This Was The Week That Was
Just when we thought Trump's chaos must have reached its zenith, he's proven us wrong once again.
An old U.S. Army recruiting advertisement attempted to inspire recruits to “be all that you can be.” It encouraged enlistees with the following tag line: “We do more before 9 a.m. than most people do all day.”
Our current administration merits a similar tag line: “We do more destruction in a single week than most people do in their lifetimes.”
Here’s a random sampling of what Trump and his sycophants “accomplished” just this past week:
Trump posted an AI video of himself as a fighter pilot, literally shitting on Americans, in response to the millions of Americans who marched in the streets to protest his policies, his crimes, and — for some — his very existence. In precisely timed coordination with that, J.D. Vance posted his own AI video of Trump’s coronation as king, with his minions kneeling at his feet.
Those videos were merely a precursor to the unannounced and unapproved tearing down of the entire East Wing of White House. The cost estimate of this fiasco also jumped from $250 million to $300 million to build his tacky vanity-fueled ballroom. Trump is claiming it will be paid for by private donations from donors — including Altria Group, Amazon, Apple, Booz Allen Hamilton, Caterpillar, Coinbase, Comcast, Hard Rock International, Google, HP, Lockheed Martin, Meta, Micron Technology, Microsoft, NextEra Energy, Palantir Technologies, Ripple, Reynolds American, T-Mobile, Tether, Union Pacific Railroad — many of whom have federal contracts and other business with the U.S. government. Conflicts of interest abound.
Further destroying the firewall between charity and influence peddling, Trump took a private donation of $130 million from billionaire and anti-vax advocate Timothy Mellon to pay troops during the shutdown.
A disgruntled Trump took it personally that the Province of Ontario has aired a video of Ronald Reagan on U.S. television, in which Reagan speaks about how much tariffs hurt Americans. Calling the ad “nasty,” Trump claimed he could be nastier and, for once, he kept his word. With a response worthy of a bratty pre-schooler, Trump added a 10% tariff to goods imported from Canada, making things even more expensive for U.S. citizens and further alienating one of our closest allies.
Brutal ICE raids are continuing in cities and towns across the nation, and Trump is continuing to lie about the hell hole of Portland, calling it a “city on fire,” despite all evidence to the contrary, while the federal courts wrestle with the decision as to whether National Guard troops can be deployed in U.S. cities without question at the whim of a president, despite the objections of state and local leaders.
The federal government shutdown continues, now putting SNAP benefits at risk even if the government reopens, because Trump’s minion, Mike Johnson, refuses to even bring the House into session. It’s particularly galling to the average American that Trump and the Republicans are shutting down the government thereby depriving food insecure people of their SNAP benefits so that they can prevent people from having affordable health insurance.
The unauthorized the bombing of boats in the Caribbean and in the Pacific continues, with Trump presenting no evidence to the American people that boats are drug cartels or that, even if they are drug smugglers, smuggling rises to the level of an “act of war” that would justify bombing. When the Columbian president raised the issue that one of boats that was bombed included Columbian citizen, Trump cut off aid to Columbia. Meanwhile, the president who promised to get the U.S. out of interventionist foreign military engagement is now actively positioning warships in the Caribbean and off the coast of Columbia for unspecified reasons.
Trump demanded $230 million — a calculation apparently based on nothing more than his own greed — from DOJ because of legitimate criminal investigations the Department had engaged in. DOJ seems to be acceding to his demand, despite the fact that no other criminal defendant has the right or ability to make such demands.
All that and much more, in a single week!
Trump escalated his irrationality and impulsivity from day one of this term — far more than during his first term. But in my view, this past week’s escalation of insane behavior is actually a sign of his weakness, not strength or increasing power or self-confidence.
He really, really, really doesn’t want the Epstein files released. This past week is a demonstration of his fear of the House coming back in session with newly elected member Adelita Grijalva being sworn in and providing the deciding vote to release all the information in the Epstein files. (My suspicion is that many Republican House members who aren’t true MAGA cultists would be secretly relieved to have the files released due to their hands being forced in this way, so that they don’t get blamed for the collapse of Trump’s house of cards.)
Trump is also clearly terrified after the nation saw millions of people protesting against him during the thousands of No Kings rallies around the country. Moreover, his poll numbers are weaker than ever, with his disapproval ratings somewhere around 63%. It’s clear that his own supporters are starting to turn against him, having themselves felt the direct effects of his decisions. His only response to his diminishing popularity is doing more and more things that alienate voters.
Speaking of voters, the upcoming off-year elections will also be an indicator of the diminishing popularity of the Republican party overall. The most prominent of these elections is the New York City mayoral election, in which Zohran Mamdani holds a commanding lead in the polls, despite all sorts of deal-making and finagling on the part of Trump and his acolytes. Ordinarily, national politicians don’t pay much attention to municipal elections. But this year is different. Yes, the Trumpists hate/fear Mamdani. But they’re more frightened of what he represents. If NYC can elect a progressive mayor that laughs in the face of the right-wing status quo, what will that mean for other races with candidates with similar progressive views, in 2026 and beyond?
Trump’s tariffs are also creating a double backfire. For consumers, inflation is very much on the rise. Additionally, allies are finding ways of circumventing trade with the United States to avoid Trump’s ever changing tariffs, and U.S. farmers, manufacturers, and consumers are feeling the results.
Trump is facing serious consequences of his arrogance, incompetence, and greed, perhaps for the first time in his entire life, with fewer and fewer escape routes for him. Ironically, all of these recent failures — every last one of them — are entirely his own doing. He is famous for blaming others for his failures, but any blame placed on others is becoming decreasingly plausible. Lacking a shred of humility, the only thing he is capable of doing is lashing out at others and creating chaos all around him (and around the world).
But all this chaos raises a fundamental question: Where are the objections to all this questionable activity? Why is everyone in his administration silently going along with the destruction of our government? Why are Republican members of Congress so terrified to do their constitutional duty and push back against this tyrant? Off-the-record conversations behind closed office doors and late night conversations in D.C. watering holes do not count as objections.
In any other administration, the checks and balances enshrined in our Constitution would not have allowed these illegal and immoral actions to have taken place. But those checks and balances rely on the honesty, integrity, and good will of members of our government — traits sorely lacking among the Republicans.
There’s another question that is perhaps even more disturbing: If all that can happen in a single week, what do next week and the following week and the week after that have in store? That kind of cliffhanger might be appropriate for a Netflix TV series but it’s pretty damn unsettling for our federal government.