Trump was surging after the Venezuela raid—then came Jerome Powell, Greenland and Minnesota. Now it feels like a ‘historic hinge moment’
President Donald Trump was riding high early this month after the U.S. military pulled off a stunning raid that captured dictator Nicolas Maduro.
But just three weeks later, he has run into significant resistance on multiple fronts, challenging his economic, foreign relations, and immigration policies. The second deadly shooting in Minnesota at the hands of federal agents this weekend has unleashed broad outrage that could signal a tipping point.
“Starting to feel like we are in the midst of a historic hinge moment here,” political scientist Lee Drutman, a senior fellow at the New America think tank, posted on X.
Trump appeared to acknowledge his new situation, telling the Wall Street Journal on Sunday night that the administration is “reviewing everything” about the shooting and indicated willingness to eventually withdraw immigration officers from Minneapolis.
A retreat could hint at an eroding base after Trump enjoyed widespread support among Republicans for much of 2025 even as his aggressive tariffs shocked businesses and trading partners, including close U.S. allies.
But cracks emerged late in the year as November elections highlighted the affordability crisis and Congress ordered the release of the Epstein files on near-unanimous votes. Heavy redactions and the Justice Department’s failure to disclose all of the records by the deadline added to the tension.
The conversation quickly changed when Maduro was toppled as Trump basked in the U.S. military’s proficiency and his new ability to call the shots in Venezuela, despite grumblings that another foreign intervention strayed from his “America first” motto.
The Fed
Then two weeks ago, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell issued an unprecedented video statement that revealed he was facing a Justice Department criminal investigation related to a renovation project at the central bank’s headquarters.
It capped a long-running feud between Powell and Trump, who has repeatedly demanded that rates should be lower.
The backlash was swift as lawmakers sought to protect the Fed’s independence. Republican Sen. Thom Tillis vowed to block any nominations to the Fed, including for Powell’s replacement, until the case was resolved.
Other Republicans rallied around Powell, marking another divergence from Trump’s earlier lockstep support. And after weeks of teasing that he would soon nominate a new Fed chair, Trump has yet to officially offer a name.
Still, the resounding success of the Venezuela operation was continuing to prop up his confidence, and Trump threatened Iran while promising to help protesters taking on the regime.
Greenland
But then the bravado extended to Greenland. After flirting with the idea of taking over the semi-autonomous Danish territory in his first term and last year, the insistence that the island belong to the U.S. became more urgent after Venezuela.
Several European countries, all NATO allies, then deployed troops to Greenland, ostensibly to show Trump that they were willing to secure it from China and Russia, which he warned were major threats.
But that angered Trump, who announced tariffs against the NATO countries unless they supported his bid to take over Greenland. It triggered an existential crisis for the trans-Atlantic alliance as Trump had also refused to rule out using the military.
At the World Economic Forum this past week in Davos, furious rounds of diplomacy ensued to pull Trump back from the brink of smashing the nearly 80-year-old defense pact. Republicans like Tillis also voiced support for NATO.
Canada and Europe held firm on protecting Greenland’s sovereignty, contrasting with a less combative approach in last year’s tariff battles, which yielded a lopsided U.S.-EU trade pact that’s heavily favors Trump.
On Wednesday, he backed down, saying he will not impose the NATO tariffs and claimed to have a “framework” of a deal that grants the U.S. full access to Greenland. He later said the U.S. is negotiating sovereignty over parts of Greenland that host American military bases.
Minnesota
Fury had been building for weeks after Trump surged thousands of federal agents to the state to carry out his immigration crackdown.
Saturday’s shooting was the third one in Minnesota this month, and the second deadly one. It also followed days of reports about immigration officers detaining young children, arresting U.S. citizens, and forcibly entering homes without judicial warrants.
Video evidence also clearly contradicted the Trump administration’s claim that Alex Pretti, who was a nurse in a veterans hospital, threatened the Border Patrol before being shot.
Silicon Valley workers expressed their anger, and Minnesota-based CEOs pleaded for de-escalation. Democrats in Congress stiffened their opposition to an appropriations bill for the Department of Homeland Security. Meanwhile, more Republicans have started to voice some uneasiness with federal agents’ tactics and are demanding congressional hearings.
“I think the death of Americans, what we’re seeing on TV, it’s causing deep concerns over federal tactics and accountability,” Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt told CNN on Sunday. “Americans don’t like what they’re seeing right now.”
Phil Scott, the Republican governor of deep-blue Vermont, took the rhetoric further. In a post on X, he said Trump should pause the immigration operations to reset the focus on criminals. He also urged Congress and the courts to “restore constitutionality” in the absence of presidential action.
“It’s not acceptable for American citizens to be killed by federal agents for exercising their God-given and constitutional rights to protest their government,” he wrote. “At best, these federal immigration operations are a complete failure of coordination of acceptable public safety and law enforcement practices, training, and leadership. At worst, it’s a deliberate federal intimidation and incitement of American citizens that’s resulting in the murder of Americans.”
This story was originally featured on Fortune.com