The actual temperature in Minneapolis has gotten slightly warmer from the weekend’s lows (with Friday having been the first sub-minus-20 Fahrenheit day here in almost 7 years), while the rhetorical temperature has cooled a little. Greg Bovino, the controversial Border Patrol executive who was leading Operation Metro Surge here in the Twin Cities after having led Operation Midway Blitz last fall in Chicago, has been replaced by Trump “border czar”, Tom Homan. Homan suggested today that ICE plans to draw down the number of agents deployed in the Twin Cities.

Yesterday Bruce Springsteen dropped a new single, “Streets of Minneapolis”, that he wrote on Saturday after the killing of Alex Pretti. The lyrics reference both Pretti and Renee Good by name, and also name drop “King Trump and his private army from the DHS” and “Miller and Noem’s dirty lies”.

Also yesterday, 7 Senate Republicans joined all of the Democrats to oppose the omnibus funding bill previously passed by the House, putting a government shutdown this weekend in play. Today a compromise has apparently been reached, under which all of the non-DHS components of the House Bill remain intact and DHS funding is provided for an additional 2 weeks only, thus allowing further opportunity for debate. The Senate is expected to vote on the compromise later tonight and Trump has urged its passage. The House may not return from its break early enough to prevent a technical government shutdown, but it will be back on Monday.

Today Senator Klobuchar officially announced her run for Minnesota Governor to replace Tim Walz, who said today that he is done with elective office, ending speculation that he might seek to appoint himself to the Senate to replace Klobuchar. Speaking of the gubernatorial race, earlier this week one of the announced Republican primary candidates, Chris Kabel, announced he was dropping out on the grounds he could no longer in good conscience support the Republican party in the wake of the ICE occupation of Minnesota.

Finally, today Trump filed a lawsuit against the IRS and the Treasury Department, seeking $10 billion as compensation for the fact that in 2020 a Treasury contractor obtained and leaked Trump’s tax returns. It will be interesting, and perhaps depressing, to see how the government responds to this lawsuit.