Tensions Emerge Around Federal Power, Policing, and Constitutional Limits in Early 2026

Surge in Concerns About Policing and Federal Law Enforcement

Perscient's semantic signature tracking the density of language arguing that American policing has become abusive recorded its largest single-month increase in our dataset, rising by 90 points to reach 30, now stronger than the historical average. This shift reflects a month dominated by fatal encounters between federal agents and civilians in Minneapolis, sparking nationwide protests and reigniting debates about police accountability.

The catalyst came in late January when federal agents fatally shot Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old ICU nurse at the Minneapolis Veterans Health Care System who was filming officers on his phone during a protest. According to notices sent to Congress, the shooting occurred after agents claimed that Pretti resisted arrest, with one agent yelling "He's got a gun!" multiple times before two others discharged their weapons. Videos widely shared online show approximately ten shots fired as onlookers screamed, with Pretti visible holding up only a phone to document federal agents' movements through a popular food and arts district.

The Pretti shooting followed the earlier killing of Renee Good by ICE agents, prompting the ACLU to file a class-action lawsuit describing the administration's immigration enforcement as a mass "racial profiling campaign" resulting in what they characterized as extreme violence against Minnesotans of color. The lawsuit alleges that people targeted by ICE have been handcuffed, tackled, and beaten by federal agents. A former FBI special agent who now studies policing wrote that these cases illustrate how some federal agents are engaging with the public in ways that undermine established principles of policing and constitutional law.

Families of Black people previously killed by police reported painful déjà vu as authorities moved quickly to disparage the victims, only to be contradicted as more evidence emerged. One family member whose nephew was killed by police noted hearing the same justifications: officers claiming that their lives were in danger, that they feared for their safety, that the shootings were justified.

The unrest prompted "ICE Out Everywhere" protests across the country, with observers and documentation networks growing rapidly in response to the killings. One Minneapolis resident explained that because ordinary people documented the actions of ICE, they were able to show the truth of what happened. The dean of Columbia Journalism School observed that some of the organizing was built on foundations from the George Floyd movement.

Perscient's semantic signature tracking the density of language defending police as dedicated public servants also rose by 14 points this month, suggesting a polarized discourse where both criticism and defense of law enforcement are intensifying simultaneously. The Justice Department has opened a civil rights investigation into the Pretti shooting, while President Trump has ordered federal agents to stay away from protests in Democrat-run cities unless specifically requested.

Elevated Concerns About Presidential Power Amid Constitutional Flexibility Debates

Perscient's semantic signature tracking the density of language arguing that presidential power has grown excessive maintains the highest current value in our dataset at 157, indicating that such language remains more than 150% above the long-term mean. Though this signature declined by 8 points from last month, it remains substantially elevated.

As of January 29, 2026, President Trump had signed 234 executive orders, 57 memoranda, and 123 proclamations in his second term. In his first 100 days alone, he signed 143 executive orders, averaging more than one per day and surpassing Franklin D. Roosevelt's 1933 record of 99 orders in a first 100 days. Social media users have noted the volume, with one pointing out that among nearly 300 executive actions, none directly addressed the cost pressures facing American families.

Several of these orders have faced legal challenges, with courts blocking provisions deemed to violate federal laws, regulations, or the Constitution. A federal judge recently blocked citizenship provisions in a wide-ranging election executive order, ruling that the Constitution's separation of powers does not allow the President to impose unilateral changes to federal election procedures. The Supreme Court has scheduled oral arguments for April 1 on the challenge to Trump's efforts to end birthright citizenship.

Perscient's semantic signature tracking the density of language arguing that authorities should not let the Constitution get in the way of doing the right thing remains at 29, stronger than average though declining by 5 points this month. Meanwhile, the signature tracking language praising the effectiveness of checks and balances in the US government remains weaker than average at negative 21, rising only slightly by 1 point.

Legal scholars have framed the current moment as both a political and civic crisis, one that has much to do with the Constitution and its limitations in resolving such tensions independently. The combination of elevated "imperial presidency" language, above-average "constitutional flexibility" language, and depressed "separation of powers" language suggests that media narratives reflect sustained concerns about executive overreach alongside weakened institutional checks.

Critics on social media have characterized the early executive orders as "surgically aimed at neutralizing judicial, legal and civil checks against corruption," while supporters have called for Congress to codify the president's executive actions.

Cancel Culture Discourse Fades into the Background

The debates over federal power and policing have coincided with a notable retreat in another long-running media narrative about American cultural norms: Perscient's semantic signature tracking the density of language arguing that cancel culture is ruining lives in America declined by 90 points in one month, the largest single-month decline in our dataset, moving from 24 to negative 67 and now registering substantially weaker than average.

The decline may reflect several factors: a shift in media attention toward more immediate concerns about law enforcement and federal power, a perception that "cancellation" is now practiced across the political spectrum, or exhaustion with the framing itself.

The Kennedy Center controversy illustrates how the cancel culture debate has evolved. President Trump announced that the center would close for a two-year reconstruction after waves of cancellations from performers objecting to the president's efforts to reshape the venue. Artists including Lin-Manuel Miranda and Yo-Yo Ma withdrew from scheduled performances, the Washington National Opera relocated its season, and ticket sales declined as audiences turned away. The closure, set for July 4, 2026, follows months of boycotts by performers opposed to transforming the center into what critics described as a platform for conservative viewpoints.

A Washington Post opinion video from January asked directly: "Has the right started adopting parts of cancel culture that it previously criticized?" Social media commentary reflects this tension, with some users arguing that the right has "become everything right wing folk used to complain about the left for," while others contend that they are simply playing by rules the left established.

Stanford scholar Adrian Daub has argued that cancel culture is improperly framed, noting that many people said to have been "canceled," such as comedian Louis C.K., continue to find work for new audiences. Others have drawn distinctions between "cancel culture" and "consequence culture," arguing that the former casts a shadow on free speech by scaring people into silence even when no rules have been broken, while the latter addresses actions that cross into real harm.

Public intellectual Steven Pinker observed in a recent interview that cancel culture "is not restricted to the left, to wokeism," pointing to what he described as an eruption of cancel culture from the populist right, "where the same things that were happening in woke culture" now appear on the other side of the political divide. The sharp decline in our signature tracking this discourse may reflect not the end of such factors, but rather their normalization across partisan lines, rendering the specific framing less distinctive as a media narrative.

Archived Pulse

January 2026

• Imperial Authority Language Reaches Highest Levels in Tracking History
• Constitutional System Faces Mixed Narrative Environment
• Multiple Narratives About Role of Police in Retreat

December 2025

• Executive Authority Narratives Drift Higher as Judicial Pushback Intensifies
• Due Process Narratives Rebound as Cancel Culture Discourse Holds Steady
• Praise for Founding Documents Wavers

November 2025

• Executive Authority Narratives Reach Near-Historic Levels Amid Ongoing Debate
• Courts Face Accusations of Overreach as Judicial Power Debates Intensify
• Constitutional Principles Under Pressure as Separation of Powers Debates Continue

Pulse is your AI analyst built on Perscient technology, summarizing the major changes and evolving narratives across our Storyboard signatures, and synthesizing that analysis with illustrative news articles and high-impact social media posts.