This Week in Democracy – Week 11: Trump ‘Not Joking’ About a Third Term

Trump escalates his trade war to new heights, he wants to serve a third term, and a consequential Oval Office meeting with a far-right activist. Here’s what happened This Week in Democracy.

Trump holds up a chart during his trade announcement event in the Rose Garden at the White House on April 2, 2025. Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Over the last week, Donald Trump made it clear: He’s “not joking” about attempting an (unconstitutional) third term; he’s deadset on taking the trade war to new extremes, no matter what it means for the stock market or consumer prices; and a far-right conspiracy theorist and Islamophobe still has his ear.

From a national security purge to more widespread cuts to jobs at key agencies and federal funding to lies peddled by Vice President JD Vance, here’s a list of the ways Trump and his allies are weakening democracy – and how the federal courts, in particular, are pushing back:

Saturday, March 29

• Zeteo’s Prem Thakker reported that Trump immigration authorities appear to be quietly revoking the residency statuses of international students, often without the knowledge of the student or the university. In some cases, the administration cited the same rarely-used risk-to-foreign-policy immigration provision used to detain Mahmoud Khalil. Many of the affected students hail from the Middle East or Muslim-majority cases.

• Trump told NBC News that no one would be sacked over the Signal group chat scandal because he doesn’t “fire people because of fake news and because of witch hunts.”

• He also said the US will “100%” get Greenland, adding that there’s a “good possibility that we could do it without military force” but that he doesn’t “take anything off the table.”

• A court filing revealed that an employee of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), who was forced to resign over racist social media posts, has been back on the job since March 5 and has access to sensitive systems at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Department of Labor.

• The US Naval Academy ended affirmative action in admissions following Trump’s executive order. (The 2023 Supreme Court ruling against affirmative action had included a possible exemption for military academies.)

Sunday, March 30

• Trump told NBC News that he’s “not joking” about running for a third term as president – which would be unconstitutional – claiming “there are methods which you could do it.”

• Trump also warned that if Iran doesn’t agree to a nuclear deal, “there will be bombing, and it will be bombing the likes of which they have never seen before.”

• Later, Trump whined about NBC News’ ‘Meet the Press’ and its host, Kristen Welker, on Truth Social. He also called Brian Roberts, the chair of NBCUniversal’s parent company, Comcast, “a pathetic loser, who is petrified of the left, and always will be.”

• After the Wisconsin State Supreme Court refused to hear a challenge to Elon Musk’s lottery, the shadow president handed out two $1 million checks to voters who signed a petition opposing “activist” judges.

• Axios reported that the White House is planning to create its own seating chart for reporters in the briefing room, a decision that has historically been managed by the reporters themselves through the White House Correspondents' Association.

• The Trump administration sent 17 migrants to El Salvador, claiming they used a different legal authority than the Alien Enemies Act to do so.

Monday, March 31

• White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters that the “case has been closed” in the Signal group chat scandal regarding war plans in Yemen.

• The National Treasury Employees Union sued the Trump administration to block the president’s executive order canceling collective bargaining rights for federal government employees.

• A federal judge delayed the Trump administration’s move to end Temporary Protected Status for hundreds of thousands of Venezuelan migrants, calling the termination “unprecedented” and “predicated on negative stereotypes” about Venezuelans.

• The Trump administration said it’s reviewing approximately $9 billion in federal grants and contracts for Harvard University, claiming the institution hasn’t done enough to combat antisemitism on campus.

• In a court filing, the Trump administration admitted it had mistakenly sent Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, a Maryland father with protected legal status, to El Salvador, claiming it was an “administrative error” but argued that US courts lack jurisdiction to order his return.

• An appeals court rejected a request by the Trump administration to pause a block on the president’s trans-military ban.

• In two separate lawsuits, two election watchdog organizations and the Democratic Party sued the Trump administration to block his executive order to overhaul the election system, including the addition of a proof-of-citizenship requirement and new mail ballot deadline restrictions.

• On Twitter, Vice President J.D. Vance spread lies about Abrego Garcia, the Maryland father sent to El Salvador by the Trump administration by mistake, falsely claiming he was a “convicted” gang member.

• A federal judge blocked the Trump administration from firing employees at the CIA and Office of Director of National Intelligence who recently worked on DEI programs.

• Trump nominated former New York Rep. Anthony D’Esposito to serve as inspector general at the Labor Department. D’Esposito lost reelection last year after the New York Times revealed he gave jobs to his mistress and his fiancee's daughter. It was later reported he spent large sums of campaign cash on food, drinks, and Ubers. He denied any ethics violations at the time.

• The president of Minnesota State University-Mankato said in a letter that a student was detained by ICE officers at an off-campus residence last week. The student was later identified as 28-year-old Dogukan Gunaydin, a Turkish citizen studying for his MBA. DHS says his visa was revoked because of a DWI in 2023, but Gunaydin’s lawyers say his visa wasn’t revoked until several hours after he was arrested, meaning he was detained while having lawful student status.

Tuesday, April 1

• During a White House press briefing, Leavitt asserted without evidence that migrant Abrego Garcia was a “ringleader” of the MS-13 gang and “engaged in human trafficking.”

• The Washington Post reported that members of Trump’s National Security Council, including senior adviser Michael Waltz, have used personal Gmail accounts to conduct government business.

• HHS fired thousands of employees, including 3,500 staffers at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), 2,400 from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and 1,200 from the National Institutes of Health. Former FDA Commissioner Robert Califf said that the FDA “as we’ve known it is finished.”

• The HHS cuts included all employees responsible for handling Freedom of Information Act requests at the CDC and two-thirds of records request staff at the FDA. It’s unclear how ongoing requests, which are generally legally required to be fulfilled, will be handled by the agencies.

• Despite Musk and groups affiliated with him injecting $25 million into the Wisconsin Supreme Court race, the Republican candidate he supported lost, and Democrats held on to their 4-3 majority on the court.

• A federal judge rejected the Trump administration’s effort to transfer Mahmoud Khalil’s deportation case to Louisiana, leaving jurisdiction over the case to New Jersey.

• The attorneys general and other officials from 23 states sued the Trump administration to stop it from rescinding $11 billion in federal funding for COVID-19 initiatives and other public health projects.

• A federal judge narrowed an order to reinstate fired probationary workers at federal agencies nationwide to those who live or work in the 19 states that filed the lawsuit.

• A federal judge temporarily blocked the Trump administration from cutting off funding for programs that provide legal services for unaccompanied children in immigration court proceedings.

• Lawyers for Venezuelan migrants asked the Supreme Court to continue a temporary block on the Trump administration’s use of the Alien Enemies Act to send immigrants to El Salvador’s mega-prison.

• On Truth Social, Trump called on Republicans to “defund and totally disassociate themselves” from NPR and PBS, baselessly calling the public broadcasters “radical left ‘monsters.’”

• Former Costa Rican President and Nobel Prize winner Oscar Arias said the US revoked his visa to enter the country after he said on social media that Trump was behaving like “a Roman emperor.”

• Trump said he reached an agreement with another law firm to provide at least $100 million in pro bono legal services to support the president’s agenda. Among the partners of the firm is former first gentleman Doug Emhoff.

Wednesday, April 2

• Trump implemented tariffs on dozens of countries, a move former Vice President Mike Pence called “the largest peacetime tax hike in US history.” In a win for polluters, many fossil fuel products were exempted from the tariffs. Russia was not included in the tariffs, but the remote and unpopulated Heard and McDonald Islands were.

• Later, the Senate passed a resolution to eliminate Trump’s tariffs on Canadian imports, with Republicans Mitch McConnell, Lisa Murkowski, Susan Collins, and Rand Paul joining all Democrats to support the resolution.

• Musk amplified a conspiracy theory by Roger Stone that the Wisconsin Supreme Court election was “stolen.”

• At the request of Trump’s Justice Department, a federal judge dismissed the corruption case against New York City Mayor Eric Adams with prejudice, meaning the charges can’t be brought against him again. The judge wrote that “everything here smacks of a bargain: dismissal of the indictment in exchange for immigration policy concessions.”

• Abrego Garcia sued Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem and other Trump administration officials over his deportation to El Salvador.

• Trump said he plans to nominate DC defense attorney Stanley Woodward for associate attorney general. Woodward represented Trump’s co-defendant Walt Nauta in the classified documents case, in addition to several Jan. 6 rioters, including a member of the Oath Keepers extremist group.

• Politico reported that Waltz’s team set up at least 20 group chats on Signal on issues including Ukraine, China, Gaza, Middle East policy, Africa, and Europe.

• Trump announced another deal with a law firm to provide $100 million in pro bono legal services.

• A federal judge ordered the Trump administration to give reasoning for Dogukan Gunaydin’s detainment by ICE officials as his lawyers continue to fight for his release.

• The president of Minnesota State University-Mankato said that five other students have had their visas revoked and their Student Exchange Visitor Information System records terminated by DHS. He noted that the agency did not inform the students or the university about the terminations.

• A federal judge ordered the release of a Venezuelan Temporary Protected Status holder who was wrongfully detained in January and almost sent to El Salvador’s mega-prison.

• After Trump said Monday that DOGE would end “at a certain point,” Politico reported that the president told his inner circle that Musk will be stepping back from his role in the coming weeks. His looming departure reportedly follows frustrations from officials who view Musk as a “political liability,” particularly after the Wisconsin Supreme Court election loss.

Thursday, April 3

• Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told reporters that roughly 20% of the 10,000 jobs cut from the HHS were being reinstated, claiming the firings were made in error.

• US officials confirmed Trump fired six officials from the National Security Council after an Oval Office meeting Wednesday with far-right conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer, who brought a list of officials she thought were “disloyal” to the president.

• Trump later told reporters that his administration would fire people “we don’t like” or “that may have loyalties to someone else.”

• The acting inspector general at the Pentagon announced he would review Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s participation in the Signal group chat that included plans for a military strike in Yemen.

• The Senate confirmed Dean John Sauer as US solicitor general, the Trump administration’s top lawyer at the Supreme Court. Sauer previously served as a lawyer for Trump, successfully arguing for the president during his bid for immunity from criminal prosecution for the Jan. 6 insurrection.

• The Senate also confirmed Dr. Mehmet Oz as the administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Oz, who lost a 2022 senate race to Democrat John Fetterman, has faced allegations of promoting health misinformation about weight loss hacks and COVID-19 treatments. In 2015, a group of 10 doctors called on Columbia University to fire Oz from a faculty position, calling him a “menace to public health.”

• Democratic attorneys general from 19 states sued the Trump administration over the president’s executive order on voting, with New York Attorney General Leticia James saying in a statement that the order is “an unconstitutional attempt to seize control of elections.”

• During a court hearing, Judge James Boasberg said he is considering initiating “contempt proceedings” against the government if he finds probable cause that they defied his order to halt deportations under the Alien Enemies Act and return flights carrying migrants to the US.

• A federal judge partially rejected the Trump administration’s request to dismiss a lawsuit seeking to stop DOGE from accessing personal information about federal workers.

• The New York Times reported that the Trump administration canceled funding for grant programs across the country from the National Endowment for the Humanities, which supports museums, historical sites, and community projects. Instead, the funds will go toward causes that further Trump’s “agenda.”

• A conservative legal group sued the Trump administration to block US tariffs on Chinese imports, accusing the president of exceeding his authority.

• A coalition of unions representing nearly one million federal workers sued the Trump administration to stop it from ending collective bargaining rights for many federal employees.

Friday, April 4

• A federal judge ruled that the Trump administration violated a court order after it froze hundreds of millions in state grants from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

• Politico reported that Interim US Attorney Ed Martin is set to expand his investigation into the Justice Department’s decision to issue felony obstruction charges against hundreds of Jan. 6 rioters. He called the DOJ’s decision the “greatest failure of legal judgment” since Japanese internment during World War II.

• A federal judge ordered the Trump administration to return Abrego Garcia to the US by midnight Monday, finding he was unlawfully deported. White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller later called the judge a “Marxist” who “thinks she’s president of El Salvador.”

• A federal judge issued a preliminary injunction reinstating the president and CEO of the Inter-American Foundation and voided all decisions made by Pete Marocco, who Trump installed as head of the foundation in February. Marocco had sought to reduce the foundation, which supports economic development in Latin America and the Caribbean, to minimum statutory requirements as part of a Trump executive order, which included firing most employees and canceling all but one of its grants.

• A federal judge blocked the Trump administration from deporting Tufts University student Rumeysa Ozturk, and ordered her case to be transferred to Vermont, rejecting a DOJ bid to move the case to Louisiana.

• CBS News reported that Trump is hosting a $1 million dollar-per-person candlelight dinner at Mar-a-Lago for super PAC MAGA Inc. Another dinner for MAGA Inc. is slated for April 24 in Washington, DC, where donors can “co-host” for $2.5 million or be a “host” for $5 million.

• A conservative-dominated appeals court in North Carolina sided with the trailing GOP candidate in a 2024 state Supreme Court election race that remains undecided. The decision would throw out over 65,000 ballots that have already been counted and could hand the election to the Republican candidate.

• On Truth Social, Trump said he would sign an executive order to extend the TikTok ban deadline by another 75 days, one day before the ban was set to take effect. The move ignores a Congressional statute and a Supreme Court ruling.

• Also on Truth Social, Trump compared the conviction of far-right French politician Marine Le Pen to the prosecutions he faced before his second term and called for her to be freed.

• More than 500 law firms signed an amicus brief saying Trump’s executive orders targeting law firms pose “a grave threat to our system of constitutional governance and to the rule of law itself,” as part of the Perkins Coie lawsuit against the administration.

• The Supreme Court ruled that the Trump administration can at least temporarily freeze up to $65 million in teacher training grants, which are meant to address teacher shortages.

Missed previous weeks? Catch up here.

---

Subscribe to Zeteo to make sure you get ‘This Week in Democracy’ in your inbox every week.

If you are already a Zeteo subscriber but would like to increase your support for our accountability journalism in this era of Trump and authoritarianism, please do consider a donation, too.