Archives
Weekly Lists
Experts in authoritarianism advise to keep a list of things
subtly changing around you, so you’ll remember.
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.
April 30, 2025
Week 25 — The Return
Well the results are in for Trump’s first 100 days, and the reviews are overwhelmingly awful. Polls show his approval ratings dipped into the high 30s, the lowest for any president’s first 100 days in 80 years. Trump has gone net negative on every single issue, including immigration and the economy, the top two issues that he ran on. Nearly half of Americans give him a grade of “F” for his first 100 days. The S&P 500 had its worst performance in the first 100 days of a presidency in 50 years. Even the conservative WSJ Editorial Board summed it up as, “At 100 Days, Trump 2.0 Is in Trouble.”
April 23, 2025
Week 24 — The Return
This is the week it all started to fall apart for Trump. He ended what was a disastrous week for his regime, having to capitulate with a public statement that he did not intend to fire Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell and softening his tone on China. His statements came after Wall Street dubbed a broad sell-off of U.S. stocks, U.S. government debt, and the U.S. dollar the Trump ‘Sell America’ trade. The Dow Jones and S&P 500 were also on track for their worst April since the Great Depression. Not exactly the stuff of making America great again.
April 16, 2025
Week 23 — The Return
This week Trump pushed the boundaries of the legal system, flouting a ruling by the Supreme Court on Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Maryland man who was mistakenly deported. Centering the discussion on this case and other immigration related moves seemed aimed at distracting attention from economic matters, which have dominated the news media after Trump’s so-called Liberation Day. Trump’s polling on trade and fighting inflation are floundering, with 6 in 10 Americans disapproving, while immigration is the one issue on which he is not underwater.
April 09, 2025
Week 22 — The Return
The main theme of this week’s list is Trump’s tariff war declaration and the global disruption that ensued, but before we get to that, I want to recognize the importance of the Hands Off protests which took place on Saturday. The media was not prepared to adequately cover the size and scope of this protest, which took even its organizers by surprise. I wrote more about why the protests really mattered on my Substack, but I also want to highlight, that as millions took to the streets at more than 1,600 locations, we passed an important hurdle. Many who protested were doing so for the first time, and got to see firsthand that they could do so safely and without incident. Ironically, it was Trump who preemptively erected a fence around the White House on Friday night. Protests have been remarkably effective: just ask Elon Musk who has seen his net worth crumble as Tesla stock continued to plummet following mass protests at showrooms nationwide.
April 02, 2025
Week 21 — The Return
This week’s common thread through many of the stories is the involvement of Elon Musk and his so-called Department of Government Efficiency. He seems to be omnipresent, in a way that almost overshadows Trump. It is notable that as we discussed last week with Trump making Secretary of State Marco Rubio the face of his regime’s lawless and controversial move to deport migrant Venezuelans to El Salvador, this week Trump is distancing himself from Musk and his DOGE efforts. Remember from the first Trump regime that it is never his fault, and he is always preparing for fall guys and gals to take the brunt of the blame when things go wrong, like in this case of what has become highly unpopular mass firings and haphazard cuts to federal grants and funding.
March 26, 2025
Week 20 — The Return
This week we had two devastating examples of obeying in advance, both of which will reverberate in their respective fields. On Thursday, law firm Paul Weiss reached a settlement with Trump. This comes a week after a federal judge put a halt on a similar Trump executive order targeting Perkins Coie, warning the order could damage the integrity of the entire legal profession, and intimidate lawyers from taking cases that impact Trump or his interests. Shortly after Paul Weiss capitulated, Trump doubled down with an even more extreme order.