Week 29 - The TACO Trade, Law Firm Karma, and Putin Calls Trump ‘Emotional'
This marks the second consecutive week in which Trump’s pace of breaking norms slowed considerably. Trump finds himself on the losing end of a number of court cases, which are pausing or nullifying many of his early actions. Trump is still in search of wins of any kind, as he is failing or falling short on major issues including foreign policy, immigration, and the economy. Trump lashed out in frustration this week, not at celebrities like last week, but instead at America’s top university and a top company, in what the WSJ Editorial Board termed a gift to China.Wall Street has dubbed a new term, “TACO Trade,” or Trump Always Chickens Out, meaning he makes a threat, then pulls back. He did that once again this week, threatening the European Union on Friday, and pulling back on Sunday. As we passed the midpoint of his 90 day tariff pause, Trump has yet to finalize a single trade deal.
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Week 28 - Desperate for a Win, Trump Finds None
This week has the fewest broken norms since Trump’s inaugural. As in the prior four weeks, Trump finds himself struggling for wins on his main issues — the economy, immigration and foreign policy — and in many ways, his presidency is floundering and in retreat.Reminiscent of the first regime, when Trump was failing he would strike out to release anger and change the subject, this week Trump aired petty grievances against several celebrities, and made unwarranted accusations about some.Likewise, his regime undertook a series of actions this week that appear aimed at petty retribution, with most likely to be challenged in court and be halted. The regime too is struggling to find victories or achieve major goals. This week real questions come into play about the effectiveness of leadership and abilities of federal agencies. Airports experienced more blackouts. Severe storms rocked the country, while the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the National Weather Service are in a state of disrepair after DOGE cuts .
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Week 27 - Grifts, Librarians and Trade Retreats
This week, the growing number of Trump’s conflicts of interest and grifts, which we have been documenting each week, at long last took center stage! What did it take to finally get Republicans in Congress to react? It wasn’t the billions that the Trump family is pocketing in plain sight in the crypto market. What it took was Trump accepting a $400 million Boeing 747 from the Qatari royal family as a gift ahead of his first Middle East trip. A gift that would cost taxpayers hundreds of millions to retrofit for Trump’s use as Air Force One, and that he would likely maintain use of even after his time in office.
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Week 26 - Grifting in Plain Sight
The most noteworthy stories this week revolve around Trump’s grift. We’ve been covering Trump’s irreverence around conflicts of interest in the second regime, as well as examples each week of his using the office of the presidency to line his pockets; this week it seemed to all come together with some great reporting by the Times. If you want a good primer on how Trump has pocketed billions from cryptocurrency alone, you can read my article here.
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Week 25 - I Run the Country and the World
Falling approval and a faltering economy help explain why approaching 100 days, Trump found himself in retreat. On at least seven major issues, Trump has capitulated or reversed his actions in recent weeks. Notably, his pace of breaking norms has markedly slowed as of late, first in Week 24 and even more so this week. We have reached another inflection point, from Trump’s early shock and awe to, for now at least, a moment of stop and question what is working.
The Weekly List is a podcast hosted by Amy Siskind, author of The List. It supplements the popular Weekly List on our website, www.theweeklylist.org, which tracks the ever changing new normals of American politics. The podcast gives greater context to the "not normal" news items from the previous week, and will highlight a few stories and changing norms from the Trump regime that you may have missed.
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