Archives
Weekly Lists
Experts in authoritarianism advise to keep a list of things
subtly changing around you, so you’ll remember.
January 15, 2025
Week 10 — The Return
This final week before Trump’s inauguration saw the conclusion of two important cases. This week Trump was sentenced in the New York hush money trial, making him the first president in history to take office as a felon. Also this week, the Justice Department released special counsel Jack Smith’s full report on Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election, which firmly stated Trump would have been convicted if the case had gone to trial.
January 08, 2025
Week 9 — The Return
Before we get into this week’s themes, I wanted to stop and take in the enormity and gravity of something that up until Trump was very ordinary: the peaceful transition of power. This week, Vice President Kamala Harris presided over the certification of an election she lost. There is no doubt that if the result of the election had been different, things would not have gone smoothly. Trump had told us out loud — telegraphing his intentions, as he often does — that he planned to challenge the election results as “rigged” if he had lost again.
January 01, 2025
Week 8 — The Return
This week Trump faced a contentious online conflict, on the topic of H-1B visas, between his traditional MAGA base and his new bedfellows, the Silicon Valley billionaires. Once the clash erupted on Elon Musk’s social media platform X, things only escalated on other mediums. This follows a week in which House and Senate Republicans openly defied Trump. Not quite the smooth transition of unchallenged, absolute power that many, especially Trump, were expecting.
December 25, 2024
Week 7 — The Return
This week marked a shift in the perception of Trump’s omnipotence, as Republicans in the House and Senate pushed backed on his efforts to disrupt the government. Seemingly buoyed by Elon Musk, who reportedly is constantly at Trump’s side, Trump tried unsuccessfully to sink a bipartisan spending bill last minute and shut down the government. Chaos, a familiar ingredient of the first regime, ensued. But when push came to shove, House Republicans roundly defied Trump and Musk, delivering a humiliating public blow: 170 House Republicans voted to pass a slightly revised spending bill, while also crossing Trump’s stated red line. This despite Trump’s and Musk’s threat of primary challenges to anyone who voted for the bill.
December 18, 2024
Week 6 — The Return
This week’s theme is the gross capitulation by members of the media and corporate chief executive officers, and how the two have triangulated to pose a real danger to the media landscape during this second regime.
December 11, 2024
Week 5 — The Return
This week’s major theme is the return of nepotism and kleptocracy. The Trump family is continuing to profit and be awarded plum positions in the regime. Trump is also stacking senior roles with a record number of billionaires and centi-millionaires, many of whom will also feast off of an unprecedented amount of conflicts of interest. Kleptocracy runs counter to his campaign’s populist messaging, and could put Trump on a collision course with the country’s zeitgeist: widespread outrage against the vast inequities and extreme concentrations of wealth and power.
December 04, 2024
Week 4 — The Return
This week we saw a continuation of last week’s theme of pushback against Trump. The amount of resistance to Trump’s whims, and its depth and breadth, I suspect surprised us all, including Trump. There was continued opposition to Trump’s nominees, and his process for advancing them. We also saw bold moves from a government worker’s union, Democratic-appointed judges reversing plans on retiring, and President Joseph Biden granting a historic pardon to his son.
November 27, 2024
Week 3 — The Return
The theme of this week’s list is undoubtedly pushback. For the first two weeks after the election, Trump seemed to be steamrolling through his agenda and desires — threatening and intimidating anyone and anything that got in his way, and encountering little hindrance. This week, in a dramatic shift, guard rails started to appear.
November 20, 2024
Week 2 — The Return
This week opened with President Joe Biden meeting with Trump, after inviting the incoming president to the White House. This transitional meeting had been a normal part of protocol up until 2020, when Trump refused to concede his loss and invite Biden to the White House. Although former President Barack Obama had invited Trump in 2016, it was at best an awkward and visibly uncomfortable meeting. Biden drew criticism for smiling alongside Trump - seemingly acting deferential to a man who had sullied the tradition.
November 13, 2024
The Return — Week 1
Donald Trump is returning to power. These are words I never imagined I would be typing again! This week’s digital cover of Vanity Fair summarizes it best: 34 felony convictions, 1 conviction (criminal), 2 cases pending, 2 impeachments, 6 bankruptcies, 4 more years.
Dear America, how could you? Why would you? Did you not know better?