The Weekly List

There continues to be a notable shift this week of Trump losing his grip on power. First and foremost, the American people are unhappy with the economy, the cost of living, and increasingly even with his handling of immigration. They are showing their displeasure at the polls, in the polls, and speaking to their representatives. For the first time in either Trump regime, we see growing dissatisfaction with Trump from within his base, and a movement away from identifying as “MAGA” to “Traditional Republican.”Increasingly, Republicans are standing up to Trump. Not only in the House of Representatives, where his proxy and junior assistant, Speaker Mike Johnson, is losing control, but also at the state level. In Indiana, where Trump and his proxies tried bullying to get redistricting, it backfired, turning state Republicans against them. Trump threw in the towel on installing loyalists to U.S. attorney positions, as another resigned.Even members of Trump’s regime are beginning to see pushback from their base. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin saw blowback from MAHA Moms over his siding with the chemical industry lobby. Fox News started covering the alarming outbreak of measles under Health and Human Services Sec. Robert Kennedy Jr., in which they noted cases had increased by 14,608% since 2020! FBI Director Kash Patel continued to try to jump ahead of tragedies to take credit on social media, raising a chorus to criticize his incompetence.The week was already feeling heavy with sadness, after yet another mass shooting at a school in America, this time at Brown University, followed by an anti-Semitic inspired mass shooting in Australia. Trump again showed his inability to rise to the occasion, show empathy, or lead. In what was perhaps a defining moment of his second regime, after the murder of Rob and Michele Reiner by their son who struggled with addiction, Trump’s response on social media of blaming Reiner for having “Trump Derangement Syndrome” led to widespread blowback from Republican and conservative corners, many of which had previously been too fearful to speak out publicly against him. Conservative WSJ columnist Peggy Noonan wrote “Trump May Be Losing His Touch,” noting, “he’s surrounded by mood shifts, challenges and ominous signs.”

This week Trump struck back at media outlets and others who continue to raise questions and concerns about his health and age, likening it to sedition and treason. Trump continued to advance his own version of reality, calling affordability a “Democrat hoax” and “con job,” as he at long last held an event in a U.S. city, which was meant to address affordability concerns, a top issue in the country, but did not. More off-year elections this week showed a 10+ point slide away from Trump’s 2024 performance, amid continued malaise over the economy, and Trump’s handling of other key issues.Defense Department Sec. Pete Hegseth continued to be at the center of the storm, as a Pentagon inspector general report found he had endangered U.S. troops with his use of the Signal app. A top story this week continued to be the legality of a second strike of an alleged drug vessel in the Caribbean, as Trump and Hegseth bobbed and weaved on releasing video and other requested information. Health and Human Services Sec. Robert Kennedy Jr. also continued his anti-vax campaign, with his handpicked immunization committee issuing troubling new guidelines.The Trump regime issued a shocking National Strategy document this week, completely changing the focus on global threats away from countries formerly perceived to be U.S. enemies, to instead attacking European allies and Ukraine. Trump, desperate for recognition on his foreign policy, was awarded with an odd inaugural peace prize from FIFA, a soccer league, at the Kennedy Center. Trump later mused about renaming that center for himself, after this week rebranding the U.S. Institute for Peace with his name.Overall, Trump’s behavior is increasingly inconsistent, even by his own past standards, and odd. He is increasingly unfiltered, both in being openly racist and personally insulting two more female journalists this week, for a total of six in recent weeks. The issue of age and the pushback from Republicans has clearly taken him off track, and he seems this week to be spinning and raging, without focus.

For what should have been a quiet holiday week, Week 56 was packed with bombshell news, and escalating chaos and rhetoric from the Trump regime. The week started with Trump grasping on to the adage “never let a crisis go to waste,” when he used a Thanksgiving Eve shooting by an Afghan national of two National Guard troops as a prelude to make the most significant changes to his immigration policy during the second regime.Notable this week was Trump’s increasingly unhinged rhetoric, and his late night social media posting storms, including one late night marathon of nearly 150 posts over a two hour span! This type of maniacal behavior was more typical during his first regime, often at times when he felt under attack or out of control; notably, this was the first week of his acting this way during the second regime.Trump has a lot to be upset about: Republicans are at long last pushing back (because of election results, NOT because they finally found a moral compass), and big news stories hit this week, including questionable intent by Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner in their negotiations to end the Russia-Ukraine war, and a second strike on an alleged drug vessel that may amount to a war crime. Trump’s so-called war on drug cartels took an ironic twist this week when he pardoned Juan Orlando Hernández, the former president of Honduras, who was found guilty of flooding the U.S. with cocaine, for which he was sentenced to 45 years in prison. Trump also weighed in on the close election in Honduras, and baselessly alleged fraud.Finally, since the NYT reporting last week on signs of Trump’s fatigue and aging, there has been a renewed focus by our media on Trump’s health, which up until now had been largely absent, unlike their seeming obsession with former president Joseph Biden’s age and cognitive health. This is another plot line that Trump hates, because it diminishes his strongman status. However, you will note what we were not talking about this week: the Epstein files.

This week started with an enraged Trump signing into law the release of the Epstein files, but that story quickly faded to other headlines. Trump’s longtime ally, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, became the first MAGA true believer, in either regime, to resign. Reporting indicates other House Republican lawmakers may not be far behind, claiming mistreatment by Trump, his regime, and Speaker Mike Johnson. This week Trump seized control of the GOP midterm election strategy, sensing at last that the country is turning against him, and he cannot simply message away very real concerns about affordability.Trump’s retribution campaign hit some embarrassing speed bumps this week, with cases against James Comey and Letitia James being dismissed, and six Democratic lawmakers, whose video evoked his ire, stood firm. Republicans, too, are increasingly pushing back against Trump, a shift that seems to frustrate and infuriate him. Trump tried, successfully, to change the subject from the Epstein files with a push for a peace plan between Russia and Ukraine, but as Republican senators spoke out against what amounted to a Russian wish-list, his regime looked like the keystone cops, and his plan sputtered.Notable this week is reporting by the NYT on Trump’s signs of fatigue. I wrote about his Friday afternoon meeting with incoming New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani, where a seated passive and pacifist Trump seemed to have run out of gas (read here). Trump has suffered a series of setbacks in recent weeks, some public, some being swept under the rug, like the disbanding of DOGE, and he is desperate for a win.

Two weeks after Democrats decidedly won the election, this week we see a shift: the first instance of Republicans pushing back against Trump during his second regime. The Epstein files started as a drip, drip, with Trump and his senior regime officials trying to intimidate four House Republicans into not signing a discharge petition. But once the horse was out of the barn, by the week’s end, the House voted 427–1 to release the files, and hours later the Senate did the same under unanimous consent.The swing was a remarkable shift for Republicans, who up until now had blindly abdicated their role, and had been unshakably obedient to Trump. Not to do the right thing per se, but sensing the American people turning on them ahead of midterms, with a Marist poll showing voters favoring Democrats by 14 points, the highest level in eight years. Trump’s approval continued to hit new lows with several pollsters, as did his handling of major issues, including affordability, which he haplessly continued to assert this week is really not an issue. Just 20% approve of his handling of the Epstein files.The regime continued its quiet work of dismantling federal agencies from within, and carrying out Trump’s orders. Yet another head of FEMA resigned this week, and there continues to be alarming exits and firings from the Justice Department and Fannie Mae, both at the center of Trump’s retribution campaign. In other federal agencies like DHS, agents are being reassigned to help on immigration, as Trump abandoned largely unsuccessful efforts this week in Chicago and Portland.Notably in closing are Trump’s blatant conflicts of interest, and how easily he is escaping accountability. Lest we forget how many inspectors general he has already fired! This week Trump’s pardon of Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao came back into focus. As did his family’s significant business dealings with Saudi Arabia, as Trump hosted crown prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud in an extraordinary state visit.