This week, after days of strikes on Iran, which included a precision strike on a water plant serving 20,000 Iranians, Trump announced a “deal” with Iran on his 80th birthday. While Trump, and his front man on the deal, Vice President JD Vance, trumpeted the one-and-a-half page long memorandum of understanding, they also refused to release it publicly, even to members of the Gang of Eight, even days later.

Terms of the MOU did start to leak out nonetheless, with the NYT describing the deal as Trump winding down a war he started, with all his stated goals unmet. Trump’s main goal of ending Iran’s nuclear program, which he had claimed last June to having “obliterated,” was notably not addressed in any way. Trump continued to tout his deal as superior to former President Barack Obama’s JCPOA, which was negotiated without a war, but emerging details did not back that claim.

Meanwhile, Trump held an unprecedented spectacle on White House grounds for his birthday, incorporating the U.S. military, and using the White House as changing rooms for UFC fighters, in what critics called undignified and worse. The event culminated in the winning fighter referring to former First Lady Michelle Obama as a “man,” which Trump and his regime refused to condemn, and seemed to have been the main lingering vibe of the event. While the White House anticipated 125,000 would attend, the crowd was limited to thousands.

Meanwhile, the rest of Trump’s DC projects were in disarray. After spending $14.2 million to repaint the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool in flag blue, days later the pool turned green as it filled with algae. Trump tried to avoid removing his name from the Kennedy Center, but lost, and so instructed the regime to cover the center with a giant tarp. Trump continued to fight for his White House ballroom, which he had repeatedly promised would be funded by donations, but as it turns out, looks to cost $600 million, not $400 million, half of which would be covered by taxpayers.

This week, when pressed on the impact of his policies and war on affordability for Americans, Trump said, “I love inflation,” a line likely to be widely featured in Democrats’ midterms advertisements. Trump was, for the first time, losing ground not only with white working-class voters, but also with rural voters. Meanwhile, this week’s list is full of examples of insiders like Elon Musk having the regime do his bidding, and Trump using the apparatus of the federal government to pursue his enemies.

Those of us old enough remember the bicentennial celebration in 1976, when Americans were treated to years-long events in celebration across the country, a time of unity and pride. Fifty years later, the country is in disarray, inequality reigns, corruption rules, and Trump this week threw away all pretensions and announced the July 4th event planned on the National Mall would be a “Trump rally.” That’s where our country finds itself at its 250th anniversary.

This was an unusually and notably slow week of broken norms compared to recent months. The news cycle has slowed considerably. Two factors stand out that may contribute.

There remain lingering doubts about the state of Trump’s health after his most recent visit to Walter Reed, although our media is saying and reporting very little about it, as opposed to their daily and hourly obsession with former President Joseph Biden. The WSJ Editorial Board writes, as Trump nears his 80th birthday, “we hope no one is hiding any contradictory details” on his recent visit, adding, “One lesson from the Biden health fiasco is that voters will punish a party that tries to cover up infirmities.”

The second is Trump’s focus on his two personal priorities, his legacy and personal vendettas, as we pass the five month mark before midterms, where Democrats are likely to at least gain control of the House of Representatives and put a check on power. Trump cannot stop talking about his arch, his UFC arena, and of course his ballroom. He is obsessed with his legacy, while being openly callous towards the concerns of Americans on issues like affordability. He is also obsessed with rewriting history, targeting his enemies, and seeking to reward his supporters who back the Big Lie that the 2020 election was stolen from him. Towards that end, Trump and his allies were already sowing doubt this week about election results, as the vote count in California’s primary proceeded at its usual slow pace.

It is unclear whether Trump has so ensconced himself with loyalists that he does not comprehend his growing unpopularity, or if he simply has again constructed an alternative truth. This week, Trump was loudly booed in his home city at Madison Square Garden, but he claimed to have heard cheers. As his polling continue to fall, the Journal noted that Trump’s cultural influence is also waning. This week we are also continuing to see the real world impacts of the incompetent loyalists he installed to run our federal agencies, and the out in the open corruption and pay-to-play that have characterized this second regime, and benefited Trump, his family, and his allies.

This was a week full of setbacks for Trump, at home and abroad. The U.S. continued to be mired in Trump’s war of choice with Iran, which, by all appearances, the U.S. seems to be losing. As we pass the three month mark, Trump and his regime seemed to vacillate, day by day, on whether a ceasefire or escalation was near, or whether, according to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the war was over.

On the home front, Trump suffered two major setbacks, first with a federal judge reversing his rebranding of the Kennedy Center, and then, bowing to both political and legal pushback, Trump backed down on his so-called ‘anti-weaponization’ fund. Backed down in part — not on the immunity audit, which benefits him personally. Uncharacteristically in recent days and weeks, Trump has largely avoided the media, and spent another weekend sending a flood of AI slop on Truth Social.

Increasingly it appears that Trump, as he put it this week, does not “care about the midterms.” His focus instead seems to be on throwing himself a big 80th birthday party at the nation’s capital, putting his name and brand as many places as possible, and enriching himself, his family and allies as much as possible before the clock runs out.

What alarms me most is all that we have normalized. The Justice Department, now run by his personal lawyer, has become a cudgel for Trump’s personal vendettas. This week, he crossed the line to pursuing E. Jean Carroll, who is completely a personal target, unrelated to his time in office. He named Bill Pulte to acting director of national intelligence, handing his ally unfettered access to a gold mine of intelligence, which he would undoubtedly use to target enemies, and could also harness to impact midterms. Trump’s regime acts like a mafia organization, awarding huge government contracts and loans, as Trump places stock market bets with his personal funds on companies he then champions. Our leadership in all realms is continuing to become more white and male, and less competent.

The question now is whether Republicans will at long last stand up to Trump, as they did with his fund, or if they will revert to being compliant junior assistants. Trump made some enemies in the Senate, after endorsing primary opponents of Sens. Bill Cassidy and John Cornyn. Will the Senate at long last push back? If not, it becomes a waiting game for how much damage Trump can do before the midterm elections, just five months away.

This week the Republican Party at long last stood up to Trump. What did it take? Trump backing primary opponents of two of their own in the Senate, resulting in both losing, and another in the House. Trump’s $1.776 billion (yes, note the patriotic reference in dollar amount) so-called “anti-weaponization” fund hit roadblocks in the Senate, leading that body to adjourn for Memorial Day weekend, as did the House to avoid a vote that would have required Trump to get Congressional approval to continue his war of choice in Iran.

Trump, by all accounts, is losing the Iran War. Although the three-month old war has been stalled for weeks, Trump used the pretext of an “imminent” deal as an excuse to skip his son’s wedding on Saturday. This seemed odd enough when his schedule showed him heading to his Bedminster golf course on Friday, but when rain was predicted, he instead returned to the White House where he spent the weekend claiming to be close to a deal, then backing off, then claiming to be close again, and so on. Trump also spent his weekend continuing his ample use of Truth Social to spread unhinged, AI-generated images and videos, at all hours of the day and night. Trump visited Walter Reed this week for his fourth medical exam since returning to office, raising continued concerns about his health, after which he again refused to give accurate information on the reason for the visit.

This week the fourth Trump cabinet member was pushed out, and for the fourth time, notably, it was a woman, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard. Her diminished role, as well as Marco Rubio being a place holder as National Security Advisor, and Trump’s gutting of the National Security Council, led many experts to question if Trump’s shrinking circle of increasingly solely loyalists and yes men had led to his ill-advised and poorly planned Iran War. As NYT columnist Thomas Friedman put it:

Now, and forever, Iranians will know that we know that Tehran can shut off the world’s most important oil tap anytime it wants. This new source of leverage for the Iranian regime is priceless.

Trump’s failure to anticipate this is no accident. It is because he thinks he knows everything — when he doesn’t at all.

The biggest stories this week center on the blatant, unprecedented corruption by Trump, his family, and his regime. What is shocking is not only the scope, but also Trump’s willingness, even eagerness, to flaunt his kleptocracy in the light of day, seeming to regale in the fact that no one in his regime or party would dare to challenge or in any way stop him.

Notable this week was not only Trump’s disclosure that he or his agents had made more than 3,700 stock trades in the first quarter, many of which involved companies with business before his regime, but also several that he had publicly promoted or directly helped through his actions and policies. Far more brazen was his so-called “Anti-Weaponization Fund,” which was poised to award $1.8 billion of taxpayer money not only to his allies, but also to Jan. 6 insurrections, whom he had already pardoned, and will now be enriched and encouraged to do the same in the future at his beck and call! This was another in the long list of examples of Trump getting away with one thing (pardons), then taking a broken norm to a next level, after little to no pushback.

These remarkable headlines sucked much of the oxygen out of other important story lines. The Iran War continued with no progress, and following the same pattern of Trump threatening strikes, then backing off (TACO), with no end in sight. Bloomberg reported financial markets had gotten desensitized to his pattern, and Trump’s words and posts were having diminishing impacts. The American public moved increasingly against not only the war, but also on Trump’s overall approval and approval on other key issues, reaching new lows.

Trump’s China Summit was by most accounts not only unproductive, but also deleterious to U.S. standing, and an embarrassment. While Trump seemed smitten by, and trying hard for a friendship with China’s president, Xi referred to the U.S. as a “declining nation,” and seemed to troll Trump throughout his visit. Meanwhile, Trump continued to pull away from our NATO allies, and took steps toward conflicts with Cuba and Greenland, which would also serve to allow him to control the narrative away from what we are no longer talking about — the Epstein files.

As a second outbreak hit this week, the Department of Health and Human Services was hit with another senior level resignation. There are other important stories as well on the dysfunction within our federal agencies, which is only getting worse. With all this happening, Trump remained focused on his ballroom, and his campaign of retribution.

Two story lines really stood out this week, in part because of their big implications for the state of things under Trump. First, bowing to pressure from Trump, FDA Commissioner Marty Makary resigned. With that resignation, the Trump regime’s Department of Health and Human Services had no Senate confirmed FDA commissioner, CDC director, surgeon general, or NIH director. Notably, this comes amid an outbreak of hantavirus, with 11 confirmed cases and three deaths, once again demonstrating the dysfunction of our federal government under Trump and his loyalists. The second is Trump saying out loud — something many had suspected through his actions — that he was indifferent to the suffering of anyone but himself. On Tuesday, the day the consumer price index showed soaring prices for energy and food, Trump was asked about “Americans’ financial situations,” and whether it was motivating him to make a deal with Iran. Trump said:

“Not even a little bit. The only thing that matters when I’m talking about Iran — they can’t have a nuclear weapon. I don’t think about Americans’ financial situation. I don’t think about anybody. I think about one thing — we cannot let Iran have a nuclear weapon. That’s all.”

My emphasis added, to what truly was a remarkable, if uniquely honest, statement.

What is shocking too, is that even with that statement which cited the sole goal of disarming Iran’s nuclear capabilities, reporting this week indicates that Trump was ready to strike a deal to end the war with Iran, without achieving a single objective stated at the outset, including said elimination of nuclear. Reporting also indicated that Iran had been able to almost fully restore its military capabilities to pre-war levels, despite Trump and Defense Department Sec. Pete Hegseth’s repeated lies that those capabilities had been various versions of obliterated. When challenged by the truth, Trump and his regime resorted to their North Star, attacking the media, and accusing them of being traitors.

Juxtapose Trump’s callous indifference toward the American people to his focus, bordering on obsession, with spreading likenesses of himself and his name, and pursuing his perceived enemies. Our Justice Department under acting Attorney General Todd Blanche is unrecognizable. They might as well take down the Justice Department words from the building, under the giant poster of Trump, and call it the Trump Organization Law Firm! Between that, and the out in the open kleptocracy, with almost no pushback to either, this week it was clear how many broken norms have for now been accepted and normalized, as if Americans who oppose Trump are just biding their time.

As Trump heads to China, traveling not with U.S.-China experts, but with his son and corporate chief executives, much is at stake. While the trip will provide Trump with a change of subject for now, there is no clear end for his Iran War, which by many accounts the U.S. seems to be losing, and Trump’s mental health, and demonstrated once again by his late night and overnight social media posting, is very much in question. He is the mad king, making all decisions, while Republicans enable him.

This week we continued down the slippery slope of the U.S. Department of Justice melding into Trump’s personal law firm. As acting Attorney General Todd Blanche seeks Trump’s nomination to run the agency, the DOJ has become unrecognizable. Any pretense of separation is gone as the gutted agency carries out Trump’s agenda and retribution campaign, however lawless.

Trump’s Iran War entered its tenth week, and Trump seemed unable to find a way out. Trump claimed to not need congressional approval despite passing the 60 day mark, citing the ceasefire, then established “Project Freedom” and unsuccessfully tried to get cargo ships through the Strait of Hormuz. By the end of the week, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the war was over, and only Project Freedom remained, only to hours later have Trump post on Truth Social that Project Freedom was on pause. The narrative seems to shift daily and endlessly, most frequently with Trump leaking or posting a positive spin on ending the war before the stock market opens. Notably, also this week, Trump unilaterally pulled 5,000 troops out of Germany after their leader’s remarks about Trump failing in the Iran War.

Polling continues to fall, as the American people are increasingly unhappy with Trump, his war, and his policies. He does, however, maintain his power over the Republican Party, as demonstrated this week by a primary in Indiana, and Senate Republicans trying to push through $1 billion for his White House ballroom, despite just 28% of Americans supporting it.

Increasingly, Trump seems unhinged. A major story line this week is not only the increasing number of his Truth Social posts, but also that he is sending them often in the middle of the night, and they are becoming in many cases more alarming and bizarre. This week, Trump bragged in three separate occasions about taking cognitive tests, almost seeming to be an act of self-admittance that things are not so steady, as he has put the world and its energy prices on his shoulders, alone. With no good options for exit.

This is the longest weekly list of the second regime, so far. There is so much going on at once! I encourage you to read it, in its entirety.

This was another chaotic week, when our country seemed to skip from crisis to crisis, and Trump became increasingly unbound by past norms. As the Iran War entered its ninth week, and gas prices reached a four-year high, it became increasingly apparent that Trump had no plan to end his war. There was no movement toward any sort of resolution. Reporting this week continued to reveal there had yet to be any real, lasting, positive accomplishments from the war.

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, in a reported effort to become Trump’s nominee for the permanent role, moved forward on pursuing Trump’s perceived enemies, breaking norms not only for the direct tie between Trump and the Justice Department, but also for pursuing cases that were clearly political retribution, without a chance of winning.

There was chaos this week at the White House Correspondents Dinner, when an armed individual tried to run through a security checkpoint on the floor above the ballroom where the dinner took place. Trump, his regime, and allies sought to make hay by using the incident to advance his White House ballroom as a security necessity, and to baselessly blame Democrats for all political violence. Trump briefly called for unity, but less than 24 hours later castigated and insulted journalist Norah O’Donnell, his latest in a long list of attacks on female reporters.

Corruption has become increasingly mainstreamed. This week, Paramount’s David Ellison hosted a highly unusual dinner at the former Institute for Peace, attended not only by Trump, but also members of his regime who would have a say in the company’s merger with Warner Brothers being completed, and with a large portion of Middle East investor ownership. Trump hosted large holders of his memecoin $TRUMP at Mar-a-Lago, promising access to the largest holders of the coin, which had lost more than 90% of its value since its January 2025 launch. And so on. All in the light of day, with little to no pushback.

Meanwhile, the American people are not happy. Poll after poll shows Trump’s declining approval ratings overall, and also on all major issues. While Trump quietly and consistently pushed falsehoods about election security ahead of midterms, he also was seeing his MAGA base turn against him on a growing number of issues.

This week, as the country entered the eighth week of Trump’s Iran War, Trump appeared to be backed into a corner. He spent the week spewing false claims about the state of negotiations, the ever-changing objectives of the war, and on what had been achieved; but by the week’s end, amid all his bluster and bravado, he chose to extend the ceasefire for the fifth time, this time indefinitely. Troubling reporting by the WSJ indicated that while Trump projected bravado, privately he was scared about a war that has gotten away from him, and with his erratic behavior and impatience, national security officials had taken to excluding him from the room during a major operation.

Meanwhile at home, the federal agencies are in disarray. Trump fired a third cabinet member, Secretary of Labor Lori Chavez-DeRemer, the third firing in recent weeks, all women. FBI Director Kash Patel sued The Atlantic over an article detailing his alcohol abuse and its impact on his work, notably during a war. Homeland Security Sec. Markwayne Mullin suggested his agency would run out of money in early May, again during a war. Health and Human Services Sec. Robert Kennedy continued his free-fall, as measles cases continued to spike, and he refused to back Trump’s latest pick to lead the Centers for Disease Control.

All the while, Trump found time to focus on his ballroom, his arch, and pursuing retribution and petty grievances against his perceived enemies. In fact, reporting continued to indicate he repeatedly tried to pivot away to other topics from the Iran War, which he has put himself in unilateral control of, as this week once again, both the Senate and the House failed to pass measures to rein in his war power. Trump’s polling continues to crater to new lows of not only the second regime, but both regimes. The American people largely do not support his Iran War, or his increasingly erratic behavior, including his continued conflict with Pope Leo XIV.

This week there were growing concerns about Trump’s erratic behavior and mental health, including from former allies and regime members. While Trump’s unpopular war with Iran entered its seventh week, already extending beyond his four to six week estimate, Trump started a new war of words with Pope Leo XIV, further enraging parts of his base. Things escalated when Trump posted an image depicting himself as Jesus Christ, later taking the rare action of deleting the post, while defending himself and continuing to attack the Pope. In a letter to the Vatican, Pope Leo warned of the risk of democracies sliding into “majoritarian tyranny.”

As ceasefire negotiations with Iran got underway, Trump refused to avail himself of the expertise in the State Department, instead sending Iran’s request of Vice President JD Vance, along with Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, none of whom had any experience with Iran. As Vance told reporters that negotiations had failed, Trump was seen ringside at the Ultimate Fighting Championship in Miami, seated with Secretary of State Marco Rubio, unbothered and cheering the fighters. Trump enjoyed his weekend at fundraisers and golfing at his properties, while sending thousands more troops to the Middle East.

The world order continues to shift dramatically under Trump, or as Chinese President Xi Jinping put it, the international order is “crumbling into disarray.” Despite intervention by the U.S. and Russia, Hungary’s Viktor Orban was defeated in a landslide, after serving 16 years, a refutation of authoritarianism. Trump alienated one of his last remaining allies, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, over the Iran War and his attacks on the Pope. Europeans held discussions about a post-war effort to secure the Strait of Hormuz, without the U.S., and about a plan for a “European NATO,” without the U.S. An election in Canada empowered the party of Trump foe, Mark Carney. Even Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum pushed back on Trump’s blockade of Cuba, and the deaths of Mexican nationals at the hands of immigration agents.

Trump, and the U.S., increasingly stands alone. Congress finally returned to Washington D.C., but remains largely silent and sidelined. One volatile man, whose mental health is clearly in question, is now making decisions with a shrinking circle of trusted aides, that impact the entire world. Trump is increasingly acting like a mad king.