Good morning, and congratulations to the unknown artists who design album covers! One of you is about to win a Grammy. The least-boring (but still boring) of all the major awards shows is adding an award for Best Album Cover for the first time since 1973.

Don’t get your hopes up for an actual Grammy, though. The winning album’s art director is the only one who will get a trophy. The designers, photographers, and illustrators, well ... they’ll just get certificates. Some things never really change, do they?

WORLD

🥶 Trump renews push for Greenland

No, it’s not really green. The name “Greenland” appears to be a thousand-year-old real estate ploy by an exiled Viking. But it is full of ice. And rare-earth minerals. And oil. And access to Arctic shipping lanes.

President Trump last weekend re-upped his argument that the U.S. needs Greenland, and White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said this week that the administration is exploring a “range of options" for acquiring it.

• On top of the potential resource wealth, Trump says he sees Greenland as a security issue.

• China is upping its economic activity in the Arctic, and Russia’s military is expanding its military presence there.

The Senate isn’t thrilled with Trump’s methods here, and obviously neither is Denmark (Greenland is their Puerto Rico). France is working on a plan, too, for how to respond if the U.S. makes a move.

What options are on the table? Instead of questioning why Trump wants Greenland so badly, let’s take a look at how he might go about getting his hands on the world’s largest island. Here are three possibilities:

1. Free Association: If Greenland declares its independence from Denmark, which it has considered, the Danes say they’ll let it go without a fight. Afterward, the U.S. could try to convince an independent Greenland to sign a “compact of free association” with the United States. We already have deals like this in place with three Pacific island nations.

• They remain independent, but get access to some federal programs, like the National Weather Service and the Post Office. And the U.S. military provides for their defense.

• In exchange, we get to put bases there. And Americans can live and work there without visas. They can come here, too.

2. Invasion: As Trump advisor Stephen Miller said, there’s not a lot anyone could do to stop us from just taking it and plopping our flag down at center field.

• Pros: That was easy. We already have a Space Force base there.

• Cons: We’re the baddies now, and our allies might abandon us economically.

3. Purchase: Alaska 2.0. The U.S. government buys it from the governments of Greenland and Denmark, which could also involve paying off all 57,000 Greenlanders.

• Pros: It’s easy. And legal. And, relatively speaking, pretty cheap for a place more than 3x the size of Texas.

• Cons: Greenlanders have made it very clear over the past year that their home is not for sale.

GOVERNMENT

🤑 We’re six months away from America’s big 250th birthday celebration, but the party has already begun. The first of five new celebratory quarters is in circulation. This one features the Mayflower. The next four are set to be released throughout the year by the United States Mint. They’ll honor the Revolutionary War, the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Gettysburg Address. But only one of ‘em (the Revolution) has George Washington on the front — the others show Pilgrims, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and Abraham Lincoln. The new designs aren’t without controversy, though. The Mint is taking heat for axing the Biden administration’s designs, which would’ve focused primarily on America’s various civil rights struggles.

💉 The Senate confirmed longtime journalist Sara Carter as Trump's so-called drug czar. As the head of the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), she'll be the president's top drug policy adviser. She'll oversee the White House's policies on drug trafficking, prevention, treatment, and recovery. The ONDCP also passes out federal grants (like those for Drug-Free Communities) and maintains data on drug use. What it doesn't do, though, is actual anti-drug law enforcement. That's left to the big boys over at the Department of Justice's Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA).

📺️ Thanks to viewers like you, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) had a solid, 58-year run. That all came to an end on Monday when the CPB board voted to dissolve the non-profit company a few months after Congress yanked its $1.1 billion in federal funding. If you’re a big fan of whisper-talk, don’t worry. NPR and PBS are still around. The CPB was the source of most of their cash, though, so they're having to make up for the lost funding via cost cuts and private donations. Many smaller affiliates that can't raise the dough will be forced to shut down.

POLITICS

🗳️ It’s been zero days since Trump’s last nonsense

Okay, technically, it’s been two days. He made the comments in a speech on Tuesday. Still, it’s time to erase the sign and restart the clock.

During a speech on January 6 at a retreat for House Republicans, the president did that thing where he casually mentions doing the crazy, off-limits thing and then says he obviously can’t do that because it's crazy and off-limits. The subject this time? Canceling the 2026 midterm elections.

The money quote: “How we have to even run against these people — I won’t say ‘cancel the election, they should cancel the election,’ because the fake news would say, ‘He wants the elections canceled. He’s a dictator.’ They always call me a dictator.”

• Trump’s remarks came while warning Republicans that he’ll get impeached again if they don’t defeat Democrats in November’s midterm elections.

Is he serious? He’s been making wild, off-the-cuff remarks just about every day for 10 years now. At this point, it’s probably best to assume it’s all just bluster until we see some evidence to the contrary.

Could he actually do that? No, not really. The Constitution sets the terms for members of Congress. They’ll expire next January, regardless. And, while Congress does set the specific election date, the elections themselves are run by the 50 states. No matter who he is, the president has no control over them. And no disaster declaration or anything else can change that. We did hold elections during the actual Civil War, y’know.

Elsewhere in politics:

1. Kamala Harris’s Hail Mary attempt at relating to working-class white dudes is calling it quits. Camo fan and former future vice president Tim Walz (D) dropped his bid for a third term as governor of Minnesota amid a fraud scandal and constant attacks from Trump.

2. The House of Representatives is down by two Republicans. Georgia’s Marjorie Taylor Greene got bored with it and resigned on Monday, while California’s Doug LaMalfa suddenly passed away on Tuesday at 65. They’ll both be replaced via special elections later this year.

3. Congratulations, Democrats. Ex-Rep. Mary Peltola (D) is preparing to run for Senate in Alaska. Peltola’s still popular, so her entry could put the solidly Republican seat in play in this year’s midterms. She’d be running against longtime incumbent Sen. Dan Sullivan (R).

WORLD

🌎️ U.S. to sell Venezuela’s oil “indefinitely”

Welcome to 2026, where we’re all way more familiar with Venezuelan politics than we’d like to be. With that in mind, here’s something that’s at least interesting: Venezuela is home to the world’s tallest waterfall. Angel Falls is 3,212 feet high in total and features a single plunge of 2,648 feet.

Anyway, on the whole, “the U.S. invaded Venezuela and captured its baddie dictator” situation:

Leadership: Nobel Peace Prize winner and Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado "absolutely" wants to lead the country post-Maduro. Maduro’s VP is currently in charge, though, and Trump isn’t sure Machada has “the respect” needed to run the show. She is, at least, "a very nice woman."

Oil: The U.S. is taking over as Chief Sales Officer for Venezuela’s state-run oil industry. We’ll sell the oil they drill and hand the profits back to “benefit the Venezuelan people.” For how long? According to U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright, “Indefinitely.”

Tankers: With an assist from the U.K., the U.S. military seized two oil tankers linked to Venezuela, one of which was Russian-flagged and in the vicinity of the Russian Navy. Russia says this was “piracy,” but the U.S. said it had warrants and that the ships were selling terror-linked black market oil.

TRIVIA

Michael Reagan, Ronald Reagan’s oldest child, passed away on Sunday at the age of 80. Like his three siblings, Michael’s dad was Ronald Reagan. But his mom was not First Lady Nancy Reagan.

It’s not a scandal or anything. Ronald Reagan just happened to be the first president to have been divorced. He and his first wife split in 1949, four years after adopting lil Michael. Like Nancy, wife #1 was also a famous actress. What was the name of Ronald Reagan’s first wife?

Hint: Her initials were J.W.

BRIEFS

● On Tuesday, Homeland Security said it’s sending 2,000 agents to Minneapolis in the largest-ever immigration op. On Wednesday, an agent there fatally shot a woman in her car. The feds said she was trying to run him over, but locals say it was murder.

● President Trump blamed the housing crisis on high inflation "caused by Joe Biden” and said he’s taking steps “to ban large institutional investors” from buying more houses. Details are TBD. He added that he’ll ask Congress to write his policy into law.

● Multiple people were affected on Tuesday when the Wyoming Supreme Court tossed two state laws that banned abortion, ruling 4-1 that they violated a healthcare provision of the Wyoming Constitution passed in 2012. Just 13 states now have full abortion bans.

● Israel is about to begin construction on more settlements in the West Bank that opponents say would cut the territory in two, preventing the creation of a contiguous, independent Palestine. Elsewhere, the U.S. is brokering Israel-Syria security talks in Paris.

● U.S. and European diplomats met in Paris on Wednesday to chat post-war security guarantees for Ukraine. The U.K. and France agreed to send troops to safeguard Ukraine if needed, but Russia is refusing to sign any peace deal that allows for that.

● The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) denied a trademark application from the MLB’s Oakland Athletics for the names “Las Vegas Athletics” and “Vegas Athletics.” Apparently, the 125-year-old team name is too generic.

QUOTE

ANSWER

From 1940 to 1949, Ronald Reagan was married to actress Jane Wyman. They had a daughter, Maureen Reagan, in 1941, and adopted Michael in 1945. They divorced in 1949.

In 1952, Reagan married Nancy Davis, also an actress, and the rest is history. They had two kids together: Patti Davis in 1952 and Ron Reagan Jr. in 1958.

Strangely enough, Reagan’s two kids with Jane Wyman were, like their dad, political conservatives. His two kids with Nancy? Both liberals.