The Weekly List

This was another chaotic week, when our country seemed to skip from crisis to crisis, and Trump became increasingly unbound by past norms. As the Iran War entered its ninth week, and gas prices reached a four-year high, it became increasingly apparent that Trump had no plan to end his war. There was no movement toward any sort of resolution. Reporting this week continued to reveal there had yet to be any real, lasting, positive accomplishments from the war.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, in a reported effort to become Trump’s nominee for the permanent role, moved forward on pursuing Trump’s perceived enemies, breaking norms not only for the direct tie between Trump and the Justice Department, but also for pursuing cases that were clearly political retribution, without a chance of winning.
There was chaos this week at the White House Correspondents Dinner, when an armed individual tried to run through a security checkpoint on the floor above the ballroom where the dinner took place. Trump, his regime, and allies sought to make hay by using the incident to advance his White House ballroom as a security necessity, and to baselessly blame Democrats for all political violence. Trump briefly called for unity, but less than 24 hours later castigated and insulted journalist Norah O’Donnell, his latest in a long list of attacks on female reporters.
Corruption has become increasingly mainstreamed. This week, Paramount’s David Ellison hosted a highly unusual dinner at the former Institute for Peace, attended not only by Trump, but also members of his regime who would have a say in the company’s merger with Warner Brothers being completed, and with a large portion of Middle East investor ownership. Trump hosted large holders of his memecoin $TRUMP at Mar-a-Lago, promising access to the largest holders of the coin, which had lost more than 90% of its value since its January 2025 launch. And so on. All in the light of day, with little to no pushback.
Meanwhile, the American people are not happy. Poll after poll shows Trump’s declining approval ratings overall, and also on all major issues. While Trump quietly and consistently pushed falsehoods about election security ahead of midterms, he also was seeing his MAGA base turn against him on a growing number of issues.

This week, as the country entered the eighth week of Trump’s Iran War, Trump appeared to be backed into a corner. He spent the week spewing false claims about the state of negotiations, the ever-changing objectives of the war, and on what had been achieved; but by the week’s end, amid all his bluster and bravado, he chose to extend the ceasefire for the fifth time, this time indefinitely. Troubling reporting by the WSJ indicated that while Trump projected bravado, privately he was scared about a war that has gotten away from him, and with his erratic behavior and impatience, national security officials had taken to excluding him from the room during a major operation.
Meanwhile at home, the federal agencies are in disarray. Trump fired a third cabinet member, Secretary of Labor Lori Chavez-DeRemer, the third firing in recent weeks, all women. FBI Director Kash Patel sued The Atlantic over an article detailing his alcohol abuse and its impact on his work, notably during a war. Homeland Security Sec. Markwayne Mullin suggested his agency would run out of money in early May, again during a war. Health and Human Services Sec. Robert Kennedy continued his free-fall, as measles cases continued to spike, and he refused to back Trump’s latest pick to lead the Centers for Disease Control.
All the while, Trump found time to focus on his ballroom, his arch, and pursuing retribution and petty grievances against his perceived enemies. In fact, reporting continued to indicate he repeatedly tried to pivot away to other topics from the Iran War, which he has put himself in unilateral control of, as this week once again, both the Senate and the House failed to pass measures to rein in his war power. Trump’s polling continues to crater to new lows of not only the second regime, but both regimes. The American people largely do not support his Iran War, or his increasingly erratic behavior, including his continued conflict with Pope Leo XIV.

This week there were growing concerns about Trump’s erratic behavior and mental health, including from former allies and regime members. While Trump’s unpopular war with Iran entered its seventh week, already extending beyond his four to six week estimate, Trump started a new war of words with Pope Leo XIV, further enraging parts of his base. Things escalated when Trump posted an image depicting himself as Jesus Christ, later taking the rare action of deleting the post, while defending himself and continuing to attack the Pope. In a letter to the Vatican, Pope Leo warned of the risk of democracies sliding into “majoritarian tyranny.”
As ceasefire negotiations with Iran got underway, Trump refused to avail himself of the expertise in the State Department, instead sending Iran’s request of Vice President JD Vance, along with Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, none of whom had any experience with Iran. As Vance told reporters that negotiations had failed, Trump was seen ringside at the Ultimate Fighting Championship in Miami, seated with Secretary of State Marco Rubio, unbothered and cheering the fighters. Trump enjoyed his weekend at fundraisers and golfing at his properties, while sending thousands more troops to the Middle East.
The world order continues to shift dramatically under Trump, or as Chinese President Xi Jinping put it, the international order is “crumbling into disarray.” Despite intervention by the U.S. and Russia, Hungary’s Viktor Orban was defeated in a landslide, after serving 16 years, a refutation of authoritarianism. Trump alienated one of his last remaining allies, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, over the Iran War and his attacks on the Pope. Europeans held discussions about a post-war effort to secure the Strait of Hormuz, without the U.S., and about a plan for a “European NATO,” without the U.S. An election in Canada empowered the party of Trump foe, Mark Carney. Even Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum pushed back on Trump’s blockade of Cuba, and the deaths of Mexican nationals at the hands of immigration agents.
Trump, and the U.S., increasingly stands alone. Congress finally returned to Washington D.C., but remains largely silent and sidelined. One volatile man, whose mental health is clearly in question, is now making decisions with a shrinking circle of trusted aides, that impact the entire world. Trump is increasingly acting like a mad king.

This week started with Trump addressing the nation in a prime time speech on the Iran War, and escalated to Trump making genocidal threats against Iran as the week came to a close. Experts expressed shock that Trump was essentially threatening what amounted to war crimes, out in the open. Some of Trump’s statements and social media posts this week included: he would “bring them back to the stone ages;” “Open the Fuckin’ Strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in Hell;” “we’re blowing up the whole country;” and “A whole civilization will die tonight.”
Although pushback had been growing, with Trump’s overall approval continuing to fall to new lows and approval of his Iran War plummeting, it took this erratic, deranged threat that a “whole civilization will die” to finally have far-right figures and more than 70 Democrats call for him to be removed from office. Later that evening, 90 minutes before his self-imposed deadline, Trump capitulated, in what Bloomberg News dubbed another ‘TACO Tuesday’ (Trump always chickens out). Jennifer Kavanagh, the director of military analysis at Defense Priorities, summarized, “if he was going to back down, he did so in the worst way. Raising the stakes so high beforehand, he maximized the damage to his credibility & global perceptions of U.S. power. This is a clear strategic defeat for the U.S.”
Notably, while Trump was threatening genocide, Vice President JD Vance was in Budapest, supporting beleaguered Prime Minister Viktor Orban ahead of Hungary’s election, and chastising our NATO allies. While it is unclear if Trump’s Iran War is resolved (likely not), what is clear is the U.S. has hurt our world standing and lost the trust of so many of our allies.
As if this all was not chaotic enough, this week Trump fired Attorney General Pam Bondi, and reporting indicated there are more firings to come. Defense Department Sec. Pete Hegseth also fired generals amid a war — quite remarkable — over their supposed ‘woke’ beliefs.
Finally, one of the troubling aspects of this second regime is that Trump has surrounded himself by yes men, and sycophants. This week reporting by the NYT showed the impact: the Iran War was Trump’s decision alone. Even in his shrinking circle of loyalists, no one really stood up to him, and if they did slightly, he did not listen. We have truly entered mad king territory for all the world to see!

This week Trump and senior regime officials continued to give ever-changing objectives and endgames for his Iran War, which entered its fifth week. Trump continued efforts to game his beloved stock market, which at one point entered correction territory, with rosy statements ahead of markets opening. The price of gas rose above $4 a gallon, and the vast majority of Americans expressed disapproval and dismay with Trump’s handling of the war and economy. Trump’s approval was now lower than former president Richard Nixon’s during Watergate, and George W. Bush’s during the lows of the Gulf War. At times, in fact frequently, Trump made statements this week that call into question his mental acumen, at a time when he alone is calling the shots for a war that has increasing global impacts.
The Republican-led Congress, meanwhile, was unable to come to a simple resolution on funding parts of the Department of Homeland Security, instead leaving Trump to act unilaterally, and order that Transportation Security Administration workers be paid ahead of spring break. Republicans in Congress not only once again abdicated their role of controlling the budget, they also left town for a two week recess, leaving Trump alone in D.C. as he deployed thousands more troops to an increasingly unpopular war they had not approved. TMZ took to publishing photos of members of Congress living it up on vacation amid a DHS shutdown and a country in chaos.
Not only was Trump literally alone in D.C., but figuratively the U.S. was increasingly isolated with his actions. Trump, his regime, and Republicans continued to make remarkable concessions to Russia, which was aiding Iran and helping them successfully target U.S. troops and interests, while distancing the U.S. from our post World War 2 alliances. The survival of NATO is undoubtedly in question.
Finally, this week had several important court rulings, mostly against Trump. We continue to see his regime’s attempts at retribution against Trump’s perceived enemies. We also continue to see a growing dysfunction in our federal agencies. The week closes out with Trump breaking yet another precedent, attending a Supreme Court hearing on his birthright citizenship executive order, and preparing to address the nation in the evening on his Iran war.