The Trump administration is secretly planning to deploy ICE agents to the Winter Olympics in Italy next month—and Italian lawmakers are so appalled they’re demanding these “thugs” be denied entry to their country entirely.

WHAT’S GOING ON: The Department of Homeland Security confirmed to the Daily Beast that ICE will be “supporting” security operations at the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics and Paralympics, which run from February 6 to March 15.

Assistant Homeland Security Secretary Tricia McLaughlin insisted ICE won’t conduct “immigration enforcement operations” in Italy—just “vet and mitigate risks from transnational criminal organizations.” Sure, Jan.

THE DETAILS: The Italian government’s response has been a masterclass in chaos. Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s conservative government first denied knowing anything about ICE’s involvement.

Then Attilio Fontana, president of the Lombardy region, confirmed ICE would be part of Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s security team for the opening ceremony at Milan’s San Siro stadium. Then his office released a statement saying he was speaking “hypothetically.” Then Italy’s Interior Ministry denied any collaboration agreements had been signed. Make it make sense.

WHY IT MATTERS: This announcement comes as ICE’s reputation is in freefall—even by its own already-basement-level standards.

In recent weeks, an ICE agent shot and killed Renee Nicole Good, a 37-year-old Minneapolis mother of three. A Border Patrol officer killed Alex Pretti, also 37, a Veterans Affairs nurse.

ICE has been caught breaking into homes without warrants, stopping off-duty police officers of color, and—not a typo—arresting a 5-year-old boy. And just days ago, ICE agents reportedly threatened an Italian journalist with the state broadcaster RAI who was filming a segment in Minneapolis.

OF COURSE: Italian lawmakers aren’t buying the administration’s assurances that ICE will behave. Thousands have signed a Change.org petition demanding ICE agents be denied entry to the Olympics. “ICE is an unprepared, violent, and out-of-control militia,” Italian Senator Carlo Calenda wrote on Facebook. “It must not set foot in Italy.” Nicola Fratoianni, a progressive member of Italy’s House of Deputies, was even more direct: “We cannot allow heavily armed murderers, who have also threatened Italian journalists, to act as law enforcement on Italian soil.”

BOTTOM LINE: The Trump administration is exporting its brutal immigration enforcement apparatus to an international sporting event meant to celebrate global unity. ICE agents who’ve killed American citizens on American soil are now being sent abroad to provide “security”—and Italy’s government can’t even keep its story straight about whether they agreed to it.

The world is watching, and what they’re seeing is an agency that’s become synonymous with lawlessness being deployed on foreign soil while Italian lawmakers call them exactly what they are: thugs.

Donald Trump couldn’t recall the word “Alzheimer’s”—the disease that killed his own father—during an interview about his cognitive health, pointing at his forehead and waiting for his press secretary to supply the term. The man with the nuclear codes just publicly demonstrated the exact word-finding difficulty that characterizes early dementia, then dismissed concerns about his mental fitness with a casual “whatever.” Read the full story.

The Trump White House is suddenly discovering “due process” after press secretary Karoline Leavitt publicly distanced the president from Kristi Noem and Stephen Miller’s inflammatory claims that Alex Pretti—shot in the back by ICE—was a “domestic terrorist” and “would-be assassin.” The only thing that changed? Republicans turned on them. Read the full story.

Days after Trump-backed billionaires took control of TikTok’s US operations, users discovered they can’t send the word “Epstein” in direct messages—but only in America. California Governor Gavin Newsom launched an investigation after his office confirmed the censorship, which TikTok blames on a “data center outage” (SURE). Videos about ICE killing Minnesota nurse Alex Pretti are also being throttled to zero views, and state legislators’ anti-ICE content won’t load. Read the full story.

Yesterday we asked, should ICE be abolished? 98% of you said YES.

Ciring said: “They are thugs, most with typical male egos. Brutally, Cruelty, they get off on this. Shame on each and everyone other. They belong in jail for life!”

Ranjo said: “ICE is acting just like the Gestapo during the Nazi Regime - just like the Trump regime. Disband them!”

Mark said: “The respective state government can deal with and respond to local protest issues.”

Here are some stories the algorithms may be keeping out of your feed.

Greg Bovino—Trump’s trench-coat-wearing, Nazi-cosplaying Border Patrol “commander at large”—has been yanked from Minneapolis and shipped back to California. But don’t mistake this for accountability or Trump caring about human life. This is pure image management.

THE REAL STORY: Two days after Border Patrol agents under Bovino’s command killed 37-year-old ICU nurse Alex Pretti, The Atlantic reports he’s been stripped of his “commander at large” title and will return to El Centro, California, where he’s expected to retire. Tom Homan, Trump’s “border czar,” is taking over Minneapolis operations. DHS Secretary Kristi Noem and her close adviser Corey Lewandowski—Bovino’s biggest cheerleaders—are reportedly also on the chopping block.

Bovino’s crime? Not ordering the killing of Alex Pretti, who was shot in the back by Border Patrol agents Saturday. No, Bovino’s real offense was becoming a bigger spectacle than the boss himself.

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