This Week in Democracy – Week 48: From Swastikas to Sexual Predators
Another week of Zeteo's project to document the ongoing growth of authoritarianism in Trump's second term.
On the one hand, it’s hard not to look at the many harmful things Donald Trump and his cronies did this week in the context of Friday’s deadline for his administration to release the Epstein files. He escalated tensions with Venezuela; his angry primetime address reeked of not only lies but pure desperation; and the “renaming” of the Kennedy Center to the Trump-Kennedy Center was just embarrassing. Heard of the saying, ‘Wag the dog’?!
On the other hand, it was, after all, another pretty standard – and troubling – week for the US under Trump 2.0. Trump lied, made racist edicts, challenged laws, and attacked press freedom. Republicans ensured millions of Americans would go into the new year with astronomically higher health insurance premiums. And while the DOJ did release thousands of Epstein documents, as Zeteo’s political team noted, in not releasing all the files, Trump is continuing his Epstein cover-up.
From moving to ban gender-affirming care for minors to dramatically increasing efforts to strip citizenship of naturalized Americans to filing a ridiculous $10 billion lawsuit against the BBC, here’s what Trump and his allies did this week to harm democracy, hurt Americans and free societies worldwide, and undermine the Constitution:
Saturday, December 13
A gunman killed two people and injured nine others in a mass shooting at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. On Truth Social, Trump falsely claimed that the alleged shooter was in custody, which he walked back in a subsequent post less than 20 minutes later.
The Washington Post reported that the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is expected to eliminate up to 35,000 unfilled healthcare positions, including doctors and nurses. The eliminated positions come after the VA already lost nearly 30,000 employees this year.
Sunday, December 14
The Guardian reported that the White House’s task force on Gaza, which includes two former officials of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, is making detailed plans about humanitarian assistance and a postwar reconstruction of Gaza, with the contractor that won a $33 million bid to help run the notorious Florida immigration detention center known as Alligator Alcatraz reportedly having an “inside track” to secure a lucrative contract. (The company’s founder told The Guardian that they pulled out of a possible bid due to security concerns.)
In a court filing, Justice Department lawyers argued that Kilmar Abrego Garcia should be re-detained after a new removal order was issued by an immigration judge. The lawyers also claimed Abrego Garcia could seek a bond hearing, despite the Trump administration’s position that immigrants with removal orders are subject to mandatory detention and ineligible for bond.
Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) said her adult son was pulled over by ICE agents in Minnesota and asked to provide proof of citizenship. While the agents let him go after he showed them his passport, Omar argued that ICE is “racially profiling” her community by “looking for young men who look Somali that they think are undocumented.” ICE’s Acting Director Todd Lyons claimed there was “absolutely zero record” of the incident. Omar’s office later pushed back, saying it’s “no surprise that an agency known for disappearing people also can’t keep its records straight,” and adding that they would “welcome the opportunity” to review ICE records of their stops.
During a Christmas reception, Trump continued to peddle false claims about the 2024 presidential election results in California being “rigged.”
Monday, December 15
Axios reported that the White House sent a private message to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, accusing him of violating its ceasefire agreement with Gaza after killing a top Hamas military commander. One senior US official said the message was: “If you want to ruin your reputation and show that you don’t abide by agreements, be our guest, but we won’t allow you to ruin President Trump’s reputation after he brokered the deal in Gaza.” Palestinian officials have documented at least 738 Israeli violations of the so-called ceasefire agreement since it took effect in October.
ProPublica reported that the Trump administration’s gutting of USAID exacerbated a growing cholera epidemic in South Sudan, the worst in the country’s history.
A Wisconsin judge ruled that two Trump aides must face trial in a felony forgery case related to their role in efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election by attempting to present a slate of fake Republican electors to Congress who would falsely claim Trump won in Wisconsin that year.
A federal judge rejected a bid by former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin for a new libel trial against the New York Times, and also refused Palin’s request that he recuse himself.
NOTUS reported that the Trump administration will pause new funding for National Institutes of Health grants focused on terms like “health equity” and “structural racism” while it conducts a review to determine whether the grants “may potentially be associated with misalignment with the administration’s priorities.”
Trump filed a $10 billion defamation lawsuit against the BBC, accusing it of broadcasting a “false, defamatory, deceptive, disparaging, inflammatory, and malicious depiction” of him when it edited parts of his Jan. 6 speech at the Ellipse during a recent documentary that the lawsuit claims was meant to “intentionally misrepresent the meaning” of what Trump said.
The Wall Street Journal reported that Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, pulled out of a plan to develop a Trump hotel in Serbia after a special prosecutor indicted a cabinet member and three other officials in the country in relation to the project.
Speaking to reporters, Trump baselessly called Colorado Governor Jared Polis “a weak and pathetic man who was run by Tren de Aragua” for refusing to release Tina Peters, the former Colorado county clerk who was convicted of tampering with voting machines following the 2020 presidential election, from prison.
USA Today reported that a senior Education Department official is hanging a flag linked to Christian nationalism and the Jan. 6 insurrection outside his office, raising concerns about the separation of church and state. In a statement, the president of the union for Education Department employees said the agency “has no place for symbols that were carried by insurrectionists.”
The Defense Department said it was “escalating” its review into Senator Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) to “an official Command investigation” probing his role in a recent viral video with other Democratic lawmakers calling on members of the military to refuse illegal orders. In a letter to Navy Secretary John Phelan, Kelly’s lawyers said “there is no legitimate basis for any type of proceeding” against Kelly, and that “any such effort would be unconstitutional and an extraordinary abuse of power.”
Trump signed an executive order designating fentanyl as a weapon of mass destruction. The order directs the Justice Department to investigate and prosecute groups that are trafficking fentanyl. It also orders the Defense Department to determine if military resources are needed to help the DOJ conduct federal law enforcement to combat the threat of fentanyl.
On Truth Social, Trump disgustingly wrote that Rob Reiner, who was stabbed to death alongside his wife on Sunday, was killed “due to the anger he caused others through his massive, unyielding, and incurable affliction with a mind crippling disease known as TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROME.” Later, in the Oval Office, Trump said he was “not a fan” of Reiner, whom he called “deranged” and claimed “was very bad for our country.” (The Reiners’ son has since been charged with murdering his parents.)
On Twitter, the US Southern Command announced that, at the direction of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, the US military conducted lethal strikes on three boats in the Eastern Pacific, killing a total of eight people. (Read more of Zeteo’s coverage of the Trump administration’s boat strikes here.)
The US Coast Guard moved forward with a new policy that downgraded the definition of swastikas and nooses from hate symbols to “potentially divisive” symbols, after Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin called the move “unequivocally false” last month, and the Coast Guard told the Washington Post it wouldn’t downgrade them after all.
Tuesday, December 16
Vanity Fair published a bombshell interview with White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, who told the magazine that Trump has “an alcoholic’s personality” and Vice President JD Vance has been a “conspiracy theorist for a decade.” Wiles also asserted there was no Epstein client list, and said Attorney General Pam Bondi “completely whiffed” the Epstein files.
Speaking to reporters, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth shut down any possibility of the Pentagon releasing the footage from the Sept. 2 boat strikes, saying, “Of course, we’re not going to release a top-secret, full, unedited video of that to the general public.”
The Washington Post reported that the Trump administration is restricting the number of federal workers who can receive top ratings in their annual performance reviews, a move that experts warn is illegal and could make it easier to fire federal employees.
NBC News reported that a report compiled by Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) concluded that 85% of the people Trump pardoned or granted clemency to since returning to the White House are white.
The CDC approved a recommendation from Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s handpicked Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices to end the guidance for newborns to receive a hepatitis B vaccine within 24 hours of birth, a practice that has been in place since 1991.
On Truth Social, Trump declared a “TOTAL AND COMPLETE BLOCKADE” on all sanctioned oil tankers entering or departing Venezuela. Trump also warned Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro that the US “will not allow a Hostile Regime to take our Oil, Land, or any other Assets, all of which must be returned to the United States IMMEDIATELY.”
Also on Truth Social, Trump said the Jan. 6 Select Committee that investigated his role in the insurrection, which he called “Political Hacks and Thugs,” must “be held accountable, and pay A VERY STEEP PRICE!” He also shared a response to a post that said former FBI Director Christopher Wray and former Attorney General Merrick Garland should be arrested, adding, “And many others!!!”
The Trump administration announced it will expand its travel ban to Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, South Sudan, and Syria, along with fully restricting travel to the US for people with Palestinian Authority-issued travel documents. Another 15 countries were also added to a list of countries with partial travel restrictions, including Angola, Nigeria, and Senegal.
CNN reported that the Republican-led House Judiciary Committee is expanding its investigation into former Special Counsel Jack Smith by demanding interviews with four current and former Justice Department officials involved in subpoenaing phone records for several members of Congress around the Jan. 6 insurrection.
A federal judge allowed Trump to move forward with the construction of his new White House ballroom for now. Later, Trump said the price tag of the ballroom would be $400 million, up from his last estimate of $300 million and double the White House’s initial estimate.
Wired reported that Dr. Harvey Risch, the epidemiologist Trump appointed as chair of the President’s Cancer Panel, works at a company that sells ivermectin to treat cancer and has spread unfounded claims about a connection between COVID-19 vaccines and “turbo cancer” in young people.
On Twitter, Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought announced that the Trump administration is dismantling the National Center for Atmospheric Research, which he falsely claimed was “one of the largest sources of climate alarmism in the country.” He also noted that a “comprehensive review is underway & any vital activities such as weather research will be moved to another entity or location.”
During a White House Hanukkah Party, billionaire megadonor Miriam Adelson urged Trump to run for an unconstitutional third term in 2028. Trump noted that Adelson said she’d give him “another $250 million” if he did so.
Jared Kushner’s investment firm withdrew its financial backing of a proposal for Paramount Skydance Corp. to buy Warner Bros. Discovery Inc.
The New York Times reported that the Trump administration transferred 22 Cuban immigrants to Guantánamo Bay, marking the first transfers to the Navy base in two months.
Wednesday, December 17
Former Special Counsel Jack Smith told lawmakers during a closed-door hearing before the House Judiciary Committee that his team “developed proof beyond a reasonable doubt” that Trump “engaged in a criminal scheme to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election and to prevent the lawful transfer of power.” He also said he would prosecute a former president again “based on the same facts today,” no matter which party the president belongs to.
The Washington Post reported that, during the first nearly seven months of Trump’s second term, the Environmental Protection Agency spent over $86.5 million to pay more than 2,600 employees the agency had placed on administrative leave.
On Twitter, FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino announced he would resign in January but didn’t specify why he was stepping down less than a year into his tenure.
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) removed language from its website that described the agency as “independent” shortly after its chair, Brendan Carr, testified before the Senate Commerce Committee that the FCC “is not an independent agency, formally speaking.”
The White House installed ridiculous plaques criticizing former presidents under Trump’s new “Presidential Walk of Fame.” Joe Biden’s plaque reads that he was “by far, the worst President,” and Barack Obama’s reads, “One of the most divisive political figures in American History,” and blamed him for creating the “Russia, Russia, Russia Hoax.”
At least two US senators – Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) and Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.) – put holds on the nomination of Admiral Kevin Lunday to lead the US Coast Guard after it downgraded swastikas and nooses from hate symbols to “potentially divisive.”
In a shocking feature, ProPublica reported that thousands of people in Kenya have starved, and many have died due to their inability to fight off infections due to malnutrition after the Trump administration’s USAID cuts exacerbated the hunger crisis in the country. Pregnant women with anemia who were starving resorted to eating mud, and mothers were forced to choose which of their children to feed.
A federal appeals court allowed the Trump administration to continue its deployment of National Guard troops to DC for now, staying a lower court order that blocked the deployment.
Four House Republicans joined Democratic members of Congress to sign a petition forcing a vote on a three-year extension of tax credits under the Affordable Care Act that are set to expire on Dec. 31. It’s unclear when Speaker Mike Johnson will bring the vote to the House floor.
The Washington Post reported that the Department of Health and Human Services canceled seven grants worth millions of dollars to the American Academy of Pediatrics, which has fiercely criticized Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s federal vaccine policy changes. The grants were used for projects to reduce sudden infant death, prevent fetal alcohol syndrome, and identify autism early. The administration claimed the funding cuts were partially due to the AAP’s use of “identity-based language,” like the term “pregnant people” and references to racial disparities.
The Post also reported that DHS expedited a nearly $1 billion contract to a company led by a donor to the pro-Trump America First Policy Institute, and that one of the DHS officials overseeing the deal had previously worked for the nonprofit.
A federal judge blocked the Trump administration’s new policy that limited the ability of members of Congress to conduct oversight visits at ICE detention facilities. The policy required lawmakers to provide seven days’ notice before visiting the facilities and prohibited them from visiting field offices that are being used to detain immigrants.
NBC News reported that, as a result of the Trump administration’s push to reopen immigration cases that had been paused by an immigration judge, more than 117,000 immigrants are at risk of potential deportation. At least half of the immigrants have lived in the US for a decade or more.
Trump delivered a nearly 20-minute, angry, falsehood-filled address on primetime television, where he repeated his usual lies about bringing prices down, ending eight wars in a year, and that 25 million people entered the US illegally during the Biden administration. (Read more of Zeteo’s coverage of Trump’s address here.)
The New York Times reported that the Trump administration issued new guidance to the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) field offices to dramatically increase the number of naturalized Americans the agency will seek to strip of their citizenship in 2026. The guidance calls for USCIS to provide the Office of Immigration Litigation with 100-200 denaturalization cases each month. Since 2017, just over 120 such cases have been filed.
The Wall Street Journal reported that Trump privately spoke with his former impeachment attorney, Alan Dershowitz, about the prospects of the president seeking an unconstitutional third term, with Dershowitz telling Trump the constitutionality of a third term is unclear, despite the 22nd Amendment clearly stating that a president can only serve two terms.
On Twitter, the US Southern Command announced that, at Hegseth’s direction, the US military conducted another lethal strike on a boat in the Eastern Pacific, killing four people.
The Republican-controlled House passed a bill to criminalize doctors for providing gender-affirming care to minors, with the penalty for doctors who do so up to 10 years in prison. Civil rights groups, including the ACLU, called the bill “the most extreme anti-trans legislation ever considered by Congress.” The bill is unlikely to pass in the Senate.
Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell filed a habeas petition in an effort to overturn her sex trafficking conviction. The petition, which she seemingly filed on her own without an attorney, argues that “substantial new evidence has emerged” that she didn’t receive a fair trial, alleging juror misconduct and suppression of evidence.
Politico reported that federal prosecutors sought to include a third felony charge, an additional count of making a false statement to a financial institution, in their failed re-indictment of New York Attorney General Letitia James. The prosecutors also asked a judge to keep records of the proposed indictment sealed after all three charges were rejected by grand jurors – a request the judge denied.
The Democratic members of the Senate Judiciary Committee sent a letter to Chair Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) demanding a hearing on the Trump administration’s military strikes against boats in the Caribbean and the Eastern Pacific, writing, “The American people want real solutions to crime and the drug epidemic – not extrajudicial killings committed in their name.”
Reuters reported that over the past eight weeks, the DC US Attorney’s office, led by Jeanine Pirro, has seen a 21% dismissal rate of criminal complaints, compared to a 0.5% dismissal rate over the last 10 years.
Thursday, December 18
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced the new proposed rules designed to ban gender-affirming care for minors, including blocking Medicaid funds from being used to cover gender-affirming care and preventing hospitals that provide puberty blockers, hormone treatments, or surgical procedures to minors from participating in Medicare or Medicaid, a move that could effectively shut down hospitals that don’t comply.
The State Department sanctioned two International Criminal Court judges, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio accusing them of engaging in “the illegitimate targeting of Israel,” and bringing the total number of sanctioned ICC judges to 11.
On Twitter, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Trump’s handpicked Board of the Kennedy Center voted to rename it to the Trump-Kennedy Center, despite the fact that only Congress has the authority to change the name.
The US Coast Guard removed language from its new workplace discrimination policy that downgraded swastikas and nooses to “potentially divisive” symbols. On Twitter, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said the move was made “so no press outlet, entity, or elected official may misrepresent the Coast Guard to politicize their policies and lie about their position on divisive and hate symbols.”
CNN reported that the Department of Health and Human Services is proposing a new childhood immunization schedule that would recommend fewer vaccines to be more in line, if not identical to, recommendations in Denmark, a country that doesn’t recommend childhood vaccines for the flu, chickenpox, or RSV, which is the leading cause of hospitalization in infants.
Wisconsin circuit judge Hannah Dugan, who was accused of misdirecting federal agents trying to detain an immigrant in an effort to help him evade arrest in her courthouse, was found guilty of obstructing an official proceeding, a felony. Dugan was acquitted of a second charge, concealing a person from arrest. She is no longer able to continue as a judge in Wisconsin and faces up to five years in prison. In a statement, her lawyers said their defense of Dugan is “just beginning.”
Trump’s Justice Department sued three additional states – Wisconsin, Illinois, and Georgia – along with DC for failing to turn over detailed voting data.
CBS News reported that the Trump administration expanded its pause on immigration applications to people from the 20 additional countries the president added to his “travel ban.”
A federal judge issued a scathing ruling threatening to hold the Department of Homeland Security in contempt for failing to turn over photos of a “putrid and cramped” holding room in Long Island, New York, where an undocumented immigrant was held in custody for several nights. The judge noted that “ICE has been deploying its ‘holding rooms’ in a matter that shocks the conscience,” which he said lack access to “bunks, bedding, soap, showers, toothbrushes, or clean clothes.”
On Twitter, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced that, at Trump’s direction, she directed USCIS to pause the diversity lottery immigrant visa program after she claimed the alleged Brown University shooter entered the US through the program and was subsequently granted a green card.
Also on Twitter, the US Southern Command announced that, at Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s direction, the US military conducted strikes on two additional boats in the Eastern Pacific, killing five people.
Friday, December 19
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche confirmed on Fox that the Justice Department won’t meet the congressionally-mandated deadline to release the entirety of the Epstein files, saying that the DOJ would “release several hundred thousand documents today” but adding that he expects the department will “release more documents over the next couple of weeks.”
Trump’s name was added to the Kennedy Center sign despite opposition from members of the Kennedy family and several lawmakers.
CNN reported that the top lawyer for the Joint Chiefs of Staff told Joint Chiefs Chair Gen. Dan Caine in November that military members who receive an illegal order should request to retire rather than resign in protest.
Republicans in Wisconsin threatened to impeach state circuit judge Hannah Dugan if she didn’t immediately resign from her post after she was convicted of obstruction. Under Wisconsin law, Dugan’s seat wouldn’t officially become vacant until she is sentenced.
The Trump administration moved to appeal a federal judge’s September ruling to restore more than $2 billion in research grants to Harvard University. The judge found that the move to freeze and cancel the funding violated the First Amendment.
The Trump administration began releasing its documents on Jeffrey Epstein, but it refused to release all of the files, despite being legally mandated to do so. Read more of Zeteo’s review of them.
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