Twice within a week, Trump is forced to tone down big second-term power grabs

Even President Donald Trump’s push for total, unchecked power may struggle to overcome the potent combination of political reality and moral outrage.

Public fury over another horrific killing of a protester by federal agents in Minnesota on Monday prompted the White House to soften the tone of its federal immigration crackdown. It’s too early to say whether the blue state apparently chosen as a Petri dish for Trump’s strongman project will see changes to underlying deportation policies.

This course-correction on Trump’s signature domestic policy issue came less than a week after the failure of a brazen attempt to demonstrate his untamable authority abroad by wrestling Greenland away from Europe.

Venezuela's interim president, Delcy Rodríguez, on Monday, January 26.

Venezuela's interim president, Delcy Rodríguez, on Monday, January 26. VTV

And it happened the day after Delcy Rodríguez, the leader of Venezuela’s rump regime after President Nicolás Maduro’s ouster, said she’d had “enough” of Trump’s imperialist bid to run her country from the Oval Office.

Another leader also just stood up to Trump. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer called his claim that NATO troops “stayed off the frontlines” during the Afghan War “frankly appalling.” The next day, Trump posted a social media tribute to 457 British war dead in a rare tacit admission of wrongdoing.

The first month of 2026 has unfolded in a bewildering rush of Trump’s attempts to impose his will — via a force of belligerent federal agents in Minneapolis, and by the threatened and actual punch of the US military abroad.

His power plays prompted widespread warnings that he was becoming an unchained autocrat; that he’d crushed remaining checks and balances on presidential power; and that the US democracy was being eroded.

President Donald Trump arrives for his speech during the Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos on January 21.

President Donald Trump arrives for his speech during the Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos on January 21. Markus Schreiber/AP

“Sometimes you need a dictator” he said last week in Davos, Switzerland, days after suggesting to Reuters that “we shouldn’t even have an election” ahead of November’s midterms. After his aggressive first year back in office, such supposed jokes don’t seem that funny.

But the frenetic first weeks of the new year have also demonstrated that Trump will not have everything his own way. His domestic adversaries and foreign powers get a say — especially if they band together in coalitions.

This dynamic was conjured in a well received speech by Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney in Davos, who argued that smaller countries needed to unite to protect their interests.

“The middle powers must act together, because if we’re not at the table, we’re on the menu,” Carney said.

In a social media video on Monday night, former transportation secretary and possible 2028 Democratic presidential contender Pete Buttigieg suggested that protests and pressure on Trump on immigration, healthcare, congressional redistricting and the Epstein files were creating an “accelerating change in the power dynamics of this country.”

“The ground is clearly shifting because all of us together have been doing the work of shifting it,” he said.

Growing criticism of Trump’s results suggests the normal counter-reactions set off when presidents splash their political capital still apply despite his sidelining of many of the conventions of traditional politics.

If a trickle of pushback becomes a torrent, then Trump will end up being far less feared.