Week 40 — The Return

What strikes me most this week is not the number of broken norms, but the nature of what Trump is getting away with. This week he assumed control of the nation’s capital; ordered a mid-decade census amid mid-decade gerrymandering; shook up the way the federal government collects job data; and unilaterally imposed an export tax on two U.S. chip companies that amounted to extortion. Even the conservative Wall Street Journal Editorial Board noted that Trump was “expanding the long arm of the state into more of the private economy,” and mused, “Will any Republican object? Alas, probably not.”

Exactly. That is what stands out this week: that in the first and now second regimes, Trump kept and keeps pushing boundaries, again and again, until he met or meets pushback or resistance. Problem is, he is now not facing either.

Instead we are increasingly confronted with two sets of truths. Not only in Trump’s efforts to rewrite history, like the altered Smithsonian exhibit on impeachment in Week 39 (this week it was switched back…kinda), but also two sets of data. This is a hallmark of authoritarians throughout history as well: when the numbers don’t go your way, change the numbers to make them match your version of the truth.

Trump completely invented data in his power grab of the nation’s capital, taking control of the Metropolitan Police Department and mobilizing 800 National Guard troops, over a supposed emergency. Data from both the FBI and Metropolitan Police showed the exact opposite of what Trump claimed: that crime is actually falling and at a 30-year low. Why now? This shiny coin feeds the base and allows Trump to drive the narrative of what the media covers.

And that’s the point to much of what he does. You will notice what we are discussing a lot less this week: the Epstein files. This is an issue that united Americans across party line, release the files! In Trump’s manufactured chaos we’re also not talking about his low approval ratings on handling key issues like the economy, immigration, and foreign policy. Instead, he has once again regained control of the narrative with his manufactured chaos, and is increasingly acting more like a king than an elected official.

1. On Wednesday, Trump further escalated his threats to take over control of Washington D.C., telling reporters from the Oval Office that “the crime is ridiculous,” threatening to deploy the National Guard to the city, and federalize the D.C. police department.
2. Late Thursday, Trump ordered federal law enforcement officers to be deployed in D.C., starting at midnight. The deployment was to include immigration police, the FBI, U.S. marshals, the Drug Enforcement Administration, and 12 other federal agencies.
3. While Trump claimed crime in the nation’s capital was “totally out of control” on Truth Social, Washington’s crime rates, including violent crime, thefts, and burglaries, had been falling significantly.
4. The Smithsonian restored Trump to their impeachment exhibit, after reporting by WAPO in Week 39 caused a backlash, although the language in the placard for both impeachments had been altered. For the first, the word “alleged” was added to the description of his conduct.
5. For the second impeachment, the new text erased references to Trump’s Jan 6. incitement charge being based on “repeated ‘false statements’ challenging the 2020 election results” and a speech that “encouraged — and foreseeably resulted in — imminent lawless action at the Capitol.”
6. WSJ reported that the Trump regime intends to conduct a far-reaching review of the Smithsonian museums ahead of the country’s 250 year anniversary, to make sure that the exhibitions, materials, and operations align with Trump’s interpretation of American history.
7. On Thursday, Trump’s tariffs took effect. According to the Budget Lab at Yale, with the import tax, Americans were expected to pay an average of 18.3% more for imported products, the highest rate since 1934.
8. On Thursday, the U.S. Labor Department reported recurring applications for unemployment benefits surged to 1.97 million in the week ended July 26, the highest since November 2021, more weak labor market data similar to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ data in Week 39.
9. On Thursday, Trump posted on Truth Social that the CEO of Intel “is highly CONFLICTED and must resign,” after reporting by Reuters that Lip-Bu Tan invested in some manufacturers with ties to the Chinese military, and GOP Sen. Tom Cotton sent a letter to the Intel board.
10. Intel’s CEO visited the White House on Monday, and upon the announcement of his visit, shares climbed. After, Trump said, “The meeting was a very interesting one. His success and rise is an amazing story.”
11. On Sunday, NYT reported U.S. chip manufacturers Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices agreed to pay the U.S. government 15% of revenue they take in from selling some artificial intelligence chips to China, in exchange for approval to export.
12. A former trade negotiator called the deal “unprecedented” and called “the monetization of U.S. trade policy” part of a “new and dangerous world.” The move is also expected to draw legal challenges, as it could be construed as an export tax, which is not allowed under the constitution.
13. The conservative WSJ Editorial Board wrote, “Step by step, Mr. Trump is expanding the long arm of the state into more of the private economy,” adding, “Will any Republican object? Alas, probably not.”
14. The Chinese government urged local companies not to buy Nvidia’s H20 chips after Trump resumed sales, especially for government-related purposes.
15. White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Tuesday that the legality of the export tax “is still being ironed out by the Department of Commerce,” and added of export taxes, “Perhaps it could expand in the future to other companies.”
16. On Thursday, Trump and Stephen Moore, an economist at the Heritage Foundation, presented reporters with alternative charts prepared by the conservative organization showing numbers more favorable to Trump. Moore also said Trump did the right thing firing the head of the BLS.
17. On Thursday, Trump announced on Truth Social that he appointed Stephen Miran to temporarily assume the seat on the Federal Reserve Board vacated by Adriana Kugler in Week 39. Miran is a Trump loyalist who has spoken out against Chair Jerome Powell.
18. Miran has also written that the Fed has been infected by “groupthink,” and said a cure would be to shorten Fed governors’s terms from 14 to eight year stints, and that they should be subject to removal at will by the president.
19. WAPO reported frustration has grown in Japan, as it became apparent that Tokyo and Washington have different understandings of what was agreed to in the trade deal, which was a framework. Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said, “The other party [Trump] is not a normal person.”
20. On Friday, Trump called on a federal appeals court not to rule against his tariffs, posting on Truth Social that “If a Radical Left Court ruled against us at this late date…It would be 1929 all over again, a GREAT DEPRESSION!”
21. On Monday, Trump nominated E.J. Antoni, the chief economist at the Heritage Foundation, to lead the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Antoni has been a longtime critic of the BLS, indicating Trump plans to move ahead to remake the agency.
22. WSJ reported that in closed door meetings, the Trump regime is considering changes to how the government collects job data. The discussions include the ways data is collected and new technologies that could make the process more efficient.
23. Trump has baselessly claimed publicly and privately that jobs report data is designed to hurt him politically. He has also complained that revisions have clouded his story that the economy is soaring during his second regime.
24. Former BLS commissioner William Beach told the Journal that BLS employees were already concerned about political interference in their work, and that tinkering with numbers for political purposes would undermine credibility on Wall Street and around the world.
25. Prior to his nomination, Antoni told Fox News that the BLS should stop issuing its monthly jobs reports until the process is “corrected,” and instead issue “more accurate…quarterly data,” claiming “a lack of confidence in the data has far-reaching consequences.”
26. WSJ reported Antoni is a loyalist to Trump, but lacks the data research record of previous commissioners. Many former commissioners had climbed the ranks of the agency, which has always been independent and nonpartisan for its 141-year history.
27. On Tuesday, CNBC reported ahead of the release of the Consumer Price Index reading for July, Wall Street is becoming increasingly concerned with the reliability of government data.
28. On Tuesday, Trump threatened Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, posting on Truth Social, “Jerome ‘Too Late’ Powell must NOW lower the rate,” and saying he would allow a “major lawsuit” against Powell to move forward over the renovations of the Fed headquarters.
29. Later Tuesday, Trump posted on Truth Social that Goldman Sach’s chief executive should replace Jan Hatzius, the bank’s longtime chief economist, citing he made a “bad prediction” that Trump’s tariffs would cause higher inflation, hurt labor markets, and slow growth.
30. Trump also posted that David Solomon, Goldman’s chief executive, should just focus on being a DJ, a reference to Solomon’s hobby.
31. Trump signed an executive order that would allow the $12.2 trillion of capital in 401(k) and other employee retirement plans to be invested in alternative assets including private equity and cryptocurrency.
32. NYT reported on a sophisticated operation pushing Trump to pardon Changpeng Zhao, founder of the cryptocurrency exchange Binance, including flattery, lobbyists with ties to Trump’s orbit, and a business deal with the Trump family’s crypto firm, World Liberty Financial.
33. NYT reported after Oliver Burckhardt’s biotech company Extremity Care donated $5 million to MAGA Inc., and got a chance to speak to Trump at a Mar-a-Lago dinner, Trump posted a flyer about the company’s products and delayed a Medicaid change until next year.
34. WAPO reported that Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard overrode CIA officials’ concerns of revealing U.S. spy agencies’ sources and methods, in releasing minimally redacted classified documents about Russian interference in the 2016 election, with Trump’s blessing.
35. Information released included multiple references to CIA human sources reporting on Russian President Vladimir Putin’s plans, considered to be among the agency’s most closely guarded secrets. The 2020 report remained in storage at the CIA rather than on Capitol Hill.
36. On Friday, the DOJ issued subpoenas to New York AG Letitia James, relating to her office’s civil fraud case against Trump and a corruption case against the National Rifle Association. A spokesperson for James called it a “weaponization of the justice system.”
37. AG Pam Bondi named Ed Martin, a Trump ally whose nomination for U.S. attorney in Washington, D.C. failed in the Senate, to take the case. Bondi had also named Martin as special prosecutor in the mortgage fraud probe targeting Sen. Adam Schiff, another Trump target.
38. ABC News reported Ghislaine Maxwell told the Justice Department that Trump never did anything concerning in her interview with Deputy AG Todd Blanche. Maxwell’s attorney said she “would welcome any relief,” raising questions about her veracity.
39. A judge denied the DOJ’s request to unseal Maxwell’s grand jury testimony, saying the DOJ’s real motive was to fool the public with an “illusion” of transparency, adding that “the materials do not identify any person other than Epstein and Maxwell.”
40. On Thursday, a federal judge temporarily blocked further construction of ‘Alligator Alcatraz,’ after environmentalists argued that the detention center threatened protected lands and wildlife, and that the government failed to study potential harms before construction.
41. Homeland Security Sec. Kristi Noem boasted about a partnership with the state of Indiana to expand an immigration detention facility, calling it the ‘Speedway Slammer.’ Immigrant advocates said they were concerned about a proposed dramatic expansion and cavalier approach.
42. WAPO reported the Trump regime’s plan to install large-scale detention centers at U.S. military bases is taking shape, as an ICE official said Fort Bliss in El Paso was preparing to detain at least 1,000 undocumented immigrants at the Mexican border starting this month.
43. Additionally, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth green-lit the temporary use of Camp Atterbury in Indiana and Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst in New Jersey, as well as an increase in beds at Guantánamo Bay in Cuba.
44. NYT reported that the Trump regime has revived family separation, a highly controversial policy that was halted during the first regime. The Times identified at least nine cases of family separation at the Southern border after migrant parents refused to comply with deportation orders.
45. On Thursday, the Trump regime asked the Supreme Court to pause a federal judge’s ruling that prohibited ICE agents from making indiscriminate immigration-related stops in the Los Angeles area, after a federal appeals court refused to pause the order.
46. On Thursday, a second federal judge issued an injunction barring the Trump regime from rolling back birthright citizenship, in an order that extended to a class of all children. The order effectively replaced her earlier nationwide injunction that was overruled by the Supreme Court.
47. A recently detained immigrant filed a potential class action lawsuit against the Trump regime, saying conditions inside ICE holding cells at 26 Federal Plaza in Manhattan are overcrowded and unsanitary. A video recording on a cellphone confirm the complaints.
48. On Friday, a federal appeals court blocked Judge James Boasberg’s contempt inquiry into whether Trump regime officials deported Venezuelan migrants to El Salvador despite his order to turn around. The judges ruled 2–1, with the two appointed by Trump ruling for him.
49. On Tuesday, a federal appeals court ruled 2–1, overruling a lower court, that DOGE can access sensitive information on millions of Americans held at the Treasury and Education Departments, and the Office of Personnel Management. The majority opinion was written by a Trump appointee.
50. Reuters reported the Aryan Freedom Network and other neo-Nazi groups are seeing an increase in interest and recruitment, amid Trump regime’s push for “Western values” and anti-DEI initiatives. The groups have moved from the outermost edges to the center of the far-right.
51. On Thursday, Trump posted on Truth Social that he ordered the Commerce Department to begin a new U.S. census that excludes undocumented immigrants. Traditionally the census is done every 10 years and counts all U.S. residents, regardless of immigration status.
52. The move came as part of Trump’s effort to help Republicans in midterms. He tried a similar effort before the 2020 election, at a normal time for the once a decade census, but a federal court rejected his attempt, and the Supreme Court did not intervene.
53. On Thursday, Republican Sen. John Cornyn said FBI Director Kash Patel had approved his request for federal law enforcement to help locate the 13 Texas Democratic lawmakers who left the state in Week 39. The FBI had not confirmed Cornyn’s statement, and had not deployed resources.
54. On Friday, Texas AG Ken Paxton, who is primarying Cornyn, filed a lawsuit to try to remove 13 Democratic legislators from office. WAPO reported that breaking a quorum is not a crime; rather it has become a tradition in Texas.
55. On Thursday, Patel fired at least three senior officers at the FBI who had clashed with Trump, including Brian Driscoll, who briefly served as the acting head of the bureau, and who refused to fire agents involved with investigating Jan. 6. No reasons were given for the firings.
56. The FBI Agents Association, a nonprofit advocacy group, said in a statement that the firings were “deeply concerning,” adding, “Agents are not given the option to pick and choose their cases, and these agents carried out their assignments with professionalism and integrity.”
57. On Thursday, the Education Department announced it would investigate the public school system in Baltimore, after allegations that it did not do enough to address antisemitism. The move comes as the regime said it would broaden its antisemitism focus to include K-12 schools.
58. On Thursday, Trump signed an executive order directing the Education Department to require universities to submit data on the race and gender of college applicants, as well as test scores and grade point averages, to assess if minority applicants are being given preference.
59. NYT reported it was unclear who would collect and examine the data requested by the Trump regime on gender, race and grades, since the regime had fired almost every employee who worked at the National Center for Education Statistics.
60. On Friday, the Trump regime filed a motion against Harvard University related to international students, claiming the school failed to control crime, and saying Harvard’s leadership is incapable of “hosting, monitoring, disciplining, and reporting on its foreign students.”
61. Also in the regime’s bid to step up pressure on Harvard to cave, Trump’s Commerce Department said in a letter to the school’s president that Harvard had not lived up to its obligations surrounding federally funded patents, and said it would investigate.
62. NYT reported that the Trump regime is seeking $1 billion from the University of California, Los Angeles to the U.S. government plus $172 million to a claims fund that would compensate victims of civil rights violations, in order to restore about $500 million in research funding.
63. California Gov. Gavin Newsom said the state would not bow to the Trump regime’s “disgusting political extortion,” adding, “This isn’t about protecting Jewish students — it’s a billion-dollar political shakedown from the pay-to-play president.”
64. Defense Sec. Pete Hegseth reposted an almost seven minute video from a Christian nationalist church that featured pastors saying women should no longer have the right to vote. The video also featured a female congregant saying that she submits to her husband.
65. NYT reported that the Air Force issued a memo saying that transgender men and women who had applied for early retirement to avoid being kicked out due to their gender identity, all of whom had served 15 to 18 years, will be denied their lifetime benefits.
66. On Thursday, Trump signed an executive order which tightened controls over the approval process for federal grants, and ordering political appointees to deny funding if they think the grant would “promote anti-American values.”
67. European governments struggled to find alternative solutions after the Trump regime left $9.7 million worth of birth control pills and other contraceptive in a warehouse in Belgium, originally destined for clinics in the poorest countries in Africa via USAID, to be incinerated.
68. On Friday, the Girl Guides of Canada, the country’s equivalent of the Girl Scouts, suspended all U.S. trips for its 60,000 active members, citing concerns for the safety of its members amid Trump’s immigration crackdown.
69. On Friday, the day of Trump’s imposed deadline for Putin to agree to a ceasefire or face tariffs against importers of Russian oil and gas, Trump instead announced he would meet Putin on August 15th in Alaska. Experts say the meeting is a victory for Putin, breaking his diplomatic isolation.
70. Although on Thursday, the White House had said Putin would also need to agree with meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as a requirement for the meeting with Trump, on Friday Trump took away that precondition.
71. On Friday, in an agency-wide email, the Environmental Protection Agency told its employees that contracts with federal unions have been canceled, as part of Trump’s push to end collective bargaining agreements across the federal government.
72. On Friday, Trump removed Billy Long as IRS commissioner, after just 53 days on the job. WAPO reported the IRS and White House clashed, after the Department of Homeland Security sent a list of 40,000 names to get information, and the IRS said it was able to verify fewer than 3 percent.
73. It was unclear if that was the rationale for firing Long, who was the sixth IRS leader since the start of the year. Trump appointed Treasury Sec. Scott Bessent as the temporary leader of the IRS.
74. WAPO reported DHS is holding up more than $100 million in pre-approved recovery funds meant to go to North Carolina to go toward cleaning up storm damage and fixing infrastructure from Hurricane Helene, which hit the region almost a year ago.
75. On Saturday, AP reported a Georgia man who opened fire at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention headquarters in Atlanta, shooting dozens of rounds and killing a police officer, blamed the COVID-19 vaccine for making him depressed and suicidal.
76. On Sunday, Dr. Jerome Adams, a former surgeon general, blasted Health and Human Services Sec. Robert Kennedy, Jr. for his “failed” response to the shooting, saying, “It took him over 18 hours to issue a tepid response,” and citing “his inflammatory rhetoric” on vaccines.
77. WSJ reported that there is a renewed research focus on finding a treatment for measles, after the disease was considered eliminated in 2000. Vaccination rates have dropped for incoming kindergartners. This year there have been more than 1,300 cases, a 33-year high.
78. On Sunday, WAPO reported the Trump regime had dispatched FBI agents to the streets of D.C. to work overnight shifts, and combat carjacking and other crimes, as Trump weighed a federal takeover and calling up the National Guard.
79. Late Sunday, Trump posted on Truth Social the homeless in D.C. “have to move out, IMMEDIATELY” and “FAR from the Capital,” adding, “We want our Capital BACK.” Trump also posted, “Before the tents, squalor, filth, and Crime, it was the most beautiful Capital in the World.”
80. On Monday, at a press conference, Trump announced that he would take control of the Metropolitan Police Department and mobilize 800 National Guard troops, invoking a 1973 law, the District of Columbia Home Rule Act, and a section called “Emergency Control of Police.”
81. Trump falsely claimed the city’s violent crime was a “tragic emergency,” saying the city needed “rescuing” from “crime, bloodshed, bedlam and squalor and worse.” He used much of the same rhetoric about D.C. that he used to describe the Southern border.
82. Despite Trump’s claims, FBI data shows violent crime in the city fell 35% last year from 2023, the lowest in more than 30 years. Data from the Metropolitan Police also showed a decline in all types of crimes. Trump’s use of the law by a president was unprecedented.
83. Trump also said he planned to clear out the capital’s homeless population, without specifying where they would go. A White House official said the takeover would last 30 days, which is the maximum time allowed under the Home Rule Act.
84. Trump said AG Bondi would oversee the effort, and that the newly sworn in director of the U.S. Marshals Service and head of the Drug Enforcement Administration would oversee the police department, adding, “If you’re soft, weak and pathetic…I will fire you so fast.”
85. Critics noted the most violence seen in the capital in recent decades was on Jan. 6, at Trump’s behest, and that shortly after he took office for the second regime, he pardoned hundreds of rioters, many of whom had already been convicted of crimes and were serving prison sentences.
86. Trump also said he might launch a similar effort in large cities run by Democrats, like Los Angeles, Chicago, New York, and Baltimore, saying the cities are “bad, very bad.” According to the FBI, only Chicago was in the top 25 of the country’s most dangerous cities, and many of the top cities were in red states.
87. On Tuesday, National Guard troops began deploying in D.C. Although Trump described D.C. as a crime-infested wasteland, troops were seen snapping photos of themselves with visitors at the Washington Monument, and left two hours after they arrived.
88. D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser called Trump’s actions an “authoritarian push” and an “intrusion on our autonomy,” and told a town hall on social media, “We are not 700,000 scumbags and punks,” and questioned Trump’s motivation: “This is the type of thing that makes for good TV.”