From firing lawyers and government officials to pursuing indictments – president has created a culture of vengeance

During his first year in the White House, Donald Trump has pursued a campaign of retribution unlike any other president in US history.

That Trump would pursue such a campaign is not surprising. Since he launched his first run for president in 2015, Trump has channeled the politics of grievance into political success. Returning to the White House after surviving two impeachments and four different criminal cases against him, Trump has used the might of the federal government to punish those he believes have wronged him.

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© Photograph: Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

© Photograph: Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

© Photograph: Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

Scale and speed of president’s moves have stunned observers of authoritarian regimes – is the US in democratic peril?

Three hundred and sixty five days after Donald Trump placed his hand on the Bible and completed an extraordinary return to power, many historians, scholars and experts say his presidency has pushed American democracy to the brink – or beyond it.

In the first year of Trump’s second term, the democratically elected US president has moved with startling speed to consolidate authority: dismantling federal agencies, purging the civil service, firing independent watchdogs, sidelining Congress, challenging judicial rulings, deploying federal force in blue cities, stifling dissent, persecuting political enemies, targeting immigrants, scapegoating marginalized groups, ordering the capture of a foreign leader, leveraging the presidency for profit, trampling academic freedom and escalating attacks on the news media.

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© Photograph: Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters

© Photograph: Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters

© Photograph: Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters

Several polls show that a majority of Latin Americans who were questioned endorsed the intervention, suggesting a shift, at least for now, from ideology to pragmatism.

© Tomas Cuesta/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Former NBC sports reporter Michele Tafoya launched Republican Senate campaign in Minnesota, seeking to flip an open Democrat-held seat in November's elections.

The Supreme Court is hearing oral arguments on Wednesday in the case of Lisa Cook, the Federal Reserve governor whom President Trump is trying to fire. Our reporter Colby Smith describes the importance of Cook’s case for the independence of the central bank.

President Donald Trump threatens tariffs on European allies at Davos World Economic Forum as tensions rise over trade deals and his demands to acquire Greenland from Denmark.

SCOTUS will review Trump's effort to fire Lisa Cook from the Fed's board of governors, a high-stakes court clash that could have major economic impacts.

Developments in Minnesota closely mirror a scenario explored in a 2024 exercise conducted at the Center for Ethics and the Rule of Law at the University of Pennsylvania, which I direct

Since January 6, roughly 2,000 ICE agents have been deployed to Minnesota under the pretext of responding to a fraud investigation. In practice, these largely untrained and undisciplined federal agents have been terrorizing Minneapolis residents through illegal and excessive uses of force – often against US citizens – prompting a federal judge to attempt to place limits on the agency’s actions. The Trump administration is encouraging the lawlessness by announcing “absolute immunity” for ICE agents. But if the secretary of homeland security, Kristi Noem, does not heed the court ruling, the consequences may be nothing short of civil war.

In just the past week, ICE agents shot and killed Renee Good, a 37-year-old mother of three, shortly after she returned from dropping her child off at school. They blinded two protesters by shooting them in the face with so-called “less deadly” weapons. They fired teargas bombs around the car of a family carrying six children, sending one child to the emergency room with breathing problems. They violently dragged a woman out of her car and on to the ground screaming. They have shot protesters in the legs. They have forcibly taken thousands of individuals to detention facilities, separating families and casting people into legal limbo – often without regard to their legal status.

Claire Finkelstein is the Algernon Biddle professor of law and professor of philosophy at the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School. She is also the founder and faculty director of the Center for Ethics and the Rule of Law at Penn’s Annenberg Public Policy Center

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© Photograph: Seth Herald/Reuters

© Photograph: Seth Herald/Reuters

© Photograph: Seth Herald/Reuters

The world needs global leaders to clearly and firmly denounce the havoc Trump is wreaking on the US and international order

Hundreds of global CEOs, finance titans, and more than 60 prime ministers and presidents are in Davos, Switzerland, for the annual confab of the world’s powerful and wealthy: the World Economic Forum.

This year’s Davos meeting occurs at a time when Donald Trump is not just unleashing his brownshirts on Minneapolis and other American cities, but also dismantling the international order that’s largely been in place since the end of the second world war – threatening Nato, withdrawing from international organizations including the UN climate treaty, violating the UN charter by invading Venezuela and abducting Nicolás Maduro, upending established trade rules, and demanding that the US annex Greenland.

Robert Reich, a former US secretary of labor, is a professor of public policy emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley. He is a Guardian US columnist and his newsletter is at robertreich.substack.com. His new book, Coming Up Short: A Memoir of My America, is out now

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© Photograph: Ina Fassbender/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Ina Fassbender/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Ina Fassbender/AFP/Getty Images

Plus, what’s the point of learning cursive?

© Markus Schreiber/Associated Press

Former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, an ex-ally of the president's, dumped cold water on Trump's ambitions for the U.S. to acquire Greenland.

The justices deferred a decision on the president’s efforts to oust Cook, agreeing to hear arguments on Wednesday instead.

© Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

The Environmental Protection Agency has stopped estimating the dollar value of lives saved in the cost-benefit analyses for new pollution rules.

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Donald J. Trump has unleashed the power of the presidency against American colleges, with mixed results.

© Cody O'Loughlin for The New York Times

Le Boeing 747 « Air Force One », qui a décollé pendant la nuit de Washington, en direction de Davos en Suisse, a dû faire demi-tour. Le président Donald Trump était à bord.

Le Boeing 747 « Air Force One », qui a décollé pendant la nuit de Washington, en direction de Davos en Suisse, a dû faire demi-tour. Le président Donald Trump était à bord.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer plan China visits as European leaders seek trade deals despite concerns about appeasing Beijing.

Case will test the limit of Trump’s powers as he continues extraordinary campaign for control over central bank

The US supreme court will hear oral arguments over Donald Trump’s bid to fire a Federal Reserve governor on Wednesday morning, as his administration continues its extraordinary campaign for control over the central bank.

The US president tried to fire Lisa Cook in August over apparent discrepancies on mortgage applications Trump’s officials claim are evidence of fraud.

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© Photograph: Mark Schiefelbein/AP

© Photograph: Mark Schiefelbein/AP

© Photograph: Mark Schiefelbein/AP

Cubans had long benefited from legal privileges unavailable to immigrants from other countries. President Trump has changed that.

© Alfonso Duran for The New York Times

Is purging America of immigrants so crucial that in the process you must unmake America itself?

© Armando Arorizo

Rolling coverage of the World Economic Forum in Davos, where head of Nato insists Ukraine must be number one issue

• US treasury secretary brands Denmark ‘irrelevant’ as Greenland row deepens

• Nervous rex: the Davos elite brace for Trump and his dinosaur diplomacy

Q: Is the US worried that institutional investors in Europe might pull out of the US Treasury market, such as pension funds in Denmark?

Bessent brushes this aside, saying

The size of Denmark’s investment in US Treasury bonds, like Denmark itself, is irrelevant.

It is less than $100 million.

They’ve been selling Treasuries for years. I’m not concerned at all.

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© Photograph: Arnd Wiegmann/AP

© Photograph: Arnd Wiegmann/AP

© Photograph: Arnd Wiegmann/AP

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he will join President Donald Trump’s newly formed Gaza Board of Peace after initially criticizing its structure.

« Œil pour œil, dent pour dent », pourrait-on dire de cette décision diplomatique. Le Pakistan, bien décidé à rendre les coups et à ne pas tendre l'autre joue à Washington, vient de ranger le tapis rouge qu'il déroulait autrefois aux ressortissants américains.