Week 48 — The Return

This week Trump and his White House budget director made dramatic threats of mass firings of federal workers if the shutdown continued, in an effort to get Democrats to capitulate. As the shutdown neared the end of its first week, and Democrats appeared to have the upper hand, Trump escalated, threatening to withhold to back pay from furloughed workers. Cracks began to appear, as air traffic controllers, already in short supply with previous Trump cutbacks, stopped showing up to work, and delays spread to airports around the country.

The other big story this week was Trump escalating his threats to send National Guard troops to two Democratic cities, Portland and Chicago. After a Trump-appointed federal judge ruled he could not deploy the Oregon National Guard in Portland, the regime tried an end-around of deploying the California National Guard there, which the furious judge also temporarily blocked. As the week closed out, Trump deployed the Texas National Guard to Chicago, in what the Illinois governor dubbed an “authoritarian march,” while Trump threatened to throw him and the mayor of Chicago in jail, and possibly invoke the Insurrection Act.

Meanwhile, the country’s mood continues to sour. Just 17% say Trump’s policies are making them financially better off. Trump finds little support for deploying military troops against the wishes of governors (37% approve), and an overwhelming 83% say the U.S. military should remain politically neutral.

1. A CBS/YouGov poll found just 17% said Trump’s policies were making them financially better off, 51% worse off, 32% the same. The poll also found low approval for the government shutdown, with most (39%) blaming Trump and Republicans over Democrats (30%).
2. NYT reported that the Treasury Department is developing plans to mint a one-dollar commemorative Trump coin, with one side bearing his profile and the other showing him with the words “Fight, Fight, Fight,” as part of the 250th birthday of the U.S.
3. On Wednesday, the Trump regime withheld $18 billion of previously awarded federal funding for two New York City area transit projects, in an effort to pressure Congressional Democrats in the area to join Republicans and reopen the government.
4. White House budget director Russell Vought threatened to cancel an additional $8 billion in previously approved federal funds for projects in mostly Democratic states, posting on X it was because it was a “Green New Scam funding to fuel the Left’s climate agenda.”
5. Vought also told Republicans on a call that the shutdown presented an opportunity to remove all government employees who were working on programs that did not align with Trump’s agenda. Already the government had cut 300,000 workers since December.
6. On Wednesday, the Trump regime silenced all news broadcasts from Voice of America and furloughed all of its journalists, a break from previous practice, and two days after a judge had reinstated about 500 of the broadcaster’s staffers.
7. On Thursday, Trump bragged on Truth Social the government shutdown was an “unprecedented opportunity,” and threatened that he would be meeting with Vought to decide “which of the many Democrat Agencies, most of which are a political SCAM, he recommends to be cut.”
8. WAPO reported that senior federal officials in the regime have quietly warned several agencies that firing employees while the government is shut down may violate appropriations law, and would be vulnerable to legal challenges cited by labor unions in mass layoff cases.
9. On Friday, the Trump regime’s Transportation Department froze $2.1 billion in funding for two infrastructure projects in Chicago, blaming Congress’ two Democratic leaders, Sen. Chuck Schumer and Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, for the shutdown in a statement explaining the freeze.
10. On Friday, the Trump regime reversed an earlier freeze, restoring $187 million in cuts it made to law enforcement funding for New York’s intelligence and counterterrorism operations. The cuts represented the largest defunding of police operations in New York in decades.
11. NYT reported Trump was unaware of the cuts until NY Gov. Kathy Hochul called him to protest. The regime then made a frantic effort to restore funding from the Homeland Security Grant Program. The move highlighted the regime’s chaos amid its efforts to punish Democrats.
12. NYT reported that some employees of the Education Department said their out-of-office email messages inserted partisan language without their consent: “Unfortunately, Democrat Senators are blocking passage of H.R. 5371 in the Senate which has led to a lapse in appropriations.”
13. On Friday, the American Federation of Government Employees sued the Trump regime over the out-of-office email partisan language, saying the regime was “unlawfully compelling agencies and civil servants across the federal government to engage in political rhetoric.”
14. On Friday, the Federal Emergency Management Agency said it was withholding more than $300 million in emergency preparedness grants from states, until they can prove that their population counts exclude migrants who have recently been removed from the country.
15. NYT reported budget experts said Trump’s weaponizing of the funding during a shutdown was unprecedented, and an example of Trump believing he had “unilateral” control over the budget, which he could use in his effort to coerce states to adopt his agenda.
16. WAPO reported 750,000 federal employees were furloughed, and many others were working without pay during the shutdown. For some, after mass layoffs and other anti-worker actions by the Trump regime, the shutdown was a last straw, and many said they sought new jobs.
17. On Friday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics failed to issue its monthly data on unemployment and wage growth due to the government shutdown. In the past, the agency’s data was viewed as the most reliable, and used both by the Federal Reserves and companies.
18. The Trump regime’s recent actions, including canceling collection of data on food insecurity and farmers’ wages, meant that the data would already be less reliable than in the past. Private companies ADP and Challenger, Gray have already reported a weakening labor market.
19. Most presidential libraries were closed, unannounced, after the government shutdown, including the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Boston and the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library in Atlanta.
20. On Monday, flight delays occurred in cities like New York, Denver, and and Los Angeles, as air traffic controller staffing shortages worsened amid the shutdown. The Transportation Department said the federal program that subsidizes rural airports would run out on Sunday.
21. On Tuesday, airport delays spread to other airports around the country as air traffic controllers, already understaffed by 3,000 of the 14,000 needed, saw increasing no-shows at work. Union officials insisted there was no organized protest to the shutdown.
22. On Tuesday, a newly disclosed memo by the White House Office of Management and Budget asserted that back pay for federal workers furloughed during the shutdown is not assured, in an effort to pressure Democrats into capitulating.
23. Asked about the memo, Trump told reporters, “I would say it depends on who we’re talking about,” adding some employees “really don’t deserve to be taken care of, and we’ll take care of them in a different way,” and blaming Democrats for putting workers “in great risk.”
24. WAPO reported that while the regime said immigration enforcement will “remain unchanged” during the shutdown, employees in the Office of Detention Oversight, which inspects detention centers to ensure they meet federal standards, were furloughed amid the shutdown.
25. On Friday, Defense Department Sec. Pete Hegseth posted on social media that the U.S. killed four alleged drug smugglers near Venezuela, in a deadly boat strike. Hegseth said he directed the strike “on President Trump’s orders.”
26. NYT reported in a memo to several congressional committees, the Trump regime said it has engaged in a formal “armed conflict” with drug cartels, and “determined” that suspected smugglers are “unlawful combatants,” cementing his claim to extraordinary wartime power.
27. Experts criticized Trump’s power grab, saying it is illegal for the U.S. military to purposefully target civilians, even suspected criminals, and that drug cartels were not engaged in “hostilities,” the standard for being defined as an armed conflict.
28. WAPO reported Hegseth escalated his efforts to stem leaks and stop internal dissent, with plans to use widespread random polygraphs and impose strict nondisclosure agreements for scores of people, including senior officials.
29. WSJ reported the Trump regime proposed an expansive 10-point memo, dubbed the “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education,” that it is requesting nine public and private universities agree to in exchange for having preferential access to federal funds.
30. Demands in the memo included banning consideration of race or sex in hiring and admissions, capping international undergraduate enrollment, requiring that applicants pass admissions examinations, and keeping tuition at levels the regime sees fit.
31. While the University of Texas said it would sign, other schools and advocates expressed alarm, calling it a trap and saying it would reward schools that capitulated to Trump’s demands, and allow the federal government to have unprecedented say in higher education.
32. WSJ reported that Kai Trump, Trump’s granddaughter, used the White House lawn to market her branded $130 sweatshirts, marking the latest example of Trump family member using the White House to bolster their own commercial pursuits.
33. Apple and Google removed ICEBlock, an app that traced ICE agents, after Attorney General Pam Bondi reached out “demanding” the companies do so, claiming “ICEBlock is designed to put ICE agents at risk just for doing their jobs.”
34. The creator of the app asked that it be restored, telling CNBC, “This is about our fundamental constitutional rights in this country being stripped away” by the Trump regime, adding, “the powers that be…are capitulating to their requests.”
35. WSJ reported that the Trump regime is considering a bailout of at least $10 billion in aid for U.S. farmers, after the agriculture industry warned of the economic impact of his tariffs.
36. On Thursday, Health and Human Services Sec. Robert Kennedy fired Dr. Jeanne Marrazzo, the leading scientist at the NIH, after she was demoted and put on leave for filing a whistle-blower complaint saying that the regime’s policies were endangering public health and safety.
37. NYT reported Aaron Siri, a plaintiff’s lawyer and an ally of Kennedy, filed a petition with the FDA demanding that it strengthen the warning label on Tylenol, on the same day Trump told women not to take it due to an unproven link to autism.
38. The lawsuit was another example of actions of lawyers and activists that align with Kennedy’s anti-vax policies working in concert. Legal experts expressed concern that lawyers like Siri could have an effect on public policy in ways that might benefit his clients.
39. On Monday, acting CDC Director Jim O’Neill posted on X that drug manufacturers should split up the measles, mumps and, rubella vaccine, in use since 1971, into separate shots, claiming without evidence that standalone shots can “reduce the risk of side effects.”
40. On Tuesday, six former U.S. surgeons general appointed by both parties warned in an unprecedented op-ed that in keeping with their oath “to declare dangers when we found them,” they were speaking out to say Kennedy’s actions “are endangering the health of the nation.”
41. ABC News reported FBI Director Kash Patel fired a new agent trainee, who had worked at the FBI for over a decade in a non-agent capacity, from the FBI academy in Quantico, citing the trainee had displayed a LGBTQ Pride flag at his previous work area.
42. NBC News reported the Florida Department of Transportation removed iconic rainbow crosswalks from Ocean Drive in Miami Beach, days after the city lost its appeal to keep the artwork.
43. NYT reported that CIA Deputy Director Michael Ellis abruptly demoted the agency’s acting general counsel, a career lawyer, and put himself in that role. Ellis will now serve as deputy director and acting general counsel. It was unclear what was behind the move.
44. Ellis, a Trump loyalist who served in the first regime, was alleged after that time to have mishandled classified documents. When Trump appointed Ellis to his second regime, he falsely claimed that Ellis had been “corruptly purged by the Biden administration.”
45. WAPO reported four senior, longtime prosecutors have been pushed out of the U.S. attorney’s office for the Eastern District of Virginia in recent days over the prosecution of James Comey, including two prosecutors who were fired by new interim U.S. attorney Lindsey Halligan.
46. Reuters reported an FBI agent was fired after he refused to arrange a “perp walk” for Comey in front of the news media cameras after he was federally charged last month.
47. Pope Leo criticized the Trump regime’s treatment of immigrants, saying that someone who is “in agreement with the inhuman treatment of immigrants in the United States, I don’t know if that’s pro-life.” The regime rejected the Pope’s characterization of treatment as inhumane.
48. Days later, Pope Leo told U.S. bishops visiting him at the Vatican that they should firmly address how immigrants were being treated by the Trump regime’s hardline policies.
49. On Friday, Department of Homeland Security Sec. Kristi Noem said the regime would be adding ICE agents “all over” the Super Bowl, after the announcement that Latin musician Bad Bunny, who had been critical of Trump during the election, would be performing in the halftime show.
50. On Friday, the Supreme Court ruled 6–3 the Trump regime can revoke temporary protection status for 300,000 Venezuelan immigrants, in a brief, unsigned order, marking the second time in four months that the court ruled the migrants can be deported.
51. On Friday, a federal judge ruled that there was a “realistic likelihood” that the Trump regime’s indictment of Kilmar Abrego Garcia amounted to vindictive prosecution by the DOJ, a major rebuke. DOJ officials, including Deputy AG Todd Blanche, were mentioned in the ruling.
52. Mario Guevara, a Spanish-language journalist known for livestreaming ICE raids, who was arrested while covering a “No Kings” protest, was deported to his native El Salvador after being held for more than 100 days in Georgia. Guevara said he lost 25 pounds during his custody.
53. On Friday, a group of unions, higher education professionals, religious organizations, and others sued the Trump regime over his $100,000 H-1B visa fee, claiming that Trump’s ability to restrict entry under the Immigration and Nationality Act does not include imposing a fee.
54. On Friday, a federal judge said Trump wrongly removed three of the Puerto Rico Oversight board members overseeing finances when he fired them without cause, saying he failed to comply with a 2016 law that created the seven-member board.
55. NYT reported the Trump regime plans to drastically cut the refugee admissions cap to a record low of 7,500, from the 125,000 cap set by the Biden administration last year. The cut would effectively close the program beyond prioritizing white South Africans to enter.
56. On Saturday, Trump authorized the deployment of 300 National Guard troops to Illinois, with a White House spokesperson baselessly citing, “Amidst ongoing violent riots and lawlessness, that local leaders like [Illinois Gov. JB] Pritzker have refused to step in to quell.”
57. The move came after weeks of Trump’s threats. Gov. Pritzker said “there is no need for military troops,” adding, “I will not call up our National Guard to further Trump’s acts of aggression against our people.”
58. On Saturday, U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agents shot and wounded Marimar Martinez, who they alleged was part of a convoy of protesters in Chicago that was seeking to “ambush” them. DHS referred to the protestors as “domestic terrorists.”
59. On Saturday, a federal judge temporarily blocked Trump’s deployment of the Oregon National Guard troops in Portland, saying she expected a trial court to find Trump exceeded his constitutional authority and likely violated the 10th Amendment. The judge was a Trump appointee.
60. Later Saturday, the same judge blocked the “relocation, federalization, or deployment” of any National Guard troops to Portland, after the Trump regime tried to deploy the California National Guard, saying she was “troubled” by the regime’s attempt to work around her earlier order.
61. On Sunday night, after a hearing, the judge issued a second temporary restraining order, blocking the Trump regime from deploying any federalized members of the National Guard from any state to Oregon.
62. On Sunday night, Hegseth said in a letter that Trump ordered 400 members of the Texas National Guard to deploy for “federal protection missions” in Portland, Chicago, and other cities if needed. Pritzker called it “Trump’s Invasion.”
63. On Monday, Pritzker told reporters that Trump was using the military “as political props and as pawns.” He showed a video shared by Noem on social media of a raid in Chicago, saying, “They brought Black Hawk military helicopters and more than 100 agents in full tactical gear.”
64. Illinois sued the Trump regime over the National Guard deployment, saying sending the National Guard into the state was illegal and unconstitutional.
65. Asked about the comments and whether he would invoke the Insurrection Act if blocked by the courts, Trump said he did not yet see the need to use it, but “if I had to enact it, I’d do it, if people were being killed and courts were holding us up, or governors or mayors.”
66. On Tuesday, Trump again threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act after the ruling, telling reporters, “Well, it’s been invoked before,” adding, “If you look at Chicago, Chicago is a great city where there’s a lot of crime, and if the governor can’t do the job, we’ll do the job.”
67. On Wednesday, Trump posted on Truth Social that Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson “should be in jail for failing to protect Ice Officers!” National Guard troops from Texas and Illinois were expected to be deployed in Chicago on Wednesday.
68. A Reuters/Ipsos poll found 58% of Americans, including 72% of Democrats and 51% of Republicans, say troops should only be deployed for external threats. Just 37% say it is okay to send troops if the governor objects, and 83% say the military should remain politically neutral.
69. WSJ reported that Trump’s immigration push has diverted Homeland Security Investigations agents, Customs and Border Protection officers, FBI officials, and Postal Service employees from doing their traditional roles investigating drugs, money, and sex-crime cases.
70. Federal referrals for prosecution have fallen across agencies, child exploitation cases are dramatically affected, informant networks are fraying, and morale is low. One agent said the Trump regime believes they can take care of all these crimes simply by deporting people.
71. On Tuesday, the DOJ appointed Daren Margolin, a retired Marine Corps colonel who was fired from a command position for negligently firing a gun into the floor of his office, as the head of the Executive Office for Immigration Review, overseeing the entire U.S. immigration court system.
72. On Saturday, a home owned by South Carolina Circuit Court judge Diane Goodstein burned down, weeks after she ruled against the Trump regime on releasing personal data from the state’s voter roll. She also got death threats over her order, which was overturned. Three were injured.
73. On Wednesday, New York Attorney General Letitia James and 19 other Democratic AGs sued the Trump regime to block new restrictions on federal funding for survivors of sexual assault and domestic violence who cannot immediately prove their immigration status.
74. On Saturday, Trump attacked James in a lengthy diatribe on Truth Social, calling her “a Complete and Total Disaster” and “scum,” and demanding she be removed from office.
75. Reuters reported that Federal Housing Finance Agency director Bill Pulte violated the agency’s ethics rules by bypassing his agency’s inspector general before making criminal referrals against officials Trump wants fired. The rules are meant to prevent abuses of power.
76. MSNBC reported Elizabeth Yusi, a top federal prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney’s Office Eastern District of Virginia, has resisted pressure from Trump to seek a criminal indictment against James. Co-workers say she sees no probable cause.
77. Paramount bought Bari Weiss’s Free Press, and made her editor in chief of CBS News, reporting to David Ellison. Weiss has been a critic of old-line media. Ellison said the network would focus on “trust and facts,” and transform how news is “gathered, reported and delivered.”
78. On Monday, the Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal of the criminal conviction of Ghislaine Maxwell, leaving her only option for early release as clemency from Trump.
79. On Monday, asked by reporters if he would pardon Maxwell, Trump left the door open, claiming, “I haven’t heard the name in so long. I can say this, that I’d have to take a look at it,” saying he will speak to the DOJ about it, and adding that Sean Combs has also asked for a pardon.
80. WSJ reported that the CEOs of the country’s six largest banks — Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley and Wells Fargo — have made trips to the White House in an attempt to woo Trump for roles in the IPO of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
81. Smaller banks have also had calls with Trump to pitch ideas. Bankers have been careful of their every move, knowing that Trump could punish their banks for any perceived slight against him.
82. On Monday, Trump unilaterally imposed 25% duties on medium- and heavy-duty trucks effective November 1, a month later than originally announced, after several U.S. car companies asked him to waive or soften the tariffs on their trucks manufactured abroad.
83. On Monday, a coalition of solar energy companies, labor unions, nonprofit groups, and homeowners sued the Environmental Protection Agency, saying the agency illegal withheld over $7 billion in solar grants for low- and moderate-income families without Congressional approval.
84. On Monday, Trump signed an executive order rolling back a Biden-era rule that halted mining in Alaska’s Northern Brooks Range, allowing for what Trump called “extraordinary resource potential.”
85. During the announcement, Trump said that the U.S. government would take a 10% stake in Canadian minerals explorer Trilogy Metals, as part of a $36 million investment to secure critical energy and mining projects in Alaska.
86. This marked the third investment of taxpayer money by the Trump regime into critical mining companies, in addition to a direct interest in the Thacker Pass lithium project in Nevada, and an equity investment in MP Materials Corp to fund a plant for rare-earth magnets.
87. On Tuesday, shares of Trilogy surged more than 200% after Trump’s announcement of the U.S. taking a stake.
88. On Tuesday, an analysis by investment giant Carlyle showed job growth was extremely weak in September, with just 17,000 jobs added, fewer than the 22,000 gain in August per the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which Trump kept shuttered in the shutdown.
89. AP reported Trump’s H-1B new $100,000 visa application fee threatens rural areas that rely on immigrants to fill vacancies in skilled professions like education and health care.
90. On Tuesday, AG Pam Bondi repeatedly stonewalled Democrats on questions about mentions of Trump in the Epstein files at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, telling the ranking member, “I’m not going to discuss anything about that with you, senator.”
91. Bondi was also asked why she said in February that the client list was sitting on her desk, but would not answer. Ranking member Sen. Dick Durbin said, “Eventually you’re going to have to answer for your conduct in this, you won’t do it today, but eventually you will.”
92. Bondi also spent much of the hearing striking back at Democrats on a range of topics, including how she was overseeing several politically sensitive cases, and the firings and resignations of prosecutors and FBI agents who handled such cases.
93. On Wednesday, James Comey pleaded not guilty to making false statements. Outside the courtroom, onlookers stood with signs reading, “Show Trial,” “Trumped Up Charges!” and “This is the Weaponization of Government.”