Archives
Weekly Lists
Experts in authoritarianism advise to keep a list of things
subtly changing around you, so you’ll remember.
July 09, 2025
Week 35 — The Return
This week we are seeing the impacts of Trump’s staffing cuts and selection of unqualified sycophants to run federal agencies. Tragedy struck in Texas, as flooding caused by a storm in Kerr County claimed more than 100 lives, with at least 173 still missing five days later. Questions arose about Trump’s and Elon Musk’s DOGE’s cuts to agencies and departments, as well as their current leadership. Also this week, the country hit another tragic milestone, as the U.S. measles outbreak climbed to a 33-year high, a reversal for a disease that was previously considered to be eliminated.
July 02, 2025
Week 34 — The Return
This week was a lot! The week opened with debate over Trump’s attack on Iran front and center, as increasing evidence came forward (I wrote more here) that the strikes did not in fact “obliterate” Iran’s nuclear sites. Trump and his regime sought to change and control the narrative on Iran by attacking the media, and calling those who questioned the outcome various forms of unpatriotic. Trump’s ‘big, beautiful’ and very unpopular tax bill passed the Senate, 51–50, as details emerged that it would balloon the national debt by $3.3 trillion, benefit the top 20% of earners, harm the bottom 20%, and kick at least 17 million Americans off of Medicaid. Two Republicans who were against the bill, and have stood up to Trump and been the target of his threats, said they would not seek re-election in 2026. Meanwhile, with one week to go until July 9, the end date of Trump’s 90-day tariff pause, not a single deal has been finalized. With all this happening, he harkened back to ole faithful, immigration, with a trip to Florida’s hastily constructed ‘’Alligator Alcatraz,’ to change the subject to his comfort zone, even as his polling numbers on immigration continue to fall.
June 25, 2025
Week 33 — The Return
The biggest story of this week is Trump potentially taking us to war, after ordering strikes on Iran. I have urged readers of my Substack to follow the facts, and maintain a healthy amount of skepticism, because on face value, and knowing Trump’s patterns, a lot of things we have been told initially do not make sense.
June 18, 2025
Week 32 — The Return
This was a troubling and chaotic week for our country. At home, political violence continued to unfold, as a Minnesota man carried out a gruesome assassination of a Democratic state representative and her husband, and injured another Democrat as well, both on his long list of targeted individuals. An act of political violence would normally be a moment for the president to call for calm and a lowering of tensions. Trump, however, did the exact opposite. We are also observing a disturbing, growing trend of Democratic officials being manhandled and arrested in public view by federal immigration agents, and a Department of Homeland Security that only further escalates, rather than apologizing. As the week came to a close, Sen. Tina Smith (D-MN) wondered, “Do the members of Congress need security details to defend themselves from the executive branch? God, I hope not.”
June 11, 2025
Week 31 — The Return
This week the country finds itself on the brink of the biggest crisis of Trump’s presidency, as he deployed both the California National Guard and U.S. Marines to the city of Los Angeles, amid anti-ICE protests. As protests also start to pop up in other cities across the country, the question becomes whether Trump will take things one step further and invoke the Insurrection Act or declare Martial Law. The protests come after federal immigration enforcement ramped up mass arrests, a week after White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller excoriated senior ICE officials (see Week 30), and demanded a sharp increase in arrests and new tactics.
June 04, 2025
Week 30 — The Return
This was one wild week! We are approaching the two-third mark for Trump’s 90-day pause of his Liberation Day. He and his regime, despite their weekly start-of-week promises that deals are close at hand, have yet to sign a single one! Negotiations will not be getting any easier, as this week, the U.S. Court of International Trade struck down Trump’s tariffs, and the next day, a federal court did as well. While Trump currently has a stay on the first order, what country would want to cave to his demands now? Meanwhile, more signs appear this week of the negative impacts of Trump’s trade war domestically.
May 28, 2025
Week 29 — The Return
This marks the second consecutive week in which Trump’s pace of breaking norms slowed considerably. Trump finds himself on the losing end of a number of court cases, which are pausing or nullifying many of his early actions. Trump is still in search of wins of any kind, as he is failing or falling short on major issues including foreign policy, immigration, and the economy. Trump lashed out in frustration this week, not at celebrities like last week, but instead at America’s top university and a top company, in what the WSJ Editorial Board termed a gift to China.
May 21, 2025
Week 28 — The Return
This week has the fewest broken norms since Trump’s inaugural. As in the prior four weeks, Trump finds himself struggling for wins on his main issues — the economy, immigration and foreign policy — and in many ways, his presidency is floundering and in retreat (I wrote more here). Reminiscent of the first regime, when Trump was failing he would strike out to release anger and change the subject, this week Trump aired petty grievances against several celebrities, and made unwarranted accusations about some.
May 14, 2025
Week 27 — The Return
This week, the growing number of Trump’s conflicts of interest and grifts, which we have been documenting each week, at long last took center stage! What did it take to finally get Republicans in Congress to react? It wasn’t the billions that the Trump family is pocketing in plain sight in the crypto market, which I explain in my story here. What it took was Trump accepting a $400 million Boeing 747 from the Qatari royal family as a gift ahead of his first Middle East trip. A gift that would cost taxpayers hundreds of millions to retrofit for Trump’s use as Air Force One, and that he would likely maintain use of even after his time in office.
May 07, 2025
Week 26 — The Return
The most noteworthy stories this week revolve around Trump’s grift. We’ve been covering Trump’s irreverence around conflicts of interest in the second regime, as well as examples each week of his using the office of the presidency to line his pockets; this week it seemed to all come together with some great reporting by the Times. If you want a good primer on how Trump has pocketed billions from cryptocurrency alone, you can read my article here.