The Gov Hub Newsletter: January 6, 2026

Bravo’s Andy Cohen woke up this weekend and shared a good morning message, only to be like all of us, and switch that message up upon hearing that the Trump Admin had conducted a military operation in Venezuela to kidnap the country’s dictator and his wife. The airspace over the Caribbean was then closed leaving those attending what Bethany Frankel referred to as the “rich people hunger games,” on islands like St. Barts, stranded in the midst of an alleged STD outbreak. Nicolas Maduro, Venezuela’s dictator was brought to New York and charged in the Southern District, but not before seeming to change outfits at least three times on his flight. The indictment of the dictator involved narco-terrorism claims, and a whole lot of typos and oddities as broken down by public defender Eliza Orlins. At the same time, Trump was asked about the kidnapping that was watched by his team from a sorry excuse for a SCIF at Mar-a-Lago, to which he admitted that Venezuela's oil is a central reason for the actions, and seemingly making it obvious to those like Rep. Thomas Massie [KY-R] that Trump had clearly alerted the oil companies who donated loads of dollars to the Trump campaign, ahead of time [the oil companies deny this]. That song and dance was followed by one on Air Force One with known war hawk Senator Lindsey Graham [SC-R] at Trump’s side, while the president threatened Cuba, Greenland, and Colombia. Currently, Trump has declined to support Venezuela's elected opposition leader [Maria Corina Machado] who has been in hiding because she allegedly didn’t “give him” the Nobel Peace Prize she was given – she’s now on the media circuit saying she’d “share it with him.” In lieu of going the install the democratically elected leader route, Trump has shared that the U.S. will be boots on the ground in charge of the transition, and has floated the idea of U.S. taxpayers subsidizing the remodeling of Venezuela’s oil refineries. And to back it up a bit, the Trump Admin did not brief the “Gang of 8” or Congress at-large, however based on some activity on Polymarket betting that Maduro would fall, you could say that someone knew something in advance. 

In Europe, leaders, including German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul warned the U.S. that if they decide to invade Greenland as Trump and Stephen Miller’s wife posts about, it will end NATO – something that would greatly benefit Putin.

An initiative has made the ballot in Washington State championed by a far-right group known as “Let’s Go Washington,” that would put a proposed anti-trans law in front of voters. The proposed law aims to create a trans sports ban for high school students, with the ban being enforced with genital inspections or a blood test. Per reporting from Erin In The Morning, the initiative collected 400K signatures.

On the anniversary of the January 6 insurrection, the Trump White House spent time creating and posting a false narrative i.e. re-write of the entire day, claiming that Democrats staged it and bashing Capitol Police. Happening in the same town at the same time, was a forum/pseudo hearing held by the Democrats that reunited the House Select Jan. 6 Committee and heard testimony from those there that day. Anyways, here’s former Special Counsel Jack Smith on who should be held accountable for Jan 6. 

The Arizona Supreme Court building had to be evacuated after a package was found onsite that tested positive for explosives.

Trump lit a match to a conspiracy theory that Minnesota Gov. Walz was somehow responsible for the assasination of MN state Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband. The unfounded accusations reached a fever pitch to the point where Hortman’s children called upon the president to remove the video he shared on Truth Social promoting the conspiracy theory.

Wearing a black “Make Iran Great Again” hat bigger than his head, Senator Lindsey Graham [R-SC] declared that part of his goal to go after “welfare fraud” is to require states to send in biometric data of recipients to prove they’re real.

A new poll has been released sharing that 23% of Americans believe that the U.S. healthcare “system” is in crisis.

The ACA tax credits [ObamaCare] expired at midnight on New Years, following the failure of Congressional Republicans to pass an extension of the tax credits or any other healthcare plan. The result thus far has been premiums skyrocketing and loads of Americans opting not to have life-critical health insurance because they can no longer afford it.

RFK Jr.’s CDC has drastically revised its childhood vaccine schedule, reducing the recommended vaccines from 17 to 11. Per the revised schedule here, some of the vaccines are now only being recommended for “high risk groups,” while others like the flu shot or Covid vaccine, are now no longer recommended at all.

The Trump Admin is dropping a rather new requirement that had been made of states of 2024 to report vaccination rates for children and pregnant women covered by Medicaid. States can still voluntarily report the data, but the requirement is RIP.

Over the holiday week, 30 states made their way into the CDC’s worst tier for flu cases, as a super variant called “subclade k” makes its way around the country. In a similarly startling fashion, doctor’s office visits for flu-like sickness is at its highest level since 1997.

A stat that will most likely come out of CA Gov. Gavin Newsom’s mouth in a 2026 podcast interview was reported on by the LA Times – California’s population has increased for the third year in a row, albeit it has not rebounded fully to pre-pandemic levels.

In sly and suss news, a new rule at the U.S. Postal Service will impact deadline-driven mail like ballots for mail-in voting, IRS filings, and more. The new rule sets the day/date a package/letter is processed at a postal facility as its postmark date, not the day/date that an item is dropped off into a mailbox. In other words, it’s a whole new ballgame as to whether something’s considered on time or not when it comes to time-sensitive mail.

Republican Congressman Doug LaMalfa [CA] passed away suddenly at the age of 65. His colleagues from both sides of the aisle shared their reactions and condolences. The make-up of Congress is now 218 Republican to 213 Democrat.

In GOP on GOP crime, Congresswoman Lauren Boebert [CO-R] came swinging at Trump for vetoing a bipartisan bill that would increase water access in rural parts of Colorado, including in parts of her district. The veto came as a result of Trump waging rage at blue Colorado. ATM, there’s movement in the Republican caucus to override Trump’s veto on this, as well as one other bill. TBD.

The Bloomberg Billionaires Index has dropped new numbies, sharing that the world’s 500 wealthiest people added $2.2 trillion to their wealth in 2025. Of that list, eight billionaires, including familiar faces like Elon Musk and Larry Ellison made up a quarter of the total net worth gains.

Two 2023-era abortion ban laws in Wyoming were struck down by the state’s Supreme Court, ruling that both laws were unconstitutional.

Following SCOTUS Justice Kavanaugh’s opinion in a case that legally green lit ICE’s ability to use ethnicity as a factor to stop/apprehend someone, a law professor has coined the term “Kavanaugh Stops” to refer to the brutal, inhumane, and often racially-based stops made by agents.

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has struck down California’s open-carry ban. Specifically, the court ruled that law, which banned open carry in counties with more than 200K people, violated the standards set in 2022 at SCOTUS in the now notorious New York State Rifle Association and Pistol v. Bruen decision. What comes next from California’s DOJ is TBD.

Trump’s DOJ is suing the state of Virginia over its public universities and colleges offering in-state tuition rates to undocumented students. The DOJ alleges that the practice discriminates against U.S. citizens.

Congress has released the transcript [and MeidasTouch has the top 411 here on YouTube] of testimony by former Special Counsel Jack Smith. The highlight reel includes Jack testifying that they had proof beyond a reasonable doubt that Trump engaged in a criminal scheme to overturn the 202 election; that they had enough evidence to convict Trump; and that Trump directed his co-conspirators to delay proceedings.

Republicans quietly hit CRTL delete to an amendment in the funding bill that would’ve required the DOJ to “retain, preserve, and compile all records and evidence related to Jeffrey Epstein.” The amendment had come by way of Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen [MD].

Trump’s DOJ [Pam Bondi] failed to meet a Congressionally mandated deadline [December 12, 2025] for releasing all of the Epstein files. The DOJ in turn is claiming that they’ve reviewed less than 1% of the Epstein files so far…

The Trump Admin announced plans to shut off $10 billion in federal funds for child care and social services to five blue/Dem states over unproven, unfounded claims by the Admin that these state’s systems are riddled with “fraud.” The states included are California, Illinois, New York, Minnesota, and Colorado. AGs from the targeted states plan to sue.

SecDef Hegseth who seems to be #obsessed with Senator Mark Kelly [D-AZ] censured the U.S. Navy veteran in what appears to be a revenge-motivated move for the Senator and fellow veteran electeds producing and posting a video reminding members of the military that their allegiance is to the Constitution, and their right to disobey illegal orders. Senator Kelly has shared that he will fight the any punishment coming out of Hegseth HQ.

According to reporting via SFGate, one of co-founders of OpenAI, Greg Brockman, has added the title of ‘top Trump donor’ to his resume, donating a whopping $25M to Trump’s super PAC.

ICYMI the Kennedy Center’s board voted to change its name to the “Trump-Kennedy Center,” and updated the signage at warpspeed. The fine print of the change came via bylaws that were apparently changed earlier this year, limiting voting on Kennedy Center issues/decisions to presidential appointees only [how you got an unanimous decision on the change]. Anyways, wordclown bought the website domain for it, so LOL.

The Trump Admin has given a visa to a Russian propagandist that was booted from the U.S. following an FBI report circa 2024 that revealed that her right-wing YouTube channel was illegally taking money from Russian media, specifically the pro-Putin network, RT. Anyways, as reported by The Bulwark, she’s back in Nashville with a brand new visa.

In what looked like a scene out of a mismanaged middle school play, was FBI Director Kash Patel on Fox News, with his team playing with his lighting while he was on live TV.

Congressman Don Beyer [D-VA] took to the gram with this influencer-esque Reel, sharing that one of the final votes in the House last year was on his Democratic colleague’s war powers resolution to double down on prohibiting Trump from pursuing military action against Venezuela without Congressional authorization. These three Republicans were the only ones to join the Dems with a ‘yay’ vote.

Is 2026 the year that Trisha Paytas runs for Congress? Her TikTok, featuring a search for the requirements to do so, certainly leaves the door open.

Congressman Rob Wittman [R-VA] is going micro-viral on the Dem side of TikTok via this video, dropping the tea that Wittman invested in the utility company that’s behind a major rate hike for consumers. In translation: he’s making money, while constituent’s bills go through the roof.

Salon: As federal public health collapses under Trump, states are improvising

Politico: 92-year-old judge handling Maduro case ‘doesn’t give a s–t what anyone thinks about him’

The Washington Post: She provides the raw material to Trump’s influencer machine

MS Now: Border czar Tom Homan didn’t receive normal background check during bribery probe