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?

This go round, The Weekly List project will look a little different. The reason? Once a norm is broken and accepted without consequence, it then becomes our new normal. For example, Trump refused to provide medical records or tax returns while running for President in 2016. There was significant media outrage, coverage, and pushback, as Trump was then the first modern day president not to do so. When Trump refused again in 2020, there was far less objection or coverage by the media. By 2024, despite the fact that Trump would be the oldest president in history, there was almost no objections when Trump refused to even release even the most basic information about his health. It had therefore become our new normal.

In the coming weeks and months, there will be plenty of finger pointing and navel gazing about what led our country back to Trump. That is not the purpose of this project. Recording broken norms gives us the opportunity to bear witness to hard truths. My hope is The Weekly List will continue to be a beacon of truth, which can withstand the upcoming onslaught of gaslighting and dual realities. The truth will be the torch that lights the way to lead us back out of these coming years.

Before we document the post-election broken norms, I thought it instructive to keep a record of some highly unusual/not normal occurrences which could have influenced the outcome of this election, and hence played a role in getting us back here. And with that, we begin.

1. The Trump campaign’s emails were hacked by a foreign government (Iran), similar to what happened to Hillary Clinton’s campaign in 2016 (by Russia). In the 2024 election, the media collectively decided not to publish the leaked emails, although they had done so in 2016, and it had a major impact on the election outcome.
2. In the run-up to the election, the media continued to “sanewash,” or normalize, Trump’s increasingly incoherent statements and hours-long rambling rally speeches, as well as his increasingly incendiary, violent rhetoric.
3. An alleged French national investor, dubbed the Trump Whale, anonymously made outsized bets of more than $30 million using the crypto market as currency, which moved Trump’s perceived chances of winning at Polymarket, a betting market, to levels much more favorable than polling — raising concerns of manipulation.
4. Post-election, French authorities announced they were investigating Polymarket, which is backed by Peter Thiel, a pro-Trump billionaire.
5. Billionaire owners of two major newspapers, Patrick Soon-Shiong of The Los Angeles Times and Jeff Bezos of The Washington Post, refused to publish their editorial boards’ endorsements of Vice President Kamala Harris, despite their newspapers having a long history of doing so.
6. WAPO reported that pro-Trump billionaire Elon Musk, the world’s richest man and owner of the social media platform X formerly known as Twitter, altered X’s algorithm to benefit Trump and other Republicans.
7. According to the Center for Countering Digital Hate, Musk, who had more than 203 million followers on X, sent at least 87 tweets about the election which were rated false or misleading by fact-checkers, and which were viewed more than 2 billion times on the platform. Many suggested conspiracy theories that the election was being stolen from Trump.
8. NYT reported that Musk’s influence on the election outcome as an individual is unprecedented. Musk spent more than $175 million to run Trump’s ground game in key swing states Pennsylvania and Michigan, $30 million on large direct-mail programs, and about $22 million on digital advertising.
9. Musk and his America PAC were also in Pennsylvania and Michigan doling out millions to registered voters in swing states in a so-called lottery as part of an effort to attract voters to Trump. The DOJ warned Musk on October 24 that his lottery could be illegal under federal law.
10. The WSJ reported that Musk was in frequent contact with Russian President Vladimir Putin on topics including geopolitics, business, and personal matters, raising potential national-security concerns.
11. The FBI advised that Russia was behind hoax bomb threats in five battleground states — Georgia, Michigan, Arizona, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania — as Election Day voting was underway. The threats targeted heavily Democratic polling places.
12. The media ecosystem continually and consistently warned of potential violence at polling places on Election Day. None occurred. It was unclear if these reported threats of violence had suppressed the voting of registered Democrats (examples here, here, here).

And now we begin listing the norms broken.

1. The day after the election, dozens of Black people said they had received texts saying had been “selected” to pick cotton “at the nearest plantation,” and “Our Executive Slaves will come get you in a Brown Van.” The FBI said it was investigating.
2. The day after the election, two men on the Texas State University campus held up signs saying, “WOMEN ARE PROPERTY,” and “HOMO SEX IS SIN.” The president of TXST condemned the signs and said the men holding the signs were not part of the university, but that they were protected by freedom of speech law.
3. Hours after the election, Trump’s reelection sparked a surge in online interest in South Korea’s “4B” movement, a fringe movement which involves women pledging not to date, get married, have sex or have children with men.
4. On Saturday, masked demonstrators waved Nazi flags and shouted racist and anti-Semitic slurs outside a production of “The Diary of Anne Frank” in Howell, Michigan.
5. On Saturday, WAPO reported on widespread fear among women that the incoming Republicans majority will move to overturn no-fault divorce law. In a widely viewed TikTok video, a divorce coach warned: “If you’re unhappy in your marriage, now might be the time to act.”
6. The day after the election, WAPO reported on an immediate post-election surge of demand for “morning after” pills and intrauterine devices. Within 24 hours, Aid Access said it received 10,000 requests for abortion pills.
7. An analysis by the Institute for Strategic Dialogue found after Trump’s reelection, sexist and abusive attacks on women, like “your body, my choice” and “get back to the kitchen,” surged across social media. Just prior the Election Day, “repeal the 19th” also surged.
8. The day after the election, Katharine Viner, editor-in-chief of the Guardian said that in 2016 her news outlet “never minimised or normalised the threat of Trump’s authoritarianism,” and promised this time to “redouble our efforts” to hold him and those around him “to account.” No US-based media outlet made similar statements.
9. On Thursday, in the first act of resistance to Trump by a public official, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said he would not resign if asked to do so by Trump, telling reporters that the president does not have the power to fire or demote him.
10. On Friday, CNN reported that Pentagon officials are holding informal discussions on how to respond if Trump issues orders to deploy active-duty troops domestically, or if he gives another unlawful order.
11. On Friday, Trump posted that authorities should investigate who spread “probably illegal rumors” about his plan to sell Trump Media stock. After his post on Truth Social, the stock immediately rose 10%.
12. On Friday, special counsel, Jack Smith asked U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan, the judge presiding over the case related to the 2020 Trump election subversion case, for additional time “to assess this unprecedented circumstance.” The Judge agreed to the request.
13. On Monday, Texas AG Ken Paxton filed an emergency request in the Federal District Court in Amarillo for an emergency order that would force Smith to preserve all of his investigative records, even as Smith moves to shut down the two criminal cases.
14. NBC News reported that candidates vying to be Trump’s Attorney General are publicly calling for using the Department of Justice to investigate Trump’s enemies and to allow Trump to order prosecutions.
15. On Saturday, NYT reported that Trump’s transition team has not submitted a legally required ethics pledge stating that he will avoid conflicts of interest. Trump’s transition team, formed in August, has refused to participate in the normal handoff process.
16. Trump demanded that the three Senators vying to be the new Majority Leader allow him to make recess appointments to his cabinet in order to be considered. All three publicly consented. In 2014, former President Barack Obama was rebuked by the Supreme Court in a 9-0 ruling for making a recess appointment.
17. CNBC reported that as of four trading days after Trump won the election, Musk is $70 billion richer, due in large part to a 39% surge in the stock price of his company, Tesla, and an expectation of preferential treatment for his companies.
18. ABC News reported that Melania Trump declined the invitation to accompany her husband to the White House and meet with outgoing First Lady Jill Biden, despite the tradition of doing so.
19. On Monday, Trump selected former congressman Lee Zeldin, a climate change denier, to lead the Environmental Protection Agency, calling him “a true fighter for America First policies.”
20. On Tuesday, Trump said Musk and former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy would lead his newly formed “Department of Government Efficiency.” Notably, a government agency cannot be formed or funded without an act of Congress.
21. The Hill reported on Trump rewarding loyalty: of the eight Republican lawmakers who took a leading role in defending him during impeachment proceedings over Ukraine funding, so far three have been rewarded with cabinet positions (Elise Stefanik, John Ratcliffe, Lee Zeldin), and one is Speaker of the House (Mike Johnson).
22. MAGA loyalists pressured Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to appoint Trump’s daughter-in-law Lara Trump to a US Senate seat, soon to be vacated by Marco Rubio, whom Trump appointed to his cabinet.
23. NYT reported on Musk’s outsized role in the incoming Trump regime, and he is often by Trump’s side at Mar-a-Lago during meetings and meals, outstripping the influence and access of even Trump’s transition team leaders in advising on regime appointments.
24. Musk has taken part in Trump’s calls with foreign leaders, including Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky, and plans to meet in person this week with President Javier Milei of Argentina at Mar-a-Lago.
25. Musk is also recruiting friends from the private sector to help “overhaul” the government, despite the fact that many, including himself with SpaceX and government contracts, have conflicts of interest.
26. On Wednesday, Trump was set to return to the White House for the first time, following an invitation from President Biden. Notably, Trump did not invite Biden to the White House after he lost the election in 2020.
27. On Wednesday, the Guardian announced it would no longer be posting content on X, saying the benefits “are now outweighed by the negatives,” and citing “far-right conspiracy theories and racism.”
28. On Wednesday, NYT reported that special counsel Smith and his team are set to resign before Trump takes office in January 2025.

Closing Note: 

In closing out Week 1, I want to make some observations about how it compares to the first week in November 2016.

When I started The Weekly List after the 2016 election, things had gone downhill quickly. It was as if all the pent-up, ghoulish hate had been released into the ether! As I documented in that Week 1, there was an immediate skyrocketing of hate crimes and bad acts. Trump’s victory had seemingly justified and given license to deep-seated hatred and venom for “the others” — his rhetorical boogeyman since descending the gold-plated escalator. Back then, Trump had made a call for tolerance and understanding of these grievances — previewing his “good people on both sides” comment months later, and his general acceptance and mainstreaming of intolerance.

In contrast, this week has been remarkably calm and normal. In this week’s list, I note that most of the overt hatred has been directed through social media platforms, and there have been thankfully far fewer acts of hate in person. I am not making a judgment, or in any way suggesting that things will be better this time around, simply noting this observation. The coming weeks, months and years will give us a better sense of why, and obviously what is to come.

Also noteworthy is a more professional transition, although a troubling and curious role for billionaire Elon Musk has emerged. My prediction is this bromance will not age well, as Trump will soon come to resent Musk sharing the limelight, but time will tell. Trump is much more restrained so far, although we can safely bet this will not last! His selections for his cabinet to date are mostly what I would consider garden variety, to the right of the spectrum, Republican officials including Sen. Marco Rubio, Gov. Kristi Noem, Rep. Elise Stefanik, and former Rep. Lee Zeldin. Even if I would never agree with them on policy or issues, they are much more mainstream than the far-right crazies that he tends to associate with, and have government experience unlike the land of misfit toys he was able to attract in 2016.

One final word of advice: as much as we want to imagine and consternate over what dark times lie ahead — I call it ‘dreaming up nightmares’ — based on the last Trump era, and the premonitions of our media pundits, I’d encourage you to be open to things going differently this time. Whether better or worse, is unknown, but different is certain. A column by Adam Grant, an organizational psychologist, on this matter caught my eye: If You’re Sure How Trump’s Term Will Play Out, I Promise: You’re Wrong.

One day at a time. One weekly list at a time.