Week 53 — The Return

This week’s list has multiple examples of Trump’s continued efforts to rewrite the history of his first regime, and to seek retribution for lawsuits and other actions against him after. Much of his focus during his second regime has been towards establishing a new version of the historical record of these times, recasting himself as a victim and a hero, and obliterating the truth. He has been aided in this endeavor by a compliant Republican Party, which has yet to push back on his not normal, and often lawless, actions.

The election results and their aftermath have revealed how out of touch Trump is with the state of the American people during his second regime. I have posited that this is a result of his surrounding himself solely with loyal sycophants, who likely are fearful of sharing actual reality, and instead practice flattery. Trump continued to showcase his White House renovations this week with an interview on Fox News, while at the same time denying SNAP food payments to low-income Americans, and even going so far as an emergency appeal to the Supreme Court, two times, to not have to make payments which were due on November 1.

Eight Senate Democrats voted with Republicans to end the government shutdown on Monday, and Trump declared victory as the measure headed back to the House of Representatives, which convened for the first time in seven weeks. A Democrat who won a special election in Arizona was at long last sworn in, and could be the deciding vote on measures to bring attention to the Epstein files.

1. On Wednesday, in reaction to Trump’s threat of nuclear testing, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered his top security officials to draw up plans for potential testing of its nuclear arsenal.
2. For the first time since it was established 30 years ago, the U.S. will not send any top government officials to the United Nations climate summit, COP30 in Brazil, as world leaders look to agree on new, more ambitious plans to cut greenhouse gases. Other U.S. officials and companies will attend.
3. NYT reported many leaders are grateful that the Trump regime, which has been pressuring other countries to back off from fighting climate change, will not be attending. Part of the summit agenda each year is to come up with a shared pledge, which would be hard with the regime present.
4. Trump also said the U.S. would not be represented at the Group of 20 summit in South Africa, baselessly claiming that white South Africans are being racially persecuted and murdered there. Trump posted on Truth Social that it was a “disgrace” that the G20 will be held there.
5. On Monday, Trump pardoned more than 75 of his allies who sought to overturn the 2020 election, including Rudy Giuliani, Mark Meadows, Sidney Powell, and John Eastman. The White House called them “great Americans” who were “put through hell by the Biden Administration.”
6. While none of the group face federal charges, for which Trump can pardon them, the move signaled Trump’s continued focus on promoting false claims about the 2020 election. The proclamation grants clemency to “all United States citizens” involved in the fake elector scheme.
7. NYT reported Trump loyalists are pushing the notion of a “grand conspiracy” of “deep-state” operatives, possibly linked to former president Barack Obama, which they allege worked to destroy Trump starting with the investigation into the 2016 election and including his charges after he left office.
8. Trump appointee Jason Reding Quiñones, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Florida, has issued dozens of subpoenas for officials who took part in the investigation of Trump’s Russia ties, targeting officials cited in a January 2017 intelligence community assessment.
9. Among those subpoenaed were former intelligence officials James Clapper, Peter Strzok, and Lisa Page. The investigation was transferred from Pennsylvania to Miami after efforts to go after John Brennan there had stalled. Once in Miami, the investigation of Brennan expanded.
10. On Wednesday, two to four of the six FBI agents who worked with Jack Smith, and were fired then rehired at the request of DC U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro, were fired again by director Kash Patel, and walked out of the building for the second time later in the day.
11. On Thursday, a federal judge hearing the regime’s case against James Comey blasted U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia Lindsey Halligan for taking an “indict first, investigate second” approach to the case, ordering the regime to turn over all grand jury materials.
12. CBS News reported Campaign for Accountability, a legal watchdog group, submitted a complaint to the state bar, accusing Trump appointee Halligan of violating the Virginia State Bar’s ethical rules for lawyers for her prosecution of Letitia James and James Comey.
13. Trump asked the Supreme Court to overturn a $5 million civil verdict that he had sexually abused and defamed E. Jean Carroll, claiming the charges against him were “implausible” and “unsubstantiated,” and citing “indefensible evidentiary rulings.”
14. CBS News reported a New York assemblyman is working to pass legislation that would preserve the factual history of the Jan. 6 insurrection by requiring all K-12 schools to receive instruction on what happened that day. Other states are considering similar efforts.
15. WAPO reported that the Justice Department has lost thousands of staffers, and been unable to fill open positions. Last year roughly 10,000 attorneys worked at the DOJ, and an estimated 5,500, including non-lawyers, have quit, been fired, or taken a buyout offer.
16. In the Civil Rights Division where 600 have left, only about a dozen positions have been filled. A hindrance to hiring is that all DOJ applicants must detail a Trump executive order or policy that is significant to them, and how they would advance that initiative.
17. On Thursday, a second jury in Washington D.C. acquitted Sean Dunn, nicknamed the ‘sandwich guy,’ finding him not guilty of a lesser charge of a single misdemeanor, after just hours of deliberations.
18. WSJ reported that the Fannie Mae inspector general and staffers who were fired in recent weeks were probing if Director Bill Pulte, a Trump appointee, had improperly obtained mortgage records of Democratic officials, including New York Attorney General Letitia James.
19. The group elevated their concern and report to the Federal Housing Finance Agency Office’s Inspector General, who sent their report to the U.S. attorney’s office in eastern Virginia. Shortly after, Pulte fired them, citing DEI as the rationale.
20. WAPO reported in the first eight months of the Trump regime, the EPA initiated only nine major civil cases against polluters, down from 46 the year prior, an 80% drop. Advocates said the government shutdown could further increase the risk of toxic air and contaminated drinking water.
21. ESPN reported that Trump and his regime have had back-channel communication with a member of the Washington Commanders’ ownership group, pushing for the new domed stadium in Washington D.C. to be named for him.
22. Trump faced a loud chorus of boos for over two minutes from thousands of fans when he attended the Washington Commanders game on Sunday, while trying to read an announcement.
23. NYT reported Trump’s Treasury Department announced plans to launch a one-dollar coin depicting Trump on both sides in 2026, for the country’s 250th anniversary. Calvin Coolidge is the only other sitting president featured on a coin, but only on one side.
24. NBC News reported John Banuelos, a Jan.6 rioter who fired a gun during the insurrection, and who was pardoned by Trump, was arrested on charges of aggravated kidnapping and aggravated sexual assault.
25. On Thursday, Trump pardoned former Tennessee House Speaker Glen Casada and his chief of staff, blaming the Biden administration for over prosecuting them. Casada was sentenced to 36 months in prison after being convicted on 17 charges, including fraud and money laundering.
26. Trump also pardoned Michael McMahon, a retired New York police officer, who was convicted by a jury in 2023 of acting as an unregistered agent of the Chinese government in a plot to locate, surveil, and intimidate a family in New Jersey into going back to China.
27. On Friday, Trump pardoned Troy Lake, a diesel mechanic who pleaded guilty to disabling emissions controls on hundreds of heavy-duty commercial trucks, and Darryl Strawberry, a former New York Met and Yankee, who pleaded guilty to tax evasion in 1995.
28. On Monday, Trump pardoned Michelino Sunseri, a trail runner who used a restricted path to break a record, and was charged with a misdemeanor. Trump also quietly pardoned the husband of Republican ally Rep. Diana Harshbarger, who pleaded guilty to health care fraud.
29. Trump sent a letter to Isaac Herzog, the Israeli president, asking him to pardon Benjamin Netanyahu, who is in the midst of a five-year corruption trial. The country’s president, a ceremonial post, generally cannot pardon people before they are convicted.
30. On Wednesday, the government shutdown hit its 36th day, making it the longest in history, passing the 35 day shutdown during the first Trump regime.
31. On Thursday, Transportation Department Sec. Sean Duffy said the FAA would cut thousands of flights a day at 40 airports due to the shutdown, starting with 4% of daily flights on Friday, and increasing to 10% of flights by the following Friday, an unprecedented move.
32. On Friday, Duffy warned on Fox News that flight cancellations could rise to 15% or 20% if the shutdown did not end, saying, “the consequence is that more controllers don’t come to work.” Air traffic controllers were set to miss their second paycheck on Tuesday.
33. On Wednesday, after the election shellacking over, in part, affordability, Trump posted on Truth Social that Republicans are actually the party of “affordability,” incorrectly claiming prices for a Walmart Thanksgiving dinner is down 25% “since under Sleepy/Crooked Joe Biden, in 2024.”
34. Despite being corrected by fact checking on his Walmart claim, Trump continued on Thursday, baselessly claiming, “My cost are lower [sic] than the Democrats on everything, especially oil and gas! So the Democrats [sic] ‘affordability’ issue is DEAD! STOP LYING!!!”
35. On Thursday, instead of meeting with Democrats, Trump continued to pressure Senate Republicans to end the filibuster. Trump also blamed election results on the ways people could vote, saying, “Vote in voter ID” and “no mail-in voting, except for military” and people who are sick.
36. On Friday, Trump called on the DOJ to investigate meatpacking companies, claiming they were ​“driving up the price of Beef through Illicit Collusion, Price Fixing, and Price Manipulation​.” Farmers criticized Trump’s $20 billion bailout of Argentina.
37. CNN’s fact checker reported Trump’s claim that only beef is more expensive, while grocery prices are “going down,” was untrue: dozens of grocery items have gotten more expensive, even as beef has seen a double digit increase.
38. On Thursday, Challenger Gray data showed job cuts in October totaled 153,074, a 183% increase from September, and 175% higher than the same month a year ago, and the highest level for any month in 22 years.
39. The private data company data came as the Trump regime suspended data gathering and releases due to the government shutdown. Year to date job cuts reached 1.1 million in 2025, a 65% increase from a year ago and the highest level since the Covid pandemic year of 2020.
40. On Friday, a University of Michigan survey found consumer sentiment fell to 50.3 in November, from 53.6 in October, and below expectations of 53, sinking to a near record low.
41. Some restaurant chains, including Chipotle and McDonald’s, sounded the alarm on lower results due to the declining financial health of consumers, amid rising inflation and lower hiring.
42. Data released by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York showed Americans’ household debt, including mortgages, car loans, credit cards, and student loans, reached a record high of $18.59 trillion from July through September of this year.
43. Forbes reported that Trump branded wine and cider are being stocked at Coast Guard-run stores on federal property, which offer service members and their families access to tax-free consumer goods.
44. On Friday, a federal judge ruled that the Trump regime had violated the First Amendment rights of furloughed federal workers by using their work email accounts to send partisan messages blaming Democrats for the shutdown, and ordered the regime to removed the messaging.
45. On Thursday, a federal judge in Rhode Island ordered the Trump regime to fully fund SNAP benefits, saying Trump was disrupting the program “for political reasons.” The episode marked the first time in the program’s history that payments have been halted.
46. The Trump regime appealed, saying the courts have no “lawful basis” to force the president to find money in the “metaphorical couch cushions, adding “a single district court in Rhode Island should not be able to seize center stage in the shutdown.”
47. On Friday, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, speaking at the Federalist Society’s annual lawyers’ convention, criticized district-court judges who have ruled against the regime, accusing them of defying the Supreme Court, being “political,” and overstepping their role.
48. On Friday, a federal appeals court ruled 3–0, denying the Trump regime’s request to halt food stamp funding. The regime immediately asked the Supreme Court to take up the case, claiming the court order “makes a mockery of the separation of powers.”
49. Later Friday, the Supreme Court temporarily allowed the Trump regime to halt food stamp funding, granting a pause to give the appeals court more time to consider the case and rule on it.
50. Late Saturday, in an Agriculture Department memo, the Trump regime commanded states to “immediately undo” any actions to provide full SNAP benefits to low-income families, and threatened to impose financial penalties on states that did not quickly “comply.”
51. The memo created confusion, as some states, including New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin had raced to release the aid to residents on Friday after a federal judge had ordered the regime to fully fund the program. One in eight Americans is eligible for SNAP.
52. NYT reported Americans who count on SNAP for food were struggling to cope: a woman climbed into a Walmart dumpster searching for food, some were going to food banks for the first time, while some did not have gas money to get there. Many worried about feeding their children.
53. Pollsters said Trump’s approval was plunging, with Nate Silver saying Trump was in “free fall,” over the longest government shutdown and anger over his tactics to delay paying SNAP benefits. Trump’s net approval of -13 is the lowest of his second regime.
54. On Sunday, Trump posted on Truth Social that he will issue a tariff dividend “of at least $2000 a person” that will be paid to all Americans except for “high-income people.” Asked about Trump’s plan on ABC News, Treasury Sec. Scott Bessent said he had not spoken to Trump about it.
55. Later Sunday, a federal appeals court ruled 3–0, for a second time allowing the Rhode Island federal judge’s ruling to stand, saying that the Trump regime cannot withhold $4 billion of SNAP benefits, and directed the regime to fully fund the benefits.
56. On Monday, the Trump regime went back to the Supreme Court, saying it still wanted to block the Rhode Island judge’s order.
57. On Monday, a federal judge blocked the Trump regime’s USDA memo telling states that they had to “undo” any full SNAP benefits payments to recipients, or face financial penalties.
58. NYT reported the Trump regime, through the Treasury Department and Internal Revenue Service notices and proposed regulations, is giving tax breaks to the ultrarich, private equity, crypto companies, foreign real estate investors, insurance providers, and multinational corporations.
59. The moves were set to undo a provision passed in 2022 by Democrats to ensure the country’s most profitable corporations, such as Microsoft, Amazon, and Johnson & Johnson, would pay at least some federal income tax. It was projected to raise $222 billion over a decade.
60. A poll by Bloomberg/Harris found 55% of employed Americans say they are concerned about losing their jobs, and 62% said the cost of their everyday items had climbed over the last month, with the increases hard to afford.
61. On Monday, Trump claimed on Fox News that polls showing that Americans are feeling economic pain are “fake” and a “con job by the Democrats,” claiming media reporting is “such a rigged system.” Trump continued to baselessly claim that costs are “way down.”
62. Trump also bragged that eight Senate Democrats had voted with Republicans to end the shutdown, saying Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer “thought he could break the Republicans, and the Republicans broke him,” adding, Democrats are “not getting much.”
63. In the bill that passed in the Senate, a hidden provision made it a violation of the law to not notify a senator if their phone records were taken. Eight Senate Republicans planned to sue for $500,000 each for Jack Smith subpoenaing their records in the Jan 6. investigation.
64. On Monday, in a court filing, the Trump regime claimed the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s funding mechanism is unlawful, and barred the agency from getting additional funding from the Federal Reserve, leaving the agency on track to shutter in early 2026.
65. On Tuesday, the Supreme Court extended the temporary pause on SNAP payments until Thursday evening. At least 16 states already paid out benefits in full after the Rhode Island court ruling. The House was set to vote on Wednesday on the Senate measure to end the shutdown.
66. On Sunday, federal judge Mark Wolf, a Reagan appointee who served on the bench for 40 years, wrote at The Atlantic that he was resigning “in order to speak out, support litigation, and work with other individuals and organizations dedicated to protecting the rule of law.”
67. In a scathing op-ed, Wolf cited watching with “dismay and disgust” Trump claiming unilateral powers to spend, deport, and kill, his regime’s campaign to investigate and prosecute his perceived enemies, corruption, and unprecedented threats against sitting judges.
68. On Monday, a coalition of clean energy groups and the city of St. Paul sued the Trump regime and White House budget director Russell Vought, saying they discriminated against blue states by canceling $7.5 billion of funding for energy projects during the shutdown.
69. WAPO reported Trump regime officials are considering a plan to open six offshore lease sales off the Coast of California, starting in 2027, in a move seemingly to antagonize Gov. Gavin Newsom, a vocal Trump critic and possible 2028 candidate, and other Democrats in the state.
70. On Wednesday, the Department of Homeland Security announced the regime would end temporary deportation protections for migrants from South Sudan first established in 2011, citing “renewed peace in South Sudan” and “improved diplomatic relations.”
71. On Wednesday, a federal judge said conditions at an ICE detention center in Broadview, Illinois “don’t pass constitutional muster,” and the regime must provide detainees with bottled water, clean bedding, hygiene products, and access to lawyers.
72. On Thursday, a federal judge issued an injunction against ICE using force as part of its Operation Midway Blitz in Chicago, saying videos from agents’ body cameras do not match with ICE’s claims on several occasions. DHS said they would appeal the order.
73. CBP Commander Gregory Bovino admitted to lying that rocks were thrown at him before he deployed tear gas on protestors. Video showed him throwing a gas canister at protestors without giving a verbal warning, a violation of the judge’s temporary restraining order.
74. On Friday, federal agents told faith leaders that they could no longer lead pray vigils and other religious meetings outside of the Broadview ICE facility. Faith leaders were also denied entry to the building.
75. The Chicago Sun Times reported girl scouts in the suburb of Oak Park encountered masked ICE agents with weapons and vehicles with dark-tinted windows as they were walking the streets as part of their food drive. After seeing several speeding vehicles, they canceled their drive.
76. On Tuesday, Trump called for more troops in Chicago, posting on Truth Social “the Miracle Mile Shopping Center in Chicago” has more than a 28% vacancy factor, citing, something has to be done about the “murder and crime.” Chicago does not have anything called the Miracle Mile.
77. NYT reported at a Home Depot parking lot in Los Angeles, ICE arrested Dennis Quiñonez, a U.S. citizen they claimed had attacked them, and then an armed agent got in his car and drove off with his toddler in the backseat, alarming the activist who filmed the episode.
78. On Friday, a federal judge made her temporary block of Trump deploying National Guard troops in Portland permanent, saying the deployments “were objected to by Oregon’s governor and not requested by the federal officials” and had “exceeded the president’s authority.”
79. Government documents revealed that the Trump regime was finalizing plans to send U.S. Border Patrol agents to Charlotte, N.C. and New Orleans, expanding its use of immigration agents in American cities.
80. NYT reported Secretary of State Marco Rubio paid $7.5 million to the government of Equatorial Guinea to agree to take deportees who are not its citizens, the highest such payment to date. The payment to “one of the most corrupt governments in the world” drew criticism.
81. NYT interviewed some of the Venezuelan men deported by Trump to a Salvadoran prison, then released in a prisoner swap. They described being shackled, beaten, shot with rubber bullets and tear gassed, and sexually abused. Just 13% had been convicted of a serious crime.
82. On Thursday, the Supreme Court sided 6–3 with Trump, saying the regime can enforce Trump’s order blocking transgender and nonbinary people from using sex markers that align with their gender identity on their passports, saying they must use their gender at birth.
83. NYT reported the Trump regime’s U.S. attorney’s office in Washington opened a corruption investigation of D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser about a month ago, over a trip she and members of her staff took to Qatar, that was paid for by Qatari government.
84. The investigation faced hurdles, including the lead investigator being fired by Patel over his involvement with Jack Smith’s investigation of Trump. It was also unclear if the mayor’s office did anything for the Qatari government.
85. WSJ reported Patel announced, “The FBI thwarted a potential terrorist attack” on Halloween morning in order to take credit, before criminal charges had been filed and local police were aware, allowing two friends of the alleged terrorists to move up plans to leave the country.
86. Patel has also overused the Justice Department’s Gulfstream G550, including nine trips to Las Vegas and seven to Nashville. Patel also used the jet for a trip to the ‘Boondoggle Ranch’ in Texas for a five day trip during the shutdown, while many staffers were not getting paid.
87. Magistrate Judge Lindsey Vaala denied the FBI’s petition for a warrant to search the smartphone owned by Barbara Wien, an activist in Northern Virginia critical of the regime, who had posted flyers doxxing White House senior aide Stephen Miller in his neighborhood.
88. Wien’s lawyer and a county prosecutor, who is a Republican, said the involvement of multiple federal and state agencies was concerning, and raised questions about the search warrant for her phone. Her lawyer said the regime was misusing their authority to pursue a political critic.
89. On Thursday, a federal judge blasted the Trump regime over its hardball tactics against elite universities, saying the regime’s methods were potentially lawless and deeply detrimental, and were undermining academic freedom at the University of California.
90. On Friday, Cornell University reached a deal with the Trump regime to restore $1 billion in research funding. As part of the agreement, Cornell agreed to pay a $30 million fine, and to invest $30 million in programs to enhance efficiency and lower costs in agriculture and farming.
91. The settlement affirmed the importance of “academic freedom,” and that the regime would not “dictate the content of academic speech or curricula.” However Cornell will provide anonymized admissions data through 2028, so the regime can scrutinize if race is a factor.
92. NYT reported that Defense Department Sec. Pete Hegseth has fired or sidelined at least two dozen generals and admirals in nine months, with little explanation, and counter to advice of military leaders. The firings are without precedent and could reshape the military for years to come.
93. Hegseth also delayed or canceled promotions of at least four senior military officers because they worked for Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff during the first regime, who Trump considers disloyal.
94. Other officers were targeted on social media by right-wing influencers over their previous support of DEI programs. Many of the firings, including some of the military’s most admired leaders, have left senior military leaders and even the Trump regime puzzled.
95. CNN reported that Hegseth blocked the promotion of a highly distinguished female Navy captain within Naval Special Warfare from taking a command position, for no valid reason. Military officials say Hegseth is purposelessly targeting women in the military.
96. On Thursday, the Senate voted down a measure 51–49 which would have limited Trump’s ability to attack Venezuela without approval from Congress, giving Trump leeway to continue to build up naval forces in the region as part of his campaign against President Nicolás Maduro.
97. On Monday, Hegseth posted on social media that the U.S. military had struck another alleged drug vessel in the eastern Pacific Ocean, killing another six people, bringing the total death toll to 76.
98. CNN reported that the United Kingdom will no longer share some intelligence with the U.S. over the vessel strikes, saying it does not want to be complicit in the attacks, which it views as illegal.
99. On Sunday, BBC’s director general and chief executive abruptly resigned, after The Daily Telegraph published a leaked internal memo saying a BBC documentary had juxtaposed comments by Trump to make it appear that he had explicitly encouraged the Jan. 6 insurrection.
100. On Monday, Trump threatened to sue the BBC for $1 billion, saying in a letter, “If the BBC does not comply with the above by November 14, 2025, at 5:00 p.m. EST, President Trump will be left with no alternative but to enforce his legal and equitable rights.”
101. Some Republicans in the Kansas state senate pushed back on Trump’s effort to have the state redistrict. A judge in Utah rejected a GOP map, instead approving a map that would add a Democratic seat. Overall, Trump’s efforts thus far have not netted the GOP many seats.
102. On Sunday, in a letter to Trump, Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin called on him to explain the preferential treatment that Ghislaine Maxwell was receiving at minimum security prison Camp Bryan, saying law enforcement staff “have been waiting on Ms. Maxwell hand and foot.”
103. The Miami Herald reported that Maxwell is working on a prison release application to ask Trump to commute her 20-year prison sentence. The document was leaked by a whistleblower at Camp Bryan. Raskin said Bryan’s warden is helping Maxwell with the application.
104. On Wednesday, emails by Jeffrey Epstein released by Democrats on the House Oversight Committee revealed that Epstein claimed of Trump, “of course he knew about the girls,” and that Trump had “spent hours at my house” with one of Epstein’s victims.
105. In an email to Maxwell, who is seeking clemency from Trump, Epstein wrote in 2011, “I want you to realize that that dog that hasn’t barked is Trump,” and she responded, “I have been thinking about that.”