties and politicians on the continent. The European right's reactions to Trump's Greenland push — which in the past couple of days has de-escalated, as the president announced the framework for a future deal whose contours remain unclear — have ranged from measured criticism to outright fury. Alice Weidel, co-chairman of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), compared Trump's actions to those of Vladimir Putin. Jordan Bardella, leader of France's National Rally, accused Trump of an attempted "vassalization" of Europe. Nigel Farage, perhaps Trump's closest ally in Europe, endorsed Greenland's right to self-determination and condemned the initial threat of tariffs as a "hostile act." Prime Minister of It…

TikTok officially established a joint venture that would allow it to keep operating in the U.S., the company said Thursday, resolving a yearslong fight to address Washington's national-security concerns. Under the terms of the deal negotiated by the Trump administration, the popular video-sharing app will be operated by a new U.S. entity controlled by investors seen as friendly to the U.S. Its data-management and algorithm-training on American users will be overseen by Oracle, the cloud-computing giant that has safeguarded its U.S. data for years and has close ties to the Trump administration. The deal was negotiated to comply with a law passed in 2024. President Trump delayed the implementation of the law a year ago after starting his second term to keep TikTok operating in the U.S. He signed a series of executive orders to extend the deadline for completing a deal until it was met Thursday.

A "no work, no school, no shopping" blackout day of protest was kicked off by community leaders, faith leaders and labor unions on Friday in protest against the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) surge in the state. The "Day of Truth & Freedom" protest comes in the wake of the killing of Renee Good, the unarmed woman killed by a federal immigration officer in Minneapolis earlier this month. Their demands include that ICE leave Minnesota, that the ICE officer who killed Good be legally held accountable, an end to additional federal funding for ICE, and for the agency to be investigated for human rights and constitutional violations.