Welcome back to The Deep Dive. It is Wednesday,
February 4th, 2026. And I have to say, looking
at the stack of research we have for today, I
feel like I need a flow chart, a stiff drink,
and maybe a world map just to keep track of it
all. It is definitely one of those weeks. We
are spanning the globe today. We really are.
We're going from the terrifyingly quiet streets
of suburban Minnesota straight into the gridlock
of Washington. And then pivoting to high stakes
crypto deals. In the UAE, no less, and then just
to really top it off, we're ending with a bombshell
report linking the Kremlin to Jeffrey Epstein.
It really sounds like a conspiracy board when
you say it all out loud like that. It does. But
our job is to connect these dots. We want to
see how a roof not getting fixed in St. Paul
connects to a deal made in a palace in the Middle
East. Because weirdly enough, They are connected.
They are. And I think the common thread here
is this disconnect between the massive global
maneuvering of money and power and the very real,
very local consequences that are hitting regular
people. So let's start on the ground. We've been
following the news out of Minnesota, these intense
ICE crackdowns. And I want to start with a correction
or maybe a clarification from one of our listeners.
Right. We had a listener, JS, write in. The national
media keeps splashing Minneapolis across the
headlines. Right, as the epicenter. Exactly.
But JS points out that it's actually Columbia
Heights. Which is a suburb, right? It is. And
the distinction really matters. You know, Minneapolis
has resources. Columbia Heights is a smaller
working class suburb. It doesn't have the same
safety nets. And the community there is a specific
target. It seems so. JS notes it has a large
Ecuadorian population. Right. And they appear
to be the focus of this whole enforcement wave.
And the details are just... Just. They're intense.
We're talking about ICE agents allegedly targeting
the Ecuadorian consulate and even local schools
facing bomb threats. But the thing that struck
me most in the research was the description of
the atmosphere. It's chilling. Yeah, a reader
made this comparison to 2020, the aftermath of
George Floyd. And we all remember those images,
right? The fires, the helicopters, the sirens.
It was loud chaos. Constant noise. But this reader
points out that what's happening now is the complete
inverse. It's a terrifying silence. That's the
phrase that really sticks with you. Terrifying
silence. It's businesses just not opening. Streets
that should be gridlock at rush hour are empty.
We have a report of a mental health professional,
a U .S. citizen born and raised, who is now carrying
his passport to the grocery store. Just in case.
Because he's afraid of being picked up by mistake.
Because the margin for error seems to have vanished.
And that fear, it isn't unfounded. Did you see
the report about the teenager at Target? I did.
And I had to reread it three times to believe
it. So a kid is working his shift. I see agents
grab him, throw him in a van, drive him up the
road, and then, oops, realize he's a US citizen.
And instead of taking him back or, you know,
apologizing, they just dumped him in a Walmart
parking lot and drove off. It's efficient, I
guess. Yeah. In the absolute worst way possible.
But then right next to that horror, you have
something that feels like a hallucination. Please
tell me the giraffe incident is real. Oh, it's
in the police reports. A man wearing a full giraffe
costume was violently arrested. Why? Was he hiding
someone or something? No, he was just making
fun of the agents, mocking the operation. And
the response was immediate physical force. It
just illustrates how high the tension is. But
let's get to the so what of this. For the average
listener who might be thinking, well, I'm not
in Columbia Heights and I'm not undocumented,
the economic ripple effect is fascinating and
scary. This is where it hits your wallet. Yeah.
We have a source from the building materials
industry and he is sounding the alarm for the
rest of 2026. The roofing crisis. Exactly. You
know, in the Midwest, summer brings hailstorms.
It's inevitable. Usually armies of crews mobilize
to fix thousands of roofs. Right. The source
is saying that with these raids, that labor force
has just evaporated. So if a hailstorm hits St.
Paul in July... There is literally no one to
fix your roof. Your insurance might cut the check.
But if there are no hands to hold the hammer,
your house just sits there leaking. It's a direct
line from immigration policy to property value
destruction. And this isn't just Minnesota, right?
We're seeing similar reports out of Maine. Maine
is seeing the same tactics. Smashed windows,
people dragged out of cars. But there's a specific
case in Maine that shows how wide this net is
being cast. They detained a recruit for the Cumberland
County Sheriff's Department. Wait, a recruit?
As in someone trying to become a cop? A fully
vetted recruit. The sheriff actually had to hold
a press conference to explain that, yes, this
person was legal. Yes, they were vetted. But
the damage is done. The public just sees detained.
assumes criminal. So it completely complicates
the essential narrative that this is just about
criminals and politically this seems to be backfiring.
Massively. The sources indicate that Senate races,
governorships in Minnesota and Maine places that
were considered toss -ups are now moving toward
solid Democrat. The local backlash to the disruption
of daily life is actually shifting the polls.
Which brings us to Washington. Because while
the states are dealing with a fallout, DC is
dealing with a budget fight. We're approaching
the DHS cliff. Right, so the government is technically
funded, but the Department of Homeland Security
is the big exception. Their funding runs out
in two weeks. It's always a cliffhanger. What's
the standoff about this time? Well, Democrats
want to put shackles on icy, restricting funds
to stop exactly the kind of raids we just talked
about. Republicans are countering with the Save
Act. OK, the Save Act. We hear about this a lot.
It requires proof of citizenship to vote. And
I think a lot of listeners might wonder, what's
the controversy? Don't you already have to be
a citizen to vote? You do. It is already illegal
for non -citizens to vote. The controversy is
about the paperwork. The Save Act would require
you to provide specific documentary proof, like
a passport or a birth certificate, just to register.
And not everyone has their birth certificate
handy. Exactly. Millions of Americans, often
poor, elderly or rural, don't have easy access
to those specific documents. So Democrats argue
it's just a way to suppress legal voters. But
here's the twist. The polling suggests Republicans
might be miscalculating the public mood on this.
The polling is really surprising here. It is.
Aggregates from the New York Times, Fox, CBS
all show that about 60 % of Americans think ICE
is too aggressive or has gone too far. 60 % in
this political climate. That's practically a
consensus. That's huge. It suggests that the
law and order message is losing to the this is
too chaotic reality that people are seeing. And
speaking of law and order. We have to talk about
Don Lemon. I did not have Don Lemon arrested
on my 2026 bingo card. No one did. He was covering
an in -church protest against an ICE agent who's
also a pastor. Which is a whole drama in itself.
But the charge, the charge is what's really important
here. They got him on the FACE Act. And this
is where it gets really interesting legally.
The FACE Act, Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances,
was passed in 1994 to protect abortion clinics
from being blockaded. So a law designed to protect
healthcare access. Why use it on a journalist
at a church? The source analysis calls it a bank
shot. The current administration hates the FACE
Act because it protects abortion providers. So
by applying it to a journalist, Don Lemon, they
are trying to force a court case. Wait, let me
see if I have this right. They are using a law
they hate against a person they dislike in the
hope that the Supreme Court will look at this
bizarre application and say, this law is unconstitutional,
thereby killing the very law that protects abortion
clinics. That is the 4D chess move described
by the sources. It's a way to kill the law without
Congress having to act while also intimidating
the press. It's a two for one. That is diabolically
clever, if that's what's happening. It's high
risk. But it's a definite strategy. OK, before
we leave the domestic front, we have to touch
on the history lesson we got this week. Donald
Trump issued a proclamation about the Mexican
-American War. He did. On the 178th anniversary,
he praised the reassertion of American sovereignty.
Reassertion. That implies we owned it before,
lost it, and got it back. Which is factually
creative. Our historian source basically went
through this with a red pen. First, the US had
zero prior claim to that land. You can't reassert
something you never had. OK. Second, Trump claimed
battles happened in California and New Mexico.
They didn't. Almost all the fighting was deep
inside Mexico. And finally, he glossed over the
purchase. We paid $15 million, which the historian
calls a pittance meant to dress up a conquest
as a real estate deal. So why does this matter
now? Is it just bad history trivia? No, because
words have diplomatic consequences. This rhetoric
is reportedly straining relations with Mexico
right now, affecting trade, border cooperation,
everything. You don't insult a neighbor you need
help from by rewriting the history of how you
took their land. Fair point. OK, let's follow
the money. Because if the history is murky, the
finances are. Well, they're massive. We're seeing
reports of the Trump family making billions.
The scale is staggering. The journalist David
Kirkpatrick estimates the family has made at
least $4 .05 billion in the last year alone.
But let's start with a lawsuit. Because this
one sounds like a joke. Trump is suing the government
that he leads. He's reportedly suing the IRS
for $10 billion and the DOJ for $230 million
over past investigations. $10 billion. And when
he was asked how that would work, since he's
the boss of the defendant, he suggested he might
work out a settlement with himself. and donate
it to charity. Work out a settlement with himself.
I mean, wow. But the real money isn't in lawsuits.
It's in crypto. Specifically, a company called
World Liberty Financial. It's a stablecoin company,
partially owned by the Trump family. Can we pause
there for a second? I think a lot of people hear
stablecoin and their eyes glaze over. What is
it, simply? Think of it like a digital casino
chip that's always worth exactly one dollar.
It's a cryptocurrency that's pegged to the U
.S. dollar, so it doesn't fluctuate like Bitcoin.
It's used to move money around very quickly.
OK, so if it's pegged to the dollar and the president
appoints the person who controls the dollar.
You see the conflict of interest. Yeah. A huge
one. But it gets much messier. Remember Changpeng
Zhao? CZ, the crypto king. The former crypto
king and a convicted felon. Yeah. He struck a
deal involving World Liberty Financial that sent
its value skyrocketing to over $2 .1 billion.
Then, in October 2025, Zao got a presidential
pardon. So, deal, stock goes up, pardon. A very
clean, very convenient timeline. But then, the
UAE gets involved. Sheikh Tanoon, the spy sheikh,
reportedly took a secret $500 million stake in
the company just before the inauguration. Half
a billion dollars. And right after that investment,
the U .S. approved the sale of advanced AI chips
to the UAE. Now, this is important. This isn't
just selling them laptops. Why were those chips
blocked before? Because of China. The Pentagon
was terrified that if we sold these high -end
chips to the UAE, they'd end up in Beijing's
hands. It was a hard no for national security
reasons. But after the $500 million investment,
the no became a yes. I mean, that's the literal
definition of pay to play, isn't it? It certainly
fits the pattern. And don't forget the envoy,
Steve Witkoff. He reportedly got a $31 million
cut just for setting up the deal. A $31 million
finders fee. OK, but we have one more layer here.
And this one. Look, we need to be careful, but
the Daily Mail has dropped a report that if it's
true, it rewrites the last decade of American
history. This is the Russian Connection. The
Daily Mail has an investigative report alleging
that Jeffrey Epstein wasn't just a predator.
They claimed he was running a honey trap operation
for the KGB and Vladimir Putin. A honey trap,
meaning gathering blackmail on powerful people.
Exactly. Compromising them to give the Kremlin
leverage. And the report alleges that Donald
Trump was a primary target of this operation.
And again, we're reporting on what the Delhi
Mail and these alleged documents claim. What
exactly are they saying is in there? The documents
suggest Epstein claimed he could give the Kremlin
valuable insight into Trump. There's a quote
where Epstein says the Russian ambassador, Vitaly
Cherkin, understood Trump. after their conversations.
And this pairs with the financial reliance that
we've heard about for years. Right. We have those
old quotes from Don Jr. in 2008 about Russian
money pouring into their assets. But the report
argues this leverage had real tangible consequences
during the first term. This is the burning spies
part. This part is genuinely horrifying. It's
the most serious allegation in the whole piece.
The source recounts an incident where Trump apparently
revealed an Israeli spy to Russian officials.
right in the Oval Office. And the CIA's reaction?
Total panic. The report says the CIA had to pull
a top -level source out of the Kremlin in 2017,
a spy who had access to Putin's desk because
they were terrified Trump would expose him. Just
think about that. We burned our own highest -level
asset because we couldn't trust our own president.
It's a total collapse of the intelligence hierarchy.
And we saw it publicly in Helsinki in 2018 when
Trump met Putin and then physically destroyed
the translator's notes. And what about Rand Paul's
trip? Senator Rand Paul hand -delivered a private
letter from Trump to Putin in Moscow in 2018.
The report says that shortly after that letter
arrived, CIA sources in Moscow just went silent.
They went silent. Which usually means they were
caught. Or worse. Correct. So does this leverage
still exist today? The report offers a recent
anecdote to suggest it does. Trump apparently
asked Putin to pause the bombing of Ukraine for
one week. And did he listen? He reportedly laughed.
But he did pause a tax on key for a few days
while ignoring the rest of the country. It shows
this dynamic where the U .S. president asks for
a favor and the Russian president grants a token
gesture while laughing it off. Okay, that is...
That is incredibly heavy. We're talking about
global treason and billions of dollars. But I
want to do a hard pivot here. I want to switch
from this macro level nightmare to the micro
level because the way people actually get into
power is changing. We're entering what the sources
are calling skeleton season. Skeleton season.
Usually that means opposition research. But now
it's about social media 2 .0. It is. We're seeing
this new reality where digital paper trails from,
you know, a decade ago are deciding elections
today. Look at the Texas Senate race. The TikTok
drama. The TikTok drama. A user dug up a video
alleging Democrat James Tolerico made disparaging
remarks about his opponent, Jasmine Crockett.
He allegedly called her not a formidable, intelligent
black woman. Oof. That is not a good look. He
says it was taken out of context, that he was
talking about campaign style, but the clip is
out there. It's viral. Context rarely survives
the algorithm. And then there's the Tiano singer
Bobby Pulido. Running for Texas District 15,
a music legend. But he's getting hammered for
an old, very vulgar social media post about Hillary
Clinton and the actress Chloe Grace Moretz. You
know, the thing that strikes me is that in the
past, a youthful indiscretion was something you
said at a bar. Maybe one person heard it. It
was your word against theirs. Now it's a time
stamp screenshot. It's a 4K video. Exactly. So
the question becomes who can even run for office
in 10 years. If you grew up on social media you
have a public permanent searchable dossier on
yourself. It might mean we end up with politicians
who are either incredibly boring because they
never posted anything or completely shameless
because they just don't care. I think we're already
seeing the shameless model taking the lead. I
think you're right about that. So, look, we have
covered a massive amount of ground today. We've
gone from a giraffe suit arrest in Minnesota
to a Supreme Court bank shot to UAE ship deals
to Russian spies and finally to TikTok scandals.
It's a lot to process. But I keep coming back
to that roofer in St. Paul. Me too. Because when
you look at this whole stack of sources, there
is just this profound disconnect. You have billions
of dollars flashing across borders in nanoseconds,
crypto, influence peddling, spy games. The people
at the very top are playing a game of risk. with
the entire planet. And meanwhile, the people
on the ground are just trying to keep water out
of their living rooms. Exactly. The enforcement
is happening down here. Intense, physical, face
to face like the ICE raids. But the rule breaking,
the massive consequential rule break, that's
happening up there completely out of reach. It
raises a really provocative question for everyone
listening. We always say all politics is local.
But in this era of social media 2 .0 and billion
dollar transnational graft, does that still hold
true? Or have we entered a reality where the
scale of corruption is simply too big, too complex
and too distant for the average voter to even
process? Are we so busy worrying about the skeletons
in a candidate's TikTok history that we miss
the four billion dollar crypto deal happening
in plain sight? Are we distracted by the local
while the global game is being rigged against
us? That is the question we're going to leave
you with today. It's a scary thought. It is.
But that's why we do the deep dive to try and
see the whole board. Thanks for listening everyone.
We'll see you next time. Stay curious and check
your sources.