This week started with an enraged Trump signing into law the release of the Epstein files, but that story quickly faded to other headlines. Trump’s longtime ally, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, became the first MAGA true believer, in either regime, to resign. Reporting indicates other House Republican lawmakers may not be far behind, claiming mistreatment by Trump, his regime, and Speaker Mike Johnson. This week Trump seized control of the GOP midterm election strategy, sensing at last that the country is turning against him, and he cannot simply message away very real concerns about affordability.

Trump’s retribution campaign hit some embarrassing speed bumps this week, with cases against James Comey and Letitia James being dismissed, and six Democratic lawmakers, whose video evoked his ire, stood firm. Republicans, too, are increasingly pushing back against Trump, a shift that seems to frustrate and infuriate him. Trump tried, successfully, to change the subject from the Epstein files with a push for a peace plan between Russia and Ukraine, but as Republican senators spoke out against what amounted to a Russian wish-list, his regime looked like the keystone cops, and his plan sputtered.

Notable this week is reporting by the NYT on Trump’s signs of fatigue. I wrote about his Friday afternoon meeting with incoming New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani, where a seated passive and pacifist Trump seemed to have run out of gas (read here). Trump has suffered a series of setbacks in recent weeks, some public, some being swept under the rug, like the disbanding of DOGE, and he is desperate for a win.