Week 5 — The Return

This week’s major theme is the return of nepotism and kleptocracy. The Trump family is continuing to profit and be awarded plum positions in the regime. Trump is also stacking senior roles with a record number of billionaires and centi-millionaires, many of whom will also feast off of an unprecedented amount of conflicts of interest. Kleptocracy runs counter to his campaign’s populist messaging, and could put Trump on a collision course with the country’s zeitgeist: widespread outrage against the vast inequities and extreme concentrations of wealth and power.

Brian Thompson, CEO of United Healthcare, was shot and killed outside a hotel in Manhattan this week. His murder did not elicit public sympathy, but rather unleashed rage from both sides of the political spectrum against the US healthcare system. Citizens rejoiced and mocked his killing, citing his $10.2 million pay package, and the insurance industry’s refusal to reimburse healthcare costs. The bullet casings used in the murder were marked with the words “delay” and “deny.” One commenter wrote, “This needs to be the new norm. EAT THE RICH.” The New York Police Department warned that other executives faced threats. This trend does not seem to bode well for what Trump is building in his second regime.

In addition to the kleptocracy, we are seeing a continuation of a theme from the first Trump regime: a cabinet and senior staff that is full of cronies who are inept and unqualified. Few have any relevant experience or accomplishments in the areas they are set to lead — they offer only fealty to Trump. Some pundits speculate that their collective ineptitude might well spare our democracy from major decay as it did last time. Longtime NYT columnist Paul Krugman, in his final column, dubbed it “kakistocracy” — government by the least suitable or competent citizens — and urged readers to stand up to it.

Finally, a notable backdrop this week was Biden’s absence in the public eye. Trump seemed to assume office 45 days early amid a swirl of international crises and volatility. Syria’s longtime brutal dictator Bashar al-Assad was toppled, as his allies Russia and Iran were preoccupied with their own conflicts. South Korea’s democracy was tested after President Yoon Suk Yeol briefly put his country under martial law, and faced protests and the threat of impeachment. The French government collapsed for the first time since 1962, after a no-confidence vote for Prime Minister Michel Barnie.

1. NYT reported the Trump Organization, led by Eric Trump, will issue a much more limited ethics plan for the second regime, allowing the company to profit from foreign deals, including in countries essential to US foreign policy interests.
2. Eric has struck deals for hotels in Vietnam, Saudi Arabia, and the U.A.E., and is exploring projects in Israel, and countries in the Middle East, Latin America and Asia. He is also branching out beyond real estate into new businesses like a cryptocurrency platform.
3. NYT reported the Trump Org is planning to vastly expand in India, growing from two Trump-branded buildings during the first regime, to an expected 10 in the coming years, raising issues of emerging conflicts of interest.
4. Melania Trump unveiled and marketed her 2024 Christmas ornament collection during an appearance on “Fox & Friends.”
5. Trump himself is also selling products weeks before taking office, including fragrances, sneakers, and watches. This week he used his Notre Dame moment with First Lady Dr. Jill Biden in his marketing.
6. Trump picked Kimberly Guilfoyle, fiancée of Donald Trump, Jr. and a former Fox News personality, as his ambassador to Greece, saying, “I am so proud of Kimberly. She loves America.”
7. The Guilfoyle appointment comes on the same day that Donald Jr. was seen in public, seemingly wanting to be documented, with socialite Bettina Anderson, whom he was rumored to be dating.
8. WAPO reported Elon Musk bankrolled RBG PAC, named after the later Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, with $20.5 million five days before the election.
9. RBG PAC ran ads stating that Trump would not sign a national abortion ban, as part of an effort to target specific segments of voters. Ginsburg’s granddaughter said, “to suggest that she would approve of his position on abortion, is nothing short of appalling.”
10. NYT reported that federal filings show Musk and entities he controlled spent a total of $277 million in the final months of the election to back Trump, a staggering amount for a single donor.
11. WAPO reported Trump has assembled the richest cabinet in modern history, including six billionaires and several centi-millionaires. In contrast, President Joseph Biden’s cabinet had a total net worth of $118 million.
12. Watchdog groups flagged concerns that his picks would be more attuned to their own business interests, rather than the working class voters that Trump appealed to and his populist agenda.
13. Trump named Silicon Valley billionaire David Sacks to be the “White House A.I. & Crypto Czar.” Sacks will continue to manage his venture capital funds that invest in these areas, raising conflicts of interest.
14. NYT reported that several Silicon Valley billionaires, including Musk, Sacks, Vivek Ramaswamy, and Larry Ellison have been shaping hiring decisions and even conducting interviews for senior-level jobs.
15. Their involvement potentially makes Trump’s transition one of the most conflict-ridden in modern history, and has vast implications for the Trump regime’s policies on taxes and regulations.
16. AP reported Musk and Ramaswamy warned Republicans on their recent Capitol Hill visit that they would be punished for not going along with their plans to slash spending under Trump’s proposed Department of Government Efficiency.
17. Musk also threatened that he might fund primary challengers for GOP Senators who do not go along with Trump’s nominees. Republican strategists worry this would lead to extremist, unelectable candidates.
18. NBC News reported that the Trump campaign made a $100,000 disbursement to the law firm that employed Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. three weeks before Kennedy dropped out and endorsed Trump.
19. Politico reported Pam Bondi, Trump’s nominee for AG, worked for a law firm which represented high profile corporate clients in cases against the Department of Justice. Corporations hope she will be a friend as AG.
20. NBC News reported Trump is already acting like president, 45 days before his inauguration, overshadowing President Biden. He has weighed in on foreign and economic policy, and met with world and business leaders.
21. On Saturday, Trump traveled to Paris for the reopening of Notre Dame Cathedral, and with much pomp, met with French President Emmanuel Macron and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
22. On Sunday, Trump posted “there should be an immediate cease-fire and negotiations should begin” between Russia and Ukraine to “stop the madness,” adding, “I know Vladimir well. This is his time to act. China can help.”
23. On Sunday, WSJ reported some Democrats are furious that Biden is ceding to Trump. Not only the visit to Paris while Biden stayed in Washington, but also Trump commenting on Syria a day before Biden.
24. Former President Barack Obama remained active in the transition to the first regime, saying, “There’s one president at a time.” Democrats feel Biden has forfeited that chance to push back on Trump’s promised “retribution,” and forfeited the transition period.
25. CNN reported that Israeli President Isaac Herzog called Elon Musk to discuss the release of hostages held in Gaza, at the request of hostage families, after Trump’s post that there would “ALL HELL TO PAY” if they were not released.
26. On Wednesday, Trump’s attorney asked a Georgia court of appeals to direct the trial judge to dismiss the Fulton County election interference case, citing a sitting president is immune from criminal prosecution.
27. On Tuesday, New York AG Letitia James denied Trump’s request to drop her office’s $486 million civil fraud judgment against him, saying, “Trump’s official duties will not be impeded” by the ongoing appeal process.
28. On Wednesday, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said he is not worried about Trump attempting to install a “shadow chair” to undermine him, citing “very broad support” from Congress for the Fed’s independence.
29. At the same conference, Jeff Bezos praised Trump, saying he is “optimistic” about the second regime. He also praised Musk, and said he does not think will use his newfound power to punish his enemies.
30. Bezos also said he was “proud of the decision” for WAPO not to endorse Kamala Harris. Asked about Trump’s attacks on the media, he added, “I’m going to try to talk him out of that idea. I don’t think the press is the enemy.”
31. Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong, the billionaire owner of The Los Angeles Times, said he plans to add a “bias meter’ next to new coverage and opinion pieces, claiming, without evidence, that staffers harbor biases.
32. A Ukrainian-American nonprofit asked the FCC not to allow SpaceX to put additional satellites into low-earth orbit over Ukraine, citing Musk’s “contacts with Russia and the alleged use of his Starlink system by Russian forces in Ukraine.”
33. On Friday, far-right provocateur Nick Fuentes posted his mug shots, after being arrested for a confrontation at his home with a woman who knocked his door after his “Your body, my choice” post on social media.
34. The WSJ Editorial Board called the RFK, Jr. nomination “a threat to American medical innovation,” adding if he were a Democrat, GOP Senators would “oppose him as a threat to public health.”
35. Drug company Eli Lilly’s CEO said he will fight for the FDA and its important role of reviewing data and ensuring drug safety, after RFK, Jr.’s threats, including posting that the agency’s “war on public health is about to end.”
36. On Monday, more than 75 Nobel Prize winners signed a letter urging senators not to confirm RFK Jr. to lead the Department of Health and Human Services , saying putting him in charge “would put the public’s health in jeopardy and undermine America’s global leadership.”
37. Trump’s nominee to lead the FBI, Kash Patel, threatened Olivia Troye, a former aide to VP Mike Pence, with legal action for critical statements she made about him on MSNBC.
38. A federal judge in Maryland paused the sexual abuse lawsuit against Trump’s Education Secretary pick Linda McMahon, until the state’s Supreme Court rules on the constitutionality of a state law enacted in 2023 that erased statute of limitations.
39. On Wednesday, Trump replaced his choice for White House counsel, a mere 22 days after naming his first nominee. NYT reported this reflects how quickly allegiances can change in the Trump regime.
40. On Wednesday, Trump appointed former Republican congressman Billy Long to lead the Internal Revenue Service, a break from the tradition of allowing IRS Commissioners to serve out their five-year term.
41. On Friday, Trump recommitted to Pete Hegseth, posting he will be “fantastic” in the job, adding he has a “military state of mind.” Trump also invited Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to the Army-Navy football game.
42. On Friday, NBC News reported nearly 100 former national security officials from both parties signed a letter criticizing Trump’s decision to nominate Tulsi Gabbard for Director of National Intelligence, and calling for closed-door Senate hearings to fully review any government information about her.
43. WSJ reported Trump’s pick for Energy Secretary, fracking CEO Chris Wright, said there are more positives than negatives to climate change. Counter to oil company CEO’s, Wright says there “is no climate crisis.”
44. On Sunday, NBC News reported that as Trump expedited senior level picks, amid insider jockeying between the regime factions, candidates were not properly vetted. Musk has had outsized influence.
45. Trump lost one nominee in his first regime, but has already lost two in his second. One GOP Senator said Trump “botched up the nomination process pretty bad.” Another said Senate Republicans will feel emboldened and if Hegseth gets pulled, “it will be a feeding frenzy.”
46. On Monday, Trump picked Mark Paoletta, a close friend of Justice Clarence Thomas’s and the general counsel of the Office of Management and Budget during the first Trump regime, to the same post. Paoletta believes federal agencies should be fully under a president’s control.
47. On Monday, Trump picked Harmeet Dhillon, a far-right activist with ties to Silicon Valley and a former lawyer for him, as assistant AG for civil rights, a division that helps police elections. Dhillon was co-chairwoman of the election-denying group Lawyers for Trump in 2020.
48. The Dhillon pick alarmed civil rights leaders. She would lead hundreds of civil rights attorneys charged with anti-discrimination and voting rights cases, while her ideology is “antithetical to the mission of the Justice Department.”
49. NBC News reported Trump is keeping Hegseth afloat in part to shield Gabbard, who faces pushback from Senate Republicans for her controversial foreign policy views and recent political evolution, from standing in the spotlight on her own.
50. On Friday, the European Union and five South American countries, pushed by urgency of the incoming Trump regime, reached an agreement to establish one of the largest trade zones in the world.
51. WAPO reported nearly half of the 1.4 million people with pending deportation orders targeted by the Trump regime cannot be deported because their home country is not cooperating, they are incarcerated, or they have a reprieve or deferral from a judge.
52. NBC News reported the Trump regime is preparing a list of countries to to deport some migrants to which are not their own, including Turks and Caicos, the Bahamas, Panama, and Grenada.
53. NBC News reported the Trump regime plans to rescind a longstanding policy, and will allow ICE to make arrests near sensitive locations, such as churches, schools, hospitals, and events like weddings and funerals.
54. WAPO reported that federal employees are attempting to insulate themselves from the incoming Trump regime. Civil servants are scrubbing their social media, and taking out liability insurance for the first time.
55. Some agencies are looking to reclassify jobs related to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, environmental justice, and climate change. Many are seeking jobs in the private sector. Many fear being publicly singled out by Musk and Ramaswamy.
56. WAPO reported colleges are taking steps to shield programs that may come under attack under the Trump regime, including research funding, endowments, diversity efforts, student financial aid, and visas for foreign students.
57. On Sunday, Trump’s first interview with NBC’s “Meet The Press” aired. Trump told lies or exaggerated about crime in the US, the January 6 insurrection, tariffs, vaccines, and his margin of victory.
58. Trump said he would pardon the January 6 insurrectionists on day one, deport millions of undocumented immigrants, and end birthright citizenship. He continued to refuse to concede that he lost in 2020.
59. WSJ reported although Trump claims he will sign an executive order day one ending birthright citizenship, legal experts say the change would require amending the Constitution, which was last done in 1992.
60. Trump also said he would direct his attorney general to investigate Jack Smith, and added he would like to see many of those who investigated him, including members of the House January 6 Committee, jailed.
61. Former Representative Liz Cheney called Trump’s threat an “assault on the rule of law and the foundations of our republic,” and pushed back on his lies: “This was the worst breach of our Constitution by any president in our nation’s history.”
62. Politico reported Pete Marocco, a former Trump regime official who was caught on camera with his wife inside the Capitol on January 6, is part of the transition team, working on national security personnel matters.
63. On Monday, Lara Trump stepped down as Republican National Committee co-chair. NBC News reported Trump has been pushing DeSantis to appoint her to Marco Rubio’s senate seat.
64. A report by DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz found the Trump regime secretly obtained phone and text messages of 43 congressional staffers and two members of Congress in 2017 and 2018 to investigate leaks of classified information, far broader than previously known.
65. Trump picked billionaire Tom Barrack to be ambassador to Turkey. In 2022, Barrack was acquitted on charges of acting as an unregistered foreign agent for the UAE during the Trump regime and making false statements to the FBI.

In closing, an observation on the phenomenon of people tuning out that I have been covering in the first four weeks. In Week 4, I noted how different it is to not have people hanging on his every word and tweet this time. He loves to create drama and chaos, and be the center of attention.

In this week’s list, Trump is doing with the Defense Secretary position that he did with Secretary of State and Romney last time — inventing drama. On Wednesday, he pulled back from support of Hegseth and floated DeSantis. Then on Friday, he reaffirmed support for Hegseth, while also inviting DeSantis to the Army-Navy football game (reminds me of the infamous Romney dinner audition). You can see how it is all designed like Celebrity Apprentice drama, and a way for him to screw with people he doesn’t like, or who have been disloyal. But it is so different this time because no one is paying attention to him and his machinations. I think this works so much better for all of us.