Week 10 — The Return

Experts in authoritarianism advise to keep a list of things subtly changing around you, so you’ll remember.

This final week before Trump’s inauguration saw the conclusion of two important cases. This week Trump was sentenced in the New York hush money trial, making him the first president in history to take office as a felon. Also this week, the Justice Department released special counsel Jack Smith’s full report on Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election, which firmly stated Trump would have been convicted if the case had gone to trial.

This week also saw a continuation of the richest and most powerful lining up seeking favor from Trump and his incoming regime. As these corporate titans and billionaires seek to elbow each other out of the way and get to the front of the line for favoritism and payoffs, they seem unconcerned with how they appear to the rest of the world, nor aware of the damage to their reputations and legacies. Notably this week, California attorney Mark Lemley dropped Meta as a client, citing CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s “descent into toxic masculinity and Neo-Nazi madness,” saying he “cannot in good conscience serve as their lawyer any longer.”

And this week we got a glimpse of the kind of payoff that might be the reward for unfettered loyalty. We’ll cover this in more detail in this week’s podcast, but stringing together the stories we have covered: Elon Musk has acted as an adviser and ambassador for TikTok and its parent, Chinese company ByteDance, helping them get a coveted meeting at Mar-a-Lago, after which Trump appeared to do a 180 and speak out against an upcoming ban of TikTok’s U.S. operations. So when a news story of something unthinkable is published, should we even be surprised? Bloomberg News reported China is considering selling TikTok’s U.S. operations to Musk. Imagine all the power Musk would have with control of two of the most popular social media platforms.

Welcome to Trump’s version of so-called America First, which turns out is best defined as a grab bag of favors and fortunes for those who genuflect and pledge fealty, and of course donations, to Trump.

Finally, while Los Angeles wildfires, which California Gov. Gavin Newsom called one of the worst natural disasters in U.S. history, dominated the news cycle, Trump spent the week attacking and blaming Newsom, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, and President Joseph Biden. Trump offered no concern for residents or solutions for a catastrophe that could cost an estimated $275 billion to repair, but rather focused on retribution and threats of withholding federal fund from the state. His juvenile approach would be a remarkable aberration in normal circumstances, but instead it was just his typical behavior, which barely registered with the populace— another broken norm, now normalized.

1. On Wednesday, CNN reported that Trump is considering a national emergency declaration, using the International Economic Emergency Powers Act, to provide justification for imposing his threatened tariffs on U.S. adversaries and allies.
2. On Thursday, as wildfires burned throughout Los Angeles, Trump told Republican governors that California Gov. Gavin Newsom “is largely incompetent,” and spread the false accusation that Newsom refused to sign a “water restoration declaration.”
3. Trump also blamed Biden, falsely claiming that the Federal Emergency Management Agency had “no money” to help California. Congress recently passed a disaster relief supplemental of $29 billion.
4. On Thursday, Kremlin press secretary Dmitry Peskov told CNBC that the Kremlin is watching Trump’s Greenland ambition with “great interest.” Kremlin pundits say Trump’s rhetoric gives Moscow the green light to absorb sovereign states.
5. Historian Timothy Snyder noted Trump’s rhetoric around Greenland, Canada, the Panama Canal, and renaming the Gulf of Mexico “plagiarizes” Putin’s rhetoric before he launched his first invasion of Ukraine in 2014.
6. On Wednesday, Trump’s lawyers asked the Supreme Court to block sentencing in the New York hush money case, claiming Trump was protected by presidential immunity. Trump also made the request to the New York Court of Appeals.
7. Shortly after, reporting indicated that Trump had spoken to Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito Jr. mere hours before his lawyers’ request, raising ethical concerns.
8. Justice Alito claimed the call was a routine job reference for a former law clerk being considered for the regime; however, it would be highly unusual for Trump to make such a call, rather than a lower-level aide.
9. On Thursday, the New York Court of Appeals, the state’s highest court, rejected Trump’s request to postpone his sentencing, leaving the Supreme Court as his last option.
10. Later Thursday, the Supreme Court declined to block sentencing, in a 5–4 ruling, with Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Amy Coney Barrett voting with the three liberal justices. Alito voted to block sentencing.
11. Trump told reporters at Mar-a-Lago, “We’re going to appeal anyway, just psychologically, because frankly it’s a disgrace,” adding, “I’ll do my little thing tomorrow. They can have fun with their political opponent.”
12. On Friday, Trump was sentenced to an unconditional discharge, a rare sentence that carries no prison time or other requirements. Judge Juan Merchan wrote that the sentence “appears to be the most viable solution to ensure finality.”
13. The sentence did however cement Trump as the first president to take office as a felon. Trump had faced up to four years in prison, and could have received jail time if he had not won the election.
14. On Thursday, a federal appeals court ruled that special counsel Jack Smith’s report on Trump’s effort to overturn the 2020 election can be released to the public.
15. On Friday, Smith resigned. The resignation came in a footnote of a court filing on Saturday to U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, asking her to lift a court order she issued blocking release of his final report.
16. On Monday, Judge Cannon ruled that the Justice Department could release the portion of its report related to Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election, but not the report on the classified documents case.
17. Early morning Tuesday, the DOJ released the 137-page final report, in which Smith said Trump would have been convicted in the election case if it had gone to trial, but his election victory made it impossible.
18. The report cited not only Trump’s efforts to reverse the results of a free and fair election, but also said he continually encouraged “violence against his perceived opponents” from Election Day until Jan. 6, 2021.
19. The report quoted evidence from several cases in which people charged believed they were taking orders from Trump. Smith also laid out in detail the devastating the violence against and impact on the U.S. Capitol Police.
20. Smith also defended his team, writing they were “people of great decency and the highest personal integrity” who endured not only “intense public scrutiny,” but also “threats to their safety and relentless unfounded attacks on their character.”
21. In a post on Truth Social just before 2 a.m., Trump called Smith “deranged” and “a lamebrain prosecutor” who could not get his case tried before “I won in a landslide,” adding, “THE VOTERS HAVE SPOKEN!!!”
22. On Thursday, Trump picked more Fox News personalities for positions in the second regime: Leo Terrell will serve as senior counsel to the assistant attorney general for civil rights and Tammy Bruce as the State Department spokesperson.
23. More than 15,000 doctors signed a letter urging Senators to reject Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as Secretary of Health and Human Services, saying he is “not only unqualified” but “actively dangerous.”
24. On Friday, only two ranking members of the Senate Armed Services Committee were given access to Pete Hegseth’s FBI background check. The short lead time of just days before his Tuesday confirmation hearings was unprecedented.
25. Ranking member Sen. Jack Reed said he was only able to meet with Hegseth for 25 minutes on Wednesday, and the meeting “did not relieve my concerns” and “raised more questions than answers.”
26. NBC News reported the FBI background check did not include interviews of Hegseth’s ex-wives or the woman who accused him of sexual assault in 2017. It is standard protocol to interview former and current spouses.
27. At his Senate confirmation hearing on Tuesday, Hegseth refused to address questions related to sexual assault, drunken and disorderly behavior, and lack of qualifications, instead repeating a mantra of his complete loyalty to Trump, and a “redemption” story of being a changed man.
28. NYT reported that Paul Manafort, whom Trump pardoned in 2021 for crimes related to foreign lobbying, is actively pursuing business advising campaigns for opposition and far-right political factions in Latin America and Europe.
29. On Thursday, Google donated $1 million to Trump’s inauguration. The company also announced it was “pleased to support the 2025 inauguration, with a livestream on YouTube and a direct link on our homepage.”
30. On Friday, Microsoft donated $1 million to Trump’s inauguration fund. The company cited its hope that Trump will push artificial intelligence policy in a favorable direction.
31. On Friday, President Biden told reporters that Meta’s decision to end fact-checking was “completely contrary to everything America is about. We want to tell the truth,” and called it “really shameful.”
32. Politico reported, unlike eight years ago, for the second Trump inauguration there will be more than three dozen balls, with long lists of corporations and high-profile CEOs eager to demonstrate their fealty to Trump.
33. On Tuesday, NBC News reported that Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, and Jeff Bezos will attend Trump’s inauguration. The three, who are ranked as the three richest in the U.S., will be seated together in a prominent spot on the platform.
34. Zuckerberg will also co-host a black tie reception with Republican megadonor Miriam Adelson to celebrate the inauguration.
35. On Monday, Donald Trump Jr. joined prediction-market startup Kalshi as a strategic advisor. Kalshi has struggled to get approval from regulatory agencies for election betting in the U.S.
36. NYT reported Musk is expected to have office space in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, which will put him in close proximity to the White House. It was unclear if Vivek Ramaswamy would also have space there.
37. Politico reported there is a quiet debate happening inside the U.S. military community about what orders it would be obliged to obey if Trump deployed U.S. troops domestically, including against his political enemies or dissenters, or immigrants.
38. There is also concern that Trump is trying to stack the Pentagon and the regime’s national security team with fierce loyalists, who might try to regularly deploy troops to advance the regime’s political interests.
39. On Tuesday, the Securities and Exchange Commission sued Musk, alleging he misled shareholders about his Twitter stock purchases. SEC Chair Gary Gensler, who has had an ongoing feud with Musk, is scheduled to leave office next Monday.
40. On Monday, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced flags at state buildings would be raised for Trump’s inauguration, breaking protocol of flags flying at half-staff for 30 days after a president’s death, and bowing to Trump’s wishes.
41. On Tuesday, House Speaker Mike Johnson announced American flags would fly at full-staff during Trump’s inauguration. The Biden administration had refused to consider repositioning the flags.
42. On Tuesday, former First Lady Michelle Obama’s office said she would not attend Trump’s inauguration. No explanation was given. Obama also did not attend former President Jimmy Carter’s funeral which would have required her to be seated next to Trump.
43. On Wednesday, an AP/NORC poll found that just 17% of Americans are “extremely” or “very” confident that Trump’s DOJ will act fairly, and half of Americans had little or no confidence. The poll found similar results of the Supreme Court and FBI.

Pete Hegseth, President-elect Donald Trump’s choice to be Defense secretary, appears before the Senate Armed Services Committee for his confirmation hearing, at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, Jan. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)