Archives
Weekly Lists
Experts in authoritarianism advise to keep a list of things
subtly changing around you, so you’ll remember.
July 08, 2026
Week 87 — The Return
In a week when the country should have been coming together to celebrate our 250th anniversary, Trump instead chose to make the Independence Day celebrations highly partisan, and all about himself. He made speeches attacking his political enemies as “communists,” and made repeated baseless claims about the dangers they posed to the country. He continued to push unfounded claims about the infiltration of others into our country, who were not only tainting the fabric of our country, but also secretly helping to elect Democrats.
July 01, 2026
Week 86 — The Return
This week the theme of inequity continued to be front and center. While Trump refused to sign a housing affordability bill, which had rare bipartisan support, new disclosures revealed he had personally reaped $2.2 billion in 2025! Trump’s windfall primarily came from new businesses in cryptocurrency, but he also enriched himself in a bevy of other ways, unprecedented for a sitting U.S. president. Meanwhile this week, Trump continued to obsess over his Washington D.C. construction projects, which after he had repeatedly claimed would be entirely funded by him and private donors, this week reporting revealed taxpayers would be on the hook for perhaps billions! As would taxpayers be on the hook for over $700 million to refurbish and house Trump’s new Air Force One, a gift from the Qatari government that he will keep after leaving office. All in all, a stunning week of disclosures on unprecedented grift and corruption.
June 24, 2026
Week 85 — The Return
Trump just doesn’t care. That is a great takeaway from this week’s list. He views his power as absolute, saying in an interview that he has not been humbled by the Iran War, but instead learned that there are “no limits” to his power. He feels unbridled by public opinion or what is good for his political party approaching midterms. His concerns seem wrapped up in his legacy as a great conqueror abroad, while also enshrining his legacy in our country’s capital, as would be typical of dictatorships.
June 17, 2026
Week 84 — The Return
This week, after days of strikes on Iran, which included a precision strike on a water plant serving 20,000 Iranians, Trump announced a “deal” with Iran on his 80th birthday. While Trump, and his front man on the deal, Vice President JD Vance, trumpeted the one-and-a-half page long memorandum of understanding, they also refused to release it publicly, even to members of the Gang of Eight, even days later.
June 10, 2026
Week 83 — The Return
This was an unusually and notably slow week of broken norms compared to recent months. The news cycle has slowed considerably. Two factors stand out that may contribute.
There remain lingering doubts about the state of Trump’s health after his most recent visit to Walter Reed, although our media is saying and reporting very little about it, as opposed to their daily and hourly obsession with former President Joseph Biden. The WSJ Editorial Board writes, as Trump nears his 80th birthday, “we hope no one is hiding any contradictory details” on his recent visit, adding, “One lesson from the Biden health fiasco is that voters will punish a party that tries to cover up infirmities.”
June 03, 2026
Week 82 — The Return
This was a week full of setbacks for Trump, at home and abroad. The U.S. continued to be mired in Trump’s war of choice with Iran, which, by all appearances, the U.S. seems to be losing. As we pass the three month mark, Trump and his regime seemed to vacillate, day by day, on whether a ceasefire or escalation was near, or whether, according to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the war was over.
May 27, 2026
Week 81 — The Return
This week the Republican Party at long last stood up to Trump. What did it take? Trump backing primary opponents of two of their own in the Senate, resulting in both losing, and another in the House. Trump’s $1.776 billion (yes, note the patriotic reference in dollar amount) so-called “anti-weaponization” fund hit roadblocks in the Senate, leading that body to adjourn for Memorial Day weekend, as did the House to avoid a vote that would have required Trump to get Congressional approval to continue his war of choice in Iran.
May 20, 2026
Week 80 — The Return
The biggest stories this week center on the blatant, unprecedented corruption by Trump, his family, and his regime. What is shocking is not only the scope, but also Trump’s willingness, even eagerness, to flaunt his kleptocracy in the light of day, seeming to regale in the fact that no one in his regime or party would dare to challenge or in any way stop him.
Notable this week was not only Trump’s disclosure that he or his agents had made more than 3,700 stock trades in the first quarter, many of which involved companies with business before his regime, but also several that he had publicly promoted or directly helped through his actions and policies. Far more brazen was his so-called “Anti-Weaponization Fund,” which was poised to award $1.8 billion of taxpayer money not only to his allies, but also to Jan. 6 insurrections, whom he had already pardoned, and will now be enriched and encouraged to do the same in the future at his beck and call! This was another in the long list of examples of Trump getting away with one thing (pardons), then taking a broken norm to a next level, after little to no pushback.
May 13, 2026
Week 79 — The Return
Two story lines really stood out this week, in part because of their big implications for the state of things under Trump. First, bowing to pressure from Trump, FDA Commissioner Marty Makary resigned. With that resignation, the Trump regime’s Department of Health and Human Services had no Senate confirmed FDA commissioner, CDC director, surgeon general, or NIH director. Notably, this comes amid an outbreak of hantavirus, with 11 confirmed cases and three deaths, once again demonstrating the dysfunction of our federal government under Trump and his loyalists. The second is Trump saying out loud — something many had suspected through his actions — that he was indifferent to the suffering of anyone but himself. On Tuesday, the day the consumer price index showed soaring prices for energy and food, Trump was asked about “Americans’ financial situations,” and whether it was motivating him to make a deal with Iran. Trump said:
May 06, 2026
Week 78 — The Return
This week we continued down the slippery slope of the U.S. Department of Justice melding into Trump’s personal law firm. As acting Attorney General Todd Blanche seeks Trump’s nomination to run the agency, the DOJ has become unrecognizable. Any pretense of separation is gone as the gutted agency carries out Trump’s agenda and retribution campaign, however lawless.