TRUMP WATCH

Trump Watch (Thur., 11/13, noon EST):

• The shutdown is over. Without changes, the House voted to accept the bill from the Senate and Trump signed it. Federal workers who had been furloughed are being called back on a rolling basis today through Monday. The bill specifically reinstated or prevented Trump from firing any of the people who were furloughed.
  
  
• However, the House is working on a new bill to reverse part of the one they just approved to end the shutdown. They don't want eight Republican senators to be able to sue for half a million dollars each, just because their phone records were reviewed.
  
  
• The Trump administration is refusing to issue the jobs and inflation reports for October, blaming the shutdown. Instead, the White House Press Secretary referred un-jokingly to DoorDash's State of Local Commerce report as indicating that inflation had been reduced.
  
  
• The United Kingdom is suspending some intelligence sharing with the United States, so the U.K. is not complicit in the illegal bombings of boats in the Caribbean.
  
  
• MAGA is in an uproar, because Trump told a friendly interviewer from Fox News that he wants to have 600,000 Chinese students come to U.S. universities, because we don't have enough talented people here.
  
  
• A judge found that the Department of Homeland Security is illegally holding at least 615 people arrested in Chicago, who must immediately be released on $1,500 bond unless they are a proven security risk.
  
  
• Trump is proposing something he calls "Trumpcare." He'd give everyone some money, then cut them completely loose to find their own medical insurance. While this might sound good on first blush, it means that older or disabled people -- or others with pre-existing conditions -- could be charged exorbitant rates, since rates would be set for people individually instead of in large groups.
  
  
• The Trump administration has unveiled plans to lease up to six drilling operations off the coast of California between 2027 and 2030. California has strong environmental regulations against new offshore drilling. There hasn't been new offshore drilling on the Pacific side of the continental U.S. since the 1980s. Governor Newsom called the plan "dead on arrival" and said he'd fight it via every legal and regulatory means.
  
  
• It is being reported that actually changing the name of the Department of Defense (which name change is supposed to require an act of Congress) to the Department of War would cost two billion dollars.
  
  
• Transgender people who retired from the Air Force after 15 to 18 years of service are having their pensions and healthcare blocked by the Secretary of Defense, as though they were discharged instead of retiring. 17 of them are now suing.
  
  
• US Catholic bishops voted yesterday to block all gender-affirming care at Catholic hospitals in the United States. They will still help transgender patients, but they will not provide transgender medications, surgeries, or other services. While this may not seem like a big issue, more than 1 in 7 patients nationwide receives their care at a Catholic hospital, and any transgender patients hospitalized for other reasons will not be provided with their ongoing gender-affirming medications.
  
  
• Meanwhile, the same day, the U.S. leaders of ten other denominations and faiths issued a statement in support of transgender, intersex, and non-binary people. Signors to the statement included the American heads of the Episcopal Church, the Presbyterian Church, the Disciples of Christ, the United Church of Christ, the Unitarian Universalist Association, and the Union for Reform Judaism.
  
  
• Trump did go to at least one Veterans' Day event. While there, he seemed to have forgotten most of the lyrics to God Bless America.
  
  
• Texas gerrymandered its voting districts, expecting to give five new House seats to Republicans in 2026. However, their new voting districts relied on Hispanics to vote like they did in 2024, voting 46% for Trump. This year, Hispanic voters nationwide voted much more Democrat, and Texas may have accidentally given the *Democrats* additional seats from Texas.
  
  
• After I posted yesterday, more emails came to light about Trump and Epstein. These are all coming from Epstein's estate, since Trump is still blocking the release of files held by the Department of Justice. "Trump knew about the girls" is the lead, but there are numerous other stories. Epstein wrote "I know how dirty Donald is" and suggested using Trump's involvement with the girls as leverage. An email from 2011 described how Trump had spent hours alone at Epstein's house, with a girl later identified as a sex trafficking victim. Yet another said that Trump was at Epstein's for a Thanksgiving meal in 2017, after Trump was already president and supposedly at Mar-a-Lago for Thanksgiving. Although Trump has claimed that he cut off his relationship with Epstein in the early 2000s, these records indicate that Trump was still involved with Epstein as late as 2019.
  
  
• Trump used the White House Situation Room yesterday to try to come up with a way to block the upcoming House vote on the Epstein files. He was unsuccessful.
  
  
• A side note that the Department of Health is likely to downplay or ignore: There is a new strain of unusually virulent flu circulating globally, that isn't covered by this year's flu vaccine. In Japan, the flu levels in Tokyo are almost six times what they were last November, with more than 2,300 day cares and schools at least partially closed nationwide. The same flu is spreading in Canada and the U.K. We have no idea what's happening in the United States, because Trump's CDC hasn't issued any flu reports for two months. This year's flu vaccine will not properly protect against the new strain of H3N2, because it has mutated seven times since the vaccine was created.
  
  
• The first image below is the cover of today's New York Daily News.
  

Trump Watch (Wed., 11/12, 2 PM EST):

• The Supreme Court opted to keep full payment of November's SNAP on hold until the House votes on the proposal to end the shutdown.
  
  
• That proposal, which the House is expected to vote on today, allows eight Republican senators to sue for a minimum of $500,000 each, for having their phone records accessed without their knowledge as part of Department of Justice investigations into the January 6th riot.
  
  
• The same proposal also includes heavy new national restrictions on hemp-derived products, such as THC drinks, which were legalized in 2018. Republican representatives in the House may not vote for the bill without changing it, because some of their states are major hemp producers.
  
  
• If either of the preceding issues, or anything else, snags the proposal in the House and it gets changed there, the Senate will have to vote on it again before the shutdown can end.
  
  
• Three newly released Epstein-related emails seem to strongly indicate that Trump knew exactly what Epstein was doing, including one from Epstein himself to Maxwell that literally says Trump "knew about the girls."
  
  
• Last I heard, Adelita Grijalva (the new representative from Arizona) is going to be sworn in later this afternoon. She will provide the final signature needed to force a vote in the House of Representatives on releasing the Epstein files.
  
  
• On Veterans' Day, while Obama was greeting veterans and Gavin Newsom decided to go to the climate conference in Brazil (since no one else was there from the U.S.), Trump chose to meet with Ahmed al-Sharaa, the president of Syria. al-Sharaa was a member of al-Qaeda, amd was imprisoned by the U.S. from 2006 to 2011. Although he seems to have had a change of heart, many veterans of recent wars saw Trump's choice on Veterans' Day as a slap in the face.
  
  
• Republicans, including White House staff, are reportedly furious that someone "tricked" Trump into crowing about new 50-year mortgages, when they are so obviously a disastrous idea.
  
  
• Republican voters are finally starting to come around. Trump's job approval with them has dropped from 81% in March to 68% now, per the Associated Press. Trump's job approval nationwide is down to a miserable 33%.

Trump Watch (Tues., 11/11, 2 PM EST):

• Just to prove how awful they are, the Trump administration is asking the Supreme Court to rule that the government doesn't have to pay the full SNAP amount for November, until the government fully reopens.
  
  
• Outrage continues to mount against Senate Democrats who voted to end the shutdown without commitments on the ACA.
  
  
• 195 nations have been represented this week at the major COP30 climate crisis conference in Brazil. The countries with no representation: Afghanistan, Myanmar, San Marino, and the United States.

Trump Watch (Mon., 11/10, 2 PM EST):

• An appeals court decided that Trump cannot withhold any of November's SNAP payments after all, though that could be appealed to the Supreme Court again.
  
  
• However, this probably doesn't matter, because eight Democrats decided to vote with the Republicans in the Senate to reopen the government. Several more votes are still needed before the shutdown ends, but these seemingly-turncoat Democrats are taking a lot of heat for their capitulation. While I personally agree that they were wrong to acquiese, they voted to accept a bill that funds the government only until January 3rd, on the condition that Republicans will hold a vote on the Affordable Care Act premium tax subsidies in December. If that vote isn't held or doesn't succeed, the government may shut down again at the start of 2026 -- but then, SNAP and a few other things will remain funded during the shutdown, as part of this same bill.
  
  
• Newsweek reports that the U.S. has removed its plaques honoring Black World War II soldiers in the American military cemetery in the Netherlands.
  
  
• Trump pardoned Rudy Guiliani and 76 other people for their parts in trying to overturn the 2020 election. The Associated Press reports that this is largely a symbolic move, since none of them were ever charged with federal crimes and Trump cannot pardon state-level crimes.
  
  
• The Supreme Court has refused to hear a case that could have overturned the right to gay marriage in the U.S.
  

Trump Watch (Sun., 11/9, 4 PM EST):

• Trump's Department of Agriculture announced on Friday that it would pay SNAP in full in November. So, in turn, more than 20 states funded their SNAP recipients' accounts in full. Now, the USDA says that, given the Supreme Court's latest SNAP action, states must "immediately undo" their payouts. Many states cannot pull the money back, or people have already spent it.
  
  
• Making matters worse, the most recent directive from the USDA seems to say that states have to claw back the money even if the states themselves agree to cover the difference between the contingency fund payout and the full payout. States that don't comply may face penalties.
  
  
• Some airline flights that are managing to fly are still encountering difficulties. Because of the limited and steadily decreasing numbers of air traffic controllers, some planes that would normally ascend to around 35,000 feet are being forced to fly through at lower altitudes, which in turn can mean that everyone has to remain seated (including flight attendants).
  
  
• The Hill reports that ten Democrats may agree to a Republican proposal in the Senate to reopen the government for three months. It's not clear whether the Republicans have offered any concessions whatsoever on healthcare, whether centrist Democrats are simply caving, or whether this is just more noise.
  
  
• Trump has quietly eliminated most of the 15% minimum corporate tax, further handing large corporations huge tax breaks instead of Trump helping regular people.
  
  
• Trump announced that he is looking into banks giving people 50-year mortgages. For the first 20 years or more, you would be basically paying nothing but interest; after that, you would still have an entire 30-year mortgage to deal with, which would transfer to your kids if you died and left them the house before the 50 years was finished. This kind of excessively long mortgage is one of the policies that contributed to the economic crash in Japan in the 1990s. It initially helps people get into overpriced houses more cheaply, which drives housing prices even higher, until the entire bubble bursts.
  
  
• Trump today posted a fake story (captioned "WOW!") that Obama was paid $40 million in "Obamacare royalties" since 2010. Obamacare royalties are not a thing. Trump was apparently fooled by a meme from a satire site that literally says at the top "Everything on this website is fiction. If you believe it's real, you should have your head examined."

Trump Watch (Sat., 11/8, 11 AM EST):

• The Supreme Court is allowing Trump to only fund part of SNAP for November, for now. A liberal justice provided the explanation, as wanting to allow a motion to play out in a lower appeals court.
  
  
• Because lower courts had already said that Trump should fully fund SNAP, and the Department of Agriculture had agreed to do so, several states (including Maine) said that SNAP would be filling up entirely in November. At the moment, that is no longer the case. Trump is fighting hard for people to starve.
  
  
• Democrats in the Senate offered to reopen if the Republicans just agreed to extend the ACA premium tax credits for one year, so there would be time to investigate other possible ways of reducing the cost of Americans' healthcare. It was a very simple, easy-to-understand, easy-to-agree-to offer. Republicans said no. Senate Republicans flat out refuse to negotiate in good faith to help Americans, claiming that they will do it later (which is unlikely).
  
  
• In addition to the escalating flight cancellations nationwide because of too few air traffic controllers, FedEx and UPS are grounding part of their aircraft fleets (about 6%) because of a UPS plane crash that killed 14 people this week. The manufacturer of the doomed aircraft recommended that all of those aircraft be grounded until the cause of the crash has been determined.
  
  
• As I write this (not even noon on Saturday), almost 3,000 U.S. passenger flights have been delayed or canceled so far today.
  
  
• Air travel for Thanksgiving may be a nightmare. Although that's still 19 days away, the Secretary of Transportation says things will not be able to return to normal that quickly if the government does not reopen very soon. According to the air traffic controllers union, it is probably already too late. Too many controllers are quitting or taking extended breaks during the excessively long shutdown without pay.
  
  
• Part of the U.S. tsunami warning system is going dark, because of funding and staffing cuts. It is not expected to be reactivated after the shutdown.
  
  
• A judge has permanently blocked National Guard deployment to Portland, Oregon.
  
  
• The Trump administration has refused to allow the United Nations to review the U.S. human rights record in 2025.

Trump Watch (Fri., 11/7, 3 PM EST):

• A little more background on yesterday's transgender-related passport news: For the past 33 years, a transgender person could correct the gender marker on their passport, if they presented satisfactory evidence that they were medically transitioning. In 2021, Biden did away with the medical documentation requirement, and also began allowing an X marker for non-binary and intersex people. Now, Trump's Supreme Court has allowed Trump to overturn all 33 years of progress, and require that passports match a person's birth certificate, and only male or female. Even if someone is genetically female and has a vagina, if the doctor marked "male" on her birth certificate for any reason, now her passport must say "male." This is, very obviously, a potentially dangerous situation for anyone using their passport for ID, if they do not physically match what the passport says.
  
  
• Rather than fully fund November's SNAP by today, Trump's people have appealed the court order requiring them to do so.
  
  
• Biden had put guardrails on AI, which Trump removed. Now Open AI is facing at least seven lawsuits that ChatGPT has driven people to delusions or suicide.
  
  
• More than 1,000 flights were canceled nationwide today, as airports begin scaling back, thanks to air traffic controllers still going unpaid during the shutdown.
  
  
• A jobs reports yesterday found that layoffs in 2025 have hit their highest level since at least the Great Recession in 2008.
  
  
• Cornell is the latest university to cave to Trump, agreeing to pay $60 million to the Trump administration, to restore $250 million in grants that the administration was holding hostage.
  
  
• NBC reports that ICE is considering buying large warehouses (designed for Amazon) in which to store people.
  
  
• A judge in Illinois called out federal agents for lying and for violating protestors' and clergy's First Amendment rights by attacking non-violent people with chemical munitions. She issued a broad injunction to rein them in.
  
  
• Trying to appear like he's doing good things for the economy, Trump posted yesterday that a Wal-Mart Thanksgiving dinner deal is 25% less this year than last. People were quick to point out that last year's deal had 21 items and this year's has 15, and more of those 15 are store brands this year.

Trump Watch (Thur., 11/6, 5 PM EST):

• A Federal judge said today that his previous order had not been followed, and he clarified that the Trump administration must fund all of this month's SNAP by tomorrow. Previously, the government was saying it would only use the contingency fund, and only to partially fund SNAP, and delayed by a few "weeks or months" unless the shutdown ended. It's not clear if the government will comply.
  
  
• The Supreme Court is allowing Trump to once again block transgender people from getting passports that align with their current genders. Even if they have fully received transgender surgery, the sex marker on their passport must match their birth certificate. (I haven't been able to determine whether a government-issued corrected birth certificate will be accepted to prove the corrected gender.) The court held that the executive branch should have authority over foreign affairs, which includes which facts to include on passports, meaning that the next president will be able to fix this. The case is still proceeding in the lower courts; the Supreme Court only overturned the injunction blocking Trump's policy while the case proceeds.
  
  
• 40 of the largest airports around the country will begin cutting back on flights tomorrow, due to the shutdown.
  
  
• The man accused of assault for throwing a sandwich at a federal agent (which he did do) has been found not guilty.
  
  
• White House staffers have begun putting up paper signs outside rooms, with labels such as "The Oval Office." It is speculated that Trump can no longer remember which room is which and needs the reminder.
  
  
• When a guest fainted in the Oval Office today, several people rushed to help him, but Trump stood unmoving, uninterested or unaware of his surroundings:

Trump Watch (Wed., 11/5, 3 PM EST):

• The main story today is yesterday's voting across the U.S. Democrats and Democrat-leaning propositions won in every contest of national interest. Of particular note, New York City voters turned out in record numbers, to elect Muslim democratic socialist immigrant Zohran Mamdani as their new mayor.
  
  
• One you might've missed: JD Vance's half-brother was running for mayor of Cincinnati with Vance's endorsement. The brother lost by almost 60 points (that's not a typo).
  
  
• A legal scholar humorously described the widespread victory for the Democrats as "Every race. It’s basically been every race. Governors. Mayors. Dog-catchers. School boards. Water boards. Flipped a dungeon master in a rural Iowa D&D club. State senators. State reps. A janitor in Duluth. State justices. Three Uber drivers. Just everything."
  
  
• Trump responded with his usual degree of grace: He gathered Republican Senators, threw reporters out of the room, and proceeding to shout at his own people that it's all because they didn't end the shutdown like he wanted, by ending the Senate filibuster. Sane Republicans know that, if they end the Senate filibuster rule, Democrats will be able to pass all *their* priorities very easily when they have control of the Senate again. In a functioning government, the filibuster is what forces the two sides to compromise to accomplish anything.
  
  
• 78% of Americans, including 59% of Republicans, want the ACA premium tax credits extended. If Republicans simply agreed to do this, the government shutdown would end.
  
  
• In an apparent effort to influence elections in New Jersey yesterday, someone phoned in bomb threats to polling places. It didn't change the outcome. Election officials just directed voters to other locations.
  
  
• In arguments today, the Supreme Court does not appear to be favoring Trump's claim that he can control all tariffs, all the time, on every country, by claiming it's a national emergency.
  
  
• Yesterday, the Trump administration sent notices to furloughed employees suggesting that they might not receive their missing pay when the shutdown ends, even though payment is guaranteed by law.
  
  
• A federal judge has ruled that the Trump administration must resume including American Sign Language interpreters as part of press briefings, so deaf people can follow along. This had been common practice until this year, but Trump considered it DEI.

Trump Watch (Tue., 11/4, 4 PM EST):

• As of tomorrow, this will be the longest U.S. government shutdown in history.
  
  
• The Secretary of Transportation says that parts of the U.S. airspace may have to be closed next week, after air traffic controllers go a second pay period without being paid at all.
  
  
• Earlier today, Trump posted that he would ignore the court orders and not pay SNAP at all during the shutdown. The White House Press Secretary later walked that back, claiming that Trump would comply with the court orders to pay from the SNAP contingency fund, but yesterday the Secretary of Agriculture said that even that partial payment would be delayed by weeks or months, if the government remains shut down. So it's very unclear what will be paid, when.
  
  
• At least nine governors have declared states of emergency over the loss of SNAP benefits. Four states (including three that went to Trump in 2024) are readying their National Guards to help distribute food. About 30 states are using their own funds to support food banks or to supplement SNAP.
  
  
• Dozens of Head Start centers have had their funding suspended during the shutdown. Many are having to close now until the shutdown ends. Head Start normally provides preschool eduction, child care, and two meals a day for struggling children.
  
  
• Marjorie Taylor-Greene appears to be breaking even more from the Republican party, and now says that she will read the names of the people in the Epstein files aloud on the House floor, which is one of the few places in America where a person could do that and not face immediate legal action as a result.
  
  
• Trump says that ICE raids "haven't gone far enough" because they're being held back by "liberal judges."

Trump Watch (Mon., 11/3, 6 PM EST):

• After two different courts ordered them to do so, the Trump administration agreed to partially fund SNAP for November -- but only partially. They refuse to use anything but the SNAP contingency fund, which would fund SNAP to less than two-thirds its normal amount.
  
  
• The Trump administration then warned grocers that stores cannot give any extra discounts or coupons to SNAP recipients. Everyone has to pay the same price.
  
  
• The mayor of Atlanta has announced a freeze on all evictions and water shut offs until the end of January, to help people losing their SNAP.
  
  
• The U.S. appears to be staging boots-on-the-ground military resources to attack Venezuela (for "drug trafficking") and Nigeria (for "persecuting Christians").
  
  
• At last count, the U.S. has reportedly destroyed at least 15 boats in the Caribbean, immediately executing most of the people on board.
  
  
• In an interview that aired yesterday, Trump was asked why he pardoned Changpeng Zhao, who allowed billions of dollars of illegal money laundering using cryptocurrency. Trump replied "I know nothing about it," then elaborated on that theme, raising questions that Trump is just signing whatever is put in front of him.
  
  
• Trump has endorsed Cuomo in the race for mayor of New York City, which probably guarantees that Mamdani will win. Mamdami is a young, Democratic socialist, who seems to earnestly intend to make New York City a better, more affordable place.
  
  
• A group of school teachers in Arizona wore mock-bloody T-shirts reading "Problem solved" for Halloween last year. The same people wore the same T-shirts this year, and various people in MAGA verbally attacked them, claiming it was a conspiracy to mock Charlie Kirk's death.
  

Trump Watch (Sat, 11/1, 4 PM EDT):

• There are 62 U.S. Senators, including 15 Republicans, ready to fully fund SNAP during the shutdown. The Republican Senate Majority Leader refuses to allow them to vote.
  
  
• The governor of Pennsylvania declared a state of emergency there, to free up government funds to help people who are about to starve.
  
  
• A federal judge on Friday said it was illegal for Trump to withhold the funds from being distributed to SNAP recipients this November. At almost the same time, a second federal judge elsewhere in New England ruled that at a minimum the SNAP contingency funds must be used for this purpose, and ordered the USDA to provide an update by Monday.
  
  
• Meanwhile, Kash Patel, Trump's head of the FBI, used a $60 million FBI jet to go to see his girlfriend sing at a wrestling event.
  
  
• The Huffington Post reports that Trump has now spent more than 60 million taxpayer dollars for 76 golf outings so far this year.
  
  
• Border Patrol agents dragged a 67-year-old U.S. citizen from his car in Chicago, pinned him to the ground, and broke his ribs.
  
  
• Trump is capping the number of refugees the U.S. will accept next year at 7,500, the lowest ever. He apparently intends to mostly accept only the white people who want to come from South Africa.
  
  
• A federal judge ruled that it is illegal for Trump to require specific citizenship documents be presented by voters in certain ways, because the Constitution gives the power to regulate elections to the individual states.

Trump Watch (Thur., 10/30, 5 PM EDT):

• The Texas Supreme Court has ruled that judges in Texas can now refuse to marry same-sex couples, on religious grounds.
  
  
• Trump said on Wednesday that he's directed the Department of Defemse to resume nuclear testing. No country except North Korea has tested nuclear weapons since the 1990s. Democrats are saying that this would be a "massive breach" of international law.
  
  
• Reuters reports that people within the Department of Defense are being asked to sign non-disclosure agreements.
  
  
• The Department of Defense is demanding that each U.S. state prepare a group of 250 to 500 National Guard as a "quick reaction force," trained in crowd control and handling civil disturbance, by early next year.
  
  
• The U.S. Senate passed a vote to overturn Trump's tariffs globally, by revoking Trump's emergency declaration that supposedly gave him the power to create the tariffs. (Tariffs are supposed to be approved by Congress.)
  
  
• Owing to Prince Andrew's ties to Epstein, the King of England is stripping his brother, Andrew, of his royal titles and evicting him from the royal residence.
  
  
• In a brazen attempt to curry his favor, South Korea presented Trump with a replica of an historical gold crown. Trump loved it, and the South Koreans smirked:

Trump Watch (Wed., 10/29, 5 PM EDT):

• A YouGov poll found 61% of Americans oppose Trump's ballroom, while 25% approve. The same poll found Trump at -19 approval overall, 58-39, which is a new low for his second term.
  
  
• Israel, which reportedly killed at least 104 people in the past two days, now claims that the ceasefire is back on.
  
  
• Trump is sending an aircraft carrier to the Caribbean. AP reports that this leaves zero U.S. aircraft carriers around Europe and the Middle East.
  
  
• A group of Republican senators sided with the Democrats to pass a measure that there shouldn't be new tariffs on Brazil without congressional approval. This follows a similar, succesful vote about Canadian tariffs earlier in the year, which they may repeat again for Canada tonight or tomorrow. This is all symbolic, because the Speaker of the House flatly refuses to vote on any tariff-related items until at least next year, and even if the House did vote for the measures there aren't enough votes to override Trump's veto.
  
  
• Two National Guard members in Illinois went on record with CBS, saying that they are against being deployed to Chicago. One said, "I would definitely say no. I'm not going to go against my community members, my family and my culture. I believe this is the time to be on the right side of history."
  
  
• The Department of Justice suspended two prosecutors for describing January 6th as a "mob of rioters" in a court filing for a new, unrelated charge against a rioter Trump pardoned.
  
  
• Meanwhile, the Department of Justice is leading an indictment against a Democrat running for Congress from a district in Illinois, alleging she "forcibly impeded, intimidated, and interfered" with an officer, because she was with a group of protestors who "conspired" to stand in front of an ICE vehicle, causing it to go "slow."
  
  
• On Tuesday, Trump fired all six sitting members of a board that oversees architecture in Washington, DC, to replace them with a new group that are "more aligned with President Trump's America First Policies."
  
  
• The Congressional Budget Office reports that the government shutdown is costing the U.S. economy $7 billion a month that will not be recovered after the shutdown ends.
  
  
• JetBlue, United, Delta, and other airlines are donating meals to airport staff, as air traffic controllers and TSA agents are going unpaid during the shutdown.
  
  
• City police in Portland, Oregon are reporting that federal agents have fired tear gas on them, and cite one particular circumstance on October 18th, when a federal agent fired a tear gas shell into a driveway, which shell bounced up to a nearby rooftop. Federal agents on that rooftop then responded to the apparent attack by firing more crowd control munitions into what was actually a peaceful protest.
  
  
• An appeals court has blocked the lower court order I mentioned yesterday, that was requiring that immigration actions in Illinois be reported daily to the lower court's judge.

Trump Watch (Tues., 10/28, 4 PM EDT):

• Trump appears to be suffering even more from mental decline. He had an MRI and took a basic cognitive test the other day. Yesterday, he incorrectly described the cognitive test as "an IQ test... very hard" and suggested that his political rivals wouldn't do as well as he did.
  
  
• Apparently, ICE isn't being aggressive enough to satisfy Trump. 25 ICE officials are being replaced with people from the Border Patrol, because Trump likes their tactics, like jumping out of unmarked rental trucks in business parking lots or storming residential areas in the middle of the night in Blackhawk helicopters.
  
  
• Israel has resumed strikes on Gaza.
  
  
• Four more boats were destroyed by the U.S. since my last report, at least three of them in the Pacific, murdering more than a dozen additional mariners.
  
  
• Venezuela on Monday suspended energy agreements with Trinidad and Tobago, who are hosting at least one U.S. warship conducting strikes on Venezuelan boats.
  
  
• California is officially going to send out its own observers to observe the "monitors" that Trump is sending to "watch" this November's elections there.
  
  
• A federal judge extended her injunction indefinitely, preventing Trump from laying off any federal employees during the shutdown. He had been attempting to fire more than 4,000 people.
  
  
• Unlikely ally Rep. Marjorie Taylor Green stated that the Speaker of the House has "refused to give one policy proposal to our GOP conference on our own conference call" about the "Republican plan for healthcare."
  
  
• Eleven Republican senators have signed on to a bill to force Trump to fund SNAP during the shutdown, but the Speaker of the House has refused to consider voting on any stopgap measures like that, insisting that his clean resolution is the only option on the table.
  
  
• Leaders from 25 Democrat-leaning states are suing to have SNAP spend the contingency money it is refusing to spend at Trump's command. This money would give SNAP almost two-thirds of normal funding for the month of November.
  
  
• Various U.S. states are attempting to soften the blow of losing SNAP money, to keep residents alive, such as by increasing funding for food banks. If you receive SNAP, keep checking the local site for your state to get the latest updates.
  
  
• A federal judge has warned federal staff to stop making false, misleading, or defamatory statments about Kilmar Abrego Garcia, and threatened sanctions if they don't comply. The judge further ordered that this directive be supplied to everyone above the people at hand, including the U.S. Attorney General and the Secretary of Homeland Security.
  
  
• Immigration officials apparently deported a father from Alabama to Laos. The man was granted lawful permanent residence in the United States before his first birthday, and a judge had ordered that he not be deported before he could present proof of this to the court. The 44-year-old is okay, and contacted his family, but he's definitely in Laos and not Alabama.
  
  
• A judge has ordered that Border Patrol Chief Greg Bovino report to her every day the status of immigrant-related activites in Illinois. She further ordered that all immigration agents in Illinois, including Bovino, wear body cameras and turn them on. This follows many documented reports of immigration agents firing tear gas in residential neighborhoods, apparently violating an order the judge issued on October 6th, to only use chemical agents when agents are under threat.
  
  
• A Homeland Security agent fired shots at an unarmed Black man at a traffic stop in DC, but apparently missed. Police reports of the traffic stop (charges already dismissed) failed to mention the shooting. The cop who wrote the report said in court that he was told not to mention the shots and said that they were instructed not to provide body cam video of the traffic stop. This is apparently a sloppy attempt at a cover-up.
  
  
• A federal judge has blocked Trump from withholding $35 million allocated for sexual education classes, just because many states mention gender diversity in their programs. 16 states had sued to have the funding restored.
  
  
• The Olympics have declared that female participants in various sports in the upcoming winter games must be genetically tested for male genetic coding. Even if a participant was born with unambiguously female genitalia but any sort of male genetics, she will be disqualified from competing as a female in sports including skiing and snowboarding.
  
  
• Since the federal government is blatantly ignoring the law by blaming Democrats for the shutdown on government websites and elsewhere, Democratic states are beginning to turn the tables. The Massachusetts SNAP site, for example, now accurately reads "President Trump is currently choosing to not issue November SNAP benefits that help you and many families put food on the table. You also may have your benefits cut starting in November because of changes Congressional Republicans and President Trump enacted in the 'One Big Beautiful Bill.'"
  
  
• Elon Musk is claiming that Wikipedia, written by humans, is too "woke." So he's launching a competing site, Grokipedia, written by his anti-woke AI, Grok (the same AI that started calling itself Mechahitler a few months ago).

Trump Watch (Mon., 10/27, 1 PM EDT):

• Thanks to global warming -- which the U.S. is currently encouraging by rolling back environmental protections and green energy incentives -- the Atlantic basin has already seen three category 5 hurricanes this season. The third is Hurricane Melissa, which is creeping toward Jamaica. A dropsonde reportedly found winds at 182 mph adjacent to the eyewall. By this time tomorrow, Jamaica is expecting more than a full year's worth of rain, storm surge to 13 feet, and waves above 20 feet. The storm will then likely move on to strike additional locations including parts of Cuba, Haiti, the Bahamas, the Turks and Caicos Islands, and Bermuda.
  
  
• Russia says it has successfully tested a nuclear-powered cruise missile with unlimited range. They say it can fly low and hug the terrain, defeating missile defense systems intended for ballistic missiles (which go high and then fall). Experts say it's a dangerous and stupid weapon, since the reactor itself poses a risk. Trump called the announcement "inappropriate" when Russia is supposed to be seeking peace with Ukraine.
  
  
• Two aircraft were lost within 30 minutes of each other, from the carrier USS Nimitz in the South China Sea. The crew of each vehicle were recovered safely, but the Navy hasn't publicly stated what actually happened to destroy the jet and the helicopter. Their statement just says that the causes are "under investigation."
  
  
• A man in Minnesota was arrested after allegedly offering $45,000 for the assassination of the U.S. Attorney General.
  
  
• A man wearing a full Nazi uniform assaulted a female college student outside a bar in Athens, Georgia. The woman was defended by other bar patrons.
  
  
• Timothy Mellon donated the $130 million toward the military payroll the other day. That would be the same Mellon family as in Bank of New York Mellon, which I mentioned previously is being sued for facilitating the finances of Jeffrey Epstein.
  
  
• Graham Platner, hoping to run as the Democrat against Maine's Susan Collins for U.S. Senate next year, recently has had a string of negative news coverage of his prior actions. He'd had a 30 point lead over Janet Mills, who is also a possible contender, but now Mills is ahead. Platner's campaign manager just quit amid the mounting negative reports.
  
  
• I was on hiatus at the time, but in case you missed it: Trump's administration announced in September that it wouldn't be conducting this year's annual survey of hunger across America. That survey has been conducted every year for almost three decades, but Trump's people say that studying hunger nationwide has become too "politicized."

Trump Watch (Sun., 10/26, 3 PM EDT):

• A federal grand jury has been empaneled in Florida to investigate the "decades-long conspiracy" to hurt Donald Trump.
  
  
• The Supreme Court will meet on November 7th to decide whether to take up a case that could overturn gay marriage rights in the U.S.
  
  
• More states are warning that existing unspent SNAP EBT card balances may be set to zero on November 1st.
  
  
• More than 2,000 flights in the U.S. were delayed or canceled again on Sunday morning, including a ground stop for arrivals to Los Angeles. Air traffic controllers, who are not being paid, are increasingly calling in sick and/or taking second jobs to make ends meet.
  
  
• Trump is planning to quadruple the amount of beef we import from Argentina, to try to drive beef prices down. Republican representatives from states where cattle ranching is common are decrying this as attempting to undercut American beef producers, whose prices are currently elevated partly because of Trump's tariffs.
  
  
• Republicans in Kansas and Indiana are pushing back on Trump's demand to gerrymander voting districts there. Trump is trying to cheat, as he has in Texas and elsewhere.
  
  
• Members of the Chicago Board of Education are calling for remote learning options, as ICE continues to disrupt schools and schoolchildren in that city.
  
  
• The Washington Post editorial board published an opinion piece, praising Trump's destruction of the East Wing. "Strong leaders reject calcification," they said.
  
  
• The website for the government department that oversees SNAP nationally is today carrying this largely false, clearly partisan, and boldly illegal message:
  

Trump Watch (Sat., 10/25, 3 PM EDT):

• Trump is sending people from the Justice Department to "monitor" this November's elections in California and New Jersey.
  
  
• The U.S. blew up another boat in the Caribbean, killing six people. That's ten boats so far.
  
  
• Long-time Trump associate Steve Bannon told The Economist that there is "a plan" to keep Trump as president in 2028, and that Bannon is part of the planning.
  
  
• An anonymous plantiff is suing Bank of America and Bank of New York Mellon for their involvement with her abuse by Jeffrey Epstein.
  
  
• Trump is threatening to add another 10% to Canada's tariffs, because they didn't stop airing their Ronald-Reagan-on-tariffs ad sooner. The ad did run during the first game of the World Series.
  
  
• Someone anonymously donated $130 million to help fund the U.S. military during the shutdown. While that amount is generous (or maybe suspicious), the Trump administration told Congress that it used $6.5 billion to make the most recent military payroll. It hasn't been made clear where that much money came from, though it's suspiciously close to the sum that's supposed to be in the SNAP contingency fund.
  
  
• ABC News reports that Trump intends to name his new edifice "The President Donald J. Trump Ballroom."

Trump Watch (Fri., 10/24, 5 PM EDT):

• A little more detail on the SNAP situation: 42 million Americans receive SNAP (food supplement) benefits through the individual states where they live. That's about 1/8th of the population.
  
  - Next month, Trump has declared that SNAP benefits not be paid out to the states if the shutdown continues. SNAP has a contingency fund holding 5 to 6 billion dollars. The actual monthly cost paid by the federal government is a little over $8 billion. Obviously, there is plenty of free cash in the federal government's coffers to fill in the rest for the entire month, since we're giving $40 billion to Argentina just because Trump feels like it (after cutting off USAID). Failing that, the U.S. could fund SNAP at 2/3 the normal level with the money SNAP already has. But Trump wants to hurt Americans, under the incorrect theory that informed people will blame the Democrats for the lack of food, even though Trump himself made this decision.
  
  - As a result, unless something changes, SNAP will not be paid at all in many or most U.S. states in November, as I've already mentioned. However, some states (like Wisconsin) have started saying that even money you already have stored on your SNAP card may not be available after November 1st. Those states are recommending that you spend down your entire balance before Halloween, using it to purchase shelf-stable goods to last you until December. Please, if you are a SNAP recipient, check your state's website to find out what the latest advisories are.
  
  - Because immediate widespread starvation is a big loser of a policy even for brainwashed MAGA, Republicans in both the House and the Senate are proposing bills to keep SNAP funded through the shutdown, despite Trump. However, it's important to note that the "One Big, Beautiful Bill" that Republicans rammed through Congress this summer, to preserve tax breaks for the rich, cuts more than $100 billion from SNAP over the next several years. So widespread hunger is coming either way.
  
  
• Meanwhile, the projected cost of Trump's ballroom -- which, by the by, is almost twice the square footage of the White House itself -- has ballooned to $300,000,000. Trump continues to claim that it is being paid for entirely by donations, including from Amazon, Apple, Coinbase, Comcast, Hard Rock, Google, HP, Meta, Microsoft, and T-Mobile.
  
  
• Ontario is running TV ads quoting Ronald Reagan saying that tariffs are bad. Trump doesn't like this, so he's cut off the U.S. trade negotiations with Canada. The Premier of Ontario says he'll stop running the ad. He was planning to run it during the World Series.
  
  
• Trump has announced sanctions against the country of Columbia and its president, after Columbia pointed out that Trump's government is murdering Columbia's fishermen for (as far as anyone knows) the crime of being in a boat. Trump is also sending an aircraft carrier to the area.
  
  
• Unwilling to accept defeat, even though they're in the wrong, the Department of Homeland Security announced that they plan to deport Abrego Garcia to Liberia by next Friday.
  
  
• Trump is reopening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling. He had done the same during his first term, but Biden had closed it.
  
  
• Illinois has established the Illinois Accountability Commission, to compile the actions of federal agents in that state, to record "every instance of abuse, or law-breaking, or... violations of rights."
  
  
• The White House East Wing (to the right of center in each photo), before and after:

Trump Watch (Thur., 10/23, 5 PM EDT):

• Are you wondering how we got into this mess? How voters could have been so gullible? Lay's reported a few days ago that 42% of its customers didn't know its chips were made from potatoes. They are changing their packaging to make the contents more clear.
  
  
• The U.S. has amassed another trillion dollars in debt, this trillion in the shortest period ever. Our country now owes $38 trillion. Higher government debt leads to higher interest rates for all Americans, higher inflation, and lower wages.
  
  
• Canada announced it is doubling its exports to countries other than the U.S., because we cannot be trusted as a trading partner.
  
  
• There was a partial vote in Israel's parliament today, which gave initial approval to a bill moving Israel toward annexing the West Bank. Even JD Vance called it a "very stupid political stunt."
  
  
• Since I posted yesterday, it was reported that the U.S. bombed a second boat in the Pacific. Three more people are dead, again without trial or recourse.
  
  
• The Department of Defense has created a bogus new press corps, comprised entirely of conservative commentators and influencers, who all agreed to only report exactly what they are told they can report.
  
  
• ICE agents are changing the plates on their vehicles, sometimes daily, or deliberately obscuring them. This is illegal in many states, including Illinois, which state has now launched a "Plate Watch" hotline, so the public can report these activities.
  
  
• The attorney general of Arizona is suing the Speaker of the U.S. House to get him to swear-in Arizona's newest representative.
  
  
• Jack Smith, who oversaw various legal cases against Trump, has been targeted by Trump's Justice Department in what is obviously an attempt at retribution. MAGA, of course, isn't getting the whole story. Today, Fox News reported that Smith's lawyers have requested that his hearings be made fully public, so the whole situation can be made 100% clear to everyone.
  
  
• Democrats in the Senate refused a bill to pay certain government staff and military during the shutdown. Republicans in the Senate refused a bill that would guarantee pay to everyone working or furloughed during the shutdown.
  
  
• Idaho has become the first state to see the new costs for medical insurance under the Affordable Care Act. Initial reports say that the average bill for Idahoans is increasing by about 10%, but without the tax credits (which may not be obvious until next April) the actual cost will be 75% higher than this year.
  
  
• The University of Virginia has agree to ban DEI in its admissions and hiring, and to submit to quarterly compliance reviews. The president of that university quit in July, apparently because he refused to comply.
  
  
• The governor of Texas proudly declared that he is targeting university professors in that state to be fired for nothing but "ideological differences."
  
  
• The second largest outbreak of measles so far this year (123 cases) is underway in western Arizona and western Utah.
  
  
• Heather Cox Richardson (an excellent historian and political observer) reported last night that there are no approved plans for Trump's new ballroom, no signs of weatherproofing where the East Wing used to join the main structure, and no indication so far that the historical artifacts or paintings that had been in the East Wing were preserved.
  
  
• Cards Against Humanity just won a case against Elon Musk's SpaceX. Cards Against Humanity had crowdfunded a purchase of land along the U.S. southern border in 2017, so it could block a section of Trump's proposed border wall. SpaceX illegally used part of that land, paving it with gravel, parking vehicles there, and dumping piles of space-related garbage. The settlement gets SpaceX off the land and gives Cards an undisclosed amount of monetary damages. Since the land purchase was crowdfunded, everyone who initially helped buy the land will receive a free special pack of Elon Musk-themed CAH cards next year.

Trump Watch (Wed., 10/22, 6 PM EDT):

• The current government shutdown is now the second longest in American history, topped only by a shutdown 13 days longer than this during Trump's first term. The Speaker of the House acknowledged today that the House of Representatives may have to reconvene to come up with a different proposal, since their last attempt at a "clean resolution" (which is stalled in the Senate) would have only funded the government through November 21st.
  
  
• All the representatives in the U.S. House get paid, regardless of the shutdown. They have only worked 20 days since the beginning of July.
  
  
• It was announced today that Trump is tearing down the *entire* East Wing of the White House, probably by next Monday.
  
  
• Trump is asking the Department of Justice to give him $230 million, to compensate him for all the court cases that were brought against him for doing illegal things.
  
  
• The Department of Defense announced today that it has bombed another boat, killing two people, this time in the Pacific Ocean. No due process, no accountability.
  
  
• Columbia insists that at least one of the boats we've destroyed contained nothing but fishermen. That country has withdrawn their ambassador from the United States.
  
  
• The Pentagon previously issued a demand that all major news outlets refused (including Fox), that only news items pre-approved by the Pentagon could be shared. As a result, all those news outlets have been banned from the Pentagon building. Now the Secretary of Defense has issued a demand that members of the U.S. Congress no longer correspond nor interact with people in the Pentagon, except in very limited circumstances. CBS reports that even correspondence with the Joint Chiefs of Staff must be pre-approved.
  
  
• The Netherlands will no longer share intelligence about Russia with the United States, because information that they shared previously was leaked to Russia.
  
  
• When a reporter asked why the Secretary of Defense was wearing a tie that resembled the Russian flag, a Pentagon spokesman replied, "Your mom bought it for him."
  
  
• The Supreme Court is considering a case, whether people who regularly smoke marijuana can own guns.
  
  
• North Carolina is the latest state to approve gerrymandered maps (which squash all the Democrat voters into just a few bizarrely-drawn districts), in an openly-stated attempt to give Republicans another seat in the U.S. House of Representatives.
  
  
• The Department of Agriculture is reportedly reopening offices across the country, that will each be staffed by two paid people (despite the shutdown), to disburse $3 billion of aid to farmers. It's not clear why it took three weeks to do this and why it's only $3 billion instead of the $20 billion in aid the USDA had available for the same purpose during Trump's first term.
  
  
• A Democrat who wants to run against Susan Collins in Maine was recently found to have made statements online dismissing sexual assault in the military and criticizing police officers, rural Americans, and Black people. Now it's been revealed that he had a tattoo resembling a symbol of Hitler's SS.
  

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Trump Watch (Tue., 10/21, 5 PM EDT):

• A team of independent experts hired by the United Nations has determined that the U.S. bombing several boats in the Caribbean without due process is, in fact, illegal and "violates the fundamental international obligations not to intervene in the domestic affairs or threaten to use armed force against another country... These moves are an extremely dangerous escalation with grave implications for peace and security in the Caribbean region."
  
  
• The Wyoming Capitol was evacuated today, after a homemade bomb-like device was found there.
  
  
• Reuters reports that a man was arrested yesterday, before he began shooting at the international airport in Atlanta. Relatives tipped authorities that he was planning to "shoot up" the airport, and he was captured on the grounds with an assault-style rifle and a stash of ammunition.
  
  
• ICE accidentally shot the hand of a US Marshal in Los Angeles, while attempting to stop a vehicle.
  
  
• A court ordered that books on race and gender be returned to the libraries of K-12 schools on U.S. military bases in Virginia, Kentucky, Italy, and Japan, after 12 students argued that their rights were being violated.
  
  
• Congressional Democrats have launched an investigation, after ProPublica reported that at least 170 American citizens have been arrested by ICE.
  

Trump Watch (Mon., 10/20, 5 PM EDT):

• Analysts unaffiliated with Saturday's protests are reporting that the total number of protestors was actually more than 8 million.
  
  
• Trump said yesterday of the protests that they were "very small, very ineffective, and the people were whacked out. When you look at those people, those are not representative of the people of our country."
  
  
• In a vain effort to disrupt protests in California this weekend, Trump scheduled live fire OVER the primary north-south interstate there (I-5), ostensibly to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the Marines. There was no good reason to fire live rounds over a heavily-traveled highway. Police were forced to close the interstate, just in case. As it happened, a 155mm artillery round misfired and rained schrapnel over the highway, narrowly missing an officer and his motorcycle and bombarding a nearby police car with fragments up to two inches wide. Thankfully, no one was injured.
  
  
• Newsweek reports that the federal government is launching a full investigation into the people "behind" the protests.
  
  
• Trump is planning an overhaul of the IRS, to allow him to punish left-leaning political groups.
  
  
• Trump commuted the sentence of George Santos this weekend. Santos was found guilty of fraud and stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars from military veterans. Trump said Santos voted Republican and deserves credit for that, and let him out of a seven-year jail sentence after 84 days. Trump apparently is also allowing Santos to go without paying back any of the money he was supposed to give to the victims as part of his sentence.
  
  
• An appeals court is allowing Trump to take control of 200 National Guard in Oregon. However, he is (for now) still blocked from actually deploying them to Portland.
  
  
• Because of the government shutdown, air traffic controllers (who are required to work without pay) are calling into sick more often than usual. As a result, at least 9,000 flights were delayed or canceled yesterday and today.
  
  
• At the agency that safeguards the U.S. nuclear stockpile, 1,400 people were furloughed today as part of the shutdown, leaving fewer than 400 still on duty.
  
  
• Despite the shutdown, Trump has begun demolishing part of the East Wing of the White House, to make more room for his new ballroom.
  
  
• A librarian in Wyoming was fired because she refused to stop carrying LGBTQ books for younger readers. She just won a $700,000 settlement.
  

Sunday, 19 October 2025, 3 PM EDT:

• Seven million people protested the Trump administration yesterday, at reportedly more than 2,700 locations nationwide, plus more in other countries. 200,000 gathered in Washington, DC alone, which I'm told is more than attended Trump's two inaugurations combined. Around 50,000 gathered here in Maine (about 3.4% of our population) in 48 places.
  
  
• The only protest-related arrests I have been able to find were a total of 22 MAGA people who assaulted protesters in 11 states. The protests themselves were entirely peaceful. Well done!
  
  
• Trump responded with an AI-generated video of himself in a fighter plane, wearing a crown and dropping feces on the crowds.
  
  
• The Speaker of the House still refuses to swear in the new representative Adelita Grijalva from Arizona, who will provide the crucial last signature to force a vote on releasing the Epstein files.
  
  
• Trump has directed that SNAP (what used to be called food stamps) not be paid to anyone in November, unless the federal government has reopened. The money is there. He simply wants to hurt poor people, while he's giving $40 billion to his far Right buddies in Argentina.
  
  
• So far, the U.S. has illegally bombed six boats in international waters in the Caribbean, claiming that the people on the boats were running drugs. Dozens of people have been executed in this way, without trial or recourse. Today, news broke that the admiral who oversaw these strikes has quit the military, reportedly because he doesn't agree with the way things are going.
  
  
• Israel is blocking aid to Gaza again, "until further notice," as fighting has resumed.
  
  
• I have not confirmed this, but anecdotally Spotify is running ads for ICE.