Week 46 — The Return

This was quite a week! What strikes me the most in summarizing one of the longest lists of broken norms so far is the lack of pushback that persists. Trump is by all accounts unilaterally making decisions on foreign policy, economic policy, healthcare issues, censorship, prosecutorial discretion, and more. He has become so brazen that he feels comfortable saying out loud, and repeatedly, that the Justice Department must go after his enemies — something previously unthinkable — and firing those who refuse to do so. He also this week, on several occasions, lashed out at his enemies, which includes apparently every American who disagrees with him. His words, at Charlie Kirk’s funeral: “I hate my opponent. And I don’t want the best for them.” His words, at the United Nations to world leaders who allow immigration and clean energy: “Your countries are going to hell.”

Mind you, the American people are not happy. An AP-NORC poll found 75% of Americans believe the country is heading in the wrong direction, including more than half of Republicans. Trump’s approval stands at the lowest of his second regime. Yet Trump, unlike in the first term when members of his party and regime would push back, is not having boundaries erected before him. Not by Congress, nor the Supreme Court, which is again and again expanding his power, in the shade of the aptly named shadow docket, offering no explanation for their rulings. So as has been his pattern in both regimes, with no boundaries or pushback, Trump pushes norms further, and grasps more and more power.

Also alarming this week are Trump and his regime’s attacks on free speech. Members of his regime are doing his bidding now. Disney suspended comedian Jimmy Kimmel after the FCC threatened to take away broadcast rights; the FTC is wielding deal approval for media companies as a cudgel; the Pentagon restricted journalists’ access; even West Point academy was sued for silencing professors. On this one issue, there is some muted pushback from conservatives, mostly out of fear that when the shoe is on the other foot, it will come back to haunt them. Ironically, the notion of the “woke right,” something unthinkable just months ago, became a thing this week.

1. An AP-NORC poll found that 75% of Americans believe the country is heading in the wrong direction, up from 62% in June. Most of the increase came from Republicans, with 51% saying wrong direction, up from 29% in June.
2. On Monday, the Supreme Court ruled 6–3, on its shadow docked, that Trump can fire Rebecca Slaughter, a Democratic member of the Federal Trade Commission, for now, while the court considers in December expanding presidential power to shape independent agencies.
3. The court agreed to hear the case unusually early, before the case had fully worked its way through the lower courts. The conservative majority could be poised to overturn a 1935 ruling that found commissioners can only be removed for misconduct or neglect of duty.
4. Justice Elana Kagan wrote in her dissent, “Our emergency docket should never be used, as it has been this year, to permit what our own precedent bars,” and “to transfer government authority from Congress to the president, and thus to reshape the nation’s separation of powers.”
5. NBC News reported the Trump regime was feeling ecstatic about having won 19 Supreme Court decisions, including a 16-case winning streak. The last time the regime lost was in May. Almost all the cases have been decided without explanation on the shadow docket.
6. AP reported Trump’s General Services Administration is seeking to rehire hundreds of employees terminated by DOGE, which had left the agency broken and understaffed. Staffers who choose to return will be granted what amounted to seven months of paid vacation.
7. The Republican-led Senate voted along party line, 51–47, to use the ‘nuclear’ option to confirm 48 of Trump’s nominees for ambassadorial and sub-cabinet level positions as a block. The shift in rules does not affect the confirmations of federal judges and heads of Cabinet agencies.
8. On Wednesday, an open letter by more than 100 liberal philanthropies, including the Ford Foundation and George Soros’s Open Society Foundations, defended their sector and missions, amid Trump’s threatened crackdown to revoke their tax-exempt status.
9. On Wednesday, Trump posted on Truth Social that he was designating antifa as a “MAJOR TERRORIST ORGANIZATION,” which would be “thoroughly investigated,” after Charlie Kirk’s murder. It was unclear which group Trump was referring to, as antifa is an ideology, not a formal organization, according to the FBI.
10. NBC News reported a federal investigation into the assassination of Kirk thus far has found “no evidence” of ties between Tyler Robinson and left-wing groups.
11. NBC News reported two intelligence assessments from the Department of Homeland Security and Ohio’s Statewide Terrorism Analysis & Crime Center found Discord, the platform used by Kirk’s shooter, was being used by extremists to recruit and radicalize U.S. youth.
12. Trump signed an executive order on Monday declaring antifa as a “domestic terrorist organization,” a designation that does not exist under U.S. law, and threatened left wing groups with “investigatory and prosecutorial action” against those who financially support it.
13. On Wednesday, Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr said that the FCC could use its powers against ABC over comments made by comedian Jimmy Kimmel on his Monday show, that MAGA was trying to portray the shooter as “anything other than one of them.”
14. Shortly after Carr’s interview, ABC announced that Kimmel’s show was suspended indefinitely, after a major station group with ABC affiliates, Nexstar, and then Sinclair, both said they would pre-empt Kimmel’s show. Nexstar is pursuing a merger which would require FCC approval.
15. After the suspension on Wednesday night, Carr told Fox News he planned to change the agency, saying it would “enforce the public interest obligation,” adding, “If there’s broadcasters out there that don’t like it, they can turn their license in.”
16. Trump celebrated the suspension, posting on Truth Social, “Great News for America: The ratings challenged Jimmy Kimmel Show is CANCELLED,” adding, “Congratulations to ABC for finally having the courage,” and “That leaves Jimmy [Fallon] and Seth, two total losers.”
17. What started out as muted criticism after Kimmel’s show late Monday spread on conservative websites and the social media platform X, where free speech advocate Elon Musk also was critical. After ABC suspended Kimmel’s show, podcaster Benny Johnson took credit for hosting Carr.
18. On Thursday, Carr told CNBC, “we’re not done yet” with the changes in “the media ecosystem,” claiming Kimmel’s statement “was appearing to directly mislead the American public about a significant fact.”
19. Earlier in the week, Carr rejected cracking down on social media posts that were critical of Kirk, saying, “our First Amendment, our free speech tradition, protects almost all speech.” In 2022, he tweeted, “Political satire is one of the oldest and most important forms of free speech.”
20. The WSJ Editorial Board wrote, “using government to punish opponents is taking the country into dark corners that will result in less freedom, and less free speech, for all sides. The best immediate remedy is getting the FCC out of the business of regulating media.”
21. Former Disney CEO Michael Eisner backed Kimmel, while blasting the FCC for “out-of-control intimidation,” adding, “Where has all the leadership gone?” Trump ally Republican Sen. Ted Cruz compared Carr to a mafia boss.
22. Some conservatives warned about the rise of the ‘woke right,’ and consequences. Tucker Carlson said Kirk, a free speech advocate, would never want his death to be a pretext for a crackdown, while Ben Shapiro warned “one day the shoe will be on the other foot.”
23. More than 400 celebrities signed a letter sponsored by the ACLU denouncing Kimmel’s suspension as “a dark moment for freedom of speech in our nation,” and accusing ABC of being complicit in censorship. Tens of thousands boycotted and protested Disney brands.
24. On Air Force One returning from the U.K., Trump told reporters that broadcast licenses “should be taken away” from networks whose late night shows speak negatively about him, and “It will be up to Brendan Carr.” Trump also called the networks “an arm of the Democrat party.”
25. Trump also claimed, “I have read someplace that the networks were 97 percent against me again, I get 97 percent negative, and yet I won and easily,” adding, “all they do is hit Trump,” and “they haven’t had a conservative on in years.”
26. On Friday, Trump told reporters in the Oval Office that negative coverage of him should be illegal, saying, “They’ll take a great story and they’ll make it bad. See, I think that’s really illegal,” adding, “Personally, you can’t take, you can’t have a free airwave” for doing that.
27. Days earlier, Trump lashed out at an ABC News reporter after he asked a question about AG Pam Bondi’s hate speech comments, saying, “You have a lot of hate in your heart. Maybe they will come after ABC. ABC paid me $16 million recently for a form of hate speech.”
28. On Monday, Disney announced Kimmel’s show would return on Tuesday night. No information was giving about the discussion between the network and Kimmel. Nexstar and Sinclair, which combined reach 22% of U.S. households, said they would not air the show.
29. In his first show after returning, an emotional Kimmel did not apologize, but explained he never intended to make light of Kirk’s killing, and praised Erika Kirk for her grace toward the shooter. He criticized Nexstar and Sinclair for not running his show, saying, “That’s not American. It’s un-American.”
30. Kimmel attacked Trump, saying, “a government threat to silence a comedian the president doesn’t like is anti-American,” and “He tried his best to cancel me and instead he forced millions of people to watch this show.”
31. An hour before the show aired, Trump posted on Truth Social, “I can’t believe ABC Fake News gave Jimmy Kimmel his job back,” threatening to sue ABC, “I think we’re going to test ABC out on this,” and citing the $16 million the network paid to settle his defamation lawsuit.
32. WSJ reported the Trump regime canceled an annual government hunger survey on how many Americans struggle with food insecurity. The data had been collected every year since the mid-1990s, and is used to make funding decisions for food assistance programs.
33. On Thursday, Texas A&M president Mark Welsh, a retired four-star general, resigned, after a student’s viral video accusing an instructor of illegally teaching “gender ideology” led to the instructor, a dean and a department head being fired, and calls for a DOJ investigation.
34. On Friday, the Pentagon introduced new restrictions on reporter access, which instructs that reporters must pledge not to gather or use any information that had not been formally authorized for release, or risk losing their credentials to cover the military.
35. On Monday, a law professor at West Point sued the military school, saying the academy is violating the First Amendment by banning books and restricting speech of professors in the classroom.
36. NYT reported Tiffany Trump’s father-in-law, Michael Boulus, has been given a senior position in the State Department, and blended his work for the government with business deals he is pursuing in Africa. Some senior regime officials have warned him to stay in his lane.
37. At the same time, Tiffany and her husband were given use of a world-class luxury yacht, which rents for $1.4 million per week, owned by Libyan billionaire oil traders Ercument and Ruya Bayegan, who stand to benefit from any increase in Libyan oil production.
38. On Wednesday, Federal Reserve Governor Stephen Miran, newly appointed by Trump, was the sole dissent in the Fed’s decision for a quarter-point rate cut, calling instead for a half-point cut. Mirant also called for the Fed to go much lower this year than other Fed governors.
39. On Thursday, the Trump regime asked the Supreme Court to allow Trump to immediately remove Fed governor Lisa Cook, claiming there was “sufficient cause” to fire her.
40. Bloomberg reported Treasury Department Sec. Scott Bessent agreed to occupy two different houses as his “principal residence” at the same time, the same issue that the Trump regime has used to call for the removal of Cook.
41. On Friday, Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Paul Atkins told CNBC the agency would follow Trump’s recommendation, and propose a rule change to end quarterly reporting for public companies, and switch to a semiannual schedule.
42. On Friday, WSJ reported the Trump regime is exploring using the $550 billion investment funding established as part of the trade deal with Japan to jumpstart U.S. manufacturing. The proposal would give the regime an outsized ability to exert influence over the private sector.
43. On Friday, Trump said he has reached a preliminary agreement with Chinese leader Xi Jinping on a call to approve a group of investors, which appeared to be at Trump’s choosing, to take control of TikTok’s U.S. operations.
44. Trump told Fox News on Sunday that the Murdoch family will be involved in the TikTok deal, along with more of his allies, including Larry Ellison of Oracle and Michael Dell of Dell Technologies, calling them “American patriots” who “love this country.”
45. On Monday, the WSJ, Dow Jones, and News Corp filed a motion to dismiss Trump’s $10 billion defamation lawsuit over its article on Trump’s letter that was included in Jeffrey Epstein’s 50th birthday book, saying the article was factual.
46. WAPO reported Trump halted $400 million in military aid to Taiwan over the summer, amid his push to negotiate a trade deal, and possibly hold a summit with Xi Jinping, marking a U-turn in U.S. foreign policy.
47. WSJ reported that Saudi Arabia, which has relied on the U.S. for military protection for decades, is seeking new security alliances, as trust in the U.S. under Trump erodes.
48. Bloomberg reported according to people close to the Kremlin, Russian President Vladimir Putin believes he can step up attacks on Ukraine, and based on his meeting with Trump in Alaska, Trump will not do much to bolster Ukraine’s defenses.
49. On Friday, three Russian jets entered NATO member Estonia’s airspace for 12 minutes, in what the country’s government called an “unprecedentedly brazen” incursion. The move marks Putin’s latest test for NATO.
50. Asked by reporters on Friday about the incursion, Trump claimed he had not been briefed, but added, “I don’t love it. I don’t like when that happens,” adding, “Could be big trouble. I’ll let you know later.”
51. On Monday, three large drones sent by Russia shut down Copenhagen Airport, Scandinavia’s largest, in the latest escalation by the Kremlin. Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen called it “the most serious attack on Danish critical infrastructure to date.”
52. ABC News reported senior Justice Department officials, at the behest of Trump, have pressured the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia to indict New York AG Letitia James for mortgage fraud, despite no clear evidence after five months of investigation and interviews.
53. ABC News reported Trump told regime members in the Oval Office on Friday that he wants Erik Siebert, his handpicked U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, fired over being unable to find incriminating evidence of mortgage fraud and charging James.
54. On Friday, Siebert resigned, under pressure from Trump. The regime’s efforts to oust him represented a further erosion of DOJ norms, which had traditionally insulated DOJ employees from White House influence over prosecutorial decisions.
55. On Saturday, in a series of extraordinary Truth Social posts, Trump demanded that AG Bondi act swiftly against his political enemies, posting, “We cant delay any longer, it’s killing our reputation and credibility,” adding, “JUSTICE MUST BE SERVED, NOW!!!”
56. Trump falsely claimed, “They impeached me twice, and indicted me (5 times!), OVER NOTHING.” He urged the immediate prosecution of James, former FBI director James Comey, and Sen. Adam Schiff, claiming the three were “guilty as hell.”
57. Trump claimed that Siebert did not quit, “I fired him!” citing Siebert’s unwillingness to seek indictments for James and Comey. After Siebert resigned, the DOJ demoted his chief deputy, who would have assumed the position in a normal transition.
58. Trump also said he would nominate Lindsey Halligan, a White House adviser and his former personal lawyer, to replace Siebert, saying, “She will be Fair, Smart, and will provide desperately needed, JUSTICE FOR ALL!” Halligan had no prosecutorial experience.
59. Later Saturday, Trump told reporters outside the White House, “I just want people to act. They have to act,” adding, “We have to act fast.” WAPO reported prosecutors in other offices would feel pressure to fall in line with Trump’s demands.
60. The posts and comments marked Trump’s most overt attempts to defy the firewall that has traditionally existed between the DOJ and the White House. Former DOJ officials said they were stunned by the acceleration and increasing audacity of Trump.
61. On Monday, Trump told reporters that Bondi should focus on investigating “everyone,” saying “it’s a big office,” and adding, “there are a lot of crooked people that were here before me, and people that almost destroyed our country.”
62. On Sunday, NYT reported Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan, was under investigation for bribery, after he accepted a $50,000 bag of cash from an undercover FBI agent in September 2024, which was recorded on audiotape. Homan was not the target of the investigation at the time.
63. The FBI planned to see if he would follow through on his promises to deliver government contracts if Trump won the election. In February 2025, the DOJ and FBI, under control of Trump loyalists, shut down the investigation, calling the case a “deep state” probe.
64. On Monday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt lied, saying, “Mr. Homan never took the $50,000 that you’re referring to, so you should get your facts straight,” claiming, “This was another example of the weaponization of the Biden [Department of Justice].”
65. On Monday, FBI Director Kash Patel and Deputy AG Todd Blanche said the previous administration “found no credible evidence of any criminal wrongdoing,” adding, “resources must remain focused on real threats to the American people, not baseless investigations.”
66. The Trump regime reinstated a harder citizenship test containing more complex questions, making it more difficult to pass. A spokesperson for the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services said it ensures new citizens are “fully assimilated and will contribute to America’s greatness.”
67. On Wednesday a federal judge stepped in to order the Trump regime to fix conditions at a New York City ICE detention center on 26 Federal Plaza, saying he was intervening to protect migrants from potentially “unconstitutional and inhumane treatment.”
68. On Thursday, in a strongly-worded opinion, a federal judge blocked the Trump regime from deporting unaccompanied Guatemalan minors, saying the regime’s “conduct suggest that they are not applying their criteria accurately, consistently, or in ways that reflect good faith.”
69. The judge, a Trump appointee, chastised the regime, saying while they claimed to be reunifying the children with their parents once there, Guatemala’s attorney general reported regime officials could not locate parents for many of the children.
70. On Thursday, WAPO reported that ICE is looking for new office space in roughly 300 locations around the country, to house what is expected to be 10,000 new immigration officers and lawyers to prosecute removal cases, in what the regime is calling the “ICE Surge.”
71. On Friday, the Trump regime asked the Supreme Court in an emergency order to allow it to strip legal protections under the Temporary Protected Status for roughly 350,000 Venezuelan migrants whose protections expired in April.
72. On Friday, the Trump regime also asked the Supreme Court to allow it to enforce a passport policy which requires transgender and nonbinary people to use a male or female sex designation based on their birth certificate.
73. On Friday, the Trump regime announced that it would charge a $100,000 annual fee for H-1B visa applications beginning on Sunday, setting off a wave of anxiety and confusion by companies and employees, and leaving them scrambling to deal with the sudden announcement.
74. Trump said in his proclamation that companies “have abused the H-1B statute and its regulations to artificially suppress wages,” calling it a security threat that resulted in a “disadvantageous labor market for American citizens.”
75. In an attempt to calm the panic, the White House on Saturday clarified that the annual fee does not apply to current visa holders, and that it does not impact their ability to travel to or from the U.S. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the $100,000 is a one-time fee.
76. Medical groups warned that Trump’s $100,000 visa fee threatened to exacerbate an already existing shortage of doctors in the U.S., making it harder for rural hospitals to operate.
77. Bloomberg reported U.S. student visa arrivals fell to a four-year low in August, dropping 19% year over year, and the fifth month of decline. The drop off came amid Trump’s “America first” policies. Experts say the fall off could have a major impact on the U.S. economy.
78. NYT reported Orville Etoria, a Jamaican who was deported by the Trump regime to Eswatini, where he had no ties, was returned to Jamaica. The Trump regime has tried to use the threat of being deported to far-flung countries as a deterrent to illegal immigration.
79. On Friday, a federal judge struck down Trump’s $15 billion lawsuit against the NYT, calling it “decidedly improper and impermissible,” and saying, “A complaint is not a megaphone for public relations.” The judge said he would allow Trump to refile a shorter, less florid complaint.
80. On Wednesday, the day before an advisory panel was set to meet, four Democratically controlled Western States, including California, Oregon, Washington, and Hawaii, issued their own vaccine recommendations to counter Health and Human Services Sec. Robert Kennedy.
81. On Wednesday, former CDC director Susan Monarez told a Senate panel that she was fired “for holding the line on scientific integrity,” saying she “refused to commit to approving vaccine recommendations without evidence, fire career officials without cause, or resign.”
82. Three Republican Senators were taken aback by some testimony, including that career scientists had been all but excluded from Kennedy’s office. NYT reported Trump has urged Kennedy to tone down the rhetoric around Covid vaccines, which Trump has taken credit for.
83. On Thursday, the 12-member Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, with members handpicked by Kennedy, voted 8–3 to change the childhood vaccine regimen, recommending to skip a combination measles, mumps, rubella and chicken pox vaccine until a child is four.
84. The meeting turned into chaos after the first-time members voted in the morning session not to allow a federal vaccine program to cover the cost of the shots, then reversed itself in the afternoon to allow coverage, after some members said they had not understood the wording.
85. The panel also voted Friday to further limit access to Covid vaccines, recommending that adults 65 and over get the shot only after discussing the benefits and risks with a healthcare provider, raising questions on whether they can get the shot without a doctor’s permission.
86. Medical organizations sharply criticized the committee for not following the typical protocol, including muzzling and being confrontational to scientists, and using small studies that raised safety concerns as a basis for decision making.
87. Reuters reported HHS’s internal watchdog office is probing whether some 2,000 people apprehended in Trump’s Washington D.C. crackdown, even for minor offenses, have defrauded the Medicare, Medicaid, or Temporary Assistance for Needy Families programs.
88. On Saturday, at a black tie dinner, Trump railed against former president Joseph Biden, saying he “was always a mean guy, but never a smart guy” and “he’s a stupid guy,” adding, “He was always a mean son of a b — -h. How’s it working? Not working too well for him now.”
89. On Sunday, a funeral was held for Charlie Kirk before tens of thousands of mourners at the State Farm stadium in Glendale, Arizona. Many of the speakers, including several members of Trump’s cabinet, melded politics and religion, invoking Christianity and referring to Kirk as a “martyr.”
90. Trump said Kirk “became immortal,” and “He’s a martyr now for American freedom.” Trump added, “He did not hate his opponents. He wanted the best for them,” adding, “That’s where I disagree with Charlie. I hate my opponent. And I don’t want the best for them.”
91. Trump added while Erika Kirk forgave her husband’s killer, he described the shooter as a “radicalized, cold-blooded monster.” Trump also veered off into a campaign style speech, covering several policy issues in his 45-minute meandering speech.
92. On Monday, a federal judge blocked the Trump regime’s stop work order on an offshore wind farm project run by Danish energy company Orsted, off the coast of Rhode Island and Connecticut, which is 80% complete. Orsted said it would restart work as soon as possible.
93. On Monday, at a White House event alongside RFK Jr. and Dr. Mehmet Oz, director of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Trump claimed taking acetaminophen is a potential cause of autism, telling pregnant woman, “Don’t take Tylenol” for a fever, and to “tough it out” instead.
94. Employees at the CDC’s National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities, which conducts research on autism, told the WSJ that they were “blindsided” by Trump’s announcements, and that they were not consulted.
95. Some scientists warned there was little evidence supporting a link that would suggest taking acetaminophen, which has been recommended for decades, as a cause for autism; however, pregnant women having a prolonged, untreated fever can harm fetal development.
96. Trump also warned about childhood vaccinations, saying, “Don’t let ’em pump your baby up with the largest pile of stuff you’ve ever seen in your life,” and baselessly recommended, “The MMR I think should be taken separately. This is based on what I feel.”
97. Trump also baselessly recommended that children not receive a vaccine for hepatitis B until age 12, claiming it was sexually transmitted so there was “no reason” to give it to newborns, as in current CDC guidance. Hep B can also be transmitted during childbirth or through shared surfaces.
98. Trump baselessly promoted using leucovorin (folinic acid) to treat autism. He falsely claimed that there were no cases of autism in Cuba because they don’t use Tylenol, and falsely claimed there were no cases of autism among the Amish because they do not give vaccinations.
99. Scientists, public health officials, and pediatricians expressed alarm over Trump’s criticism of vaccines and floating a debunked link to autism. Trump’s baseless claims and recommendations have long been championed by anti-vaccine activists.
100. The American Psychiatric Association issued a statement opposing the regime’s suggestions that vaccines cause autism, and recommendation to take leucovorin to treat autism, saying of leucoverin, “it will require many more years of research.”
101. The World Health Organization says neither acetaminophen nor vaccines have been demonstrated to cause autism, saying, “the evidence remains inconsistent.” The European Medicines Agency said, “Available evidence has found no link.”
102. NYT reported Dr. Andrea Baccarelli, the dean of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, who consulted with top Trump health officials ahead of the announcement, was paid $150,000 to serve as an expert witness on behalf of plaintiffs in a lawsuit against the maker of Tylenol.
103. On Monday, a federal judge ordered the National Institutes of Health to reinstate hundreds of millions of dollars in research funds that it had withheld from the University of California, Los Angeles, over alleged civil rights violations.
104. On Tuesday, at the United Nations General Assembly, Secretary General António Guterres said, “We have entered an age of reckless disruption and relentless human suffering,” saying the UN’s principles were “under siege.” He jabbed Trump saying, “Fossil fuels are a losing bet.”
105. In his longest speech, Trump said immigration and climate change policies are destroying the West. Trump blamed a rise in crime on migrants, telling the audience, “Your countries are going to hell.” Trump bragged about deportations and the U.S. having the “strongest” borders.
106. Trump said migration and renewable energy were “destroying a large part of the free world.” Trump went off script, speaking for 10 minutes about “the global warming hoax,” the “green hoax,” and celebrating the U.S. withdrawal from the Paris climate accord.
107. Trump ironically said, “Let us defend free speech and free expression,” while doing the exact opposite at home. Trump criticized the UN, calling it “ineffective,” and saying, “Not only is the UN not solving the problems…it’s actually creating new problems for us to solve.”
108. Trump complained that he got “a bad escalator and a bad teleprompter” from the UN, claims that became conspiracies on right wing media and at the White House. The escalator stopping was triggered by a Trump staffer, and the White House was responsible for his teleprompter.
109. Trump spoke for 57 minutes, and despite going four times over his time limit, the customary red warning light did not go on. Trump closed by praising the histories of conquest and exploration by ancestors, and saying people must defend their homelands.
110. Fact checkers found Trump’s speech was full of misleading and false claims. He attacked Biden with claims that were untrue, falsely claimed the Muslim mayor of London wanted to impose Shariah law, and claimed to have ended seven wars which was also false.
111. A WAPO-Ipsos poll found that while Trump continues to press for being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, including repeating his false claim of ending seven wars, 76 percent of Americans, including half of Republicans, do not believe he deserves it.
112. After a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Trump did a complete U-turn, saying Ukraine could retake all its land with help of the EU, and said Russia looked like a “paper tiger.” Trump added NATO should shoot down Russian aircraft that violate their air space.
113. At the annual Climate Week NYC summit, the mood was muted after rollbacks in regulation, slashes to public funding, and lawsuits targeting some of the biggest nonprofits in the first nine months of the Trump regime, all huge setbacks for the climate and sustainability industry.
114. NYT reported on a series of Department of Housing and Urban Development emails, which showed regime members rolling back enforcement of fair housing laws, calling decades of discrimination cases “artificial, arbitrary and unnecessary.”
115. HUD’s fair housing office has seen a 65% reduction in staff. The office receives roughly 32,000 complaints each year, and has reduced lawyers on staff from 22 to six. HUD has made only four charges so far under Trump, down from 35 last year.