Three Gigantic Trump Walk-backs, and One Equally Large Defeat, to Brighten Your Day

Feb 14, 2026

overlooking view of mountains and sunrise — Photo by Tadej Skofic on Unsplash

To help brighten your mood today, I would like to point out three major issues where Donald Trump engaged in a massive climbdown over the past month, plus another where he suffered a major defeat:

Greenland

Remember when Donald Trump was threatening to acquire Greenland, and willing to use hefty tariffs, or even military action, against European nations to acquire it? As we know, Trump backed down from those threats, presumably because a framework for a potential deal had been reached.

Now it’s starting to seem like there was no framework for a deal at all, and Trump just backed down:

Inside the White House, aides have largely moved on from the president’s Greenland fixation that took up so much oxygen in January. Asked about the supposed “framework” agreement Trump claimed to have secured in Davos to boost America’s military presence in Greenland, a senior White House official said only that they “hadn’t heard any updates on it.”

That quotation is from an article that was published on February 10, which was 19 days after Trump had walked back his threats on Greenland. I have to say, it doesn’t sound like there ever was a framework for a deal, or that anyone is working on one. Instead, it seems like Trump gave up, tried to save face with some BS about reaching a framework for a deal that didn’t actually exist, and moved on.

I thought that the European geopolitics Substack Station Zero had a pretty good take on why Trump backed down over Greenland, if you are looking for a longer read on this one.

Federal surges end in Minnesota and Maine

In what seem like complete climbdowns, the surge of federal agents in both Maine and Minnesota have ended.

The Trump administration is claiming that the surge in Minnesota ended as a result of increased cooperation between local, state and federal law enforcement. However, it is noticeable that the announcement that the end of “Operation Metro Surge” came a day before funding for the Department of Homeland Security was set to run out, as a result of an ongoing dispute over funding for immigration enforcement with congressional Democrats. It is also notable that Minnesota did not comply with any of the three demands that Attorney General Pam Bondi had sent to Gov. Tim Walz to end the federal surge. (While technically increased cooperation between federal, state and local law enforcement was one of the demands, it was listed under a broader “repeal sanctuary policies” demand. It is also unclear how much cooperation was lacking in the first place, and how much it has increased now, if at all.)

It seems more likely to me that the heavy federal presence in Minnesota was becoming politically untenable for the Trump administration, especially with the Department of Homeland Security shutdown coming, and so they backed down while making some sort of empty face-saving claim akin to what Trump did in regard to Greenland.

Freezing federal funding to 14 states

Back on January 13, Donald Trump proclaimed that he was going to cut off federal funding to 14 states and the District of Columbia on February 1 over their local immigration policies:

“Starting February 1, we are not making any payments to sanctuary cities or states having sanctuary cities because they do everything possible to protect criminals at the expense of American citizens,” Trump said during his address at the Detroit Economic Club.

The next week, the Trump administration ordered a review of federal funding to the 14 states plus D.C. that he threatened, with a deadline for agencies to submit their findings by January 28.

Then February 1 came and went, and … nothing happened.

Part of this may have been due to the timing of the murder of Alex Pretti, which took place on January 24. However, its more likely that it was all bluster to begin with, because the Trump administration has lost in court every single time it tried to cut off federal funding to states and cities it doesn’t like. This is why Democrats basically just yawned at the threat in the first place, like California District Attorney Rob Bonta on January 14:

“We will go to court within seconds, and we will win if he does this. It’s already proven unlawful. We’ve already won multiple times,” California Attorney General Rob Bonta told ABC News7 in San Francisco on Wednesday.

I have to say, it is refreshing to see powerful people yawning at Trump’s threats like this, instead of entering hyperdrive panic mode.

Failing to prosecute six Democrats over the “illegal orders” video

This one is different from the others listed here, as it is an example of the Trump administration failing when it actually did follow through on one of its threats, rather than backing down from one of its threats. However, it is worth celebrating, so I wanted to list it here anyway.

First, on Tuesday, the Department of Justice failed to secure felony indictments against six Democratic members of Congress “who took part in a video last year urging military personnel to refuse to carry out illegal orders.”

Failing to secure an indictment in a grand jury is a sign of an extremely weak case. Grand juries return indictments 99.99% of the time. If you can’t get a grand jury to indict someone, then you simply have no case.

After this, on Thursday, a federal judge appointed by George W. Bush blocked Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s attempt to punish Sen. Mark Kelly over the same “illegal orders” video. The judge had some choice words for Hegseth, too:

“This Court has all it needs to conclude that Defendants have trampled on Senator Kelly’s First Amendment freedoms and threatened the constitutional liberties of millions of military retirees,” the judge wrote.
Leon quoted singer-songwriter Bob Dylan to say, “You don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows.”
“To say the least, our retired veterans deserve more respect from their Government,” the judge added, “and our Constitution demands they receive it!”

Remember: this judge was appointed by George W. Bush.

Donald Trump governs by threats. He uses threats of primary challenges and ostracization to try and keep Republicans in line. He uses threats of tariffs and military action to try and get other countries to bend to his will. He uses threats of prosecution and funding freezes to try and force institutions to make concessions to him.

However, never lose sight of the many times that Donald Trump backs down from his threats or simply loses when he tries to follow through. Donald Trump’s power is a lot more constrained than he would like you to believe. The idea that he is all powerful is simply a con job. Do not fear him, and continue to dissent every day in democratic, peaceful and productive ways.

Thank you for reading Wolves and Sheep and Bowers News Media, and I hope that you have a wonderful holiday weekend.

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