In another four days, we will have survived the first full year of Donald Trump's second term in office. That's right -- one down, only three more to go!

(Sigh.)

The defining feature of this past year has been -- just like it was in his first term -- the continuing cycle of being so aghast at Trump's planet-sized ego, flailing insecurities, and toddler-grade tantrums and thinking to oneself: "Well, it surely can't get any worse than this!" -- only to wake up the next morning, read the headlines, and find out that yep, it sure can get worse, in ways you would never have imagined in a million years, pre-Trump.

At times the irony can get so overwhelming you just have to shake your head. Such as: ICE detaining people in Minneapolis who are members of a Native American tribe. Think about that just for one second: the immigration cops just rounded up some of the people who were here first. It wouldn't be that surprising if some tribes responded by forming their own immigration police and rounding up everyone they considered "illegal immigrants," would it? I'd suggest starting with Stephen Miller, personally, just to see how he likes it.

More irony: Trump has been threatening Iran with military strikes if it continues to crack down on protests in the streets by shooting people. Meanwhile, here at home, Trump is threatening to unilaterally (via the Insurrection Act) send American troops in to a U.S. city to forcibly suppress by military means protests against ICE agents shooting people in the streets for no justifiable reason.

And Trump shows no signs of slowing down. Here was one striking paragraph from an article in Salon which made the case that Trump wasn't just instituting fascism but full-on tyranny:

Two weeks into the new year, the Trump administration has already deposed a foreign leader, bombed several countries, threatened to invade several more, unleashed a secret police force on the city of Minneapolis -- killing one protester, shooting an immigrant in the leg and brutalizing many others -- and started a criminal investigation, based on bogus evidence, on the chair of the Federal Reserve. It's a lot.

That's all happened just since New Year's Day. And the pace just seems to keep accelerating. A federal judge just accused the Trump administration of the worst crime imaginable, and it barely even made the news. Did you miss this development? Here are the details, from an article titled: "Trump Cabinet Secretaries Conspired To Violate Constitution, Judge Says":

A federal judge Thursday decried what he said were "breathtaking" constitutional violations by senior Trump administration officials and called the president an "authoritarian" who expects everyone in the executive branch to "toe the line absolutely."

In remarks laced with outrage and disbelief, U.S. District Judge William Young said Donald Trump and top officials have a "fearful approach" to freedom of speech that would seek to "exclude from participation everyone who doesn't agree with them."

This judge, appointed by Ronald Reagan, was speaking of the harsh crackdown by the administration on noncitizen students for the crime of exercising their free speech on Palestine and Israel, which began almost immediately after they all took office. And the judge did not mince words:

On Thursday, [Judge Young] again denounced the administration's conduct in unusually stark terms. "Talking straight here," he said. "The big problem in this case is that the cabinet secretaries and ostensibly, the president of the United States, are not honoring the First Amendment."

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi L. Noem and Secretary of State Marco Rubio engaged in an "unconstitutional conspiracy" to deprive people of their rights, Young said. "The secretary of state," he noted, his voice full of incredulity, "the senior cabinet officer in our history involved in this."

In normal times, this would be the biggest news story around and it would be headline news for weeks, if not months. After a whole year of Trump, though, it barely even registered, because (as always) there are so many other, more immediate outrageous things happening. Such as Trump musing about not holding midterm elections ("When you think of it, we shouldn't even have an election"). And his press secretary later insisting that he was "simply joking," or facetiously trying to say: "We're doing such a great job, we're doing everything the American people thought, maybe we should just keep rolling."

On the international front, Trump is once again obsessed with owning Greenland, no matter what anybody else thinks of the idea. He gets an insane bee in his bonnet, and the rest of the world has to react to it (rather than just laugh at him) because at this point who knows what he'll do? He obviously has no constraints on his actions whatsoever, so nobody in Europe is going to be particularly surprised if Trump orders the Marines in to occupy the island. They'll be outraged (as they should be), but they won't be surprised.

That last one may even be a bridge too far for Republicans in Congress, however. Several GOP senators have strongly spoken out against the idea, and they may even try to rein Trump in before he can act. Taking Greenland is wildly unpopular with the American public, because doing so would be so insane. We already have any and all military access we want to the island, neither China nor Russia is trying to take it (which Trump keeps lying about), and it would be the end of NATO. But Trump being Trump, he is absolutely obsessed with owning it. The leaders of Greenland and Denmark met with Marco Rubio and JD Vance this week, but absolutely nothing was resolved. Trump's newest petulant response is to threaten more tariffs on any country that does not support America taking Greenland (by force, if necessary).

In "If you don't want to be called a Nazi, then stop emulating Nazis" news, we have the Department of Labor, who trotted out a new slogan, in a reel on social media showing American artwork they approve of: "One Homeland. One People. One Heritage." They followed this up with: "Remember who are you, American." As HuffPost reported:

The language immediately drew damning comparisons to the Nazi Germany slogan "Ein Volk, Ein Reich, Ein Führer," which translates to "One People, One Realm, One Leader," as even noted by X's AI chatbot Grok.

In other "acting like a schoolyard bully" news, Trump successfully strong-armed the winner of this year's Nobel Peace Prize into giving the medal to him. This is because Donald Trump is the biggest baby and biggest sore loser in all of American history. People are now calling it the "Nobel Appease Prize," for obvious reasons.

The biggest thuggish Trump news of the week was domestic, however, as even the president's own supporters are now using words like "Gestapo" to describe what is happening on American city streets. Nobody believes a word that comes out of Kristi Noem's mouth any more about any of it, since their go-to move is just to flat-out lie about what happened (which they've done before in court, after shooting someone for no reason). And a death that happened to a man in ICE custody is about to be ruled a homicide, too (another story that deserved more attention this week).

The Department of Justice is reacting to the fallout from the cold-blooded killing of a suburban soccer mom in a predictable way (these days), since it has become fully weaponized to attack anyone Trump doesn't like. A number of prosecutors and lawyers quit en masse this week because they were told to go after the widow of the slain woman. They were also told not to open any civil rights investigation into the shooting itself. This was such a disgusting reversal of what the Justice Department should be doing that it was too much for several career prosecutors, who threw up their hands and walked away from it all.

Meanwhile, the F.B.I. searched the home of a Washington Post reporter, who hadn't even been accused of any crime. And the chair of the Federal Reserve is under investigation, which threatens the political independence of America's central bank (which could have dire consequences, obviously). This one also generated some strong pushback, both from Republicans in Congress and from around the world as well.

All of this frenetic activity has caused Trump's job approval ratings to take a rather noticeable dive recently, since pretty much none of what he is doing is in any way popular or supported by the American public. The most recent poll up on Real Clear Politics shows Trump down by a whopping 19 points -- 40 percent approval to 59 percent disapproval -- and his polling average is the worst it has been for his entire second term.

And the midterms are less than ten months away.

So Trump is desperately trying to gaslight all American consumers into thinking prices are all coming way, way down, even though we all know full well that this is not true. Grocery prices just experienced a one-month price jump that was higher than at any point since the COVID pandemic's aftermath. Here are the actual numbers Trump wants you all not to believe: "The price of beef has risen 16.4 percent over the last year. The price of coffee is up a whopping 19.8 percent. The price of lettuce is up 7.3 percent and frozen fish 8.6 percent." And we're beginning to hear anecdotes of how not just Trump's insane tariffs are driving prices up, but how Trump's immigration crackdown is influencing all this too: "A lack of workers in some areas has led to cherries rotting in Oregon fields, blueberries rotting in New Jersey fields and Pennsylvania dairy farmers selling off cows." Congress is now debating how big a bailout farmers are going to need ($11 billion? $15 billion?), since the tariffs have driven so many of them so close to absolute ruin.

At this point, Democrats should trot out an old political favorite: "Are you better off now than you were a year ago?" That's all they really need to say -- everyone already knows the specifics and can fill in the details on their own.

Democrats have plenty of details they can use, of course. They should also start using the term "child-care crisis" to sum up what millions of parents are going through (and highlight how Democrats at the state and local level are making child care free for all parents). Or the fact that for all of Trump's bluster about bringing lots of manufacturing jobs back home, American has actually (and steadily) lost manufacturing jobs over the past year.

Trump's response is, as always, to just lie his face off about everything. Inflation has disappeared (according to him), grocery prices are all way down, and anything which contradicts this fantasy is all Joe Biden's fault, period. He trotted all of these out in a speech he gave in Detroit, where he also flipped off a protester who was working in the truck factory he was touring. The guy was yelling: "Pedophile protector!" at Trump, to which Trump responded by mouthing "Fuck you!" and flipping the bird at the guy. The worker was then suspended from his job -- which his Union is fighting -- and a crowdsource funding drive immediately raised $800,000 for him.

Michael Steele, who used to run the Republican Party, called the whole thing a "punkish move" by Trump. Democratic strategist James Carville urged Democrats to start using the phrase whenever Trump is in earshot, since it so obviously gets under his skin.

In judicial news, Trump keeps losing. Federal judges ruled this week (in no particular order): that the Trump administration has to restore funding to blue states that it had halted for purely political reasons (on child care payments and energy grants and election funding), that a wind farm off the coast of Rhode Island can continue construction after Trump tried to pull the plug on it, that California's new congressional districts are indeed constitutional, and that Trump can't just demand all kinds of election data from California as well.

We always try to end this weekly review on a positive note, and this week we're (metaphorically) heading out for a night at the opera. The Washington National Opera announced this week that it was leaving the Kennedy Center, since it didn't want to have anything to do with Trump's politicization of the place and because ticket sales were way, way down since Trump started mucking with it, and by week's end the W.N.O. had seen a big spike in fundraising as a direct result. That's a story with a happy ending!

 

We have two Honorable Mention awards this week before we get to the main one. The first goes to Representative Ilhan Omar, who hails from Minnesota, and the Congressional Progressive Caucus, who announced this week that they will be opposing all ICE funding bills (as well as Department of Homeland Security funding) to force meaningful reforms on the agency. ICE is pretty obviously completely out of control, and the American public can see with their own eyes how bad the situation has gotten, so right now pushing back on them is a very popular political stance to take.

New York Governor Kathy Hochul is also pushing back, supporting legislation that would explicitly allow New Yorkers to sue ICE for violating their civil rights. This is traditionally a federal legal matter, but with Donald Trump now openly stating that the only civil rights he cares about protecting is those of White people, since (according to him) they are the real victims of discrimination, it seems like a necessary step to flip the legal model to the state level instead.

But the Most Impressive Democrat Of The Week hails from Alaska. Democrats just widened the field for possible states to flip in the midterm Senate races, because Mary Peltola has announced she is running for the Senate seat now held by Republican Dan Sullivan. Peltola was described in an article about her announcement as: "Widely considered the only Democrat with a prayer of making that race competitive," since she previously won the statewide race for Alaska's lone House seat. She'll be running on the same slogan she used to win previously, which is: "fish, family, and freedom." Also: "Alaska first."

Democrats face a very steep uphill climb to regain political control of the Senate, as they have to defend some swing seats (in places like Georgia) as well as flip four from the Republicans. But so far Chuck Schumer has been doing a pretty good job at recruiting candidates with the best shot at doing so, and Peltola's candidacy certainly puts Alaska on the table as a battleground.

Also impressive was Peltola's subsequent announcement that she had raised a whopping $1.5 million in campaign funds in her first 24 hours.

If a blue wave does develop this November, then perhaps -- just perhaps -- it might reach far enough north for a Democrat to flip a Senate seat in Alaska. The chances of doing so seemed pretty remote before this week, but now they seem a lot more plausible. For shifting the political landscape in such dramatic fashion, Mary Peltola is our Most Impressive Democrat Of The Week

[We do not, as a rule, link to campaign websites, and Mary Peltola is not currently in any public office, so you'll have to seek out contact information for her yourself if you'd like to let her know you appreciate her efforts.]

 

Former senator and former Democrat Kyrsten Sinema is being sued by a woman claiming Sinema seduced her husband (who worked on her security detail) and destroyed her marriage. Here is what the lawsuit accuses Sinema of doing:

Former Senator Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, the Democrat turned independent who served one term before leaving office last year, was accused in federal court this week of conducting an affair with a member of her Senate security team, a married father of three.

In a complaint filed in North Carolina, the ex-wife of Matthew Ammel, who worked on Ms. Sinema's staff for two years, accused the former senator of seducing him and breaking up their marriage.

Heather Ammel claimed in her suit that Ms. Sinema sent Mr. Ammel sexually suggestive photographs on Signal, the encrypted messaging app; chose him to accompany her on trips to Napa Valley and to the Sphere, an events venue, in Las Vegas; paid for him to enter psychedelic treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder and other issues; encouraged him to bring drugs on work trips so she could guide him through a psychedelic trip; showered him with gifts and concert tickets; and eventually entered into a sexual relationship with him that caused him to leave his family.

Of course, this is only one side of the story, since Sinema's legal team has yet to respond. So she doesn't qualify for an award quite yet, but we will be watching the case to see further developments, that's for sure.

Instead, we are giving the Most Disappointing Democrat Of The Week award to former New York City mayor (and also "former Democrat," since he tried to get re-elected as an Independent) Eric Adams, who -- true to his nature -- tried to cash in big time on becoming a private citizen once again. Here's the story, which ran under the headline: "Eric Adams's Crypto Coin Crashes Soon After Launch, Sparking Scam Accusations":

In one of his first ventures since leaving office, former New York mayor Eric Adams launched a cryptocurrency token whose value suddenly cratered early Tuesday morning, sparking accusations that it was a scam.

At a Times Square news conference on Monday, Adams hawked the "NYC Token," a meme coin that he claimed would be used to fight "anti-Americanism" and antisemitism, as well as "to teach our children how to embrace the blockchain technology." The announcement was scarce on other details about the token, including who was backing it and how proceeds would be used to achieve the goals Adams stated.

There's really not much more to say about this one other than: "Grifters gotta grift, right?"

[Eric Adams is also now just a private citizen, and as a rule we do not provide contact information for such persons, so you'll have to search for his info as well, if you'd like to let him know what you think of his actions.]

 

Volume 824 (1/16/26)

Before we begin, we have to note our personal sadness at the passing of one of the founding members of the Grateful Dead. Bobby Weir was the last remaining frontman for the group, and his death marks the end of an era for millions of fans.

Requiescat In Pace, Bobby. And say hello to Jerry Garcia, Phil Lesh, and Pigpen (and everyone else) when you get to Rock-n-Roll Heaven....

But back to politics. This week we've begun to think about Democratic slogans for the midterm campaign trail, so we tried to keep them as short and bumper-sticker-ey as possible. We'll be trying to come up with such Democratic slogans for the rest of the campaign season, but here's what we've got at the start of it.

 

   This should not happen here

This is a good political phrase because it can be used to describe a whole lot of things, although right now it applies to one in particular.

"You know what I keep thinking as I see the tactics of ICE in places like Minneapolis? I keep thinking: 'This should not happen here in America.' Federal agents wantonly using the most violent tactics they can to round up every Brown or Black person they come into contact with should not happen in the U.S. of A. People being killed for protesting such tactics also should not happen. And people who have been killed being demonized as some sort of deranged terrorist -- when everyone can plainly see this is untrue -- should not happen here. We are better than this, or we should be. These things should not happen here in America, period."

 

   Pedophile protector!

We have to say, James Carville has a point.

"Every time anyone gets close enough to Donald Trump that he can hear their voice, they should shout what that autoworker did. Yell: 'Pedophile protector!' at the top of your lungs. Trump is breaking the law by refusing to release all the Epstein files, and people have to let him know that they still care. And it obviously gets under Trump's very thin skin, so I would encourage anyone close enough to him for him to hear to let him know what we all think he is -- a pedophile protector."

 

   Not once

This is the easiest way to laugh at Trump's fantasy about prices coming down everywhere.

"Donald Trump is absolutely delusional when he says that grocery prices have all come way down. The man has obviously never shopped for groceries in his entire life. He didn't even recognize the word 'groceries' when he was campaigning, and still thinks it is an 'old-fashioned word,' for some bizarre reason. As any American family knows, grocery prices just keep going up under Trump's presidency, and he doesn't care. He is delusional when he denies this reality, because he has never -- not once -- shopped for groceries in his entire life."

 

   Child-care crisis

Start using this term, and maybe the media will be helpful and pick up on it too.

"The cost of child care has now gotten so high for so many millions of American families that they simply can't afford it. It costs more for child care than it does to send a student to college, in many places. And Trump deporting every immigrant in sight means there are fewer and fewer people actually working in child care these days, which makes the problem worse. It's gotten to the point where it is a real crisis in America. But Democrats are fighting to fix the child-care crisis in meaningful ways. States like New York are moving towards free child care for all, championed by Democrats. New Mexico already offers it -- again, because Democrats fought to make it happen. Imagine how life would be easier for millions of parents nationwide if the child-care crisis was fixed in such a fashion! Republicans are just making the situation worse, while Democrats are trying to tackle the child-care crisis in a big way."

 

   What manufacturing boom?

This needs pointing out too.

"Donald Trump keeps telling Americans that there's this big boom in American manufacturing on his watch. His tariffs were supposed to bring back zillions of American manufacturing jobs, right? Remember when he promised that? Well, it turns out America has lost manufacturing jobs at a steady rate throughout Trump's entire first year back in office. That's right -- the job market has softened in general, but manufacturing keeps bleeding thousands of jobs month after month. Trump swears a manufacturing boom time is happening, but what I'd like to know is what manufacturing boom? It's just another one of Trump's economic delusions, folks."

 

   Are you better off now than you were a year ago?

This one, as previously mentioned, doesn't even need any explanation. It will have to be adjusted, as we get closer to November (since "a year ago" would then mean "after Trump already took office"), but for now it works just fine. This is what every Democrat running for every seat in Congress should start their campaign pitch off with:

"Are you better off now than you were a year ago?"

 

   Can you feel it?

OK, this one is rather optimistic, but the more time goes by the more probable it is looking that Democrats at least regain control over the House, so we feel it's justified.

"You know what? Every political analyst I've noticed keeps moving the midterm elections into more and more favorable territory for the Democratic Party. It's now a safer bet that Democrats take back the House than to bet that Republicans keep it. The Senate is now even in play -- something that was considered a wildly-optimistic fantasy even just a few months ago. So what I have to ask everyone is: can you feel it? Can you feel a big blue wave building up? Because I can. November can't get here fast enough...."

-- Chris Weigant

 

Follow Chris on Twitter: @ChrisWeigant

Cross-posted at: Democratic Underground