Week 50 — The Return – The Weekly List

This week Trump ordered the demolition of the White House East Wing, which seems an apt metaphor for the state of our democracy. He has assumed unbridled and unprecedented power, and is acting on his worst impulses, while sycophants throw millions his way in an attempt to curry favor.

Trump is very publicly pursuing his enemies using the apparatus of federal agencies, at which he has installed loyalists into leadership roles to carry out his every whim and fancy. Who could have imagined in one week another indictment, classifying those who speak out against him as terrorists, siccing the IRS on perceived enemies, and seeking $230 million from taxpayers for perceived slights? And that’s just the tips of the waves in a very disturbing week.

Reading through the broken norms this week, I am struck by how many would have been previously unthinkable, even during the first regime. The list of atrocities is startling! I encourage you all to read through this long and disturbing list. Information is still power. It is imperative that we keep informed of what is happening, so we will find our way back to normal.

An AP/NORC poll found Trump’s approval at 37 approve, 61 disapprove, the lowest of his second regime. On his handling of the economy, a CNBC survey found 42 approve, 55 disapprove, the lowest net approval of either of Trump’s regimes.
CNBC reported small businesses are being crushed by Trump’s tariffs. Some surveyed had been forced to freeze hiring, cut salaries, pull back on growth plans, and borrow money to stay afloat. Some said the tariffs and uncertainty may force them to shutter.
On Wednesday, WSJ reported that more than three dozen organizations, individuals, and companies with business before the federal government, including Lockheed Martin, Microsoft, Meta, Google, Amazon and Palantir, attended a White House dinner hosted by Trump.
All who attended the glitzy dinner, dubbed “Establish the Magnificent White House Ballroom,” had made major contributions towards a new $250 million ballroom at the White House. Ethics experts said the magnitude of contributions was an unprecedented pay to play.
NYT reported at the dinner Trump unveiled plans to construct a new triumphal arch at the roundabout across from the Lincoln Memorial, to celebrate America’s 250th anniversary next year. Trump told the attendees that some of their donations might go toward the arch.
On Monday, Trump ordered the demolition of part of the White House’s East Wing to make way for his ballroom, despite lacking approval for construction from the National Capital Planning Commission, the federal agency that oversees such projects.
Will Scharf, who is the chair of the planning commission, as well as the White House staff secretary and one of Trump’s top aides, claimed the agency has jurisdiction over construction but not demolition work.
On Tuesday, NYT reported Trump is demanding that the DOJ pay him $230 million of compensation for investigations into him, an unprecedented ask. The funds would come out of taxpayer money.
Trump submitted complaints through an administrative claim process, a precursor to a lawsuit. The first, filed in late 2023, related to the FBI investigation of Russia’s role in the 2016 election. The second was filed in summer of 2024 and related to Trump retaining classified information.
The request raised stark ethics concerns, as Trump has installed his own former personal lawyer as deputy attorney general. Both Attorney General Pam Bondi and her deputy Todd Blanche would be in a position to sign off on a settlement.
Trump told reporters the federal government owes him “a lot of money” and that he would have final say on any payout, noting that although the DOJ has a protocol for reviewing such claims, “It’s interesting, ’cause I’m the one that makes the decision, right?”
On Wednesday, journalists at nearly every media outlet turned in their access badges and exited the Pentagon, rather than agree to Defense Department Sec. Pete Hegseth’s new reporting rules. Many waited until the 4 p.m. deadline to exit in unison.
Only three conservative far-right outlets, One American News Network, The Epoch Times, and The Federalist, agreed to the new reporting rules, which were 18 pages long, compared to one-page prior, and codified sharp limits on access and raised the prospect of punishment.
Epoch Times’ national security reporter Andrew Thornebrooke resigned, saying agreeing was abdicating “our responsibility as journalists in favor of merely repeating state narratives,” and also cited a recent editorial directive to refer to antifa as a terrorist organization.
CBS News said its exit marked the end of an 80-year presence at the Pentagon, dating back to the 1940s with a radio correspondent, and then with a network booth in an area designated for the media since the 1970s.
Hegseth also changed the way Pentagon officials communicate with Congress, saying in two memos that military officials must obtain permission from the department’s main legislative affairs office before they have any communication with Capitol Hill.
The Washington Times reported Hegseth has lost the trust of generals and other senior military officials. For some, the turning point was the Quantico speech, described as “embarrassing” and theatrical to a degree that “is below our institution.”
They also argue that firings over the past eight months will weaken the military, and Hegseth has done deep damage from both a public relations standpoint and structurally behind the scenes, and the damage may not be fully apparent for months or even years.
NYT reported in the last few months, Trump has elevated multiple 2020 election deniers into high level election-related jobs in the regime, reflecting his continued fixation on his grievances over losing that election, and raising concerns about their roles in future elections.
On a recent DHS call ahead of election day, election officials were alarmed when Heather Honey, an election denier whom Trump appointed as deputy assistant secretary for election integrity, spewed rhetoric about how Trump’s 2020 loss was due to widespread fraud.
WSJ reported that Trump planned an overhaul of the IRS, including installing a loyalist to head the agency’s criminal-investigative division, in an effort to enable him to go after a list he has drawn up of left-leaning groups and major Democratic donors.
Changes to the agency are being driven by Trump’s recently installed commissioner Gary Shapley, an adviser to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. Trump had ordered Bessent while acting IRS head to refer matters to the DOJ. In the past, the IRS stayed away from political controversies.
On Thursday, federal prosecutors unsealed charges against two men accused of attacking an ICE detention facility in Dallas, described as members of what prosecutors called a heavily-armed “cell” of the far-left movement known as antifa, the first terrorism charges filed the amorphous ideology.
AG Bondi announced the charges on X, saying, “As @POTUS has made clear, Antifa is a left-wing terrorist organization. They will be prosecuted as such.”
Politico reported on leaked messages of the Young Republican group leaders’ Telegram chat, which included content like, “I love Hitler,” referring to Black people as monkeys and “the watermelon people,” and musing about raping their enemies and driving them to suicide.
While Democrats called on Trump to condemn the Young Republicans, Vice President JD Vance sought to downplay the outrage as “pearl clutching,” and Rep. Elise Stefanik, who recently accepted an award from the group, called the Politico reporting a “hit piece.”
Vermont State Sen. Samuel Douglass resigned on Friday over his participation in the Young Republican group chat, after pressure from the state’s Republican governor, who called for his resignation, citing “The vile, racist, bigoted, and antisemitic dialogue” in the chat.
Politico reported Paul Ingrassia, a right-wing provocateur and Trump’s nominee to lead the Office of Special Counsel, told a group of Republicans in a text chain that the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday belongs in “the seventh circle of hell” and that he has “a Nazi streak.”
Even before the texts surfaced, Ingrassia was a vocal supporter of extremists like Nick Fuentes, and represented self-described misogynist Andrew Tate. Ingrassia withdrew from consideration after at least four Senate Republicans said they would not support his confirmation.
A New York man pardoned by Trump for his role in the Jan. 6 insurrection was arrested on Tuesday, accused of making threats to kill House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries. His friend turned him in after a text saying, “I will kill him for the future.”
On Wednesday, White House budget director Russ Vought said in an interview on The Charlie Kirk Show, that after 4,000 federal workers were laid off so far, “we’ll probably end up being north of 10,000,” adding, “We want to be very aggressive where we can.”
Shortly after, a federal judge temporarily blocked the Trump regime from using the government shutdown as a precursor for firing thousands of federal workers, citing Trump’s “politics that infuses what is going on,” and “There are laws which govern how we can do the things we do.”
Hours later, Trump threatened to punish Democrats, and cut federal agencies and programs during the government shutdown, telling reporters, “It’s thousands of people, and it’s billions of dollars.”
Trump also signed a memo seeking to expand his regime’s authority to repurpose unspent federal funds to pay members of the military during the shutdown, saying Hegseth in coordination with the White House should use “any funds appropriated by Congress” and not yet used.
Trump also abruptly added that the regime had “terminated” a commuter rail tunnel under the Hudson River between New York and New Jersey, one of the country’s most critical infrastructure projects, two weeks after suspending the funding due to the shutdown.
Trump added the regime would look at San Francisco as the next target for his federal crime crackdown, baselessly claiming, “it’s a mess, and we have great support in San Francisco.” The city is on track to have its fewest homicides since the 1950s.
Salesforce CEO Mark Benioff, a Trump ally, apologized Friday for saying in an interview with the Times that Trump should send the National Guard to San Francisco, where his company is based, posting he no longer believes that after listening to residents and local officials.
Trump also confirmed reporting by the NYT that he had secretly authorized the CIA to conduct covert operations in Venezuela, and the U.S. was considering strikes, telling reporters, “We are certainly looking at land now, because we’ve got the sea very well under control.”
Trump also said that he might attend the Supreme Court case about his tariffs on November 5, telling reporters the case is “one of the most important cases in the history of our country.” If Trump attends the hearing, he would be the first sitting president in U.S. history to do so.
Trump unilaterally imposed new tariffs on trucks and buses, signing a proclamation on Friday. With the additional duties, virtually all categories of vehicles and their parts made outside the U.S. will be subject to higher tariffs
After the interview, Trump stood with AG Bondi, deputy Blanche and FBI Director Kash Patel, all of whom smiled and nodded as he spoke, and celebrated some of the recent indictments and named perceived enemies that he wants to be prosecuted.
Trump named former special prosecutor Jack Smith; Andrew Weissmann, a former FBI official who was a lead prosecutor on Trump’s ties to Russia in the 2016 election; and Lisa Monaco, the deputy attorney general under President Joseph Biden.
CBS’s “60 Minutes” reported there have been more than 35 cases in which the judges have specifically said that the Trump regime’s DOJ has provided false information, including false sworn declarations under oath, according to work by an NYU Law professor.
Fired DOJ lawyer Erez Reuveni told “60 Minutes” his former supervisor Emil Bove told him to argue that Kilmar Abrego Garcia was an MS-13 gang member and terrorist. Reuveni told Bove, “That is not factually correct. It is not legally correct. That is — that is a lie,” and would not sign it.
On Thursday, John Bolton, Trump’s former NSA during the first regime, and a vocal critic of Trump, was indicted by a grand jury in Maryland on charges of mishandling classified information, the third of Trump’s perceived enemies to be indicted in recent weeks.
Bolton was charged with eight counts of transmission of national defense information and 10 counts of retention of national defense information. Bolton said he was being charged in way similar to the Soviet Union’s secret police under Josef Stalin, as a critic of Trump.
On Friday, Elizabeth Yusi, a federal prosecutor who oversaw major criminal cases in the U.S. attorney’s office for the Eastern District of Virginia, was fired over her rejection of pressure by Trump to charge New York AG Letitia James. Her deputy Kristin Bird was also fired.
On Monday, attorneys for James Comey argued that the Trump regime brought the case as vindictive retribution, and contested Trump’s appointment of loyalist Lindsey Halligan, who secured the indictment days later, before she was confirmed by the Senate.
On Monday, NYT reported that federal investigators are scrutinizing a trip that Fani Willis, the prosecutor who brought charges against him in Georgia, took to the Bahamas in November with colleagues, after she was re-elected.
On Thursday, U.S. Navy Admiral Alvin Holsey, the top admiral overseeing the growing deployment of military assets in the Caribbean, said he would retire, just one year into what is typically a four-year term of overseeing troops in South and Central America.
On Thursday, news spread on social media that, according to the family of Chad Joseph, a 26-year-old fisherman from Trinidad and Tobago, he was one of the six people on a suspected drug boat that was blown up by the U.S. military in Week 49.
On Friday, Reuters reported the U.S. Navy is holding two survivors of the strike in Week 49 aboard the warship, after rescuing them from the suspected drug boat, making them possibly the first prisoners of war. The strike killed two others.
On Saturday, Colombia President Gustavo Petro accused the U.S. of murdering an innocent fisherman in a military strike in mid-September, posting on X, the “U.S. government officials have committed a murder and violated our sovereignty in territorial waters.”
On Sunday, GOP Sen. Rand Paul told “Meet the Press” that around a quarter of the ships stopped by the Coast Guard for inspection off of Miami do not have drugs, and that Trump “shouldn’t do this by himself,” adding the strikes “go against all of our tradition.”
On Sunday, Trump responded to Petro, saying he would slash aid to Colombia, and accusing him of not doing enough to curb the protection of illegal drugs, calling him an “illegal drug dealer” with “a fresh mouth toward America.”
On Sunday, Hegseth announced the military had killed three men and destroyed another boat suspected of running drugs in the Caribbean on Friday, marking the seventh boat to be attacked. Hegseth said this boat was alleged to be affiliated with a Colombian insurgency group.
WAPO reported in negotiating a deal with Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele to use El Salvador’s prison for Venezuelan deportees, Secretary of State Marco Rubio ceded to his demand to betray and turn over members of MS-13 who were under U.S. protection as informants.
On Wednesday, Transportation Sec. Sean Duffy said the regime would withhold $40 million from California as part of the Motor Carrier Safety Assistance Program, saying the state had failed to enforce English proficiency among commercial vehicle drivers.
On Monday, Duffy told Fox News that air traffic controllers would stop getting paid, warning “there will be no dollars” in controllers’ next paychecks. Controllers already received one reduced check.
Education Department Sec. Linda McMahon said that during the government shutdown, the agency has stopped most of its work with additional layoffs, and yet “schools are operating as normal,” arguing this shows there is no need for the agency to exist.
On Thursday, a federal judge ordered the Trump regime to release $34 million of antiterrorism and security funding for the New York City subway and regional railroads, saying it had been illegally withheld by FEMA.
NYT reported that Trump is already denying disaster relief in the form of FEMA aid to states, including North Carolina and Arkansas, leaving cities and states to fend for themselves.
On Friday, Vought posted on X that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers would immediately pause, and consider canceling, “over $11 billion in lower-priority projects” in Democratic-run cities including New York, San Francisco, Boston, and Baltimore.
The Hill reported four Republican Senators have pushed back at Trump targeting blue states with cuts, warning that freezing funds as an apparent act of political retaliation is not appropriate. Republicans on the Appropriations Committee said decisions should be based on merit.
On Thursday, Trump unveiled several policy proposals from the Oval Office aimed at reducing the costs of in vitro fertilization, including a deal with a major pharmaceutical company, in what he hailed as an era of “Trump babies.”
On Thursday, Trump refiled his $15 billion lawsuit against the NYT, which had previously been thrown out, this time cut in half to 40 pages, claiming the Times sought to undermine his reputation as a successful businessman and television star in the run up to the 2024 election.
Trump’s lawyers also asked a federal judge in Florida to deny a request by the WSJ and other entities to dismiss his $10 billion lawsuit over their story on Jeffrey Epstein’s birthday book, saying the lawsuit should proceed.
On Wednesday, a federal judge extended temporary restraining orders, blocking Trump from deploying National Guard troops in Portland, while awaiting a ruling from the appeals court, despite the DOJ’s opposition to the extension.
On Thursday, a federal judge ordered ICE agents in Chicago to wear body cameras, saying she was a “little startled” after seeing television images of street confrontations that involved tear gas and other tactics on Chicago residents, saying, “I’m not blind, right?”
The judge also summoned a senior ICE official to court next week to explain how the immigration enforcement operation ordered by Trump had already resulted in more than 1,000 arrests.
On Monday, federal officials defended their use of tear gas during the immigration crackdown, claiming they had limited its use to when agents were in immediate danger, and that federal agents had given warning to protestors and others before its use.
Protestors said no warning was given during two recent incidents where tear gas was deployed. They also claimed federal agents had assaulted journalists, including pepper balls shot through a window of a CBS News van.
Federal officials also claimed that they would need to be allocated more funding from Congress to be able to pay for bodycams.
On Monday, a federal appeals court ruled 2–1 to allow Trump to deploy National Guard troops to Portland, for now, lifting a lower court’s temporary block, and citing that some protests had turned violent. The two justices in the majority were Trump appointees.
The Trump regime filed a motion to completely dissolve the lower court ruling, which was broader and had the effect of limiting Trump from deploying other states’ National Guard troops into Portland.
On Monday, California Gov. Gavin Newsom said in a court filing that Trump had extended federal control of 300 of the state’s National Guard troops until February, which would mark eight months, after initially troops were supposed to be under federal control for two months.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce sued the Trump regime over its $100,000 H-1B visa fee, saying would “make it cost-prohibitive for U.S. employers, especially start-ups and small and midsize businesses,” to utilize the program created by Congress for “businesses of all sizes.”
Walmart announced it would suspend hiring job candidates who need H-1B visas to work in the U.S after Trump’s fee hike.
NYT reported documents revealed that Trump is considering overhauling the refugee system to favor white people who claim they face persecution, including giving preference to English speakers, white South Africans, and Europeans who oppose migration.
WAPO reported Trump’s refugee plan would cap refugees at 7,500, of which as many as 7,000 would be white Africans. The regime has already cut ties with the international bodies that help coordinate resettlement efforts, like the The United Nations’ refugee agency.
Several more of the nine colleges, including Brown University, University of Pennsylvania, University of Southern California, and University of Virginia, joined MIT in rejecting Trump’s compact which would have given them priority in federal funding.
University of Arizona became the seventh school to reject Trump’s compact, with its president saying in an open letter, “principles like academic freedom, merit-based research funding and institutional independence are foundational and must be preserved.”
Days later, NYT reported UVA, whose president resigned in June but who turned down Trump’s compact offer, is close to a far-reaching deal with the regime, in what would be a first by a public university. The terms of the settlement are reportedly less onerous than other schools.
The co-editors of Indiana University’s school newspaper accused the school administration of censorship, after it canceled the paper’s print issue over a requirement that the newspaper not include news. The Director of Student Media, an advisor to the newspaper, was also fired.
On Thursday, after a two hour phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Trump reversed himself on immediately sending Tomahawk missiles to Kyiv, and instead said he would meet with Putin in two weeks in Budapest to discuss ending the war.
On Friday, after meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House, and being asked by reporters if he was being played by Putin, he said, “I’ve been played all my life by the best of them, and I came out really well,” adding, “I think he wants to make a deal.”
FT reported the meeting at the White House descended into a “shouting match,” with Trump “cursing all the time.” Trump appeared to seesaw on his support for Ukraine after speaking to Putin the day prior. Trump urged Zelensky to accept Putin’s terms, or be “destroyed.”
On Tuesday, CNN reported Trump put his proposed summit with Putin in Budapest on hold, citing that neither Russia or Ukraine was ready for serious peace talks. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov responded, “You cannot postpone what has not been scheduled.”
Trump pushed Indiana lawmakers to redraw the state’s congressional map ahead of midterms, and support a map eliminating two Democratic districts, giving Republicans all nine seats. Vance has made two trips to Indiana to make the case for redrawing maps.
North Carolina’s state senate voted 26–20, along party lines, to approve a new map that would make one more of its 14 congressional districts unwinnable for a Democrat.
On Thursday, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said he would deploy the state’s National Guard to Austin for the upcoming No Kings rally, baselessly claiming, “Violence and destruction will never be tolerated in Texas,” and that the move would “ensure the safety of Austin residents.”
The announcement came as top Republicans sought to portray the national protests scheduled for Saturday as antifa-linked, and led by the far-left radical flank of the Democratic party.
Late Friday, Trump commuted the prison sentence for disgraced former GOP member of Congress George Santos, who had served just three months of his seven year sentence, after pleading guilty to federal charges of aggravated identity theft and wire fraud.
Trump posted Santos was “somewhat of a ‘rogue,’ but there are many rogues throughout our Country that aren’t forced to serve seven years in prison.” Santos was expelled from the House in December 2023 in a 311–114 vote.
On Saturday, organizers of the No Kings protests said nearly 7 million people turned out to more than 2,700 protests around the U.S. and abroad. The turnout exceeded the 5 million at the previous No Kings rallies in June. The protests were all peaceful.
On Sunday, Trump posted an AI-generated video on Truth Social of him flying over the No Kings protests in a jet labelled “King Trump,” and dumping feces on the heads of protestors, set to the song “Danger Zone” by Kenny Loggins.
Loggins spoke out against Trump’s use of his song, telling Variety, “This is an unauthorized use of my performance of ‘Danger Zone.’ Nobody asked me for my permission, which I would have denied, and I request that my recording on this video is removed immediately.”
A YouGov poll found that 52% of Americans believe Trump wants to be king, 36% disagree. YouGov also found 57% of Americans are somewhat (22%) or completely (35%) dissatisfied with the way democracy is working in the U.S.
On Saturday, Vance hosted a Marine demonstration at a military base in California during the No Kings protests, calling it a “testament to the corps’ strength and unbeatable power.” California Gov. Gavin Newsom called the demonstration an “absurd show of force” and “dangerous.”
The California Highway Patrol said a 155-millimeter shell prematurely detonated ahead of Vance’s live-fire demonstration, dropping fragments of the shell on a California Highway Patrol vehicle and motorcycle that were part of Vance’s protective detail.
On Sunday, House Speaker Mike Johnson called the No Kings protests the “hate America rallies,” describing protestors as “anarchists, antifa advocates, pro-Hamas wing,” adding, “this is the modern Democratic Party.”
Johnson also continued to resist calls to reopen the House of Representatives, which has been out of session since September 19, as Democrats pushed him to reopen and swear in Democratic Rep.-elect Adelita Grijalva, who won her election on September 23.
On Tuesday, the State of Arizona sued the House of Representatives over Johnson’s decision not to swear in Rep-elect Adelita Grijalva, claiming he has “denied her rightful office simply because the Speaker has decided to keep the House out of ‘regular session.’”
On Sunday, Trump reiterated his plan to send National Guard troops to San Francisco, telling Fox News, “We’re going to go to San Francisco,” and adding, “the difference is I think they want us in San Francisco.”
On Friday, tragedy was averted at a Wikipedia conference, after volunteers tackled an armed man who stormed the stage, telling the audience that he was going to die by suicide to protest Wikipedia’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy on pedophiles.
WAPO reported the Department of Homeland Security planned to spend $200 million on two Gulfstream private jets for use by Sec. Kristi Noem and other top DHS and Coast Guard officials, far exceeding the $50 million requested by the Coast Guard in early 2025 for one Gulfstream.
NYT reported that Trump dismissed another inspector general, Parisa Salehi of the Export-Import Bank of the U.S. Salehi rose up the ranks with extensive experience. Her office reported saving tens of millions of dollars. Trump has fired or reassigned two dozen IGs.
On Wednesday, Speaker Johnson laughed off criticism, and told reporters he welcomed Trump’s “glorious” White House ballroom, paid for by private donors.

The White House East Wing is removed to make way for President Donald Trump’s new ballroom construction on October 21, 2025. (Photo by Andrew Leyden/NurPhoto via AP)