The Weekly List

This was a crazy week of alarming broken norms. There are so many important, concurrent themes that deserve attention as we pass 50 days until the midterm elections mark, it’s breathtaking! Please take the time to read this list in its entirety.
Trump’s Iran war has spun out of control, and the impacts of record fuel prices are not only hitting U.S. consumers and businesses, but economies worldwide. This week we learned that not only has the war cost U.S. taxpayers tens of billions, it has also left our country exposed amid depleted munitions. Reporting also revealed that on this, and so many other issues, Trump and his regime are simply lying to the American people.
This week there were more eye popping stories about Trump’s, his regime’s, and his family’s corruption, and possible quid pro quos with foreign governments. Oh, what we have normalized! Our foreign ‘policy’ under Trump has proven to be haphazard, erratic, and dangerous. Self-enrichment and self-aggrandizement continue to occupy much of Trump’s attention, with this week’s focus on a battle over the Kennedy Center.
Polling shows the American people have had it! Trump has tainted not only himself, but his political party, which has done nothing to curb his worst impulses. Trump’s solution was a Republican midterm convention, which mostly featured him, and received limited viewership and interest. It’s as if the public is tuned out and waiting him out until the midterms. He seems to sense the displeasure, and is doing all he can to interfere with midterms.

This week, as we passed Labor Day and head into the final stretch before midterms, Trump and his regime were frantically trying to find ways to impact voting. The regime filed two emergency applications with the Supreme Court, and ginned up involvement of federal agencies, including continual attempts to prove Trump’s baseless claims of widespread voter fraud, and efforts to have a presence at polling places on Election Day.
Despite Trump and Vice President JD Vance claiming that the U.S. was not really at war with Iran, escalating attacks and the ensuing spike in oil, gas, and diesel prices proved otherwise. Trump can’t lie his way out of what consumers are paying at the gas pump! Yet, reporting made clear that Trump and Defense Department Sec. Pete Hegseth have no clear strategy to extricate the U.S. from a war we are losing, and are instead actively working to silence dissent.
This week, there continues to be widespread dissatisfaction among the American people with Trump’s priorities, which include his legacy projects and enriching himself and his circle, their corruption, the economy, the cost of living, and Trump’s Iran war. Trump spent Labor Day weekend sending more than 100 Truth Social posts, many directed at our longtime allies, while aggrandizing himself, raising questions about his judgment and mental health.

This week Trump continued his inexplicable targeting of what were formerly some of the strongest U.S. allies, while coddling and cozying up to former adversaries. In what the WSJ Editorial Board dubbed “the dumbest trade war,” Trump escalated tensions with Canada, including threats to rename Lake Ontario to Lake America, while Vice President JD Vance mused that “Canada is a state.” Unlike during his first regime and earlier in his second, now countries are pushing back against his antics rather than being bullied into submission.
Speaking of pushing back, the Iran war, now in its sixth month, is at a standstill. Americans’ approval of the war hit a low point of 31%, as support even from Trump’s Republican base faltered. Experts questioned the efficacy of Trump’s new tactic of imposing an “economic D-Day” on Iran, which had previously faced decades of sanctions to little avail, other than pushing Iran to sign the JCPOA, which Trump exited. Trump and Defense Department Sec. Pete Hegseth’s strategy back home continued to be to silence dissent.
Meanwhile, Trump kept his focus this week on his pet projects and targeting his perceived enemies. Trump enjoyed two Supreme Court wins on his ballroom and mail-in voting, with midterms approaching. In a sign that Trump knows what is coming with midterms, he sent Jared Kushner to meet with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, likely to become the House Speaker after midterms.

In a relatively quiet summer week, with Congress out of session, Trump pushed forward on his personal agenda, while the issues impacting most Americans got left by the wayside.
There was nary a focus on the issues impacting Americans like affordability, healthcare, and rising rates. Instead, Trump and his regime pushed full steam ahead on his D.C. pet projects, and pursuing his petty grievances and political adversaries. Trump continued to lose the support of the American people, with his approval hitting new lows, while 7 in 10 Americans said his business dealings were influencing his decisions as president. In a sign of his waning influence within his own party, Trump-endorsed candidates lost three primaries this week, bringing the total this season to 10, the highest number since 2022.
Trump’s Iran war came to a standstill, with no end in sight, and seemingly no strategy going forward. Reports of poor living conditions and sailors’ mental health issues aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln and other ships made headlines, while Trump and his Pentagon denied and deflected. Meanwhile, Trump saved much of his ire for longtime U.S. allies, like South Korea and Canada, with his continued erratic and nonsensical foreign policy.

This week, as Trump’s failures mounted and his polling continued to fall, he tried a new tactic ahead of midterms: blame the Republicans. In an interview, he bragged that he had “already won” his race, and said of the American people’s discontent, “They’re angry at Republicans, but they’re not angry at me.” The shift seemed to be a tacit acknowledgment of what lies ahead on November 3, and Trump preemptively looking to shift the blame.
Once again this week, many of the broken norms, and much of Trump’s continued focus, is on his Washington D.C. vanity projects. Along with these projects, Trump spends his time searching for ways to impact the midterms, targeting his perceived enemies and pursuing his petty grievances. One time this week reporting indicated that a light bulb went off, and Trump wanted to offer an economic favor to the American people to gain support for Republicans on Election Day. Then we learn his ‘bold’ idea is cutting the capital gains tax rate, further illuminating how out of touch Trump has become, ensconced in his cocoon of yes-people.
Trump’s Iran war is a complete disaster. He and regime senior officials are desperately searching for an off ramp, but finding none. Trump looked incredibly weak as Iran threatened to cut off negotiations until he left office, leaving him open to comparisons to former president Jimmy Carter, whom he often cites as a complete failure. As well, a story about him being sneaked off of Air Force One in a catering cart, while leaving journalists and regime officials on a decoy plane out of Turkey, further chiseled away from his strongman image.