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.”

Falling approval and a faltering economy help explain why approaching 100 days, Trump found himself in retreat. On at least seven major issues, Trump has capitulated or reversed his actions in recent weeks. Notably, his pace of breaking norms has markedly slowed as of late, first in Week 24 and even more so this week. We have reached another inflection point, from Trump’s early shock and awe to, for now at least, a moment of stop and question what is working.

In addition to continuing public protests, pushback is spreading more broadly. Rather than capitulating, colleges are forming coalitions and NATO-type arrangements. Nonprofits, unions, and attorneys general are learning and adapting their approach in the courts, and in many instances getting the upper hand. Trump and his regime have faced more than 220 lawsuits in his first 100 days, 123 of which have temporarily paused or permanently blocked his actions. Notably, however, the regime continues to see a significant outflow of Justice Department lawyers to defend Trump’s actions and pursue his agenda.

While publicly Trump remains cocksure and defiant, telling The Atlantic in an interview on his second term, “I run the country and the world,” his actions tell a different story. The beauty of The Weekly List project is that the numbers don’t lie. When Trump speeds up his broken norms, like after Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and other Senate Democrats capitulated, it is a sign he is feeling confident and unbridled. The fact that this week’s list has the fewest broken norms since he took office tells us that beneath the public facade is a man who knows his presidency is in a real danger zone.

1. In an online invitation, Trump offered the top 220 investors in his memecoin $TRUMP “an intimate private dinner” with him at his golf club in Virginia, followed by a tour of the White House, effectively offering access in exchange for investing in one of his crypto ventures.
2. The value of the coin surged by more than $100 million. Sens. Adam Schiff and Elizabeth Warren called for an ethics investigation, saying Trump’s actions may constitute “pay to play” corruption, of “exclusive access to the presidency” in exchange for a significant investment.
3. Donald Trump Jr. co-founded a private members club in Washington D.C. dubbed the ‘Executive Branch,’ and charged $500,000 for membership. Several of Trump’s cabinet members attended the launch party.
4. On Monday, Trump told The Atlantic in his first 100 days interview: “The first time, I had two things to do-run the country and survive; I had all these crooked guys. And the second time, I run the country and the world.”
5. On Monday, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney of the Liberal Party won a narrow victory, marking a dramatic turnaround as months prior, Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre, who styled his rhetoric and issues after Trump, was up by nearly 30 points. Poilievre also lost his seat.
6. On the day of the election, Trump again threatened to annex Canada, posting on Truth Social, “No more artificially drawn line from many years ago. Look how beautiful this land mass would be,” and “WITH ZERO TARIFFS OR TAXES, if Canada becomes the cherished 51st. State.”
7. ABC News reported more than 220 lawsuits were filed against Trump and his regime in the first 100 days. NYT tracked at least 123 lawsuits which have temporarily paused or permanently blocked actions by the Trump regime.
8. On Sunday, journalist Scott Pelley made an extraordinary rebuke of Paramount on “60 Minutes” over producer Bill Owens’ exit, saying he left to protect the show, and “our parent company, Paramount, is trying to complete a merger. The Trump administration must approve it.”
9. Notably the show did take the unusual step of releasing the full transcript to Trump’s FCC Chair Brendan Carr in early February, and no unusual editing was done as Trump had claimed. Carr has left his investigation open while the merger remains subject to approval.
10. On Tuesday, NYT reported at an April 18 meeting, Paramount’s board outlined acceptable financial terms to settle the “60 Minutes” lawsuit with Trump, despite the fact that legal experts say the case is baseless.
11. On Wednesday, Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders and state’s entire GOP delegation asked the Trump regime to reconsider giving the state help from FEMA, after the agency denied the state’s request for federal disaster relief despite several deadly storms.
12. On Wednesday, Trump issued a full and unconditional pardon for Michele Fiora, a Nevada Republican politician convicted of using funds meant for a slain officer’s memorial on personal expenses, including plastic surgery and her daughter’s wedding.
13. On Wednesday, Trump signed an executive order directing Education Secretary Linda McMahon to “overhaul” the college accreditation system, citing “ideological overreach,” and saying to put a greater focus on intellectual diversity among faculty and student success.
14. Trump also signed six other orders relating to education, several undoing Joseph Biden’s policies, including an order addressing racial disparities in school discipline. One order eliminated Title VI, a civil rights enforcement tool long used to fight discrimination.
15. WAPO reported Big Ten university faculty are discussing a NATO-type defense compact that would allow them to share attorneys and pool financial resources in case Trump targets any of the 18 schools.
16. WSJ reported that a group of about 10 schools, including the Ivies and some others, have formed a collective to counter the Trump regime. The group has discussed red lines, and gamed out how to respond to different demands by the Trump regime.
17. The collective hopes to avoid what happened to law firms, where after one capitulated, others followed. The group might expand to include other schools over time. The Trump regime has been worried about schools teaming up, citing it is harder to negotiate with a united front.
18. On Thursday, the Trump Organization fired prominent conservative attorney William Burck, over his representation of Harvard University. The move came after Trump posted on Truth Social for his sons to “get rid of him ASAP!”
19. On Monday, the Trump regime’s Education Department announced the University of Pennsylvania had violated sex discrimination laws by allowing a transgender woman to participate in female sports, required the school to strip the record made by a transgender athlete, and send a letter of apology to female athletes and restore their record.
20. An Education Department official in the office for civil rights said the Harvard Law Review was under investigation for racial discrimination (against white people), saying the independent student-run journal “appears to pick winners and losers on the basis of race.”
21. Harvard renamed its diversity and inclusion office as the office of Community and Campus Life, joining scores of other schools who have done the same. The move came after the regime sent a letter last Monday saying Harvard’s DEI office must be dismantled.
22. On Thursday, three separate judges blocked the Trump regime’s ability to withhold school funds over DEI initiatives, as the deadline came for states to agree to not use certain DEI practices or lose funding. Roughly 12 Democratic states refused to sign.
23. On Friday, Democratic attorneys general of 19 states sued the Trump regime over its threat to withhold federal funding from states and districts with diversity programming in their schools, saying the regime went beyond what is legal.
24. WSJ reported international students are seeking to scrub their op-eds in school newspapers amid the Trump regime’s visa crackdown. School newspaper editors are balancing concerns of journalistic norms with students’ safety in their policy debates.
25. On Wednesday, in its first ruling under the Trump regime, Meta’s Oversight Board found two posts about trans people did not violate the company’s hate-speech rules. Both posts were shared by conservative activist Chaya Raichik, who has been blamed with sparking threats.
26. On Wednesday, 98% of Goldman Sachs shareholders voted to reject two anti-DEI proposals, to eliminate its DEI based compensation for executives and to conduct a racial discrimination audit. 99% of Levi Strauss shareholders voted to reject an anti-DEI proposal.
27. On Thursday, a federal judge blocked Trump’s executive order requiring proof of citizenship to register to vote and other measures, citing “Our Constitution entrusts Congress and the States — not the President — with the authority to regulate federal elections.”
28. On Wednesday, Trump’s DOJ accidentally filed a document overnight outlining a series of legal flaws with the regime’s plan to kill New York City’s congestion pricing tolls. The letter cited “considerable litigation risk” and said it is “unlikely” to be accepted by the court.
29. The Department of Transportation took the extraordinary step on Thursday of sidelining lawyers from the U.S. attorney’s office for the Southern District on the case, and transferred it to the civil division of the DOJ in Washington D.C.
30. In a statement, the department called the filing of the memo “legal malpractice,” and asked, “Are SDNY lawyers on this case incompetent or was this their attempt to RESIST?” A spokesperson for the SDNY said in a statement that it was “a completely honest error.”
31. On Wednesday, NBC News reported the Trump regime has upended the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division. More than a dozen senior lawyers have resigned, citing the agency stopped enforcing laws that prohibit discrimination in hiring, housing, and voting rights.
32. NYT reported hundreds more lawyers and staff members are leaving the division under the “deferred resignation program,” after the new head of the civil rights division, Harmeet Dhillon, told them to drop their work and focus on being an enforcement arm for Trump’s agenda.
33. In a complete shift of focus for the division formed in 1950, instead of protecting the rights of minority communities and marginalized people, the division will pursue cases against state and local officials, colleges and student protesters, liberal cities, and other Trump agenda items.
34. In the criminal division’s public integrity section, only a handful of staff out of more than 20 remain after ultimatums. Overall, there were 380 lawyers in the division when Trump took office, now roughly 140 or fewer remain, with similar numbers for support staffers.
35. On Wednesday, 12 Democratic attorneys general sued the Trump regime, saying Trump does not have the constitutional authority to impose “immense and ever-changing tariffs…for whatever reason he finds convenient to declare an emergency.”
36. On Thursday, the Trump Organization started selling “Trump 2028” red hats and t-shirts on its online store.
37. A Post/ABC News poll found 62% of Americans believe Trump is serious when he muses about a third term, including 38% of Republicans and 88% of Democrats. Just 18% would support Trump serving a third terms, including 38% of Republicans and 3% of Democrats.
38. On Thursday, March home sales dropped to their slowest pace since 2009, amid higher interest rates and economic anxiety. The National Association of Realtors also reported a jump in canceled contracts, noting stock market volatility.
39. On Friday, in a wide ranging interview with Time Magazine, Trump claimed that he had already “made 200 deals” on tariffs, but declined to cite any specifics. This number exceeded the number of tariffs, and trade adviser Peter Navarro’s 90 deals in 90 days.
40. Trump also claimed that he had spoken to Chinese President Xi Jinping, adding, “He’s called. And I don’t think that’s a sign of weakness on his behalf.” Chinese officials continued to deny that Trump and Xi had had any sort of communication on tariffs, with one calling it “fake news.”
41. WAPO’s fact checker found that Trump told 32 lies or misleading claims in his Time interview, including a lie that grocery prices were down, and false claims relating to foreign policy and justifications for his trade war. Many were repeats of his most frequent lies.
42. On Thursday, the Department of Health and Human Services reversed course and restored funding for a landmark study on women’s health that had been following more than 40,000 women for decades. The project has produced a series of important studies.
43. On Thursday, the U.S. Agriculture Department withdrew a Biden era rule meant to protect consumers by reducing food poisoning, saying the regime will not require poultry companies to limit salmonella bacteria in their product.
44. On Friday, the Trump regime retreated on a controversial plan by Jay Bhattacharya, director of the National Institutes of Health, to launch a national registry of people with autism, after the plan sparked outrage over ethics, privacy, and intent.
45. On Friday, Trump regime federal health officials reinstated scientists at the Food and Drug Administration food safety labs, and said they are conducting a review to see if other employees of the fired 20% were in critical posts that need to be brought back.
46. On Friday, STAT reported that Edward Martin, a Republican activist serving as interim U.S. attorney in Washington, sent a “vaguely threatening” letter to The New England Journal of Medicine, accusing the publication of being “partisans in various scientific debates.”
47. Letters were also sent to at least three other medical journals. Martin also questioned the National Institutes of Health’s role “in the development of submitted articles.” Martin has been accused of using his office to target perceived opponents of Trump and his agenda.
48. CNN reported as the city of Milwaukee addressed lead paint hazards in its schools, the Centers for Disease Control’s Lead Poisoning Prevention Program was unable to provide a testing strategy due to funding cuts, or EpiAid, a short-term loan of epidemiologists, due to staffing cuts.
49. Sec. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said in a television interview that parents of newborns should “do your own research” before vaccinating their infants, and falsely claimed that the measles shot was unsafe. Reported measles cases topped 900, the highest case count since 1990.
50. On Thursday, ABC News reported that Defense Department Sec. Pete Hegseth used the Signal app on his personal computer, which was connected to the internet on an unsecured line, known as a “dirty line.” The dirty line was installed at his request to use his personal computer.
51. NYT reported the personal phone number Hegseth used for his Signal account was easily accessible on the internet and public apps. Experts say as defense secretary, he would be among the top most targeted, and this vulnerability could allow for planting spy software.
52. On Friday, Hegseth dismissed all the members of the Pentagon advisory boards on defense policy and military technology, claiming the Pentagon requires “fresh thinking to drive bold changes.” This wholesale dismissal was highly unusual.
53. As Trump approached his first 100 days, a Post-ABC poll found Trump’s approval for handling immigration, his last positive issue, went negative, 46% approve, 53% disapprove. Trump’s overall 39% approval was the lowest of any president in their first 100 days in 80 years.
54. An NYT-Sienna poll found Trump’s approval falling to 42%, including a 29% approval with Independents. Trump was underwater on every issue including immigration (-4%), the economy (-12%), and the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia (21%). Also, 66% find Trump “chaotic,” and 59% “scary.”
55. WSJ reported in his first 100 days (as of April 24), Trump signed 137 executive orders, more than triple that of Biden, and over 100 more than the three previous presidents.
56. An AP-NORC poll found 39% approve, 59% disapprove of Trump, and only about half of Republicans say Trump is focused on the right priorities. An Institute of Politics poll found 59% of men between the ages of 18 and 29, a key voting block for Trump, now disapprove of him.
57. Following polls showing public opinion against his stance on Abrego Garcia, Trump changed his tone, telling Time Magazine that “bringing him back and retrying him wouldn’t bother me,” and shifting blame for the decision on the DOJ, saying it is up “to my lawyers to determine.”
58. On Thursday, a federal judge ordered the Trump regime to return a second Venezuelan migrant deported to El Salvador, saying the migrant should have been protected under a settlement allowing a group to remain in the U.S. while their asylum claims were processed.
59. On Thursday, a federal judge ruled that the Trump regime cannot withhold funds from San Francisco, Santa Clara County, and 14 other so-called sanctuary cities, saying the move is unconstitutional. The same judge made a similar ruling during the first regime in 2017.
60. On Friday, FBI agents arrested a local judge in Milwaukee, a so-called sanctuary city, saying after ICE agents came to her courthouse with an administrative warrant for an undocumented immigrant in her court on a separate matter, she helped try to escape through a jury door.
61. Judge Hannah Dugan was criminally charged with obstructing a proceeding of a federal agency, and concealing an individual to prevent his discovery and arrest. FBI Director Kash Patel said she was arrested for “intentionally misdirected federal agents.”
62. Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers, a Democrat, said Trump and his regime “use dangerous rhetoric to attack and attempt to undermine our judiciary at every level,” disobeyed the highest court, and “threatened to impeach and remove judges who do not rule in their favor.“
63. AG Pam Bondi told Fox News that this was part of a pattern with judges, saying, “What has happened to our judiciary is beyond me,” claiming some judges were “deranged,” and adding, “I think some of these judges think they are beyond and above the law…they are not.”
64. On Tuesday, a federal judge ordered the Trump regime to release Columbia University student Mohsen Mahdawi from detention, saying, “The two weeks of detention so far demonstrate great harm to a person who has been charged with no crime.”
65. On Thursday, Trump signed an executive order directing the attorney general to investigate ActBlue, a platform used by Democrats to fundraise, citing without evidence allegations that the funding platform used “straw” or “dummy” donors to allow foreign donations.
66. On Friday, Bondi rescinded a Biden era protection of journalists that barred searches of reporters’ phone and emails when trying to find sources of leaks, saying in a memo that the media should not be afforded such protections.
67. Bondi also criticized the media’s coverage of Trump, citing “the lack of independence of certain members of the legacy news media,” and saying the DOJ “will not tolerate unauthorized disclosures that undermine President Trump’s policies.”
68. WAPO reported national security agencies across the Trump regime ramped up usage of polygraphs, in an effort to out sources of leaks. Former and current officials say the move is creating an atmosphere of fear and intimidation, and a “toxic” environment.
69. Officials say the polygraphs led to the firing of Gen. Timothy Haugh, who led the National Security Agency and U.S. Cyber Command, and dozens of other experienced NSA staffers, as well as a flurry of firings at the Pentagon under Hegseth.
70. NYT reported at the March 11 biannual meeting of the Judicial Conference, which oversees the federal courts, Judge Richard Sullivan, a George W. Bush appointee, raised the question of what the group would do if Trump told the U.S. Marshals to stop protecting judges.
71. On Friday, the U.S. Office of Special Counsel, an independent watchdog agency, softened oversight of political activities of federal officials by rescinding two Hatch Act advisory opinions, including allowing the White House to determine violations.
72. On Friday, the Department of Homeland Security said it paused deactivating international student visas, and would restore them for now. The American Immigration Lawyers Association estimated that at least 4,700 visas were revoked under the Trump regime.
73. The move came after at least 65 lawsuits on behalf of international students. Several judges had ruled against the Trump regime, saying their argument for terminating the visas was meritless.
74. On Friday, a federal judge ordered two Venezuelan nationals living in D.C. to be released from ICE custody, saying the regime failed to prove they were alien enemies covered under the Aliens Enemy Act, the first ruling of the regime erring on classifying someone an “alien enemy.”
75. On Saturday, WAPO reported that the Trump regime deported three U.S. citizens, ages 2, 4 and 7, along with their mothers from Louisiana without any due process. The four year-old has Stage 4 cancer, and was deported without medication or the ability to contact their doctors.
76. Lawyers for the children said they and their mothers were taken into custody by ICE while attending routine check-ins in New Orleans. A federal judge, who was appointed by Trump, issued an order for the 2 year-old, calling it “illegal and unconstitutional” to deport U.S. citizens.
77. Trump so-called Border Czar Tom Homan claimed on “Face the Nation” that the regime did not “deport” U.S. citizens to Honduras, saying that their mothers wanted to bring them. Lawyers said the mothers were given little or no time or ability to communicate with the children’s fathers.
78. Secretary of State Marco Rubio also sought to defend the regime, telling “Meet the Press” the WAPO story was “misleading” and saying “they can come back, adding, “you guys make it sound like ICE agents kicked down the door and grabbed the 2-year-old and threw him on an airplane.”
79. Over the weekend, the Trump regime also stepped up deportation efforts in targeted raids which ensnared nearly 800 people in Florida, as the number of deportations to date have fallen short of Trump’s goals, and are lower to date than in Biden’s final year in office.
80. On Monday, the Justice Action Center and Innovation Law Lab filed a lawsuit in federal court, challenging Trump’s policy of allowing ICE agents to conduct operations that disrupt civic spaces like schools and houses of worship.
81. On Sunday, Trump posted on Truth Social that he would bring “Columbus Day back from the ashes” and reinstate its celebration as a holiday. Former president Joseph Biden did not cancel Columbus Day as a national holiday, he recognized the day as Indigenous Peoples’ Day.
82. On Saturday, NYT reported that several of Trump’s actions in his first 100 days benefit Russia directly or indirectly, including pressuring Ukraine to surrender territory, blaming Ukraine for being invaded, forbidding them from joining NATO, and sanction relief for Russia.
83. Trump and his regime have also shuttered federal agencies that promote democracy, and provide independent global broadcasting. One Russian expert said Trump had played into Putin’s hands and was acting akin to a Russian asset.
84. On Saturday, after holding an impromptu meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in the Vatican, while visiting for Pope Francis’s funeral, Trump acknowledged for the first time that Russian President Vladimir Putin may not want peace.
85. The statement came after Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley urged Trump to place heavy sanctions on Putin, saying there was “clear evidence” that he was “playing America as a patsy.” Sen. Lindsey Graham said a bipartisan majority was prepared to impose more sanctions.
86. At the Pope’s funeral, Trump drew attention for wearing a blue suit, while everyone around him was wearing the customary black.
87. On Wednesday, Elon Musk’s DOGE dismantled the Millennium Challenge Corporation, a small independent agency that aids the economic development of poor but stable nations. Staff members were offered early retirement or deferred resignation.
88. On Friday, WAPO reported that Musk’s DOGE ordered AmeriCorps to cancel grants of nearly $400 million, 41% of its grant budget. The cuts shuttered more than 1,000 programs and ended the service of more than 32,000 AmeriCorps workers.
89. A memo from Senate Democratic committee staff accused Musk of using his role to avoid $2 billion in penalties and fees, citing his companies were facing at least 65 “actual or potential” actions from 11 federal agencies, many of which have now been neutralized.
90. WSJ reported as Musk transitions out of DOGE, the Trump regime is consolidating control of hiring and firing out of the Office of Personnel Management, which has begun approving positions for hiring. Typically federal agencies would make such decisions on their own.
91. According to a memo, OPM will evaluate top level bureaucrats on their “faithful administration of the law and the president’s policies,” as compared to criteria previously used such as business acumen, leadership skills, ability to build coalitions, and results.
92. NYT reported that the Trump regime has cut about half of the $2 billion in aid to food banks that Biden had provided, leaving food banks scrambling to feed the hungry and running out of reserves. Food delivered by the Agriculture Department has also been haphazard.
93. On Friday, a federal judge temporarily blocked the Trump regime from ending federal workers’ union ability to use collective bargaining, saying Trump’s executive order was unlawful. The unions have been a major obstacle in Trump’s efforts to slash the federal government.
94. On Monday, a coalition of labor unions and nonprofits asked a federal judge to declare Trump’s entire effort to reduce the federal workforce illegal, including the input from DOGE and OPM, saying it was unlawful because it was done without the approval of Congress.
95. On Monday, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau lifted a 2018 consent order on Wells Fargo, providing the bank with nearly full regulatory relief, the latest move by the Trump regime to wind down all of the agency’s consent decrees.
96. Later Monday, a federal court of appeals issued a 2–1 ruling, barring the Trump regime from firing 1,500 employees of the CFPB, nearly 90% of the agency’s staff.
97. On Monday, CNBC reported Trump’s trade was already causing a “full-blown” crisis for U.S. farmers, citing large canceled orders of items such as pork and lumber by China, leading to huge losses for farmers and the start of layoffs.
98. The number of Chinese freight ships heading to Long Beach, California, the busiest U.S. port, was down 29% from the prior week, which expected levels to drop by 44% year-over-year by next week. The fallout will hit port workers and truckers as well.
99. On Tuesday, Amazon said it planned to display the cost of Trump’s tariffs next to the total cost of products on the site. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt called the move a “hostile and political act.”
100. Hours later, after Trump personally called Amazon founder Jeff Bezos to express his displeasure with the move, Amazon clarified that the plan to show tariff surcharges was “never approved” and is “not going to happen.”
101. On Tuesday, a Conference Board report showed consumer sentiment plunging for the fifth month in a row on tariffs concerns, falling to 54.5, the lowest level since October 2011. The group notes a reading below 80 often signals a recession ahead.
102. On Monday, Trump signed an executive order directing the AG and DHS to compile a list of cities and states which are not complying with his immigration efforts, and designate them as “sanctuary jurisdictions,” which could lose federal funding and face possible criminal and civil suits.
103. A second order provided legal resources to police officers accused of wrongdoing, called for a review of restraints on law enforcement, provided military equipment to local law enforcement, and okayed enforcement against local officials who prohibit law enforcement.
104. On Monday, the Trump regime fired hundreds of scientists and experts who had been working on the National Climate Assessment, a report on how global warming is affecting the country, which is required by Congress. The firings put the future of the report in jeopardy.
105. Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency canceled 781 environmental justice grants, nearly twice the number originally reported, that were awarded under Biden, which would have helped communities cope with the worsening impacts of climate change.
106. On Tuesday, House Republicans tucked language in a procedural measure that passed along party lines, which blocks House Democrats’ efforts to compel information from the Trump regime, yet again ceding the legislative branch’s power to challenge Trump.
107. On Tuesday, Trump fired five Biden appointees from the board that oversees the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, including former second gentleman Doug Emhoff.
108. On Tuesday, a federal judge ordered the Trump regime to disburse $12 million in congressionally approved grant money to news organization Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, which provides independent news in countries with limited press freedom like Russia.
109. On Tuesday, a federal judge blocked the Trump regime from cutting funding approved by Congress for nonprofits providing legal services for undocumented migrants under 18 who enter the U.S. without a legal guardian.
110. On Tuesday, Trump gave a campaign-style speech in Michigan to a crowd of about 3,000 supporters. NYT’s fact checker reported his 90 minute speech was filled with often repeated lies and exaggerations, which he has used to justify his agenda.
111. Trump denounced judges blocking his actions as “communists,” adding that “judges are trying to take away the power given to the president.” He called migrants “monsters” and violent criminals. He bragged about slashing the federal workforce, calling them “deep state bureaucrats.”
112. Trump blamed and bashed Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell for the economy, saying, “I have a Fed person who’s not really doing a good job,” adding, “You’re not supposed to criticize the Fed…but I know much more than he does about interest rates.”
113. In an ABC News interview Tuesday evening, Trump admitted he “could” free Abrego Garcia, undermining previously statements by regime members that it was up to El Salvador to do so, and signaling his intention to defy the courts.
114. A Marist poll found 45% of Americans grade Trump’s first 100 days an “F,” compared with 32% for his first term, 26% for Biden, and 11% for Barack Obama. Just 23% gave him an “A” and 17% a “B.” The poll also found him underwater on every issue.
115. WSJ reported that the uncertainty created by Trump’s trade war has caused several companies to pull their forecasts for earnings, including General Motors, JetBlue, Snap, and Volvo. A poll found 80% of senior executives are worried about tariffs and other policy shifts.
116. First quarter GDP contracted by 0.3 percent, a reversal from growth over the past three years, amid uncertainty and the impact of Trump’s early tariffs. Private payrolls growth shrunk to 62,000 in April, down from 147,000 in March, and well below expectations.
117. Reuters reported 31 detainees at the Bluebonnet detention center in Anson, Texas formed the letters S-O-S in the dirt yard of the facility on Monday, which was captured by a drone, for fear the Trump regime will send them to El Salvador’s notorious CECOT maximum security prison.