Week 89 — The Return

While we are in the lazy days of summer, this week had story lines that made the country feel as if in chaos, with a much ballyhooed speech by Trump on the 2020 election, and an escalation of the Iran War.

Much to his chagrin, Trump’s prime time speech was not covered by all the networks, causing him to call for licenses to be revoked. The speech was a rehashing of past conspiracies, with Trump blaming the “deep state” for withholding the information he was about to release from him while, ironically, he was president during the alleged election fraud. Materials released after the speech fell flat, and the response was muted.

The Iran War escalated this week as the ceasefire came to an end, and while the U.S. struck Iran, Iran in turn struck U.S. bases in the region, killing more U.S. troops. Once again, the Pentagon tried to withhold information on wounded soldiers. After failing to hold a press conference for two and a half months, Defense Department Sec. Pete Hegseth came hat in hand looking for more money for the Iran War. Little was offered by way of explanation for where the war was headed, let alone the U.S.’s objectives. All the power and decisions continued to be made by one man.

Chaos and incompetence continued to rule at federal agencies. This week at confirmation hearings, Trump appointees appeared bound by their loyalty test not to say out loud that Joseph Biden won the 2020 election. Other agencies like Health and Human Services, which still has no confirmed leader at the CDC, showed signs of its inability to handle basic tasks, amid growing outbreaks of the measles, and now cyclospora.

1. On Wednesday, Jay Clayton, Trump’s nominee for Director of National Intelligence, refused to answer who had won the 2020 presidential election, despite being asked by four Senators, three Democrats and one Independent, in his confirmation hearing.
2. On Wednesday, at his Senate confirmation hearing for attorney general, when asked about his relationship with Trump, Todd Blanche said, “I’m his lawyer,” before clarifying, “I was his lawyer.” Blanche also played down the post-Watergate norm of distance between the DOJ and White House.
3. Blanche declined to put in writing that Trump’s “anti-weaponization” fund was dead, claiming it was not necessary. Asked about Trump pardoning Jan. 6 insurrectionists who assaulted police, Blanche refused to give his opinion, saying Trump can pardon whomever he wants.
4. As Senate hearings got underway, “Face the Nation” noted Trump did not have Senate-confirmed leaders running the intelligence community, the DOJ, or CDC. None of the three appointees, or any Trump appointee, would admit that Biden had won the 2020 election.
5. FT reported that the U.S. government may join Trump’s personal lawsuit against BBC, saying in a court filing in Florida that it was “considering participating in this litigation.” BBC said in a filing in response that the “conflict of interest is clear and stark.”
6. A federal magistrate judge ruled that Trump must hand over detailed financial records to BBC, citing allegations that his “brand, properties and businesses are impugned.” Trump’s lawyers had tried to argue that the lawsuit had “evolved” to only saying his reputation was harmed.
7. WSJ reported that under Blanche, the DOJ was pulling back on prosecuting corporate crimes, including dropping charges. While Blanche claimed the DOJ was pursuing individuals instead, defense lawyers said they had not seen a rise in individual prosecutions.
8. On Wednesday, less than an hour after federal judges in the Western District of Washington appointed Roger Rogoff as U.S. attorney, filling a vacancy that Trump had left unaddressed, the Trump regime fired Rogoff. Unlike others, Rogoff retained an unemployment law firm.
9. Days later, Rogoff filed a lawsuit contesting his termination, the first to do so after being appointed by federal judges, arguing that the law says a judicially-appointed U.S. attorney should serve until they are replaced by a Senate-confirmed nominee.
10. An NYT analysis of 550 cases filed by Trump’s DOJ during its immigration push found in nearly half of the 400 resolved so far, juries acquitted defendants, judges dismissed charges, or prosecutors withdrew cases. Typically 90% of DOJ cases result in convictions or guilty pleas.
11. Many of the cases had hinged on the Trump regime using an obscure statute, 18 U.S.C. 111, that makes it a federal crime to forcibly impede officers. Former federal prosecutors said the charges were an attempt by the DOJ to use federal charges to intimidate and silence protestors.
12. NYT reported that federal agents had been told in recent days that new guidance coming would mean that the FBI would no longer investigate claims of assault by DHS agents, a move that if enacted would sharply limit law enforcement scrutiny of immigration agents.
13. On Wednesday, Defense Department Sec. Hegseth announced in a video on X that the Pentagon would screen all troops age 30 and over for low testosterone levels, including women, citing the department’s push to refocus on service members’ fitness and “lethality.”
14. Hegseth added troops under 30 could opt to be tested, and hormone treatment would be offered, saying, “It’s about restoring and optimizing your natural capabilities, protecting your longevity and ensuring you have the biological foundation required to sustain the fight.”
15. After a Blue Angels fighter jet passed over a Florida beach at roughly 90 feet overhead, when pilots are typically required to fly 500 feet above, Hegseth again dismissed investigations, posting on X, “flyovers will continue until morale improves,” and “Carry on Patriots.”
16. On Wednesday, speaking at an innovation summit in Pennsylvania, when asked about affordability, Trump responded, “Affordability — that’s a fake word they use,” adding, “We came up with a good word too. Most people don’t know that Dumb has a B in it.”
17. Trump also baselessly claimed of the Biden administration’s CHIPS Act that “if you weren’t transgender, as an example, you didn’t qualify. So they’d get the money, they’d hire, they’d look all over for transgender people to run the company.”
18. On Thursday, Trump’s longtime teleprompter operator Gabriel Perez was suspended amid an investigation by federal regulators of bets he made on the prediction market platform Kalshi. Perez made more than $90,000 in profit on the trades.
19. NYT reported that work was underway for a White House helipad, without Trump asking Congress or any review panel for approval. Construction had begun on the lawn of the White House, which Trump had previously torn up for construction of his UFC fight stage.
20. On Wednesday, AP reported that after the Reflecting Pool was drained, images revealed that the color of the coating was no longer “American flag blue,” but had faded to gray.
21. On Friday, Trump claimed on Truth Social that the pool was “badly damaged by Deranged Vandals,” and that a “massive slash,” which others could not see, was getting repaired, adding, “We are looking for a Vandal Proof material,” and the “Scum” will be prosecuted to the “MAX.”
22. WAPO reported that an analysis of seven areas in the pool where the liner had peeled away strongly suggested errors in the application process, according to experts, contradicting Trump and his regime’s asserting that “vandalism” was the cause.
23. A lawsuit filed by Paramount shareholders accused David and Larry Ellison of striking an illegal deal with Trump for approval of the merger with Warner Bros., which included Trump’s demand to make sweeping changes at CNN, and an alleged promise for up to $20 million in free advertising.
24. On Monday, a federal judge paused Paramount’s merger with Warner Bros. in response to a separate lawsuit by 12 Democratic state attorneys general, saying that the AGs raised serious questions about the anticompetitive nature of the deal.
25. CNN reported that Trump had promoted more than 20 companies on Truth Social, days after buying their stocks. At times Trump’s promotion also included government actions that could benefit the companies.
26. Trump Media announced it was launching a new data feed called Truth API, marketed to large trading firms as a service that would provide “real-time access to posts” from Trump “milliseconds” before those posts reach the public.
27. FT reported Trump Media had pitched the service for as much as a $100,000 monthly fee to traders and investors. One hedge fund manager said people would pay the fee to stay competitive, noting, “If you’re behind on that news, you’ll get crushed.”
28. CNN reported 1789 Capital had tripled its funds under management since Donald Jr. became a partner at the start of the second regime. Companies that 1789 invested in, and Donald Jr. stood to gain from, had also received billions in government funding.
29. WSJ reported Kenneth Kies, Treasury’s top tax policy official, was fired by the Trump regime, after he warned that Section 7217 of the Internal Revenue Code prohibited the president, vice president, and senior officials from requesting the IRS conduct or terminate audits.
30. On Thursday, a district court in Kansas blocked a law that would have eliminated the state’s 3-day grace period after Election Day for mail-in ballots to be returned, citing the Supreme Court’s recent ruling.
31. On Thursday, Trump gave a prime time speech in which he revived previously debunked election fraud claims. Much of his speech focused on intelligence reports, which Trump claimed were kept from him by the “deep state” while he was in office, even as most was already public.
32. While former presidents of both parties had worked to build trust in the integrity of the country’s elections, Trump made a series of baseless claims in a 25 minute speech, and lied, “There is no Third World country that has elections like we have.”
33. Trump claimed the Department of Homeland Security had identified 278,000 noncitizens in four states, California, New Jersey, Nevada, and Pennsylvania, who were registered to vote in federal elections, without providing any proof of that claim, or that any had voted.
34. Trump alleged voter interference in 2020, including that China had bought, stolen, or hacked tens of millions of voter data files. Documents revealed that while U.S. intelligence was aware of China’s actions, China had opted not to interfere in the 2020 election for fear of being caught.
35. Trump used his speech to demand passage of his SAVE America Act, saying, “Congress must pass the SAVE America act,” claiming, “The only reason you would not do it is you want to cheat. Because your policies are so bad. And your candidates are so pathetic.”
36. Trump called for fixing vulnerabilities in the electronic voting system so “we can never watch a stolen election again.” During his second regime, Trump had eliminated the FBI’s task force on foreign influence and gutted the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.
37. Trump also attacked two of the networks that did not air his speech live, saying ABC and NBC should have their licenses revoked, baselessly claiming, “They and others in the media are part of a plot…to continue this fraud,” and it “should mean a revocation of their licenses.”
38. NYT reported that a review of the 270 pages of evidence released by the White House with Trump’s speech did not provide any bombshells, and was instead consistent with prior public intelligence assessments in 2020 and 2021, and showed no evidence of election tampering.
39. Trump barely mentioned Russia in his speech, although in the documents released Russia was mentioned extensively and a majority of intelligence officials assessed that Russia meddled in the election by denigrating Joseph Biden, and in its efforts to implicate Biden in Burisma.
40. Russia also spread false stories about the Biden family to U.S. media, and prominent U.S. individuals, including some close to Trump and his first regime. Trump also did not mention that documents revealed Iran had moved aggressively to harm Trump’s prospects.
41. WSJ reported while Trump again attempted to sow doubt about the 2020 election, and alleged in his speech that the U.S. election system had been compromised, he did not provide any verifiable evidence of voter fraud or altered election outcomes.
42. Shortly after the speech, John Solomon, who was leading Trump’s task force on declassifying documents on this and other issues, told reporters that no votes were changed in the 2020, 2022, or 2024 elections.
43. On Friday, Trump’s speech got a muted response from GOP lawmakers. Fox News, which was typically an amplifier of Trump’s claims, barely mentioned the speech. In 2023 the network had paid $787 million to Dominion Voting Systems for previous false claims about the 2020 election.
44. The WSJ Editorial Board cautioned that Trump ran the danger of discouraging Republicans from voting, and noted that Trump’s own document release said, “Vote tabulation systems would be difficult to manipulate” and “audits and paper trails” would find any effort.
45. Politico reported Trump’s speech was far tamer than some close aides feared. Acting DNI Bill Pulte pushed Trump to reveal names of intelligence officials who allegedly concealed election interference, before pulling back after others said that could put lives at risk.
46. On Friday, DHS Sec. Markwayne Mullin claimed that 250,000 noncitizens were registered to vote in four states, and threatened to withhold federal funding, and jail time for state election officials if they did not cooperate with the Trump regime to provide voter rolls.
47. WAPO reported that according to government officials and outside election experts, noncitizens represented a minuscule number of votes. When states have done studies to find such data in their rolls, the numbers have been in the low double digits out of millions of voters.
48. On Friday, a federal judge dismissed the Trump regime’s lawsuit to obtain Connecticut’s voter rolls, the 16th straight loss for the regime, concluding the DOJ has no authority under the Civil Rights Act of 1960 to require the state to produce the voter registration list.
49. On Friday, a federal appeals court halted a lower court ruling, allowing the U.S. Postal Service to move forward with its proposed new rule while the case played out, that it would not deliver mail-in ballots in states that refused to hand over voter rolls to the Trump regime.
50. On Tuesday, New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill announced 6,600 non-citizens had been inadvertently placed on the state’s voter roll due to a software error at the Department of Motor Vehicles. Of those, 400 voted out of 3.3 million ballots in 2024, by all party affiliations.
51. Trump’s DOJ said it was “investigating this unlawful dilution of American votes,” and would press again to get the state’s voter roll. However, given the software flaw, even Trump’s proposed SAVE America Act would not have caught the error.
52. On Tuesday, the DOJ announced that it would send federal agents to monitor three polling sites in Arizona — Maricopa, Apache, and Pima — for the state’s primary election that day, to “ensure transparency, ballot security, and compliance with federal law.”
53. On Friday, a federal judge ruled that the Office of Management and Budget cannot retroactively cancel previously awarded grants based on new rules or policies established under Trump, denying a request to dismiss a lawsuit brought by 20 states, three governors, and the District of Columbia.
54. AP reported that the White House admitted to using keywords related to diversity, gender, vaccine hesitancy, and COVID-19 to screen thousands of University of California research grants, and cancel $2 billion worth. The data was part of a lawsuit claiming the cancellations were illegal.
55. WAPO reported the Trump regime had swapped out a slavery exhibit at the Independence National Historical Park in Philadelphia overnight last week, and replaced panels on the horrors of slavery and George Washington’s ownership of enslaved people with a sanitized version.
56. On Friday, as Canadian wildfires led to smoky conditions in some U.S. states, Trump posted he was “holding Canada responsible” for not “maintaining their Forests,” adding, “the U.S. was being invaded by filthy, polluted, and unhealthy air” and he would add the cost to tariffs.
57. On Monday, Trump imposed an additional 50% tariff on certain Canadian goods, including wine, hockey sticks, and cement, claiming they were the result of “discriminatory treatment of American products.”
58. On Tuesday, Trump posted on Truth Social that he would impose a 100% tariff on generic drugs manufactured abroad starting in August 2028, increasing to 200% in August 2029, in an effort to get companies to reshore manufacturing in the U.S.
59. On Saturday, as the U.S. continued to bomb Iran, and Iran bombed Gulf states in response, Iran said it had formally withdrawn from the memorandum of understanding. Two U.S. troops were killed and one was missing after Iran hit a U.S. air base in Jordan.
60. An Economist/YouGov poll found the Iran War was the least popular since it started, at -30 net approval, with Democrats disapproving -84, Independents disapproving -52, and Republicans approving +72. The Vietnam War took six years to become that unpopular.
61. WAPO reported that a U.S. intelligence report concluded that additional U.S. strikes were unlikely to move Iran’s negotiating position, leaving the war in a tit-for-tat limbo with no clear end in sight, and with the prospect of a wider war erupting.
62. On Sunday, Trump attended the FIFA World Cup game, Spain vs. Argentina, in New Jersey. Trump had recently called Spain’s president a “loser,” derided the country as “hopeless,” and labelled the Spanish as “bad people.”
63. In an awkward scene, Trump was loudly booed when he entered the field after the match, and lingered while Spain was presented with their World Cup trophy, remaining on the stage. Spain later artificially removed Trump from their team photo.
64. Later Sunday, Trump was asked about his initial claim that the war would last four to five weeks. Trump said, “This is a far bigger job…We were doing a little job, stopping them from having a certain capability. Now, we’re just ending it.” It was unclear what he meant.
65. Later Sunday, Trump admitted when asked if the Qatari-gifted Air Force One had an antimissile defense system, that the plane would be taken out of service, telling a reporter, “in about a month or so, they’re going to send it to have it be maxed out.”
66. On Monday, an NYT court filing revealed that the Trump regime, in its efforts to subpoena reporters over their story on Trump’s Qatari AF1, had also sought phone records of NYT reporters’ relatives, including one mother and two spouses, in its efforts to unmask confidential sources.
67. On Monday, NYT reported that the Pentagon had withheld information on dozens of other injuries of U.S. troops, after Iran had carried out three other unreported strikes on U.S. forces in Jordan. The strikes had also damaged several helicopters.
68. Later Monday, after the NYT reporting, the Pentagon admitted on X that nearly 100 U.S. troops had been injured in the last two weeks, bringing the total to 430, and claimed 96% had returned to duty. A spokesperson claimed those returning “are determined to get back in the fight.”
69. Later Monday, as the death toll rose to 17, Trump posted on Truth Social, “Every time Iran kills an American Soldier they will pay for that killing ⁠many times over,” adding his “directive has been passed on” to Hegseth and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Daniel Caine.
70. On Tuesday, more than 500 journalists urged the White House Correspondents’ Association to confront Trump over his attacks on the free press at the rescheduled WHCA dinner on Friday, saying Trump had “escalated” his attacks and “the WHCA cannot normalize this behavior.”
71. On Tuesday, Trump snapped at female reporter, Mary Bruce of ABC News, after she asked him how he planned to get the U.S. out of the Iran War, saying, “You don’t know what the dialogue is behind the scenes,” said that she worked for a “fake station,” and “You don’t know anything.”
72. Trump also threatened to escalate the war, threatening to strike Pickaxe Mountain, which some experts said was where Iran had moved nuclear centrifuges and others said was empty, saying, “We’ll be hitting that area probably pretty soon, and there’s not a thing they can do about it.”
73. On Tuesday, Hegseth and Caine were set to brief the Senate Appropriations Committee to ask for additional funding for the war. Hegseth had not held a press briefing in two and a half months, or explained the military strategy in Iran.
74. Hegseth said the Iran War had cost $37.5 billion so far, and asked for an additional $70 billion in emergency military spending, in addition to the $1.5 trillion that the regime was asking for in the budget. Little to no information was given on how this and other monies would be spent.
75. Democrats and some Republicans expressed frustration over Hegseth’s inability to identify the objectives of the war, or how they would be achieved, and said the funding requests showed poor planning. Democrats called out the regime’s early declarations of military success.
76. Later Tuesday, WSJ reported that Trump had approved a landmark nuclear deal with Saudi Arabia that would provide the kingdom with a civilian nuclear program, and potentially allow uranium enrichment, as part of a 30 year deal. Inspectors would be given limited access.
77. On Wednesday, Trump posted on Truth Social that the U.S. would “bomb and destroy ONE BRIDGE OR POWER PLANT,” including infrastructure in or near Tehran, for each Iranian strike in the Strait of Hormuz. Bombing civilian infrastructure is considered a war crime.
78. On Saturday, Andrew and Tristan Tate were arrested by U.S. Marshals in Miami, as the U.K. sought extradition of the brothers to face criminal charges. The two returned to the U.S. from Romanian prison shortly after Trump took office, although he did not publicly state his involvement in the case.
79. CBS News reported the attorney for the Tate brothers urged the Trump regime to block extradition to the U.K., where the two were set to face new sex crime charges.
80. On Monday, a federal judge, appointed by Trump, dismissed the Trump regime’s lawsuit against Minnesota, the Twin Cities, and Hennepin County, that would have forced them to cooperate with the regime on enforcing federal immigration law.
81. On Monday, aides for Mitch McConnell refused to answer basic questions on his status. McConnell had not been seen or heard from in 37 days, other than an image of him and his wife released a week before.
82. On Sunday, the FDA apologized in a statement to Taylor Farms for wrongly saying that its lettuce was behind the multi-state outbreak of cyclospora, blaming a false positive. The FDA had also wrongly warned consumers not to eat at Taco Bell which used their lettuce.
83. Daily Beast reported executives from Taylor Farms, a company that had been a Trump donor, meet with officials from the White House and FDA days before, on Thursday, one day before the FDA had originally issued a voluntary recall of lettuce sources from Central Mexico.
84. Cyclospora cases reached a record high, with the CDC confirming 2,500 cases and investigating 7,400 more. NYT gathered data on more than 11,000 infections by calling state health officials. The CDC reported cases had averaged about 2,800 per year since 2016.
85. WAPO reported that U.S. measles cases hit 2,295 cases, the highest number in 35 years, with five months to go in 2026. The number of cases already passed the total in 2025.
86. NYT reported that 440,000 Arizonans had been dropped from the SNAP food stamp program, about half of those enrolled, in less than a year, following passage of Trump’s big bill that results in steep penalties for states that make too many mistakes in awarding benefits.
87. To avoid errors, Arizona had added additional paperwork for recipients, at a time of staffing cuts by the state of workers to help, resulting in hours-long waits, chaos, and people dropping off. The template could become a national problem in coming months.
88. On Tuesday, Trump warned that “Dumocrat run Blue States” would become “the ‘Ghettos’ of the Future” by taxing wealthy Americans, causing them to move, adding, “No people, no money, no hope,” and “MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”
89. On Tuesday, HHS Sec. Robert Kennedy Jr. said the regime would withhold an additional $867 million in Medicaid payments from California and $200 million from Minnesota, the second such withholding, alleging fraud in their public health insurance programs.
90. NYT reported a study found the Trump regime’s USAID cuts resulted in 1,700 H.I.V. treatment centers being closed; 77,000 fewer children having access to treatment; and three-quarters of organizations no longer providing services to people most at risk.
91. FT reported that the U.S. had collected about $13 billion from sales of Venezuela’s oil, but it was unclear where the money went, with little transparency. Economists said lifting sanctions was meant to be a boon to Venezuela’s economy, but there was little evidence of a recovery.