On this day, a year ago, a US Army helicopter conducting a training exercise slammed mid-air into a commercial passenger jet approaching Ronald Reagan National Airport. All 67 people aboard were killed. Donald Trump and his toadies blamed the tragedy on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.

Good morning! Peter here, currently in the process of deleting every last Nicki Minaj song from my many, many running playlists. I average 45 miles a week, so this is gonna take a while. Some of these will be painful… Starships? Chun-Li? Trini Dem Girls? Good Form? Itty Bitty Piggy? MONSTER? Nonetheless, it simply must be done. If you have no idea what I’m talking about, stay tuned for the bottom of this newsletter…

In today’s ‘First Draft,’ the American people refuse to believe the Trump admin’s lies, questions swirl around what’s happening inside ICE facilities, the FBI raids a Fulton County election office, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer finds himself in hot water, and Nicki Minaj grifts her way into snagging a so-called “Trump Gold Card.”

Subscribe now

🎥 Video Killed the Playdough Tsar

*Protesters against ICE march through the streets of downtown Minneapolis, Minnesota, on January 25, 2026. Photo by Roberto Schmidt/AFP via Getty Images*

“At 9:05 a.m. Central time, Department of Homeland Security law enforcement officials and officers were conducting targeted operations in Minneapolis against an illegal alien whose criminal history included domestic assault with intentionally inflicting bodily harm, disorderly conduct, and driving without a valid license,” DHS Secretary Kristi Noem opened her first press conference following the murder of former Boy Scout and ICU nurse Alex Pretti.

“An individual approached US Border Patrol officers with a 9mm semi-automatic handgun,” she continued.

“The officers attempted to disarm this individual, but the armed suspect reacted violently. Fearing for his life and for the lives of his fellow officers around him, an agent fired defensive shots… This looks like a situation where an individual arrived at the scene to inflict maximum damage on individuals and to kill law enforcement.”

Forgive me for subjecting you to that sheer tsunami of BS, but I felt it necessary to illustrate what our understanding of Alex Pretti’s ICE cold-blooded murder would be if his killing hadn’t been recorded from seemingly a dozen angles.

Subscribe now

On that alternate Earth, Alex Pretti is still a “domestic terrorist” and a wannabe “assassin,” as inaccurately and defamatorily described by White House deputy chief of staff, shadow president, and human jump scare Stephen Miller.

On that alternate Earth, the Trump administration never even considered muzzling the president’s top jackbooted bootlicker Greg Bovino, as I covered in Tuesday’s edition of First Draft.

On that alternate Earth, this story is not even a news chyron on MS NOW, let alone arguably the single greatest scandal to beset a scandal-plagued Trump administration.

All this to say, thank God, thank Gaia, thank freakin’ Morgan Freeman, that Alex Pretti’s murder was captured on camera. It was that video that very well may have killed the orange, makeup-caked playdough tsar’s desires to invoke the Insurrection Act (for now) and install himself as king.

This brings me to a rather dark place, though. What is happening in the tiny pocket dimensions of Hell – ICE facilities – where we don’t have news cameras, cell phones, or eyeballs?

First Draft: Imagine If There Were No Video!

Comments on this post are for paid subscribers