Dan Froomkin/Press Watch/Heads Up News
@froomkin.bsky.social
Editor of Press Watch (https://presswatchers.org) and Heads Up News (http://headsupnews.org). Ex-Washington Post, HuffPost, Intercept. Freelancer. I afflict comfortable journalists.
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Heads Up News | Dan Froomkin | Substack
Your source for information about the people and groups fighting back against Trump's agenda. Click to read Heads Up News, by Dan Froomkin, a Substack publication.
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Reposted by Dan Froomkin/Press Watch/Heads Up News
Reposted by Dan Froomkin/Press Watch/Heads Up News
This would be highly significant in a democracy
One of the most lopsided results you'll ever see in a poll, from our weekend Washington Post poll www.washingtonpost.com/politics/int...
January 6, 2026 at 12:50 AM
This would be highly significant in a democracy
Reposted by Dan Froomkin/Press Watch/Heads Up News
There fireworks in DC this evening
Apparently part of "Freedom 250" but probably for
Trump to celebrate 5th anniversary of his coup attempt
Apparently part of "Freedom 250" but probably for
Trump to celebrate 5th anniversary of his coup attempt
![AlertDC] A Fireworks Show will occur near the Washington Monument tonight, January 5 at approximately 7:55PM. Expect loud noises, flashing lights.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:pifytwer7zg7psy7rfdb3gii/bafkreidrsbe7zuqpstupefnjflfkxoeijsf6jadnxzy7bqe6offz6hjeeu@jpeg)
January 5, 2026 at 8:04 PM
There fireworks in DC this evening
Apparently part of "Freedom 250" but probably for
Trump to celebrate 5th anniversary of his coup attempt
Apparently part of "Freedom 250" but probably for
Trump to celebrate 5th anniversary of his coup attempt
Reposted by Dan Froomkin/Press Watch/Heads Up News
Justice Dept. Drops Claim That Venezuela’s ‘Cartel de los Soles’ Is an Actual Group
Last year, before capturing Maduro, the Trump administration designated a Venezuelan slang term for drug corruption in the military as a terrorist organization and said he led it.
www.nytimes.com/2026/01/05/u...
Last year, before capturing Maduro, the Trump administration designated a Venezuelan slang term for drug corruption in the military as a terrorist organization and said he led it.
www.nytimes.com/2026/01/05/u...
Justice Dept. Drops Claim That Venezuela’s ‘Cartel de los Soles’ Is an Actual Group
www.nytimes.com
January 6, 2026 at 12:00 AM
Justice Dept. Drops Claim That Venezuela’s ‘Cartel de los Soles’ Is an Actual Group
Last year, before capturing Maduro, the Trump administration designated a Venezuelan slang term for drug corruption in the military as a terrorist organization and said he led it.
www.nytimes.com/2026/01/05/u...
Last year, before capturing Maduro, the Trump administration designated a Venezuelan slang term for drug corruption in the military as a terrorist organization and said he led it.
www.nytimes.com/2026/01/05/u...
Reposted by Dan Froomkin/Press Watch/Heads Up News
Once again, the opposite of what was said originally.
TRUMP: MAY SUBSIDIZE OIL COMPANIES REBUILDING IN VENEZUELA: NBC
January 5, 2026 at 11:54 PM
Once again, the opposite of what was said originally.
Reposted by Dan Froomkin/Press Watch/Heads Up News
If the DEA had killed 80 innocent Americans in the course of apprehending one drug dealer, there would be riots. But we are so ghoulishly indifferent to the lives and humanity of people abroad that it's barely even part of the conversation.
A reminder that the US killed 80 people in Venezuela, and it would be nice if the US media cared enough to think that the life of a grandmother in Caracas whose building is destroyed by a US bomb matters as much as the life of a person in the US.
January 5, 2026 at 8:57 PM
If the DEA had killed 80 innocent Americans in the course of apprehending one drug dealer, there would be riots. But we are so ghoulishly indifferent to the lives and humanity of people abroad that it's barely even part of the conversation.
Reposted by Dan Froomkin/Press Watch/Heads Up News
A reminder that, in the midst of everything else, the Trump administration is an incredible combination of entitlement and sloppiness.
DOJ: "We were too busy invading Venezuela to address your court order, Chief Judge Boasberg."
Boasberg: "You didn't even follow the rules in filing this request."
DOJ: "We were too busy invading Venezuela to address your court order, Chief Judge Boasberg."
Boasberg: "You didn't even follow the rules in filing this request."
January 5, 2026 at 8:02 PM
A reminder that, in the midst of everything else, the Trump administration is an incredible combination of entitlement and sloppiness.
DOJ: "We were too busy invading Venezuela to address your court order, Chief Judge Boasberg."
Boasberg: "You didn't even follow the rules in filing this request."
DOJ: "We were too busy invading Venezuela to address your court order, Chief Judge Boasberg."
Boasberg: "You didn't even follow the rules in filing this request."
Reposted by Dan Froomkin/Press Watch/Heads Up News
What in the Gestapo is going on in Grand Rapids?
Watch this activist get arrested *mid-interview* for speaking out against U.S. action in Venezuela.
Watch this activist get arrested *mid-interview* for speaking out against U.S. action in Venezuela.
January 5, 2026 at 4:12 PM
What in the Gestapo is going on in Grand Rapids?
Watch this activist get arrested *mid-interview* for speaking out against U.S. action in Venezuela.
Watch this activist get arrested *mid-interview* for speaking out against U.S. action in Venezuela.
Reposted by Dan Froomkin/Press Watch/Heads Up News
Reposted by Dan Froomkin/Press Watch/Heads Up News
i think people are wildly overestimating the level of strategic thinking behind what just happened in venezuela
January 5, 2026 at 1:53 PM
i think people are wildly overestimating the level of strategic thinking behind what just happened in venezuela
Reposted by Dan Froomkin/Press Watch/Heads Up News
NEW: More than 300 judges — including 33 appointed by Trump himself — have now rebuffed the Trump administration’s bid to dramatically expand efforts to lock people up while they fight deportation.
www.politico.com/news/2026/01/05/trump-administration-immigrants-mandatory-detention-00709494
www.politico.com/news/2026/01/05/trump-administration-immigrants-mandatory-detention-00709494
January 5, 2026 at 11:51 AM
NEW: More than 300 judges — including 33 appointed by Trump himself — have now rebuffed the Trump administration’s bid to dramatically expand efforts to lock people up while they fight deportation.
www.politico.com/news/2026/01/05/trump-administration-immigrants-mandatory-detention-00709494
www.politico.com/news/2026/01/05/trump-administration-immigrants-mandatory-detention-00709494
Reposted by Dan Froomkin/Press Watch/Heads Up News
So many in media are ill-equipped to interview officials about what’s happening because they begin with the presumption of legitimacy and don’t know enough about history or U.S. foreign policy to foment intelligent pushback and hold officials accountable.
January 4, 2026 at 11:32 PM
So many in media are ill-equipped to interview officials about what’s happening because they begin with the presumption of legitimacy and don’t know enough about history or U.S. foreign policy to foment intelligent pushback and hold officials accountable.
Reposted by Dan Froomkin/Press Watch/Heads Up News
It's really notable that even at this late date in Trump World, people - and George Monbiot is far smarter and more accomplished than me! - are attempting to ascribe normal human motives and logic to Trump and his actions.
It was just a thing he did! Like everything else, based on whim.
It was just a thing he did! Like everything else, based on whim.
To add to the madness of it all, the attack on Venezuela is clearly, above all, an oil grab. But we scarcely need oil any more.
January 4, 2026 at 8:39 PM
It's really notable that even at this late date in Trump World, people - and George Monbiot is far smarter and more accomplished than me! - are attempting to ascribe normal human motives and logic to Trump and his actions.
It was just a thing he did! Like everything else, based on whim.
It was just a thing he did! Like everything else, based on whim.
Reposted by Dan Froomkin/Press Watch/Heads Up News
By framing this brazen act of aggression in euphemistic terms, the media is falling in line with Trump.
The Media Refuses to Call Trump’s Venezuela Attack an Act of War
By framing the abduction of President Nicolás Maduro in euphemistic terms, the media is falling in line with Trump.
interc.pt
January 4, 2026 at 7:59 PM
By framing this brazen act of aggression in euphemistic terms, the media is falling in line with Trump.
Complete nonsense. All made up.
This is sanewashing of the highest order.
With Nicolás Maduro out of power, the Trump administration is racing to assemble an interim governing structure for Venezuela.
January 4, 2026 at 7:00 PM
Complete nonsense. All made up.
AP calling it “a turnaround after President Donald Trump announced a day earlier that the U.S. would be running Venezuela.” It’s a walk-back, and all the headlines last night were credulous pap. https://apnews.com/live/us-venezuela-trump-maduro-updates-01-04-2026?utm_source=copy&utm_medium=share
January 4, 2026 at 6:57 PM
AP calling it “a turnaround after President Donald Trump announced a day earlier that the U.S. would be running Venezuela.” It’s a walk-back, and all the headlines last night were credulous pap. https://apnews.com/live/us-venezuela-trump-maduro-updates-01-04-2026?utm_source=copy&utm_medium=share
Reposted by Dan Froomkin/Press Watch/Heads Up News
Media talking less about how wonderful the military strike/kidnapping was and the brilliance of the US military and more about the plan for the future is actually what matters! Legality? Message to global dictators? Oil politics? Iraq 2.0.....much more important than spewing Pentagon propaganda.
January 4, 2026 at 5:14 PM
Media talking less about how wonderful the military strike/kidnapping was and the brilliance of the US military and more about the plan for the future is actually what matters! Legality? Message to global dictators? Oil politics? Iraq 2.0.....much more important than spewing Pentagon propaganda.
The blatant illegality and the incoherence around what’s next should be the focus of the coverage. Anything else is credulous, enabling stenography.
Trump must be very happy with the elite media coverage, which has by and large been breathless. For shame.
January 4, 2026 at 5:20 PM
The blatant illegality and the incoherence around what’s next should be the focus of the coverage. Anything else is credulous, enabling stenography.
Reposted by Dan Froomkin/Press Watch/Heads Up News
Reposted by Dan Froomkin/Press Watch/Heads Up News
In an interview with @michaelscherer.bsky.social , Donald Trump threatened Venezuela’s interim leader, Delcy Rodriguez, with a fate worse than Maduro’s; defended regime change in the country; and expressed renewed interest in the U.S. seizing Greenland.
Trump: Delcy Rodríguez Might Be Next
The president told The Atlantic that the interim Venezuelan president will meet a fate worse than Maduro’s unless she complies with U.S. wishes.
www.theatlantic.com
January 4, 2026 at 5:06 PM
In an interview with @michaelscherer.bsky.social , Donald Trump threatened Venezuela’s interim leader, Delcy Rodriguez, with a fate worse than Maduro’s; defended regime change in the country; and expressed renewed interest in the U.S. seizing Greenland.
Reposted by Dan Froomkin/Press Watch/Heads Up News
I don't see what's hard about telling Americans the truth: The aged lying self-obsessed president who tariffed your stuff while blocking the Epstein Files & taking multiple cognitive tests just started a war you didn't ask for, for no coherent reason other than he thinks it makes him look good on TV
January 4, 2026 at 4:03 PM
I don't see what's hard about telling Americans the truth: The aged lying self-obsessed president who tariffed your stuff while blocking the Epstein Files & taking multiple cognitive tests just started a war you didn't ask for, for no coherent reason other than he thinks it makes him look good on TV
See also: presswatchers.org/2025/04/the-...
January 4, 2026 at 4:25 PM
See also: presswatchers.org/2025/04/the-...
Reposted by Dan Froomkin/Press Watch/Heads Up News
Chris Murphy: "Clearly this is wildly illegal. This is a president who has been operating illegally since he was sworn in -- stealing from the American people, seizing spending power, now dragging America into a war overseas ... Donald Trump's entire foreign policy is corrupt."
January 4, 2026 at 2:47 PM
Chris Murphy: "Clearly this is wildly illegal. This is a president who has been operating illegally since he was sworn in -- stealing from the American people, seizing spending power, now dragging America into a war overseas ... Donald Trump's entire foreign policy is corrupt."
So far the media has sanewashed the incompetence and incoherence, but they can’t do that forever.
The ethical and legal damage will be with us forever but it’s the raging incompetence that will strike first, within the next few days.
Director of the CIA is in the room but you have OSINTdefender's twitter page up on the screen
January 4, 2026 at 4:23 PM
So far the media has sanewashed the incompetence and incoherence, but they can’t do that forever.
Reposted by Dan Froomkin/Press Watch/Heads Up News
The ethical and legal damage will be with us forever but it’s the raging incompetence that will strike first, within the next few days.
Director of the CIA is in the room but you have OSINTdefender's twitter page up on the screen
January 4, 2026 at 3:52 PM
The ethical and legal damage will be with us forever but it’s the raging incompetence that will strike first, within the next few days.