Month: February 2026

President Trump ordered USS Gerald R. Ford and its strike group to the Middle East, joining USS Abraham Lincoln and creating a second carrier group near Iran as diplomacy resumed. The Ford, recently operating in the Caribbean, will take roughly three weeks to reach the region, a move intended to pressure Tehran ahead of U.S.-Iran talks mediated by Oman. The deployment comes despite Navy warnings about the Ford’s maintenance needs and follows recent incidents, including a U.S. jet shooting down an Iranian drone and Tehran’s naval drills. Officials say the show of force aims to strengthen U.S. leverage in negotiations. (washingtonpost.com)

On December 17, 2025, President Trump delivered a prime-time address charging the previous four years of government with serving “insiders, illegal aliens, career criminals, corporate lobbyists, prisoners, terrorists, and above all foreign nations,” and blaming them for crime, inflation and cultural decline. (archive.ph) He touted border crackdowns and mass deportations, claimed dramatic drops in drug flows, announced a $1,776 “Warrior Dividend” for service members, and asserted his administration had restored American strength abroad after settling conflicts. (archive.ph) Media outlets quoted his full remarks and noted contentious, contested factual claims; fact‑checkers are examining the administration’s evidence and sources. (independent.co.uk)

A new poll released Feb. 2, 2026, reported that nearly 61% of Americans favor continuing mass deportations, a finding the White House emphasized amid heightened immigration tensions. The result follows two high-profile Minneapolis shootings in January — ICE agent Jonathan Ross fatally shot Renée Good on Jan. 7, and Border Patrol agents shot Alex Pretti on Jan. 24 — incidents captured on video that have contradicted initial official accounts and prompted federal probes, protests, and policy debates. Those developments and the poll have intensified public arguments over ICE tactics, accountability, and the future of large-scale deportation drives, sparking heated debate nationwide immediately. (whitehouse.gov)

Sen. Elissa Slotkin warned during a Senate Homeland Security hearing that the Trump administration — after comments from Trump and Steve Bannon — may try to deploy ICE agents around polling places for the November midterms. (mexc.com) She pressed acting ICE director Todd Lyons, who replied there is “no reason” for ICE to deploy to polling facilities and said ICE conducts civil and criminal enforcement. (mexc.com) Slotkin called uniformed ICE agents encircling polls “extraordinary,” warning they could suppress voters in battleground states. (democracydocket.com) The White House has denied formal plans to station ICE at polling sites but did not fully rule out their presence. (yahoo.com)

Sources: (timesunion.com)

On February 10, 2026, the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control published a 3,000‑page designation that froze the assets and properties of eight Nigerians accused of links to Boko Haram and the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL). The named individuals include Abu Abdullah ibn Umar Al‑Barnawi, Abu Musab Al‑Barnawi, Khaled Al‑Barnawi, Ibrahim Ali Alhassan, Abu Bakr ibn Muhammad Al‑Mainuki, Salih Yusuf Adamu, Babestan Oluwole Ademulero and Nnamdi Benson. The action places their property in U.S. jurisdiction on the Specially Designated Nationals list, bars dealings by U.S. persons under Executive Order 13224, and also cites related cybercrime sanctions. (sanctionssearch.ofac.treas.gov)

At the 2026 NBA All‑Star Game at the Intuit Dome in Inglewood on February 15, former president Barack Obama received a standing ovation while sitting courtside with his wife, Michelle, and daughter Sasha. During the game Obama calmly intercepted a loose ball that rolled toward spectators, returned it to Phoenix Suns guard Devin Booker, and later took part in a brief on‑court interview with Hall of Famer Reggie Miller praising the competitive spirit of the exhibition. Michelle Obama shared a photo from the night calling them her “favorite teammates,” and video of the moment circulated widely on social media platforms. (people.com)

The Department of Homeland Security has sent hundreds of administrative subpoenas to Google, Reddit, Meta and Discord requesting names, email addresses, telephone numbers and identifying data for accounts that track or criticize Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Reports say subpoenas targeted anonymous pages that reported ICE locations or posted critical content; some companies complied while others alerted users and gave them days to challenge the demands. DHS officials say the requests protect officer safety; civil liberties groups warn the broad subpoenas could chill protected speech and are mounting legal challenges. The New York Times saw two subpoenas to Meta recently. Sources: (techcrunch.com)

On February 11, 2026, Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-Fla.) used his five minutes at a House Judiciary Committee hearing for Attorney General Pam Bondi to deride the Justice Department’s handling of the recently released Epstein files, saying, “Trump’s name appears more times in the Epstein files than God’s name appears in the book about God,” while holding up a Bible he dubbed the “Trump Bible.” (yahoo.com) He also compared mentions to Harry Potter’s name in that series. (newrepublic.com) Bondi accused him of mocking the Bible as Democrats pressed her over redactions and exposed victim information in the unredacted files, and criticized her evasiveness. (apnews.com)