The Friday Brief, January 16, 2026

The Fresh Hells That Await

Inside:
Trump Isn’t Kidding About Cancelling Elections
The Fresh Hell That Awaits
The Nazification of D.C.
We Can Be Heroes
Venezuela and Big Oil
I Thought We Settled The Syrian War
Agentic AI and China
China Won The Trade War
The Nobel Goes To…
Profiles In Degeneracy

The Big Picture

Trump Isn’t Kidding About Cancelling Elections

“When you think of it, we shouldn’t even have an election.”

Yes, he said those words.

After a decade, some of his offenses against the nation, the law, the Constitution, common sense, and human decency still have the power to shock, and this one is a threat, not a joke.

Remember the cycle: it starts as a joke, an aside, a throwaway. It grows in the MAGA fever swamps, thinly disguised as trolling, “Ha, ha libtard, Trump triggered you again!”

Then someone from a Trump-fellating outlet (Fox, OANN, Breitbart, CBS Nightly News) reports on the controversy of the statement. So do the mainstream outlets, noting things like, “It would not be legal to do X” or “Many believe courts would not allow Trump to do Y.”

Then some gentry conservative outlet writes a think piece on, “Why Trump May Kinda Sorta Maybe Have A Broad Point About Cancelling The Elections,” then it gets grabbed up by some Freedumb Caucus stooge who introduces a bill called, “Cancel the Communist Elections of 2026 To Save Murica from Transtifa Socialism Act.”

He raises a fast million from it via email fundraising, feeding the incentive machine for others to follow.

Some Republicans object, then vote for it anyway. (Looking at you, Susan Collins.)

And once the policy, no matter how odious, is implemented, we find it was the White House’s plan all along.

He’s not kidding.