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.

Wall Street has dubbed a new term, “TACO Trade,” or Trump Always Chickens Out, meaning he makes a threat, then pulls back. He did that once again this week, threatening the European Union on Friday, and pulling back on Sunday. As we passed the midpoint of his 90 day tariff pause, Trump has yet to finalize a single trade deal.

This week was full of missteps and losses on the foreign policy front, making our country and Trump himself look weak (I wrote about it here). Russian President Vladimir Putin publicly defied Trump, even calling Trump’s response “emotional.” Canada had a symbolic visit from King Charles. Greenland signed a big mineral deal, defying Trump. And other countries are forging alliances without us.

Already, three of the four law firms that filed lawsuits against Trump’s punitive executive orders targeting them have prevailed. And the nine firms who capitulated are starting to feel the consequences (I wrote about it here). There are also concerning stories this week, however, on the threats federal judges are facing, as they uphold the law, and Trump publicly attacks them on social media, questioning their intentions and alliances.

Finally, a continuing theme is Trump’s grift. This week he hosted his much ballyhooed $TRUMP dinner. He also appears to be selling pardons like candy. Meanwhile, the Republican Party continues to look the other way.

1. WSJ reported some federal judges are considering taking control of their own security, amid rising tensions with Trump and his allies, and a growing number of threats. Judges fear that U.S. Marshals, who ultimately answer to Trump, may not come to their defense if needed.
2. For many federal judges who have served for decades, this is the first time they are concerned. Democratic Sen. Cory Booker introduced legislation that would allow Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts and the Judicial Conference to appoint the head of the Marshals.
3. NYT reported threats against judges have risen dramatically since Trump took office: for the five-month period ending March 1, 80 received threats; in the next six weeks, an additional 162 judges received threats.
4. NYT reported that Trump and his regime are continually misapplying federal civil rights law to to benefit white men, who Trump claims, without evidence, are discriminated against. Trump has used the E.E.O.C and Office for Civil Rights to target law firms and schools.
5. The E.E.O.C said in a memo sent last week that it would stop paying state and local civil rights agencies to process and investigate claims involving transgender workers, making it harder for state and local agencies to investigate these claims.
6. Trump granted an unconditional pardon to loyalist Scott Jenkins, a Virginia sheriff convicted of federal bribery charges and sentenced to 10 years in federal prison on Monday. Jenkins was set to report to prison on Tuesday.
7. Trump also granted a full and unconditional pardon to Paul Walczak, a former nursing home executive who had pleaded guilty to tax crimes in 2024, and was awaiting sentencing on Tuesday. Walczak claimed his prosecution was motivated by his mother’s efforts to help Trump.
8. Walczak said in an application for a pardon that his mother, Elizabeth Fago, raised millions for Trump and other Republicans, and been involved in efforts to sabotage Biden’s 2020 campaign. Fago was invited to a $1-million-per-person fund-raising dinner for Trump last month.
9. Trump pardoned reality TV stars Todd and Julie Chrisley, who were sentenced in 2022 to a combined 19 years in prison on charges including fraud and tax evasion. A spokesperson said Tuesday the two were “unfairly targeted and overly prosecuted by an unjust justice system.”
10. On Thursday, hundreds of protesters gathered at Trump’s Virginia golf course, where he was hosting a private dinner for the top buyers of his meme coin. Protesters held signs that read, “Stop Crypto Corruption,” and “America is not for sale,” and yelled “SHAME!” at attendees.
11. NYT reported that they interviewed guests, several of whom said that they attended the event “with the explicit intent of influencing Mr. Trump and U.S. financial regulations.” The event was unprecedented in American history.
12. Many of the guests were foreign, and used their passports for entrance. At the top of the leaderboard of holders was Justin Sun, a Chinese billionaire who runs the crypto platform Tron, who spent more than $40 million on $TRUMP coins.
13. Also in attendance were Sangrok Oh, a Korean crypto executive, and Vincent Liu, the chief investment officer at Kronos Research, a crypto firm founded in Taiwan that wants to enter the U.S. market. So far the $TRUMP meme coin has generated at least $320 million in fees.
14. On Tuesday, Trump Media & Technology Group, the parent of Truth Social, said it would raise $2.5 billion in capital to purchase bitcoin for its treasury.
15. The next day, Vice President JD Vance and Trump’s two sons, Donald Jr. and Eric, spoke at an annual bitcoin conference in Las Vegas.
16. On Tuesday, HHS Sec. Robert Kennedy, Jr. announced in a video posted on X that Covid vaccines are no longer recommended for healthy children and pregnant women. The announcement was made without consulting the CDC, and was questioned by public health experts.
17. Kennedy said in an interview that he would ban government scientists from publishing in the Lancet, New England Journal of Medicine, and JAMA, claiming without evidence that “they’re all corrupt” with pharmaceutical money, and proposing to create in-house publications.
18. WAPO reported that after Trump fired 19 inspectors general, the six he has picked so far are all loyalists. Two have direct conflicts of interest with agencies they are supposed to oversee, several are unqualified, or have past issues with corruption that caused them to lose their jobs.
19. Trump fired, without cause, the entire advisory committee of diverse historians who oversee the publication series the Foreign Relations of the United States, volumes meant to be unbiased accounts of U.S. foreign policy, founded in 1861. The committee has little funding needs, so the rationale was not budget cuts.
20. Experts expressed concern that the firings could be an effort to have control over the telling of history. There is roughly a 30 year lapse of when information can be released and documented, so the fired historians were chronicling older history, not current day.
21. On Thursday, federal police arrested a woman in Washington D.C. who had spit on former Trump DOJ official Ed Martin, and charged her with one count of assaulting, resisting, or impeding a government official. It is highly unusual for prosecutors to pursue assault cases for spitting.
22. AP reported Trump has named Martin as the new head of the DOJ Office of the Pardon Attorney. Martin pledged to take a “hard look” at pardoning two men who are serving long prison terms for leading a conspiracy to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.
23. On Wednesday, a federal judge ruled that Trump’s dismissal of Democratic-selected members to the five-person Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, a civil liberties watchdog, without cause in January was illegal, and ordered the regime to reinstate them.
24. On Wednesday, a federal appeals court upheld an order requiring the Trump regime to return a second Venezuelan man, dubbed Cristian in court documents, from El Salvador, citing he had not been given proper due process.
25. On Thursday, a federal judge blocked Trump’s executive order shutting down the Education Department, and ordered the regime to reinstate more than 1,300 federal employees laid off in March, saying only an act of Congress can eliminate the department.
26. On Wednesday, after the Supreme Court ruled that the Trump regime could revoke temporary protected status for 350,000 Venezuelans, Disney told its Florida-based employees whose protections are being lost that their jobs would be terminated in June.
27. On Thursday, Trump confirmed in a social media post that a group of migrants from Vietnam, Cuba, and Mexico were stuck in Djibouti, on their way to being deported to South Sudan, after members of the Trump regime had refused in court to confirm where the men were being sent.
28. Trump attacked the federal judge in the case on Truth Social, saying he “knew absolutely nothing about the situation, or anything else,” ordered “EIGHT of the most violent criminals on Earth curtail their journey,” and would not allow “these monsters” to go to South Sudan.
29. On Monday, the judge criticized the Trump regime for its inaction in giving the deportees their due process, saying the regime had violated his court order, and accusing the Trump regime of “manufacturing” chaos and said he hoped that “reason can get the better of rhetoric.”
30. On Tuesday, the Trump regime asked the Supreme Court to halt the judge’s order challenge their deportations to South Sudan, saying finding countries willing to take the deportees is a “a delicate diplomatic endeavor” harmed by the court requirements.
31. On Saturday, a federal judge ordered the Trump regime to facilitate the return of a gay Guatemalan man, O.C.G., who the regime deported to Mexico, where he faced persecution. Two days earlier a judge granted him humanitarian protection from being deported to Guatemala.
32. On Thursday, the Supreme Court ruled 6–3, granting a stay allowing Trump to fire the heads of two independent labor agencies, the Merit Systems Protection and the National Labor Relations, for now. The court did preclude him from firing the Federal Reserve Chair however.
33. NYT reported that so far Trump has fired 13 officials, across nine independent agencies and boards, without good cause. Of the 13 targeted firings, nine were members of independent boards and two were leaders of independent watchdog agencies.
34. On Thursday, a report by the Government Accountability Office found the regime improperly withheld funds under a federal infrastructure program, by refusing to spend money on electric vehicle charging stations as authorized by Congress, calling it improper impoundment.
35. WAPO reported that the Federal Emergency Management Agency faced a backlog of unprocessed emergency aid requests as hurricane season approaches. As of Thursday, the agency had 19 pending declaration requests, some dating back as far as January.
36. Following pressure from governors and members of Congress, FEMA processed 10 requests, denying two and approving eight. As of late Friday, 11 requests were pending, some dating back to April 1 and some from recent storms. Experts call it an unusually high backlog.
37. WAPO reported officials at the Food and Drug Administration failed to publicize a major E. coli outbreak in February, as would be typical in the past, as a result of the Trump regime’s withdrawing regulations and cutting staffers as part of Trump’s mass firings.
38. Public health officials say companies and growers will face less regulatory oversight and fewer consequences. The regime disbanded a Justice Department unit that pursued civil and criminal actions against companies that sell contaminated food.
39. On Wednesday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth held a Christian prayer service at the Pentagon’s auditorium, part of an increasing fusing of Christian evangelization in official government events during the second Trump regime. Hegseth said the services will be monthly.
40. On Wednesday, the Federal Trade Commission announced it was investigating liberal group Media Matters over whether it had colluded with advertisers. Media Matters had published research on hateful and antisemitic content on X, and drew Elon Musk’s ire.
41. Reuters reported Musk’s DOGE is expanding its use of Musk’s artificial intelligence chatbot Grok in the federal government to analyze data, raising concerns of violating conflicts of interest law, and putting sensitive information about millions of Americans at risk.
42. On Friday, the Supreme Court temporarily blocked a judge’s order for DOGE to comply with Freedom of Information Act requests by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics. The brief administrative stay will give the court more time to consider the underlying issues.
43. Politico reported Michael Nedd, a 30-year veteran and deputy director for administration and programs of the Bureau of Land Management, was escorted out of his office by security on Tuesday, reportedly for telling employees to ignore a DOGE directive.
44. On Tuesday, a federal judge ruled that Musk must face a lawsuit filed by 14 Democratic attorneys general claiming he wielded illegal power by orchestrating Trump’s dramatic cuts in federal government jobs and spending, after the Trump regime tried to define his role as temporary.
45. On Thursday, the Health and Human Services Department announced that it found that Columbia University violated civil rights law by “acting with deliberate indifference” toward harassment against Jewish students. No new actions were included in the announcement.
46. On Thursday, the Department of Homeland Security announced it would halt Harvard University’s ability to enroll international students, saying, “It is a privilege, not a right, for universities to enroll foreign students and benefit from their higher tuition payments.”
47. Harvard enrolls roughly 7,000 international students, more than 25% of its student body, and relies on their full pay tuitions. DHS Sec. Kristi Noem said the restriction applies to current and future students. International students were left scrambling.
48. Later Thursday, a federal judge blocked the Trump regime from revoking the immigration status of foreign students, saying the regime “acted arbitrarily and capriciously,” and granted nationwide relief to thousands of students.
49. On Friday, a federal judge issued a temporary restraining order against the Trump regime’s effort to bar international students from Harvard, agreeing with Harvard that its implementation would cause “immediate and irreparable injury.”
50. NYT reported that the budget bill passed by the House, if passed in the Senate, would punish elite schools like Harvard, by raising the tax that wealthy schools pay on the investment returns generated by their endowments from 1.4%, to a tiered system under which Harvard could pay 21%.
51. On Sunday, Trump attacked Harvard on Truth Social, claiming that some students come from countries that do not have the best interests of the U.S. in mind, and demanding a list of students, posting, “We want those names and countries.”
52. The WSJ Editorial Board questioned in an op-ed, “Is Trump Trying to Destroy Harvard,” calling it “a short-sighted attack on one of America’s great competitive strengths: Its ability to attract the world’s best and brightest,” and saying between this and tariffs, China must be rejoicing.
53. On Monday, Memorial Day, Trump posted on Truth Social, “I am considering taking THREE BILLION DOLLARS of Grant Money away from a very antisemitic Harvard, and giving it to TRADE SCHOOLS all across our land.”
54. Trump also posted accusations again that Harvard was being slow to respond to the regime’s requests for information on “foreign student lists,” saying they need them determine how many “radicalized lunatics, troublemakers all, should not be let back into our Country.”
55. On Tuesday, the Trump regime’s General Services Administration instructed federal agencies in a letter to cut all remaining federal contracts with Harvard, worth an estimated $100 million.
56. NYT reported that Trump’s attacks on Harvard have unified its student body, as students came together to protest. Jacob Miller, the head of the school’s Hillel chapter said, “We will not allow our identities to be invoked to undermine institutions of higher education.”
57. On Tuesday, ABC News reported that the State Department ordered U.S. embassies and consulates to temporarily pause scheduling of new interviews for international students seeking visas, saying new appointments should not be granted until new guidance is given.
58. AP reported that with the Trump regime cuts to federal funding for scientific grants, thousands of scientists have lost their jobs or grants, and are now being lured by universities in foreign countries such as Canada, France, and Australia, to come work there.
59. On Thursday, House Republicans took a first step in passing Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” 215–214, an expensive package of tax cuts that would add significantly to the deficit, rattling investors. Yields on U.S. bonds continued to rise, raising the cost of mortgages to corporate loans.
60. On Friday, Trump threatened new tariffs on his Truth Social account, posting that he would impose 50% tariffs on the European Union, saying discussions “are going nowhere,” and adding the EU has been “taking advantage” of the U.S. Trump said the tariffs would start June 1.
61. Trump also threatened Apple with a 25% tariff, posting iPhones sold in the United States should be “manufactured and built in the United States, not India, or anyplace else.” He later told reporters that the 25% tariff would be on all smartphones not manufactured in the U.S.
62. Trump ignored repeat warnings that his tax bill and trade war could increase the deficit by as much as $3 trillion, harm his voters, and hurt the finances of low-income families. Roughly half of businesses expect higher consumer costs for their products because of Trump’s tariffs.
63. A Bloomberg poll found 56% of Americans said their household finances would be better off if Trump’s tariffs had not been implemented, 69% said they expect to pay higher costs, and 49% said tariffs would be bad for the economy.
64. On Sunday, Trump announced an extension of the tariff on the European Union that he had imposed on Friday until July 9, saying he received a call from Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, requesting an extension.
65. Greenland awarded a lucrative 30-year mining permit to a Danish-French group seeking to extract a moon-like rock that could offer a climate-friendly alternative in aluminum production, a blow to Trump who repeatedly spoke about his desire to gain access to the minerals.
66. On Friday, four prominent, top partners of Paul Weiss, the first firm to capitulate to Trump in March, left to start their own firm. The four included Karen Dunn, Bill Isaacson, Jeannie Rhee, and Jessica Phillips, making six partners that had departed so far.
67. Later Friday, a federal judge struck down Trump’s executive order sanctioning the law firm Jenner & Block, calling it unconstitutional, and saying Trump was trying “to chill legal representation the administration doesn’t like, thereby insulating the Executive Branch.”
68. On Tuesday, a federal judge ruled Trump’s executive order targeting WilmerHale was unconstitutional. The ruling marked the third win for the four firms that fought Trump’s orders.
69. NYT reported that Trump allies are directly approaching the nine law firms that settled with him, who committed to providing more than $1 billion in pro bono hours. Law firms say they are getting bombarded with requests for help with rental leases and medical benefits, which is not their expertise.
70. Newsmax host Greta Van Susteren asked Skadden, Arps to represent a friend of a friend suing a local judge in Michigan over a protective order in his divorce proceedings. When they said they would provide support but not directly take the case, she complained about it on X.
71. On Friday, Hegseth issued an order requiring reporters to have official escorts within much of the Pentagon building, the latest step by the Trump regime to limit access of the press.
72. In another Friday purge, the Trump regime abruptly fired scores of staffers at the National Security Council, dramatically downsizing the coordinating body. Cuts included both career officials and political appointees. The cuts were made under acting NSA Marco Rubio.
73. ABC News reported that Rubio also put more than half of the officials at the National Security Council at the White House on administrative leave on Friday afternoon. Rubio’s restructuring seeks to move the NSC from the White House to the State and Defense Departments.
74. NYT reported internal Environmental Protection Agency documents show the agency plans to eliminate all limits on greenhouse gases from coal and gas-fired power plants, arguing the gases do not contribute “significantly” to climate change, although scientists say they do.
75. On Saturday, at a commencement speech at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, Trump said graduates would be the first to serve in a “golden age,” without “nation-building crusades” and without subjecting servicemembers to “absurd ideological experiments here and at home.”
76. In an hour long speech, Trump made himself the topic, taking credit for rebuilding the military, a false claim. He said, “I went through a very tough time with some very radicalized sick people,” and “I was investigated more than the great late Alphonse Capone.”
77. Trump seemed to go off script, telling graduates to avoid “trophy wives,” saying real estate developer Bill Levitt, “ended up getting a divorce, found a new wife,” adding, “But that doesn’t work out too well, I must tell you, a lot of trophy wives, it doesn’t it work.” The audience was silent.
78. On Monday, Memorial Day, Trump posted on Truth Social, “HAPPY MEMORIAL DAY TO ALL, INCLUDING THE SCUM THAT SPENT THE LAST FOUR YEARS TRYING TO DESTROY OUR COUNTRY THROUGH WARPED RADICAL LEFT MINDS.”
79. Trump also blamed Biden for allowing “MURDERERS, DRUG DEALERS, RAPISTS, GANG MEMBERS, AND RELEASED PRISONERS” into the U.S. and attacked judges, saying, “ALL PROTECTED BY THESE USA HATING JUDGES WHO SUFFER FROM AN IDEOLOGY THAT IS SICK.”
80. Trump added, “HOPEFULLY THE UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT, AND OTHER GOOD AND COMPASSIONATE JUDGES THROUGHOUT THE LAND, WILL SAVE US FROM THE DECISIONS OF THE MONSTERS WHO WANT OUR COUNTRY TO GO TO HELL.”
81. Later, at Arlington National Cemetery, in what is usually a nonpolitical commemoration of the nation’s fallen soldiers, Trump continued the message of his Truth Social post, and credited himself for “a republic that I am fixing after a long and hard four years.”
82. Trump again took swipes at Biden, saying, “That was a hard four years we went through,” adding, “Who would let that happen? People pouring through our borders unchecked,” and “People doing things that are indescribable and not for today to discuss.”
83. Trump highlighted his upcoming celebration of the Army’s 250th anniversary, saying it “blows everything away, including the World Cup and including the Olympics,” and adding, “Can you imagine? I missed that four years, and now look what I have. I have everything.”
84. On Monday, Prince Charles visited Canada’s capital Ottawa, at the invitation of Prime Minister Mark Carney. The highly symbolic visit, the first time a British monarch will open Canadian parliament 68 years, was to show support for the nation that recognizes him as its sovereign.
85. Charles opened Canada’s Parliament on Tuesday, saying, “the true north is indeed strong and free.” While not mentioning Trump by name, Charles noted the “unprecedented” challenges Canada is facing that have left many Canadians “feeling anxious and worried.”
86. On Monday, Trump rebuked Russian President Vladimir Putin for escalating attacks on Ukraine, calling it “absolutely crazy,” and saying, “He’s killing a lot of people, and I don’t know what the hell happened to Putin. I’ve known him a long time. Always gotten along with him.”
87. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called for economic sanctions, saying, “The silence of America, the silence of others in the world, only encourages Putin.” Trump criticized Zelensky, posting he “is doing his Country no favors by talking the way he does.”
88. Later Monday, the Kremlin dismissed Trump’s criticism of Putin as “emotional,” with Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov telling state-run Tass news service that it was “an emotional overload of absolutely everyone and emotional reactions.”
89. On Tuesday, Trump stepped up his criticism of Putin, posting on Truth Social, “Putin doesn’t realize is that if it weren’t for me, lots of really bad things would have already happened to Russia, and I mean REALLY BAD,” adding, “He’s playing with fire!”
90. Tesla’s sales in Europe plunged 49% in April year-over-year, amid Musk’s brand fallout and increasing competition. The drop came even as overall battery electric car sales rose 34% annually in April.
91. On Tuesday, NPR and public radio organizations sued the Trump regime over funding cuts, saying Trump’s executive order violated the Constitution and the First Amendment, and that “the power of the purse is reserved to Congress.”
92. On Tuesday, Jeff Bezos-owned Washington Post offered staffers buyouts, targeting veteran staffers who have worked for 10 or more years in video, the copy desk, and the opinion section, in what was viewed as an ultimatum, are you with us or not.
93. On Tuesday, Trump threatened to pull “large scale” federal funding from the state of California, posting on Truth Social that the state “continues to ILLEGALLY allow ‘MEN TO PLAY IN WOMEN’S SPORTS.’” He did not specify what funding he was referring to.
94. On Tuesday, a federal judge issued a temporary restraining order against Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and other Trump regime officials, barring them from withholding funding or approvals from New York in an attempt to end congestion pricing.