Distill Social

New reported Pentagon estimates suggest Trump’s war with Iran is costing U.S. taxpayers about $1 billion every single day, turning yet another military escalation into a bottomless money pit. Even outside that daily burn rate, outside estimates already put the cost in the billions within days.

Trump sold you a deal: peace, truth, and a cheaper life. Now he's bombing Iran with no exit plan, sitting on the Epstein files, and presiding over an economy crushing working people. The con is complete.

A federal judge just confirmed: the IRS illegally handed over confidential taxpayer data to ICE roughly 42,695 times.
That means thousands of people had their private information passed to the same deportation machine that has been terrorizing immigrant communities for years.

Erik Prince, founder of Blackwater and Betsy DeVos’ younger brother, is publicly questioning Trump’s strike on Iran. On Steve Bannon’s podcast, Prince warned that destabilizing Iran is not “in America’s interest” and could empower even more hardline forces after the death of Ayatollah Khomeini.

Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader for 35 years, was reportedly killed Saturday in the U.S. and Israeli assault on Iran, according to Israeli officials cited by Reuters.

Michigan Democrats warn against wider Iran war as Republicans fall in line behind Trump The overnight strikes on Iran have opened a new political fault line in Michigan, where leaders are now being tested on war powers, restraint, and what Americans are being asked to sacrifice

Americans woke up this morning to images of bombs being dropped on Iran. Michigan GOP members are all in line behind Trump who at one point said "no new wars" while Dems have urged for peace.

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The United States, under Trump’s orders, has plunged headlong into a major military strike on Iran alongside Israel, with explosions rocking Tehran and other cities and smoke rising near the office of Ayatollah Khamenei, a reckless escalation that bypassed meaningful diplomacy in favor of war.

Shocking video shows Border Patrol abandoning refugee Nurul Shah Alam in front of a closed Buffalo storefront on a cold winter's night. Shah Alam died 5 days later.

This comes after Border Patrol claimed the shop was still open.

(Source: @IPostNews)

House Dems say the Justice Department withheld FBI interview pages from the Epstein files that relate to a woman’s claim that Trump sexually abused her when she was a minor. Oversight Chair Rep. Robert Garcia alleges at least 50+ pages of interviews never made it into the last document drop.

On February 18, 2026, 32-year-old Da’Quain Johnson was shot and killed by Grand Rapids police after they pursued him as he rode a bicycle. Johnson’s mother, Angelica Johnson, has publicly challenged the official account, tearfully saying her son was “executed,”.

In her final State of the State, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer gave a speech that was very conciliatory in tone. But in a moment that was very direct and pointed to Michigan voters, Whitmer spoke directly to the camera and said that she would veto ANY bill that curbs the rights of LGBTQ+ Michiganders.

Our official SOTU rebuttal:

Distill Social Is in D.C. for the State of the Union Inside the halls of Congress before the State of the Union, the contrast between propaganda and public service is impossible to miss.

Distill has flown to the D.C. to bring you news from the ground floor during the State of the Union

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On February 18, 2026, Da’Quain Johnson was riding his bike at night near his home in Grand Rapids when GRPD officers confronted him, released police dogs, and shot him.
GRPD claims he had a gun.
But video and eyewitness accounts being shared publicly tell a very different story.

Federal agents with ICE detained a 16-year-old asylum-seeker in Minnesota and quietly transferred him out of state.
The teen was sent to a Michigan facility run by Bethany Christian Services, a federally contracted child services organization with financial ties to the DeVos family.

Earlier this week, students at Northville High School walked out en masse to protest ICE.
And this isn’t some “deep-blue college town” headline. Northville is an affluent, politically split Metro Detroit suburb that went basically 50/50 in the last presidential election.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) quietly gained access to a massive Courts and Law Enforcement Management Information System, a shared database of police and court records from roughly 260 local agencies, without going through the Oakland County commissioners or securing a public vote.

The U.S. Supreme Court has decisively ruled that President Donald Trump violated federal law by unilaterally imposing sweeping “emergency” tariffs under a statute meant for genuine. The court’s decision came at a 6–3 majority.

UK police have finally arrested former Prince Andrew, now Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, on suspicion of misconduct in public office linked to the explosive Epstein files revelations, a stunning fall for a man long accused of abetting a convicted sex offender.

A bloc of GOP Congressman Jack Bergman’s own U.P. allies just pulled their reelection support after he jumped into a local State Senate primary and endorsed Beau LaFave, a move they say broke a promise to stay out and torched party unity in the Upper Peninsula.

It’s possible because people forget that Haley Stevens voted to praise ICE in a House resolution last summer.

ICE Isn’t Slowing Down. It’s Moving Into Michigan. The administration keeps whispering “slowdown,” but the paperwork, real estate, and detention infrastructure say the opposite.

All evidence points to Michigan being a new potential flashpoint for Immigration enforcement.

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The Rev. Jesse Jackson, a towering figure in the American civil rights movement has died at age 84.

Michigan gubernatorial candidate Mike Duggan’s campaign acknowledged that a social media post claiming multiple labor union endorsements was false and issued by mistake. The campaign said the post was published prematurely but several unions on the list made clear they had not endorsed Duggan.

Michigan House Speaker Matt Hall is taking aim at a program which provides cash assistance to families w/ newborns to improve health outcomes and reduce poverty-stress in a child's earliest developmental years.

Michigan's Rep Speaker of the House, Matt Hall appeared w/ Bolin, Hoadley & Wolford in a WH produced SAVE Act ad to promote the controversial bill. They push the myth that stricter requirements will prevent noncitizen voting.
The SAVE Act would make it harder for millions of people to vote.

Consumers Energy CEO Garrick Rochow is on an investor call taking shots at governor candidates and talking about how the company “works with” them, all while calling a rate freeze “illegal.”
So let’s be real: the utilities aren’t just raising rates, they’re trying to shape the 2026 election.

PSA

Happy Valentine's day. Tag your bestie who's joining you for drinks after the news breaks 😶‍🌫️

GEO Group, the for-profit prison company behind Michigan’s largest immigration detention center, just had a banner year selling incarceration as a business model. GEO's profits hit $254 million (up from ~$32 million in 2024) after scoring new U.S. ICE contracts & opening four new detention sites.