Week 87 - The Return
Trump makes the nation's 250th celebration a partisan celebration of himself
Experts in authoritarianism advise to keep a list of things subtly changing around you, so you’ll remember.
In a week when the country should have been coming together to celebrate our 250th anniversary, Trump instead chose to make the Independence Day celebrations highly partisan, and all about himself. He made speeches attacking his political enemies as “communists,” and made repeated baseless claims about the dangers they posed to the country. He continued to push unfounded claims about the infiltration of others into our country, who were not only tainting the fabric of our country, but also secretly helping to elect Democrats.
Toward that end, Trump has continued his efforts to muddy the waters and sow doubt about the midterm elections. While continuing to push Republicans in Congress to end the filibuster and pass his SAVE America Act, Trump has also deployed federal agencies, this week including the FBI, the Justice Department civil rights division, and FEMA, to pressure states to change the way voting is conducted, a role that the executive branch does not have according to the Constitution. Even after 18 months in office, Trump continued to push for baseless investigations into so-called fraud in the 2020 election, of which his regime has uncovered none.
U.S. foreign policy is being decided by one mercurial man, as former alliances in Europe and the Middle East are being tested. At the NATO summit, Trump again threatened to annex Greenland, re-engaged in battle with Iran after calling their leaders “scum,” and said he would cut off U.S. trade with Spain. He also continued his castigation of our former allies for not helping in his Iran War.
The grift and quid pro quos of this regime continue to be simply astounding. This week has seen more pardons, a process that has become pay to play; continued reporting on Trump and his family’s widespread efforts to enrich themselves, even as supporters are left holding the bag with losses; countries and corporations seeking favor with Trump, and by extension our federal agencies, by being sycophantic, including lavish donations and gifts. At our 250th anniversary, the state of our democracy is weak and teetering.
On Wednesday, the Trump regime announced that it would not review the USMCA with Canada and Mexico, which Trump had called “the best agreement we’ve ever made” when he signed it during his first regime. The move triggered an annual review of the agreement.
On Wednesday, Trump told reporters that he told acting Director of National Intelligence Bill Pulte he will be there “just for a fairly short period of time,” adding he told him he could “declassify whatever you want,” and he could “declassify almost everything.”
On Thursday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that in June the labor force participation rate fell to 61.5%, the lowest level in 50 years other than during Covid, with the labor force plummeting by 720,000 jobs.
On Thursday, U.S. Attorney for D.C. Jeanine Pirro announced Olympian David Hearn was indicated for allegedly “maliciously” destroying the lining of the Reflecting Pool, a felony charge that could carry up to 10 years in prison, telling reporters Hearn will face “accountability.”
Pirro claimed at a news conference, “A parks employee actually told Hearn to stop, to stop his behavior and stop what he was doing,” adding, “We will not allow our sacred monuments to be defaced, diminished, or in any way impacted by disgruntled individuals.”
Lawyers for Hearn said the indictment reflected the regime’s “effort to shift blame for their own failures,” adding, “Americans should be deeply concerned by the misuse of government power against an ordinary citizen based on a concocted narrative.”
On Thursday, House Democrats said in a report that donors who gave money for America250, a congressionally chartered initiative that was meant be bipartisan, were misled when their funds were instead routed to Trump’s partisan Freedom 250, which he solely controlled.
NYT reported that the Saudi crown prince had lost confidence in the Trump regime, viewing them as unreliable and a risk to Gulf Arab states, causing Saudi Arabia to open its own direct dialogue with Iran, a major shift in policy.
When Trump launched Project Freedom, the crown prince refused to let the U.S. operate from Saudi soil, despite calls from Trump, Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, as well as Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff, causing the operation to fail.
Amid ongoing chaos at the FBI, Doug DePodesta, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Chicago office, abruptly resigned, after reportedly being told to resign by FBI Director Kash Patel. He told reporters, “I’ve never backed down from a fight,” which “has proved unpopular.”
MSNOW reported that the FBI had directed hundreds of analysts to Georgia, in what Patel called a “priority effort,” to investigate the 2020 election. An FBI memo said, “Overtime (including weekends and holidays) has been authorized,” to look for “derogatory information.”
NYT reported that Trump’s sending 260 FBI agents to Georgia was also part of his broad campaign to undermine trust in elections and sow doubt about the electoral process, and raise doubts about the integrity of future elections.
On Tuesday, a federal judge blocked the DOJ from enforcing a grand jury subpoena seeking the names, home addresses, email addresses, and phone numbers of thousands of Fulton County election workers from the 2020 election, ruling that it was “unreasonable.”
