Week 4

Apologies for being a day late. There’s a lot of norovirus around this year, and yesterday was my turn.

Another firehose week. But I think our side is getting stronger and smarter, and we continue to have a few victories. They’re partial, but we need to amplify them and learn from them. Musk’s boys are causing a lot of damage, but I think they are not achieving their objectives beyond chaos. I’ll write about that in more detail, hopefully later this week. Meanwhile, Josh Marshall has figured out part of it.

Feel free to add to the lists, but let’s keep it to things that have actually happened, not hypotheticals. I think it’s important to stay grounded with what has happened. Working out the hypotheticals is a different activity. Most of the comment for previous weeks has kept this grounding.

It’s exhausting. Take time out when you need to. Post your pets.

Here’s what the Trump administration did this week, in no particular order

• Trump attended the Super Bowl and left early.
• Trump imposed 25% tariffs on steel and aluminum.
• Trump announced the start of talks with Putin to end the war in Ukraine. He has caved on a number of issues before the talks have even been scheduled.
• Hegseth said Europe is on its own, and Ukraine can’t expect to get its land back. Or something. JD Vance met with the leaders of AfD, the far-right party in Germany. Emmanuel Macron has called a European summit meeting for the coming week.
• Trump blackmails Eric Adams to let ICE run free in New York City. Seven attorneys resign rather than drop charges.
• Musk’s boys are rampaging through the government, sending out letters to fire probationary (less than 2 years) employees.

Pushback

• Pope Francis chastises JD Vance and Trump admin with story of the Good Samaritan. Head of the bishops in the US agrees.
• Musk’s boys didn’t realize that the National Nuclear Security Administration had something to do with managing nuclear weapons. They are sending out “please come back” letters to the people they fired.
• A few Republican lawmakers have stepped up to ask “Why are the leopards eating our constituents’ faces?”

204 more weeks to go. What are you doing?

Resources

Tracking the lawsuits: Chris Geidner (LawDork, Bluesky), Roger Parloff (Lawfare, Bluesky), and the Just Security tracker.

Tracking things more generally: The Weekly List

Jay Ulfelder: The state of opposition in the streets

David Cole: The unhinged presidency

Dan Froomkin: What you can do to fight the Trump agenda

Some good thoughts on resistance from Anne Laurie at Balloon Juice