The Weekly List

This week, amid mounting political losses and sagging polls, Trump struck out at a frequent and familiar target, the free press. In an unprecedented act, Trump banned three media outlets from the White House. When the networks banded against his clear violation of the First Amendment, Trump and his regime clumsily rolled out a version of state-television, Trump TV, another first, that immediately flopped. Timing for Trump’s abrupt stunt could not have been worse, with the United Nations General Assembly and an upcoming visit with China’s president on the schedule.
For the first time during the second regime, and with time running out ahead of midterms, Republican candidates sought to distance themselves from Trump and his policies en masse. Republicans in office spoke out publicly against his policies and corruption. This is hardly a profile in courage — it took Trump’s approval plummeting on every issue to make it happen. Once again, GOP members of Congress showed the country that self-preservation came first.
Trump’s ill-conceived Iran war has become a quagmire seven months later, with all sorts of unintended consequences playing out. This week he returned to his antics of threatening annihilation, but no one took his words seriously. Trump quietly capitulated on his Greenland takeover, while threatening Canada over its plans to join the European Union, sounding oddly like Russian President Vladimir Putin with his threats to Europeans on joining NATO. Meanwhile, Trump’s odd fawning over Russia and China continued, even as evidence continued to show those countries’ efforts to help Iran.
Overall, Trump is at a new low, for either regime, on all fronts, and is even, for the first time, losing his loyalist base in large numbers. Ensconced in his bubble, and surrounded by enablers, he continued to be obsessed with his legacy, and totally disconnected from the American people and their priorities.

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.