The Weekly List

• Week 53 - Trump Seeks to Rewrite the Past, While Being Completely Out of Touch with the Present

  This week’s list has multiple examples of Trump’s continued efforts to rewrite the history of his first regime, and to seek retribution for lawsuits and other actions against him after. Much of his focus during his second regime has been towards establishing a new version of the historical record of these times, recasting himself as a victim and a hero, and obliterating the truth. He has been aided in this endeavor by a compliant Republican Party, which has yet to push back on his not normal, and often lawless, actions.The election results and their aftermath have revealed how out of touch Trump is with the state of the American people during his second regime. I have posited that this is a result of his surrounding himself solely with loyal sycophants, who likely are fearful of sharing actual reality, and instead practice flattery. Trump continued to showcase his White House renovations this week with an interview on Fox News, while at the same time denying SNAP food payments to low-income Americans, and even going so far as an emergency appeal to the Supreme Court, two times, to not have to make payments which were due on November 1.Eight Senate Democrats voted with Republicans to end the government shutdown on Monday, and Trump declared victory as the measure headed back to the House of Representatives, which convened for the first time in seven weeks. A Democrat who won a special election in Arizona was at long last sworn in, and could be the deciding vote on measures to bring attention to the Epstein files.

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• Week 52 - Trump Seems to Have Lost Touch with the American People and Reality, as a Blue Wave Hits on Election Day

  This week, on Election Day 2025, Democrats swept virtually every competitive election across the country, in a thorough rebuke of Trump and his policies. In two key governor races in New Jersey and Virginia, where candidates won by 13 and 15 points, every single county and demographic shifted towards Democrats. The election came as the country entered the longest government shutdown in U.S. history, which Americans mostly blamed on Trump and the Republicans.Trump continues to be remarkably tone deaf to the plight of most Americans during his second regime. As funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program ran out, leaving tens of millions of low income Americans at risk of going hungry, Trump posted images of his ostentatious renovation of the Lincoln Bathroom, and hosted a Great Gatsby themed Halloween party at Mar-a-Lago. I wrote more about it here. By many other measures, the American people are discontented and suffering, but Trump seems completely removed from the reality of what is happening to real people, perhaps a byproduct of his second regime being an echo chamber of sycophants.Also this week, we saw more examples of the media losing access to the regime, and media outlets losing staffers or being shuttered. Trump and his agency heads also continued their targeted firings of perceived enemies or anyone who might question or in any way hinder Trump’s agenda and drive for retaliation. We saw the first slight pushback from Senate Republicans, symbolically voting to undo Trump’s tariffs, and the question now really is: will Republicans, after the Election Day drubbing, stop blindly following Trump’s every wish and whim? Mind you, the House of Representatives was last in session on September 19, although unlike furloughed federal workers, they continue to get paid.

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• Week 51 - Trump’s ‘Let Them Eat Cake!’ Moment

  This is the week when Trump’s ‘Let them eat cake’ era truly came to the forefront. Juxtapose Trump’s demolition of the White House East Wing to construct a $300 million ostentatious ballroom with cutting off food stamps for 42 million of America’s neediest, who count on government assistance to put food on the table! Add to that hundreds of thousands of U.S. government and private sector workers either losing their jobs, or their income — while Trump regales in the former, and tries to obscure the latter.All the while, Trump and his family continue to use the office of the presidency for their own financial gain. In this second regime, Trump makes little effort to conceal the ‘pay to play’ nature of his presidency. Technology, cryptocurrency, and other corporations push money his way for favors, like tariff relief or merger approval, or even pardons or government lawsuits being quietly dismissed. Countries have learned to do the same, flattering Trump like a dictator to get their way.As the government shutdown entered its fourth week, the second longest in history next to the shutdown in the first Trump regime, Congress has completely abdicated its power to Trump. The House of Representatives has not even been in session since September 19! One Republican senator described it as, “The Congress is adrift. It’s like we have given up.” Trump continues to order military strikes in Central and South America, and insert himself into other countries’ politics.

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• Week 50 - A Week of Dangerous, Outrageous, Unprecedented Acts of Vengeance and Power Grabs

  This week Trump ordered the demolition of the White House East Wing, which seems an apt metaphor for the state of our democracy. He has assumed unbridled and unprecedented power, and is acting on his worst impulses, while sycophants throw millions his way in an attempt to curry favor.Trump is very publicly pursuing his enemies using the apparatus of federal agencies, at which he has installed loyalists into leadership roles to carry out his every whim and fancy. Who could have imagined in one week another indictment, classifying those who speak out against him as terrorists, siccing the IRS on perceived enemies, and seeking $230 million from taxpayers for perceived slights? And that’s just the tips of the waves in a very disturbing week.Reading through the broken norms this week, I am struck by how many would have been previously unthinkable, even during the first regime. The list of atrocities is startling! I encourage you all to read through this long and disturbing list. Information is still power. It is imperative that we keep informed of what is happening, so we will find our way back to normal.

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• Week 49 - Trump Goes to War on Free Speech, Invents Crises at Home, and Drains Federal Agencies in Dangerous Ways

  This week had the sharp scent of authoritarianism, as Trump and members of his regime continued to put forth actions to block free speech. Ironically, this comes after a centerpiece of the right’s complaints in the 2024 election, and prior, was being censored, and Trump’s myriad of lawsuits over the same. Wide-ranging examples of restricting free speech this week included castigating a singer for his lyrics; firings and revoking visas over comments critical of Charlie Kirk; forcing a social media company to remove content; and attempting to restrict media access to the Pentagon.The paradox noted this week by an NYT columnist was that while Trump promoted peace abroad, he was siccing the U.S. military on its citizens in Democratic-run cities. Portland poked fun at Trump’s invented crisis there, dressing up in costumes to protest the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement presence. Things took a turn for the worse in Chicago, as ICE agents used tear gas on residents, including police officers and onlookers.The mood of the country remained largely somber, and increasingly divided, not only by party and ideology, but also in the broadening gap between those who have access and are benefiting from Trump’s economic actions, versus those who have seen their financial well-being negatively impacted. Trump and White House budget director Russell Vought seized on the continuing government shutdown to devastate agencies, cutting jobs in what Trump called “Democrat-oriented” positions, including the Department of Education, Health and Human Services, and the Environmental Protection Agency. The implications of the regime’s continuing federal employee cuts are already being felt well beyond blue states and cities.

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