Week 105 — The Return

This week, after initially taking a conciliatory tone toward working with Democrats in Congress in his final two years, Trump completely changed course two days later, elevating hard-liner Stephen Miller to become his chief of staff, and threatening Democrats. Trump also switched his position on major issues like immigration amnesty and fairness of election results, leaving even his own allies scrambling and confused. Add to this Trump’s Truth Social post on Saturday announcing Dana White, head of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, would become his next White House press secretary. Two days later, when the two appeared together, impromptu, in the White House briefing room, Trump sought to minimize the announcement as a mere joke.

Taken together, one has to question Trump’s cognitive health. While one reporter speculated that these zigzags could be Trump processing, even by his standards, his actions this week were unusually erratic and outlandish. The Times did report in Week 104 that his speech patterns at rallies could possibly be indicative of cognitive decline, but aside from that our media failed to follow up on this story, in vast contrast to their obsessive coverage of former president Joseph Biden.

The Department of Justice saw major departures this week to its already shrunken ranks, including by leaders who had pursued Trump’s personal grievances. Attorney General Todd Blanche took a hardline stance of protecting Trump and his regime from Congressional inquiries. Defense Department Sec. Pete Hegseth held his first press conference in 60 days, despite the ongoing Iran war, that seemed tailored to please a party of one, while threats of impeaching him got underway.

Finally, as the worm turned with the election result, Trump donors including billionaires, and technology, crypto, and A.I. leaders were left scrambling to reorient their approach. Democrats promised hearings and accountability for the pay-to-plays and quid-pro-quos that had become all too normalized in Trump’s first two years. Bombshell stories on Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang’s ties to an alleged Chinese spy, and its impact on the Trump regime’s A.I. chip policies and relationship with China, came into the spotlight.

1. On Wednesday, after his party’s resounding election defeat, Trump held an impromptu appearance with reporters at the White House at the site of his ballroom construction, telling reporters the ballroom will “be the most beautiful ballroom, I think, anywhere in the world.”
2. Trump claimed of the White House renovations, he spent “very little time” on them, adding, “For me, it’s relaxing.” He also defended the Iran war, saying, “The Iran thing, we had to do” it. Trump made no mention of the election results.
3. A Reuters analysis found that more than 20% of self-described MAGA loyalists raised doubts about the movement’s leadership and direction. Half remained supportive of the movement, but no longer back Trump as its leader after the election rout.
4. On Thursday, WSJ reported the White House Office of Public Liaison warned 3,000 conservative groups in a memo that the office was “monitoring” their statements, press releases, and media engagements, as the regime worked to prevent Trump’s coalition from splintering.
5. On Thursday, Harmeet Dhillon resigned from her role leading the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division, after disagreements with department leaders, and disagreements over legal strategy in the midterms.
6. On Friday, two more senior DOJ officials resigned, including U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida Jason Reding Quiñones, who had pursued Trump’s enemies, and John Eisenberg, who was in charge of the DOJ’s national security division.
7. Bloomberg reported that AG Blanche has pushed Eisenberg out over frustration with Eisenberg’s efforts to block Trump’s demands to compel grand jury testimony from reporters about their sources for stories critical of Trump, which was a highly unusual tactic.
8. NYT reported that at a sealed hearing on October 9, DOJ prosecutor Dustin Farahnak told the judge that the department had considered naming the Times as a co-conspirator with James Comey, whom the regime accused of leaking sensitive national security information.
9. On Monday, the acting U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Washington wrote in a letter that his office no longer had the manpower to respond to every ICE habeas corpus case, so his office would let judges rule on some cases without government opposition.
10. On Monday, U.S. Assistant AG Brett Shumate, ​head of the DOJ’s Civil Division, resigned. Shumate, who also served in the first Trump regime, was the fourth major resignation. No reason was given. His division had lost a significant number of attorneys since Trump took office.
11. NYT reported U.S. attorney in D.C. Jeanine Pirro was overseeing a criminal investigation of who leaked the 2022 Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade. Prosecutors sent grand jury subpoenas for testimony in recent weeks. It was uncertain what charges could be brought.
12. On Saturday, NYT reported the DOJ planned to intervene in a 2021 high-profile Texas lawsuit against Planned Parenthood, which newly elected Democrats were expected to drop. The lawsuit sought to recover $1.8 billion in Medicaid reimbursement, that could result in PP’s closure.
13. On Thursday, Bloomberg reported Secretary of State Marco Rubio was considering leaving the Trump regime. Rubio also served as National Security Adviser to Trump. White House officials asked Rubio to stay, and Rubio later denied the rumors.
14. On Thursday, FT reported after Trump’s controversial plan to import diesel from Russia to lower prices ahead of midterms, two Russian tankers heading to the U.S. had abruptly changed course. Inventories in the U.S. fell to a two decade low, threatening to squeeze the economy.
15. On Thursday, Trump posted about the Alaska Senate race, claiming the votes for Gerald Heikes and Dan J. Sullivan, in third and fourth place, “should be immediately given to the REAL Dan Sullivan,” claiming, “He easily wins.”
16. On Thursday, Trump signed a proclamation making the Oval Office and Cabinet Room into a national monument, noting, “It will not be allowed to be touched by anybody, destroyed, ripped down by stupid people, in order to build something in a slightly different shape.”
17. On Thursday, a federal judge issued a temporary restraining order halting the Trump regime from breaking ground on Trump’s triumphal arch for 14 days, hours after the National Capital Planning Commission, stacked with Trump appointees, gave final approval in an 8–4 vote.
18. On Tuesday, nine members of the Kennedy family sued to block Trump’s triumphal arch, saying the 250-foot arch would “cast shadows over and damage historically significant sightline” to John F. Kennedy’s grave site and other graves in Arlington National Cemetery.
19. On Saturday, U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes appointed Jessie Liu, the former U.S. attorney for D.C. during Trump’s first regime, to serve as special master and probe whether DOJ or Interior Department lawyers committed ethical violations in the East Potomac Golf Links case.
20. Some far-right groups sought to distance themselves from venture capitalists and data centers, despite Trump denigrating data center protestors as wanting to be “backwards and poor.” Since the election, A.I. companies had started to work to rebrand data centers.
21. On Friday, Susie Wiles resigned as Trump’s chief of staff, and was replaced by his deputy chief, fiery hardliner Stephen Miller, signaling Trump’s intent to aggressively double-down on his agenda, despite his initially conciliatory tone of working with Democrats in Congress.
22. NYT reported earlier Friday that Trump had blamed Wiles, in front of others, for the Republicans’ generational defeat. Wiles, who was known to rein in some of Trump’s worst impulses, was the fifth female cabinet official to leave the regime, all of whom were replaced by white men.
23. WAPO reported officials in farm and agricultural groups expressed outrage with Miller’s promotion, after his hard-line deportation agenda caused them to lose masses of workers, and caused others to fear coming to work. One official commented Trump “doesn’t live on this planet.”
24. After the announcement, Rep. Robert Garcia, the incoming chair of the House Oversight Committee posted on X that Miller should “lawyer up.” Blanche responded, “The Chief of Staff already has a lawyer. The Attorney General of the United States and the Department of Justice.”
25. On Saturday, Trump said on Truth Social that he was ordering the DOJ to investigate Democrats, posting that Democrats were “going around threatening a lot of people,” including Blanche, calling it extortion, “Weaponization,” and a “criminal act.”
26. On Saturday, Trump announced on Truth Social that he had offered the job of White House press secretary to his friend and UFC boss Dana White, whom he called “a violent Fighter and Warrior,” adding he “will be a Press Secretary like none other.”
27. Trump also asked White to bring as assistants, “even though some are not from our Country,” Islam Makhachev, Khabib Nurmagomedov, Justin Gaethje, Daniel Cormier, Amanda Nunes, and Kayla Harris, adding, “We need these people to defend us against the Lunatic Left.”
28. White, who was in London on Saturday for a boxing fight, told reporters that he would meet with Trump on Monday. Asked how he would balance the job with his current position, White said, “Yeah, I got a lot of jobs already.”
29. On Saturday, Trump amplified several posts on Truth Social that questioned the integrity of the midterm elections, days after telling reporters that he was “absolutely willing” to accept the results of the election. There was no evidence of widespread fraud.
30. Trump also again baselessly insisted that Alaska Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan had won the election, “if you just add 8,400 votes” that the two other candidates on the ballot received. The Democratic candidate remained ahead with 74% of ballots counted.
31. FT reported that Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang had a romantic relationship with Alice Huang, whom U.S. intelligence believed was recruited as a spy by China, and helped Chinese companies get access to U.S. AI chips. Trump was informed shortly before leaving for the summit in Beijing.
32. NYT reported that Rubio had warned top Trump regime officials last spring in a highly classified memo that J. Huang was in a close relationship with a Chinese spy. J. Huang was initially excluded from Trump’s delegation to China, but joined on Air Force One en route.
33. National security officials expressed concern about J. Huang repeatedly lobbying Trump in person to allow Nvidia to export older chips to China. Democrats said they planned to investigate ties between the Trump regime with “Chinese spies and A.I. billionaires.”
34. Trump defended J. Huang, telling reporters on Sunday, “He’s done an amazing job for our country,” calling him an “honorable guy,” and adding, “I haven’t heard that he’s done anything wrong. He dealt with somebody but, you know, so does everybody else.”
35. On Tuesday, Bloomberg reported that Nvidia’s general counsel had intervened in a U.S. probe of A. Huang, calling Commerce Under Secretary Jeffrey Kessler in late summer 2025 to ask if the Trump regime played a role in her detention in Singapore.
36. Propublica reported 380 officials in the Trump regime or their spouses had stock holdings or other financial connections to Nvidia.
37. FT reported that tech billionaires faced a backlash after the election. In addition to their donations to Trump for his projects and his super PAC, billionaires donated more than $600 million to Republican campaign groups. Many Democrats ran on a platform against data centers.
38. FT reported that the crypto industry was bracing for probes by Democrats over ties to the Trump regime and Trump’s family. While crypto companies had ignored repeated inquiries from Democrats as ranking members, with Democrats in charge, they will face hearings.
39. Crypto players, including Coinbase, Ripple, and Andreessen Horowitz donated more than $200 million to Republican candidates who largely lost. Tether, which had ties to Commerce Sec. Howard Lutnick and Cantor Fitzgerald, also donated to candidates through a separate PAC.
40. NYT reported that four of the eight appointees to Health and Human Services Sec. Robert Kennedy Jr.’s U.S. Preventive Services Task Force were given waivers that allowed them keep stocks in companies that make drugs and other products impacted by the group’s decisions.
41. On Friday, the CDC confirmed 5,182 measles infections in the U.S. so far in 2026, the highest since 1991. The CDC recognized four deaths from measles, although state health officials had confirmed eight deaths in 2026. The U.S. was labeled a measles-eliminated country in 2000.
42. On Sunday, former top Kennedy aide Calley Means told “Face the Nation” that Wiles had prioritized political donations from sugar companies over public health, and that “a lot of this happened without Trump’s full knowledge,” and aides treated Trump “like a baby.”
43. On Sunday, in an interview on Fox News, Republican Sen. Ron Johnson addressed what Means had said on a podcast about the Trump regime, including “the corruption that Calley Means lays out in gory detail in government, I’m sad to say within the Trump administration.”
44. CBS News reported that Ballard Partners, Wiles’ former lobbying firm, made $186 million during the first two years of the second Trump regime. In the first year, Ballard made $88 million, the most any firm had reported since the Lobbying Disclosure Act took effect in 1996.
45. WSJ reported that Kaz Resources, a tungsten miner that Donald Jr. and Eric held a stake in, was planning to go public in 2027 in a $2 billion deal, supplanting a planned merger that had drawn scrutiny from incoming Senate Banking Committee chair Elizabeth Warren.
46. Trump Media swung into a quarterly profit, as revenue grew by 205% to $3 million. Of the growth in revenue, $1.8 million came from Trump offering earlier access to his, at times, market moving posts with a paid subscription, to hedge funds and other financial institutions.
47. NYT reported that Concord Partners, the company set up by the daughter of Julio Herrera Velutini to pay Alina Habba Mildon to help get him a pardon, fired Mildon on Nov. 4, citing a “failure to perform duties,” causing her to lose her $50 million contract.
48. Mildon, who denied any role in securing the pardon, had already received payments totaling $14.5 million. A person close to her said she was planning to pursue legal action to collect the rest.
49. WAPO reported that Sarah Rogers, a top State Department official, took a Mediterranean trip that was paid for by billionaire Patrick Collison, the co-founder of payments company Stripe and a board member of Meta, one month after she was sworn in.
50. On Sunday, Blanche said in interviews that “there could be” investigations of Democrats pushing oversight probes, baselessly claiming that “when the threats become so vile and so dangerous” that “at some point, you have to draw the line.”
51. White House counsel Will Scharf warned Rep. Garcia in an aggressively worded letter, saying that it was “monitoring the abusive and capricious threats” from Democrat legislators who it claimed were abusing the legislative process “to intimidate and to interfere” with the government.
52. Garcia said in response, “It appears Donald Trump has something to hide,” adding, “We are a co-equal branch of government and will not be deterred by baseless threats from a weaponized DOJ or from the President’s lawyers.”
53. On Sunday, Retired Navy Vice Admiral and Congresswoman-elect Nancy Lacore told “Face the Nation” that she was fired by Defense Department Sec. Hegseth without being given a reason. On impeaching Hegseth, she said this would likely happen in the lame duck session.
54. Later Sunday, Trump told reporters that he was “only kidding” about offering White the role of press secretary, adding, “but Dana loves the idea” and “there’s only one Dana.” Trump said he would still meet with White on Monday, but would focus on “other matters.”
55. On Sunday, U.S deportation flights back to Iran, via Pakistan, for at least eight Iranian nationals who were in ICE custody, were abruptly cancelled after lawyers for the detainees said in a lawsuit that the deportation violated court orders.
56. NYT reported that 110 people had been systematically repatriated to their home countries by the Trump regime, in some cases using foreign partners as an intermediate step. Many said a return to their home country would be hopeless for them, and for some a death sentence.
57. On Sunday, NBC News reported that ICE had arrested Wisconsin state trooper Carel Aaron Van Der Merwe in a targeted operation at a regional airport in Madison. Van Der Merwe was an asylum seeker with a valid federal work authorization. He remained behind bars on Monday.
58. NYT reported ICE had deliberately electronically “disappeared” tens of thousands of immigrants from a public database, under a new DHS policy designed to speed deportations. Roughly 30% of immigrants detained, more than 20,000 people, had their locations hidden.
59. NYT reported David Brouillette, the ICE officer who shot and killed a Colombian migrant in Maine, was fast-tracked through a more-lenient preliminary vetting process, missing red flags in his application. He was in the field without a reviewed background check or full ICE training.
60. WSJ reported the Trump regime was considering an executive order allowing Trump to attach a terrorist label to some nonprofits, using Section 501(p)(2)(C), allowing him to revoke their tax-exempt status. It was unclear which organizations would be targeted.
61. On Sunday, in an interview with “60 Minutes,” Trump blamed the GOP’s historic losses on “number one, I was not on the ballot.” Trump also continued to lie that “Nobody’s ever seen rallies like that for midterms,” and baselessly claimed that there were “thousands of people outside.”
62. Trump deflected questions about him and his family making billions while he was in office, saying, “I devote almost no time to my net worth. I don’t care,” and “My sons run the company,” and baselessly claiming that “every president has had this problem.”
63. Trump also lied about the Iran war, saying, “it’s not a war,” and “we haven’t lost one soldier.” Twenty-one soldiers were known to have been killed.
64. Trump also said he was planning a “tremendous number of pardons,” musing, “anybody that got within a thousand miles of the Oval Office” could get one, and claimed that he had been “defending myself by radical left lunatics, by people that were very nasty and mean.”
65. Much of the interview was edited out, including when Trump was asked about the Russia-Ukraine war, saying, “if I were president, because as you know, the — well, you’re not gonna admit it, the — I — it was rigged. That’s why I did it a third time, because it was rigged.”
66. On Monday, Trump again questioned midterm results, posting on Truth Social, “Does anybody really believe that this ‘Election’ was honest,” adding, “How could the Polls be so wrong???” (they were not), and baselessly citing “early voting ‘dumps’” and voting machines.
67. Lawyers for Maj. Jason Watson, who had been jailed since August for demonstrating in uniform on the step of the U.S. Capitol while calling for Trump’s impeachment, said Watson had remained in 24-hour solitary confinement for more than 80 days.
68. On Monday, Republican Rep. Thomas Massie introduced eight articles of impeachment against Hegseth, accusing him of violating federal laws and the Constitution. Three of the articles were related to the Iran war. Hegseth would be the third cabinet member in history to be impeached.
69. Hegseth was also charged with unlawful military strikes on alleged drug boats; unlawfully capturing Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro; conducting unauthorized military operations in Yemen; disregarding laws to minimize civilian casualties; and retaliating against Sen. Mark Kelly.
70. Later Monday, Trump spoke to reporters alongside White from the press briefing room. White told journalists “the last 24 hours of my life has been insane.” Trump claimed it was all a joke, saying, “I was really kidding. And then they wrote the stories as though I wasn’t kidding.”
71. Reuters reported that because Trump called the press briefing so abruptly, aides did not have time to place the presidential seal on the podium.
72. Trump also attacked Massie, calling him a “a stone cold loser,” and said he would “stand by” Hegseth. When pressed by CNN’s Kaitlan Collins on Massie’s reasoning, Trump berated her, saying, “Massie’s a loser, just like you’re a loser at CNN, just like your ratings are a loser.”
73. Trump also completely reversed his statement on “60 Minutes” that he had been “too tough” on immigration and would consider amnesty for people “here for 10 and 15 years,” instead saying that he opposed any immigration deal that included amnesty.
74. Later Monday, Trump made an unexpected call into C-SPAN’s evening show, and gave an eight minute interview. Trump took questions on immigration, the Iran war, and Hegseth, acknowledging that it would be easier to replace him before Democrats took charge.
75. On Tuesday, Hegseth held his first press conference in six months. He only called on reporters from right-wing media outlets like One America News, Real America, and The Daily Wire, ignoring questions shouted from the back of the room by more traditional media outlets.
76. Hegseth gave a fiery 30-minute speech seemingly aimed at Trump, in which he constantly praised Trump and his supposed successes, defended his record, and claimed impeachment was a “farce” and “tells our enemies” that the U.S. would “punish its own warriors.”
77. Asked if the Iran war hurt Republicans in midterms as suggested by Vice President JD Vance, Hegseth distanced himself from Vance, and said he agreed with Trump when he said, “‘Hey, if I had to do this all over again, would we do it again?’ Absolutely.”
78. Hegseth’s security also threatened journalists that they would be physically removed if they did not maintain decorum. Reporters from WAPO and other outlets requested clarification as to whether that included shouting questions, to which no answer was given.
79. After the press conference, Trump commended Hegseth, posting on Truth Social that he “gets an ‘A’ PLUS, PLUS, PLUS for his defense against a disgruntled, angry, defeated, former Congressman, Thomas Massie, a TOTAL LOSER!”
80. Trump also repeated his call in Alaska, that “All votes going to the Fake Dan Sullivan…should immediately be given to the Real Dan Sullivan,” calling it a “Rigged Election,” after the latest batch of votes late Monday had the Democrat expanding her lead.
81. Later Tuesday, House Republicans blocked the Hegseth impeachment, voting 211–204, along party lines except for Massie, to refer the articles to a committee for further study, sidelining the effort for now. Eleven Democrats missed the vote, some due to a traffic incident.
82. On Tuesday, a Reuters/Ipsos poll found 71% of Americans supported legislation ending the Iran war, including 51% of Republicans, 62% supported ending Trump’s tariffs, and 90% wanted Congress to focus on cost of living. Trump’s approval remained at its low of 32%.
83. On Monday, in an unsigned order, the Supreme Court ruled 8–1 that the Trump regime could construct a border wall in Big Bend preserve in Texas, which had been challenged by environmental groups and locals, saying construction would damage the environment and historic sites.
84. On Tuesday, the top Democrat on the House Natural Resources committee demanded that the Interior Department maintain documents related to Trump’s pet projects, after a whistleblower told lawmakers that the Trump regime was destroying documents.
85. On Tuesday, a federal judge ordered the Trump regime to preserve all records related to the golf course, including Trump’s Truth Social posts, mass tree removal, and “any redesign, renovation, or concept of a potential redesign or renovation of East Potomac Golf Course.”
86. On Tuesday, a federal judge said the Trump regime’s DOJ could not gain access to Delaware’s voter rolls, the 28th consecutive loss for the department.
87. On Tuesday, a federal appeals court ruled 3–0 that former agency head Kari Lake’s August 2025 firing of Michael Abramowitz, the director of Voice of America, was illegal, affirming the lower court’s ruling. One judge threatened to hold Lake in contempt of court.
88. The court found that only the Senate-confirmed body called the International Broadcasting Advisory Board had the power to fire the VOA director. Trump dismantled the board when he took office.
89. NYT reported hospitals nationwide were bracing for rules under Trump’s 2025 tax bill taking effect, which trigger a Medicaid work requirement that could cause 19 million Americans to lose insurance coverage. Hospitals deployed staffers to help with necessary paperwork.
90. On Tuesday, in a new rule proposed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Trump regime moved to drop 6 million Americans from the SNAP food stamp program, and eliminate 2 million from free school meals, taking effect in 2029.