Week 57 - The Return
Hegseth is under fire, while Trump struggles to promote an alternative reality
Experts in authoritarianism advise to keep a list of things subtly changing around you, so you’ll remember.
This week Trump struck back at media outlets and others who continue to raise questions and concerns about his health and age, likening it to sedition and treason. Trump continued to advance his own version of reality, calling affordability a “Democrat hoax” and “con job,” as he at long last held an event in a U.S. city, which was meant to address affordability concerns, a top issue in the country, but did not. More off-year elections this week showed a 10+ point slide away from Trump’s 2024 performance, amid continued malaise over the economy, and Trump’s handling of other key issues.
Defense Department Sec. Pete Hegseth continued to be at the center of the storm, as a Pentagon inspector general report found he had endangered U.S. troops with his use of the Signal app. A top story this week continued to be the legality of a second strike of an alleged drug vessel in the Caribbean, as Trump and Hegseth bobbed and weaved on releasing video and other requested information. Health and Human Services Sec. Robert Kennedy Jr. also continued his anti-vax campaign, with his handpicked immunization committee issuing troubling new guidelines.
The Trump regime issued a shocking National Strategy document this week, completely changing the focus on global threats away from countries formerly perceived to be U.S. enemies, to instead attacking European allies and Ukraine. Trump, desperate for recognition on his foreign policy, was awarded with an odd inaugural peace prize from FIFA, a soccer league, at the Kennedy Center. Trump later mused about renaming that center for himself, after this week rebranding the U.S. Institute for Peace with his name.
Overall, Trump’s behavior is increasingly inconsistent, even by his own past standards, and odd. He is increasingly unfiltered, both in being openly racist and personally insulting two more female journalists this week, for a total of six in recent weeks. The issue of age and the pushback from Republicans has clearly taken him off track, and he seems this week to be spinning and raging, without focus.
In his second regime’s National Security Strategy document, which lays out the U.S. approach to global threats, Trump flipped the characterization of villains from Russia and China as the biggest threats during the first regime, to Latin America and Europe now.
During the first regime, Trump’s report described China and Russia as “revisionist” powers seeking to upend American dominance around the world. Now, Russia was mentioned in just four paragraphs, and not in harsh tones. China’s ongoing cyberattacks were also not mentioned.
North Korea, which was highlighted for having 24 nuclear weapons eight years ago, was also not mentioned, despite having more than 60 now. The report also cites “significantly degraded Iran’s nuclear program,” not “obliterated,” and is silent on how to prevent a new buildup.
The paper reserved the harshest tone for America’s closest allies in Europe, claiming they face “civilizational erasure” through immigration that could render it “unrecognizable” in two decades, and adding that Europe should take “primary responsibility” for its own defense.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz called some of the Trump regime’s paper “comprehensible, but other parts “unacceptable,” saying, “I see no need for the Americans to now want to save democracy in Europe. If it were necessary to save it, we would manage that on our own.”
In an interview with Politico released Tuesday, Trump doubled down, saying European countries are “decaying,” adding, “I think they’re weak, but I also think that they want to be so politically correct,” and on immigration, “if it keeps going the way it’s going, Europe will not be.”
Trump also said that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who the day before said the country would not give up land, has to “get on the ball” and start “accepting things,” adding Russia was in a stronger negotiating position and Ukraine was “losing” the war.
Trump also called for an election in Ukraine, something Russia has wanted, accusing Ukrainian leadership of “using war not to hold an election,” adding, “They talk about a democracy, but it gets to a point where it’s not a democracy anymore.”
A new report by CIVICUS, an international network of civil society groups, downgraded the assessment of U.S. civic freedoms from “narrowed” to “obstructed,” citing a “rapid authoritarian shift,” meaning civil rights are constrained through legal and practical means.
