Week 66 — The Return

In a week of chaos, so much happened it was easy to lose sight of the fact that Trump posted an image of former president Barack Obama and Michelle Obama as apes on Truth Social. He then deflected that it was posted by a staffer, took down the post, and refused to apologize. In any sort of normal time, that act, in and of itself, would be career ending. In the era of Trump, it’s Thursday.

Trump did not back off of his racism, which seems to be more a feature than a bug, castigating Puerto Rican rapper Bad Bunny over his Super Bowl halftime performance. Trump’s brutal and racist immigration push also continued unabated, even as polling increasingly showed the American people turning against him. Those who dare to speak out were targeted — from protestors in Minneapolis getting arrested, to Trump lambasting a U.S. Olympian.

Amid all this, information from the latest Epstein files release led to resignations around the world, but little in the U.S., although the files increasingly are gaining public and media attention. Commerce Department Sec. Howard Lutnick became the first regime member to admit visiting Epstein’s island. Calls grew louder for the release of the remaining three million files.

All the while, the regime continues to deconstruct the government from within. It is important to read the stories of what is happening at our federal agencies. Trump also continued his campaign of branding his name wherever he can, and unprecedented corruption. Republicans have largely refrained from speaking out against him or his agenda, except on the fringes. Questions continue to arise about Trump’s plans to interfere with a free and fair midterm election, and polling increasingly suggests even control of the Senate will be in play.

1. Quinnipiac polling found Trump’s approval hit a new low with the pollster, 37% approve, 56% disapprove. On the shooting of Alex Pretti, 62% say the Trump regime has not given a fair account, and 80% said there should be an independent investigation of the incident.
2. Six in 10 voters said Trump is being too harsh on immigration, 38% approve of his handling of the issue, and 58% said Department of Homeland Security Sec. Kristi Noem should be fired. On the economy, 39% approve, and 37% approve on foreign policy.
3. The Office of Personnel Management issued a new rule making it easier to discipline and fire 50,000 high-ranking career officials, stripping decades-old protections for federal employees from being fired. The rule was said to get rid of people standing in the way of Trump’s agenda.
4. On Thursday, Trump told Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer that he would release $16 billion in federal funding for the Gateway Project connecting New York and New Jersey if Schumer agreed to rename New York’s Penn Station and Washington’s Dulles Airport after him.
5. On Thursday, Trump announced the launch of the government website, TrumpRx.gov, Trump’s online drug store, marketed as a way for consumers to buy their medicines at pharmacies or from major manufacturers. Trump lied about huge discounts.
6. Just 43 drugs were available on the new website, many of which were already at the same discounted price on other websites. Almost all of the drugs listed were already covered by most insurance plans.
7. NYT reported that the White House has suggested to the Smithsonian that it create a new section at the National Portrait Gallery to feature multiple images of Trump, in addition to his official portrait.
8. On Thursday, at close to midnight, Trump posted a video on Truth Social depicting former President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama as apes. GOP Sen. Tim Scott posted on X, “Praying it was fake because it’s the most racist thing I’ve seen out of this White House.”
9. On Friday morning, as outrage grew, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt dismissed criticism of the video as “fake outrage.” A handful of Republicans joined Democrats in condemning the video, and calling for Trump to apologize.
10. Hours later, the White House switched the story to say that a Trump staffer had “erroneously” posted the video. Only two staffers were known to have access to Trump’s account, and the post was sent at 11:44 p.m. The post was also deleted.
11. Asked later Friday by reporters aboard Air Force One, Trump claimed of the video, “I didn’t see it.” Asked if he would apologize, he said, “No, I didn’t make a mistake. I mean … I look at a lot of, thousands of, things, and I looked at the beginning of it. It was fine.”
12. More than 300 former Justice Department prosecutors urged Attorney General Pam Bondi in a letter to allow local investigators to probe the killings of Alex Pretti and Renee Good, saying the DOJ “plays a crucial role in ensuring that the American people can trust the justice system.”
13. The DOJ dismissed its criminal case against Trump ally Steve Bannon over his refusal to testify before the congressional committee that investigated the Jan. 6 insurrection. Bannon was convicted on two counts of contempt and served four months in prison.
14. NYT reported that Gordon Kromberg, the federal prosecutor who obtained a warrant to search the home of Washington Post reporter Hannah Natanson failed to notify the court that the search was of a journalist, as required under the 1980 Privacy Protection Act.
15. A grand jury in D.C. failed to indict six Democratic lawmakers over a video reminding active-duty military and intelligence that they were obligated to refuse illegal orders, after the U.S. attorney’s office in Washington, led by Trump ally Jeanine Pirro, tried to bring charges.
16. Columnist Peggy Noonan said of Jeff Bezos’ mass firing at the Post last week, “losing the one major newspaper left in the great nation’s capital” during the Trump regime and “a time of the easy abuse of standards and traditions… is a kind of sin. The kind history doesn’t easily forgive.”
17. WSJ reported that under Trump’s new tax law, Bezos’ Amazon paid $2.8 billion in federal income taxes last year, after paying more than $7 billion in each of the prior two years.
18. The WSJ Editorial Board came out against Trump’s call to nationalize voting, and his efforts in Georgia, which they said were “seeking something, anything, to lend credence to his claims about the 2020 election. Yet that mischief won’t save him in November.”
19. On Wednesday, the CIA announced it was shuttering The World Facebook, reference material used by journalists, teachers, students, and travelers since 1962. No reason was given.
20. In an unsigned order on the shadow docket, the Supreme Court denied an emergency request by California Republicans to overturn the state’s new congressional map, a setback for Trump’s efforts to win over districts ahead of midterms.
21. A federal judge rejected the Trump regime’s attempt to obtain Michigan’s voter rolls. The judge, a Trump appointee, said the three laws cited by the DOJ “do not allow the United States to obtain the records at issue in this case.”
22. In Utah, a push by Republicans to erase a Democratic House seat pick up by adding a down-ballot measure backfired and led to accusations of fraud, after hundreds of signatures on their petitions were flagged by local clerks as fraudulent.
23. On Wednesday, the Trump regime disclosed the whistleblower complaint on Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard to some members of Congress. Citing executive privilege, names of individuals as well as other information were redacted, making it hard to decipher.
24. The Guardian reported the complaint related to the National Security Agency flagging an unusual phone call between two members of foreign intelligence, who discussed a person close to Trump. The person close to Trump is not a regime official or special government employee.
25. Gabbard took a paper copy of the intelligence report to Trump’s chief of staff, Susie Wiles. One day after, Gabbard told the NSA not to publish the report, and to transmit details directly to her office. The whistleblower said Gabbard blocked intelligence from routine dispatch.
26. NYT reported that members of Congress were briefed on the complaint, and that the discussion by the two foreign nationals was about Iran, a month before Trump ordered a strike there. Some analysts said the two could have been gossiping or deliberately spreading disinformation.
27. On Monday, general counsel for the DNI warned the attorney for the whistleblower not to share the complaint with members of Congress, and warned that he and his client could face criminal charges if they improperly revealed classified material while briefing Congress.
28. Reuters reported that Gabbard led a team to investigate voting machines in Puerto Rico last spring. Working with the FBI, the goal was to investigate a claim that Venezuela had hacked voting machines there. No evidence was found to support the claim.
29. On Monday, a federal judge ordered the DOJ to unseal documents related to the 2020 election ballots seized by the FBI in Fulton County by Tuesday.
30. On Tuesday, an unsealed affidavit revealed the investigation “originated from a referral sent by Kurt Olsen,” Trump’s appointee as Director of Election Security and Integrity. Olsen took part in the “Stop the Steal” campaign, and promoted baseless claims of widespread fraud.
31. Democratic Sen. Mark Warner said the search “originated from the frivolous claims,” noting Olsen “traffics in debunked falsehoods about the 2020 election,” adding the document “also makes clear there was no foreign intelligence nexus,” so why was Gabbard there?
32. Politico reported Trump had directed top U.S. intelligence agencies to share sensitive information with Olsen, who had been made a temporary government employee. One official said, “Every time he hits a roadblock, he just calls POTUS.”
33. The E.E.O.C. announced it had opened an investigation of Nike over whether its DEI programs had resulted in “a pattern or practice of disparate treatment against white employees.” Nike had shared information requested, and was taken aback by the escalation.
34. Mississippi Today reported the Trump regime’s National Park Service removed visitor brochures from the Medgar & Myrlie Evers Home National Monument. The revised brochure will no longer refer to Evers’ killer, Byron De La Beckwith, as a “racist.”
35. The Trump regime removed the pride flag from the Stonewall National Monument in Manhattan, after the Interior Department issued a directive on displaying “non-agency” flags within the National Park System.
36. The new Epstein files release showed Commerce Department Sec. Howard Lutnick was in business with Epstein, and stayed in touch with him for 13 years after Epstein’s Florida conviction. Republican Rep. Thomas Massie said on Sunday that Lutnick should resign.
37. Former president Bill Clinton posted on X that he called for the “full release of the Epstein files” and “provided a sworn statement of what I know,” adding he would not let GOP House members “use me as a prop in a closed-door kangaroo court,” and called for a public hearing.
38. On Monday, Ghislaine Maxwell invoked the Fifth Amendment before the House Oversight Committee, saying she would only testify if she was “granted clemency” by Trump, who has not ruled out doing so.
39. Democrat Rep. Jamie Raskin, one of the House members who saw unredacted files, said Trump was redacted several times with no good reason, and several “redacted when they were not victims.” Victims included a 14 year-old, 11 year-old, 10 year-old, and 9 year-old girl.
40. Raskin also told reporters that when he searched Trump’s name in the unredacted Epstein files the previous day, it came up “more than a million times.” He added that the 3 million documents that the regime has not yet released “are the ones I’d like to see.”
41. Reps. Massie and Ro Khanna said while more than one hundred names of victims had been exposed, they were able to find at least six redacted co-conspirators in an initial look, which had been redacted by the FBI, in violation of the Epstein Files Transparency Act.
42. The Miami Herald reported according to a 2019 FBI document, a former Palm Beach police chief who investigated Epstein said Trump called him in the mid 2000s and said “thank goodness you’re stopping him, everyone has known he’s been doing this.”
43. Trump also said he was around Epstein once when teenagers were there, and that he “got the hell out of there.” He also said Maxwell was “evil.” Trump has repeatedly denied that he knew what Epstein was up to.
44. On Tuesday, in testimony before the Congress, Lutnick flip-flopped and became the first cabinet member to admit to visiting Epstein’s island. Lutnick said he was accompanied by his wife, children, and nannies when he visited in 2012. Calls continued for his resignation.
45. NYT reported on Trump’s blockade of wind and solar projects, including more than 60 projects under development on federal lands, and hundreds on private property. The move comes amid growing need for power, and other countries making efforts to use wind and solar.
46. A federal judge, appointed by Ronald Reagan, ruled that Energy Department Sec. Chris Wright violated the law when he handpicked five researchers, who worked in secret, with no records or public comment, to produce a government report to discredit global warming.
47. WSJ reported the Trump regime was set to repeal the Obama-era 2009 landmark “endangerment finding,” removing the legal basis for federal greenhouse gas regulations. EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin called it “the largest act of deregulation in the history of the United States.”
48. The rule would mark the end of regulatory requirements to measure, report, certify, and comply with federal greenhouse-gas emission standards for cars, as well as compliance programs, credit provisions, and reporting obligations for industry.
49. Government Executive reported as the IRS approaches its busy season, after cutting 20% of its headcount, the agency is tapping employees from human resources and IT, who have no relevant experience, to answer phones and process tax returns.
50. On Wednesday, appearing before the House Financial Services Committee hearing, Treasury Department Sec. Scott Bessent baselessly claimed, “The Federal Reserve lost the trust of the American people” claiming inflation had “ravaged…the working people of this country.”
51. On Thursday, appearing before the Senate Banking Committee, asked by ranking member Elizabeth Warren if Trump’s Fed chair nominee Kevin Warsh could be sued or investigated by the DOJ if he refused to cut rates as Trump wants, Bessent said, “That is up to the president.”
52. CNBC reported Warren will put forward a resolution calling on the Senate to condemn and reverse the sale of 500,000 advanced artificial intelligence chips to the UAE, after reporting in Week 65 about the business ties and payments to the Trump and Witkoff families.
53. In an NBC News interview on Wednesday, asked if the Fed is an independent body, Trump said, “I mean, in theory, it’s an independent body. But I think, you know, I’m a smart guy. I know the economy better than almost everybody.”
54. Trump also backed off from his demands to nationalize elections, lying that “I didn’t say ‘national,’” and adding, “I said there are some areas in our country that are extremely corrupt,” citing Atlanta, Philadelphia, and Detroit, which were critical to his 2020 loss.
55. Trump also refused to say he would trust the outcome of the midterm elections if Republicans lose, baselessly asserting he would accept the results “if they are honest,” lying that he was “the last one to complain,” and lying about the degree of his election victory in 2024.
56. Trump ally and former White House strategist Steve Bannon said on his podcast, “Trump has to nationalize the election. You’ve got to put — not just, I think, ICE — you’ve got to call up the 82nd and 101st Airborne [Divisions] on the Insurrection Act.”
57. On Minneapolis and the killings of Pretti and Good, Trump said they were not “angels,” and lamented, “Two people out of tens of thousands and you get bad publicity.” When pressed on it being two American citizens, Trump changed topics to boat strikes in the Caribbean.
58. On Wednesday, in a letter to the top Democrats on the Senate and House Intelligence Committees, Gabbard said her presence in Georgia was “requested by the President,” under her authority “to coordinate, integrate, and analyze intelligence related to election security.”
59. Later in his NBC News interview, asked why Gabbard was in Georgia, Trump said, “I don’t know.” He then claimed there had been Chinese election interference.
60. On Thursday, at the National Prayer Breakfast, Trump shifted blame to AG Bondi, saying, “She went in and she looked at votes that want to be checked out from Georgia…Because Pam wanted her to do it,” adding, “And you know why? Because she’s smart.”
61. Trump also claimed he had “done more for religion than any other president” at the nonpartisan event, adding, “I don’t know how a person of faith can vote for a Democrat. I really don’t,” to which he drew some quiet boos from the crowd.
62. Trump also baselessly claimed, in a meandering 77 minute speech, that Biden had “rigged” the 2020 election, claiming that “I had to win” the 2024 election “for my own ego,” adding, “Now I really have a big ego.”
63. On Friday, when Bondi was asked about the inconsistent stories about why Gabbard was in Georgia, Bondi said because she and Gabbard are “inseparable,” adding, “We are constantly together. We constantly talk, we collaborate as a Cabinet,” but did not provide further details.
64. On Thursday, the FBI summoned state election officials from every state to a briefing on the midterms on Feb. 25, that will include the FBI, DOJ, DHS, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, and the Election Assistance Commission. Officials described the meeting at “unusual.”
65. A Fox News poll found 7 in 10 Americans said Trump is not spending enough time on the economy, including half of Republicans, and 4 in 10 said Trump’s economic policies have hurt them personally. Also 55% said the U.S. position in the world is worse than it was a year ago.
66. On Thursday, Challenger, Gray reported layoffs in January were the highest since 2009. U.S. employers announced 108,435 layoffs for the month, up 205% from December, and up 118% from the same period a year ago.
67. The U.S. Department of Agriculture revised its 2025 net farm income, slashing the number to $155 billion, down $25 billion from the $180 billion forecast in September, amid Trump’s economic policies.
68. On Friday, Trump signed an executive order that quadrupled the amount of beef imported into the U.S. from Argentina, as part of a new trade agreement. U.S. cattle ranchers called it a “misguided effort” that will damage the “livelihoods of American cattlemen and women.”
69. Bloomberg reported the Trump regime was exploring having the DOJ open an antitrust probe into U.S. homebuilders, Trump’s latest idea to tackle the affordability of housing.
70. On Monday, Trump told Fox Business of his Fed pick, if Warsh “does the job that he’s capable” of, then “we can grow at 15%, I think more than that.” It was unclear what metric he was referring to. The economy grew at an average annual rate of 2.8% over the past five decades.
71. A federal judge ordered Elon Musk to testify before Congress over whether he exercised an unconstitutional amount of power in directing the shuttering of USAID last year through DOGE, despite the Trump regime’s effort to shield him.
72. CBS News reported that according to an internal DHS document, less than 14% of the 400,000 arrested by ICE in Trump’s first year of the second regime had violent criminal records, and nearly 40% did not have a criminal record of any kind.
73. NYT reported on the harsh conditions at a Trump detention center in El Paso, where many immigrants apprehended in Minneapolis have been sent, including inadequate medical care and food, and maltreatment by private security guards. The regime’s hope is that they will self-deport.
74. Reuters reported that ICE was arresting protestors who follow them in cars, citing a catch-all charge for anyone who “forcibly assaults, resists, opposes, impedes, intimidates, or interferes” with law enforcement. The regime has arrested 655 people under that charge since last summer.
75. Politico reported a review of hundreds of cases found ICE has been defying judges’ orders to release detainees, sometimes bringing them across state lines to thwart legal proceedings, or keeping them days or weeks after being ordered to release them.
76. Judges have become increasingly exhausted and furious with the Trump regime’s tactics, leading some to issue more detailed orders to head off potential loopholes, and in some cases to threaten to hold regime officials in contempt.
77. Politico reported Daniel Rosen, the top federal prosecutor in Minnesota, said in a court filing that his short-staffed office has had to abandon “pressing and important priorities” to focus solely on the flood of hundreds of ICE cases, including 427 in January alone.
78. On Friday, the Trump regime sought to expedite the deportation of 5 year-old Liam Conejo Ramos, days after being released from an immigration center in Texas. The regime sought to have the family’s asylum claims dismissed without a full hearing.
79. NBC News reported on the horrible conditions for children being held at the Texas detention center, including lack of edible food, no school or activities, struggles to get medical care, and children wetting themselves or engaging in self-harm.
80. On Friday, a federal judge ordered the Trump regime to return three families who were originally separated during Trump’s first regime’s “zero tolerance” policy, and hence covered by a 2023 settlement, citing federal agents used “lies, deception, and coercion” to remove them.
81. On Friday, the Trump regime’s DOJ in a court filing declined a judge’s request to return college student Any Lucia Lopez Belloza, who was deported to Honduras over Thanksgiving break, claiming “the Secretary of State lacks the legal authority to unilaterally issue visas.”
82. AP reported Alberto Castañeda Mondragón, a Mexican immigrant whose skull was fractured in eight places and had five life-threatening brain hemorrhages, said ICE beat him at a Minneapolis detention center, unprovoked. ICE claimed in Week 65 that he ran into a wall.
83. NYT reported federal prosecutors in Minnesota had obtained a warrant to search Renee Good’s vehicle to determine whether the shooting had been justified and lawful and whether her civil rights had been violated. Later that week, FBI Director Kash Patel issued a stop order.
84. On Friday, Jim Stolley, the chief counsel for ICE in Minnesota, retired after serving for 31 years, amid the crushing onslaught of cases. Emails sent to his government account generated an automated response that he had “retired from public service,” with no further reason given.
85. On Friday, nearly a thousand Google employees urged the company to divest from ICE and CBP in a letter, saying, “Google is powering this campaign of surveillance, violence, and repression,” and cited the killings of Pretti and Good, and being “horrified” by Google’s part in it.
86. Former Assistant U.S. Attorney Joe Thompson, who worked at the DOJ in Minnesota for more than a decade, then resigned over the DOJ effort to investigate Renee Good’s partner, said in a court filing he would be representing Don Lemon. Lemon is also represented by Abbe Lowell.
87. On Thursday, U.S. Southern Command said on social media that it had launched a strike against an alleged drug trafficking vessel in the eastern Pacific, killing two people. The U.S. military had struck more than 30 vessels.
88. On Thursday, U.S. ambassador to Warsaw Tom Rose posted on X that he had cut off contact with Poland’s Parliament Speaker Wlodzimierz Czarzasty, after Czarzasty made remarks critical of Trump, and said he would not support Trump getting a Nobel Peace Prize.
89. On Thursday, the last nuclear treaty between the U.S. and Russia expired, leaving the two superpowers with no nuclear arms control measures in place for the first time since 1972.
90. Norway’s foreign intelligence service found the Trump regime’s pulling the U.S. back from international cooperation and institutions has led to a growing risk of a more assertive China and Russia.
91. On Thursday, FT reported the Trump regime’s State Department was set to fund think tanks and charities linked to rightwing and populist movements in Europe, promoting what it called “American values,” and challenging perceived threats to free speech.
92. NPR reported the State Department planned to delete all pre-Trump posts on X. The posts will be internally archived, and going forward will only available though a Freedom of Information Act request, a break from past norms.
93. On Friday, Defense Department Sec. Pete Hegseth posted on X that the Pentagon was cutting ties to Harvard, claiming the school “no longer meets the needs of the War Department or the military services,” and “Harvard is woke; The War Department is not.”
94. On Friday, a federal judge ordered the Trump regime to unfreeze federal funding for the Gateway rail tunnel project, a win for New Jersey and New York, finding plaintiffs had “adequately shown that the public interest would be harmed by a delay in a critical infrastructure project.”
95. The judge on Monday gave the Trump regime until Thursday to appeal, allowing it to continue withholding funds, as union workers stopped work. Local 472 called freezing the funds a “vendetta” and said that “working people should never be pawns” for politics..
96. On Friday, a federal judge ordered the Trump regime to keep funds flowing for child care subsidies and other social services to five Democratic states, including California, Colorado, Illinois, Minnesota, and New York.
97. On Thursday, Canadian PM Mark Carney announced a sweeping plan to offer billions of dollars in incentives and tax breaks for the auto industry to manufacture electric vehicles there, aiming to make Canada a global E.V. leader at a time when Trump has pulled back.
98. On Friday, Canada opened a consulate in Greenland, as did France which had announced the notion last June. Raising the Canadian flag, an official stated, “we will stand together with the people of Greenland and Denmark on many issues.”
99. The Electronic System for Travel Authorization, which includes citizens from 42 countries including much of Europe, New Zealand, Australia, and Japan, warned those traveling to the World Cup would be required to hand over five years of social media and other key personal data.
100. On Friday, Vice President JD Vance was booed at the opening ceremony for the Winter Olympics in Milan, when his image appeared on screen.
101. A YouGov poll found Western Europeans’ opinions of the U.S. had hardened under Trump’s recent actions including threats to annex Greenland, with 64% unfavorable in Great Britain, 84% in Denmark, 62% in France, 72% in Germany, 63% in Italy, and 66% in Spain.
102. Several Team USA athletes spoke out against Trump’s policies and ICE, with one saying, “I think it brings up mixed emotions to represent the U.S. right now, I think. It’s a little hard.” Athletes also said they were preparing for a mixed reception from international crowds.
103. On Sunday, Trump attacked Hunter Hess, one of the Olympic athletes who spoke out, posting on Truth Social that he was “a real Loser,” and if “he doesn’t represent his Country” then “he shouldn’t have tried out for the Team,” adding, “Very hard to root for someone like this.”
104. After Trump’s post, several other MAGA voices and influencers, including JD Vance, attacked Hess on social media. Other athletes who had spoken out also said they were targeted, and received threats.
105. On Sunday, Trump and MAGA influencers encouraged their followers to boycott Bad Bunny’s halftime performance during the Super Bowl, and instead turn in to Turning Point USA’s streaming of counter-programming featuring Kid Rock.
106. Trump posted on Truth Social that the Super Bowl halftime show was “absolutely terrible,” and “one of the worst, EVER!” adding, “Nobody understands a word this guy is saying,” and calling it “an affront to the Greatness of America” and a “slap in the face” to the country.
107. Bad Bunny’s performance, which received rave reviews, was the first Super Bowl performance fully in Spanish, and set a record with 135.4 million viewers. Turning Point USA’s drew 6 million.
108. On Monday, Trump threatened on Truth Social to block the Gordie Howe International Bridge between Detroit and Canada from opening until the U.S. “is fully compensated for everything we have given them,” and Canada treats the U.S. “with the Fairness and Respect.”
109. Trump claimed that the bridge had “virtually no US content,” adding, “Now, the Canadian Government” expects me to let them “‘take advantage of America!’” Trump also blamed Obama for “stupidly” approving the bridge project, when it was actually approved during his first regime.
110. Canadian PM Carney told reporters on Tuesday that he spoke to Trump and “explained that Canada paid for the construction of the bridge … that the ownership is shared” between Canada and Michigan, and that U.S. steel and workers were involved.
111. NYT reported that Detroit billionaire Matthew Moroun, the owner of a competing bridge which connected Michigan and Canada, lobbied Lutnick on Monday hours before Trump’s post. The new project would take away revenue from his bridge.
112. Bloomberg reported Trump is privately reconsidering the North American trade pact, asking aides why he should not exit or ask for more concessions from Mexico and Canada. The US-Mexico-Canada Agreement is set for a review before a possible extension on July 1.
113. On his national tour to urge Americans to “eat real food,” Health and Human Services Sec. Robert Kennedy Jr. advanced an unfounded claim that a doctor at Harvard had “cured schizophrenia using keto diets.” The doctor had called it a “promising therapeutic approach.”
114. On Friday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said U.S. measles cases reached 733, up 145 from a week prior, with an outbreak in South Carolina, and several states reporting their first cases. Among patients, 95% are unvaccinated or have an unknown vaccine status.
115. On Monday, the Trump regime said it would cut $600 million of grants administered by the CDC for four Democratic states, California, Colorado, Illinois, and Minnesota, citing the grants were “inconsistent with agency priorities.”
116. The National Governors Association said Trump planned to exclude Democrats from what was traditionally a bipartisan annual summit in Washington. Also, two Democrats, Gov. Wes Moore, the NGA’s vice chair and Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, were uninvited by Trump.
117. Moore told “State of the Union” on Sunday that he was “confused” as to why, after he was recently part of a bipartisan group of governors who joined Trump in signing a memorandum on reducing energy costs, adding that it was “not lost” on him that he is the only Black governor.
118. WSJ reported that Trump’s sons Donald Jr., Eric, and Barron, Lutnick’s son Brandon, and Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff’s son Zach have made billions for their families in the crypto market, while retail investors in Trump memecoins and the crypto markets have suffered heavy losses.
119. World Liberty Financial has earned the Trump family at least $1.2 billion in cash, and a paper gain of at least $2.25 billion from various crypto holdings, in 16 months. By contrast, it took Trump’s real estate, golf, and brand empire eight years to throw off that much cash.
120. NYT reported that Binance has given WLF a leg up in the crypto market by promoting its stablecoin, helping the digital coin hit the $5 billion threshold, as one of the world’s top cryptocurrencies, and holding 85% of the stablecoin. Trump pardoned Binance’s CEO in October.
121. NYT reported Trump is using a newly formed organization, Freedom 250, to collect donations of at least $1 million towards the country’s 250th anniversary celebration, in exchange for access to Trump, and to win favors as many have done during the second regime.
122. Freedom 250’s events are tailored to Trump’s political agenda, his grandiose style, and personal branding, including construction of a giant arch in D.C., an IndyCar race, a national prayer event, and a UFC match, rather than traditional items that would be tied to U.S. history.
123. On Saturday, Trump reversed himself, backing Nexstar’s acquisition of Tegna, citing on Truth Social, “We need more competition against THE ENEMY, the Fake News National TV Networks,” adding the two “will help knock out the Fake News because there will be more competition.”
124. The Freedom of the Press Foundation, a press freedom organization, filed a disciplinary complaint with the Virginia State Bar against Gordon Kromberg for his failure to properly inform the judge before being granted a warrant to search the home of a WAPO journalist.
125. On Wednesday, after midnight, the FAA halted all fights to and from El Paso airport for 10 days, citing an unspecified security risk, without prior notice, grounding commercial, cargo, and private aircraft. The closure was unprecedented.
126. Hours later, the FAA rescinded the closure of the airspace, citing Mexican cartel drones breaching U.S. airspace, and testing of new counter-drone technology by the military at Fort Bliss, a nearby Army base, as the rationale.
127. Democratic Rep. Veronica Escobar said, “There have been drone incursions from Mexico going back to as long as drones existed. So this is nothing new.” President Claudia Sheinbaum of Mexico said that “there is no information about the use of drones at the border.”
128. Nonpartisan research think tank Tax Foundation found that Trump’s tariffs cost the average American household $1,000 last year, and that the cost was expected to rise to $1,300 in 2026.