Week 6 — The Return

This week’s theme is the gross capitulation by members of the media and corporate chief executive officers, and how the two have triangulated to pose a real danger to the media landscape during this second regime.

One of the billionaires mentioned in the lists is Jeff Bezos, owner of The Washington Post, one of the most important newspapers in holding Trump to account. Bezos also has several corporate interests that will be subject to the whims of the Trump regime. He’s popped up in the lists for WAPO’s non-endorsement, his sycophantic praise of Trump and Elon Musk, and again this week for a large donation to Trump’s inauguration.

Former WAPO executive editor, Marty Baron tells Christiane Amanpour:

“They [WAPO] continued to do other political endorsements. And so I don’t think this was a reason for the decision. I think it was a rationalization of a decision that had already been made, and that had been made because of Bezos’ other commercial interests, particularly a cloud computing business of Amazon and the commercial space enterprise called Blue Origin.”

Bezos might be the most visible example of putting self-interest ahead of our democracy, but he has plenty of company.

This week ABC News settled litigation with Trump and issued an apology, days before he was set to sit for a deposition, setting a dangerous precedent. NYT reported that days before, senior leadership of ABC and its parent the Disney Corporation, had been courting the Trump regime in Florida. Legal experts say proving defamation of a public figure, while the media is protected by the First Amendment, would be an extremely difficult case for Trump to win. He has filed a plethora is such lawsuits, and lost them all. But like Bezos, ABC’s parent, Disney seemed more interested in their relationship with Trump than freedom of press.

Trump regaled at this victory, saying days later at a news conference that the Justice Department should be pursuing lawsuits against the media — perhaps itself a harbinger of what he envisions in his second regime — but since they are not yet, “I have to do it. It costs a lot of money to do it. But we have to straighten out the press. Our press is very corrupt.”

Chilling words.

Sure enough, the next day, Trump filed an absurd lawsuit against the Des Moines Register and their pollster, Ann Selzer, over a poll that showed Vice President Kamala Harris ahead in Iowa, which Trump won handily. Ironically, the same pollster, who is known to be among the most accurate, and also for finding shifts in public opinion before others, had correctly predicted a Trump victory in 2016 when the polls showed the opposite. But this isn’t about the facts, this is about intimidation to silence dissent, a hallmark of authoritarianism.

Trump feels further emboldened by chief executives kissing the ring to curry favor. At his news conference, Trump commented several times on the shift in how he is being treated by executives in his second regime: “The first term, everybody was fighting me. In this term, everybody wants to be my friend. I don’t know — my personality changed or something.”

All this is a sad statement that the most powerful are obeying in advance, and leaving the work of saving our democracy to the rest of us ordinary citizens. We will be up to the challenge.

1. A Monmouth University poll found that just 21% of Republicans think Trump is serious about his statements to suspend laws or go after political enemies, whereas 77% of Democrats believe he is serious.
2. NYT reported some Democrats fear a constitutional convention, which last occurred in 1787 to write the Constitution. A new convention could be convened if two-thirds (34 of 50) of state legislatures call for one, and would be used to rewrite the Constitution.
3. Post election, 28 state legislatures will be controlled by Republicans, 18 by Democrats, and the rest split. Since Trump’s first win in 2016, nine Democratic-controlled legislatures have rescinded decades-old requests for constitutional amendments.
4. If convened, 38 states would have to approve any constitutional amendment. Some fear Trump could end birthright citizenship and make other changes. Currently, more than 34 states have standing requests to change the Constitution, some more than 150 years-old.
5. On Sunday, Trump aide Steve Bannon pitched the idea of a third Trump term at a New York Young Republican Club gala, incorrectly suggesting that the 22nd Amendment only applies to two consecutive terms.
6. On Wednesday, CNBC reported that shares in Elon Musk’s Tesla have soared 69% since Trump won the election. In that same period, according to Forbes, Musk’s net worth has increased by $372 billion.
7. On Wednesday, WSJ reported billionaire Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta Platforms donated $1 million to Trump’s inauguration fund. Trump had threatened to punish Zuckerberg if he tried to influence the election against him.
8. On Thursday, WSJ reported billionaire Jeff Bezos’s Amazon donated $1 million to Trump’s inauguration fund. Bezos is also scheduled to meet with Trump at Mar-a-Lago next week.
9. On Thursday, billionaire Salesforce CEO Mark Benioff celebrated Time magazine, which he owns, naming Trump “person of the year,” posting on X, “This marks a time of great promise for our nation.”
10. The morning the cover was unveiled, Trump spoke at the New York Stock Exchange, and was greeted by dozens of senior executives from large corporations — many of whom had shunned him after the January 6th insurrection.
11. In his interview with Time, Trump said he would begin pardoning people convicted of participating on Jan. 6 in the “first hour” of taking office, as well as begin deportations of undocumented immigrants.
12. Trump, who promised to bring down grocery prices as a central theme in his campaign, told Time it will be “very hard.” Asked if his presidency would be a failure if he did not do so, he answered, “I don’t think so.”
13. Time gave a lengthy fact-check of claims Trump made in its interview, something the magazine had never done before.
14. On Friday, OpenAI said its chief executive, Sam Altman, would also donate $1 million to Trump’s inauguration.
15. On Wednesday, FBI director Christopher Wray told employees he would resign before Trump takes office. Trump celebrated the announcement, calling it “a great day for America as it will end the Weaponization.”
16. Such an early departure is extremely rare, but Trump has done it twice (including firing acting director James Comey in 2017). Sen. Richard Blumenthal called it “a threat to the independence and integrity of our justice system.”
17. NYT reported Wray’s voluntary departure, from a post that traditionally has been an apolitical 10-year appointment, could mark a new era. Current and former law enforcement officials called the resignation “unwelcome and worrisome,” and “an ominous sign.”
18. On Wednesday, Trump picked Kari Lake, an election denier and Trump loyalist, as the director of the Voice of America, a federally funded broadcaster. Trump had sought to strip the agency of its independence during his first regime.
19. Lake said the mission would be “chronicling America’s achievements worldwide,” which is not in VOA’s charter. NYT reported many journalists who work for VOA, an organization whose journalistic independence has been written into law, fear retribution.
20. On Wednesday, Trump picked Ed Martin, an anti-abortion activist who helped to organize the “Stop the Steal” movement to overturn the 2020 election, as chief of staff for the Office of Management and Budget.
21. NBC News reported Republican officials in Utah invited Russell Taylor, a Jan. 6 defendant who helped organize a group to travel to Washington DC that day, to Trump’s inauguration.
22. Trump voiced support for Amaryllis Fox Kennedy, Kennedy’s daughter-in-law, for the CIA’s number 2 job after incoming Senate Intelligence Committee chair Tom Cotton voiced concerns. Fox Kennedy called for an overhaul of the CIA, and posted a broadside against Cotton on X.
23. NYT reported the MAGA ecosystem has been threatening Republican Senators who might vote against Trump nominees Pete Hegseth, after Trump became convinced that letting him fail would create a feeding frenzy.
24. An AP-NORC poll found just 2 in 10 Americans approve of Trump’s nomination of Hegseth, 2 in 10 approve of Tulsi Gabbard, and 3 in 10 approve of RFK Jr.
25. On Thursday, Democratic Senate Judiciary and Oversight committee chairs Dick Durbin and Sheldon Whitehouse told GOP Senators they want Trump’s cabinet picks to turn over any communications with Boris Epshteyn, as part of an investigation into his “pay-to-play scheme.”
26. On Thursday, CNBC reported the Securities and Exchange Commission charged Cantor Fitzgerald, run by chairman and CEO Howard Lutnick, Trump’s nominee to lead the Commerce Department, with breaking securities laws.
27. On Friday, Bloomberg News reported Paul Atkins, Trump’s pick to lead the Securities and Exchange Commission, received more than $3 million from crypto firms, mutual fund companies, and other businesses he is set to regulate.
28. On Friday, WSJ reported the Trump regime is seeking ways to shrink or eliminate regulatory agencies, including agencies that protect consumers, such as the FDIC and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
29. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warned the Trump regime against changing the critically important regulation of American banks, saying, “We’ve seen what happens when banks are inappropriately supervised.”
30. On Friday, Reuters reported the Trump regime is recommending dropping a car-crash reporting requirement, calling the mandate “excessive.” Musk’s Tesla would be the biggest beneficiary.
31. On Friday, a lawyer representing RFK Jr. petitioned the FDA to revoke approval for the polio vaccine, and pause the distribution of 13 other vaccines.
32. Trump said in his Time interview that he would pull vaccines if he thinks they are “dangerous” or “not beneficial” after working with Kennedy to review the evidence.
33. Senate Leader Mitch McConnell, a polio survivor, called the effort “uninformed” and “dangerous,” adding, “Anyone seeking the Senate’s consent to serve in the incoming administration would do well to steer clear of even the appearance of association with such efforts.”
34. WAPO reported Trump’s pick to run the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dave Weldon, is also a vaccine skeptic, who has a long history of promoting the disproven link between vaccines and autism. Kennedy proposed Weldon for the role.
35. On Friday, a federal judge ordered Trump to sit for a deposition next week in the defamation lawsuit he brought in March against ABC News and anchor, George Stephanopoulos, over Trump’s claims of defamation for saying on air that he was found guilty of raping E. Jean Carroll.
36. Later that evening, ABC agreed to pay $15 million to Trump’s future presidential foundation and museum to settle the lawsuit. Trump has frequently sued for defamation and lost to CNN, The New York Times and The Washington Post.
37. As part of the settlement, ABC agreed to publish an editor’s note saying the network and Stephanopoulos “regret statements regarding President Donald J. Trump” made during the interview.
38. NYT reported several ABC News executives have visited Florida to meet with the Trump regime. On Monday, the Disney executive who oversees ABC News dined with Trump’s incoming chief of staff Susie Wiles.
39. NYT reported Trump and members of his regime such as Hegseth and Kash Patel have and will use the threat of defamation lawsuits to crack down on unfavorable coverage, and to silence critics, despite the high bar for winning.
40. On Monday, Trump threatened more lawsuits, including the possibility of suing the Des Moines Register and its pollster over a poll that showed him losing Iowa, saying, “In my opinion, it was fraud and it was election interference.”
41. Trump also spoke about his lawsuits against CBS News and the Pulitzer Prize board, saying, “I feel I have to do this,” although he thought the DOJ should instead, adding “we have to straighten out the press.”
42. On Saturday, Trump named loyalist Devin Nunes, whom he credited with exposing “the Russia, Russia, Russia hoax,” to lead the Intelligence Advisory Board, an independent group that oversees the US intelligence community’s compliance with the Constitution.
43. The role will give Nunes access to all intelligence information. Nunes will also continue to lead Trump Media & Technology Group. Linda McMahon and Patel will continue to sit on Trump Media’s board.
44. On Monday, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s top lieutenant, Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland, resigned over differences on how to handle Trump, calling Trump’s tariffs threats on Canadian products a “grave challenge.”
45. On Monday, at his first news conference, Trump defended Kennedy, saying, “I think he’s going to be much less radical than you would think,” but backed him in saying, without evidence, that “there are problems” with vaccines, and adding he “does not like mandates.”
46. Trump also said he would consider pardoning New York City Mayor Eric Adams, a Democrat who faces a federal indictment. Adams has tried to curry favor with the incoming regime by calling for changes in his city’s sanctuary city laws.
47. On Monday, Trump passed over Fox Kennedy for the CIA job, after lobbying from the hawkish faction of the GOP. Her ascension to be considered reflected Kennedy’s sway with Trump.
48. On Monday, McConnell publicly challenged Trump’s foreign policy with a sharp critique of his “right-wing flirtation with isolation,” his courting Russian President Vladimir Putin, and acting erratically with allies.
49. On Monday, a New York judge denied Trump’s motion to throw out his 34-count hush money felony conviction based on the Supreme Court decision on presidential immunity, saying it did not negate his conviction.
50. In another effort to overturn the conviction, Trump’s lawyers sent a letter to the judge claiming to have uncovered “evidence of grave juror misconduct during the trial,” and contending “partisan political motivations.”
51. On Tuesday, Trump sued Iowa pollster Ann Selzer, her polling firm, The Des Moines Register, and the newspaper’s parent company, Gannett, accusing them of “brazen election interference,” and calling her polling miss “intentional.”
52. Selzer, who had been among the most accurate pollsters in the country, including a 2016 poll that showed a shift to Trump, had Trump down by 4 points in Iowa in the final days. He won the state by 13 points.
53. On Tuesday, Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren called on Trump to come up with clear conflict of interest rules for Musk, whom she said will be in a position to “influence billions of dollars of government contracts and regulatory enforcement.”
54. On Tuesday, NYT reported Musk and his company SpaceX have triggered at least three federal reviews over failure to comply with federal reporting protocols aimed at protecting state secrets.
55. The Air Force recently denied Musk a high-level security access. SpaceX employees charged with reporting have begrudgingly allowed Musk to disregard reporting. They have also become concerned about his ability to handle sensitive information following his posts on X.
56. On Tuesday, seven Democrats on the Senate Armed Services Committee, led by Warren, sent a letter to Trump’s chief of staff, saying allegations of sexual misconduct against Hegseth, and his comments about women serving in combat, are disqualifying.
57. On Wednesday, a report by the House Administration Subcommittee on Oversight said former Rep. Liz Cheney should be investigated for her role using the Jan. 6 House committee as a tool to attack Trump.
58. Shortly after the report was released, Trump posted on Truth Social, “Liz Cheney could be in a lot of trouble,” and thanked loyalist Rep. Barry Loudermilk, who chaired the subcommittee.
59. On Wednesday, watchdog group State Democracy Defenders Fund, founded by former ethics officials in the Obama Administration, said it was requesting records from 16 federal agencies of any interactions they have had with Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency.
60. For the first time in two decades, the 17 incoming House committee chairs led by Republicans will be all white men, without a single woman leader or person of color.
61. As Trump prepares to take office, a CNBC poll found 54% are comfortable and are ready to support him, 41% are uncomfortable and are not (+13). At the start of the first regime, 56% were comfortable and 36% were not (+20).