This Week in Democracy – Week 52: A Year of Abuses, Violence, Corruption, and Outright Fascism
Capping off a year of Zeteo's project to document the ongoing growth of authoritarianism in Trump's second term.
52 Weeks. 52 weeks of Donald Trump’s assault on democracy. 52 weeks of attacking Americans, immigrants, and people worldwide. 52 weeks of assailing free speech, due process, and a free press. 52 weeks of making the world less safe.
When we at Zeteo started this project a year ago, we promised to keep track of all of the attacks Trump and his cronies made on the US democratic and constitutional order, despite the president’s attempt to distract, to “flood the zone,” to overwhelm. It wasn’t easy. Our small team worked tirelessly to ensure we didn’t miss a day. Our producers, editors, and fact checkers scoured government websites, officials’ social media, news reports, and court records, to not only document the attacks on democracy that made the front page, but also to highlight the actions that didn’t get the coverage it would have received under any other president.
Our goal: To ensure there would be a historical record of this dark time; to not normalize Trump and his administration’s extreme rhetoric and actions; and to provide a resource for anyone struggling to keep track of many, many ways the administration is threatening their rights.
While we wish there was no need for this project, we are incredibly proud of this work. What we produced is unlike any other piece of journalism published by mainstream and independent media alike. If you put the 52 weeks of ‘This Week in Democracy’ together, it would include more than 3,740 items totalling over 168,000 words. Each week averaged more than 73 bullet points. Week 10 – the week of Signalgate and when Rümeysa Öztürk was detained by plainclothes ICE agents over an op-ed – had the longest list, nearly 100 items.
Moving forward, ‘This Week in Democracy’ will look different. Starting next week, we will highlight only the single worst attack on democracy for each day. It will hit your inbox on Fridays, not Saturdays. Zeteo, however, remains committed to documenting, in detail, the growth of authoritarianism in the US – through the important reporting of our politics team, Mehdi’s hard-hitting interviews, the smart analysis of our contributors, and via our new morning newsletter, ‘First Draft’ (have you signed up for that yet?).
If you’re not already a paid subscriber, subscribe today to ensure you get all of Zeteo’s content in your inbox without a paywall. If you are already a paid subscriber, we thank you for supporting our journalism and projects like ‘This Week in Democracy.’ You can always further that support with a donation.
That said, below is the last ‘This Week of Democracy’ of the first year of Trump’s second term; the last in this current extended format.
From saying the US ‘shouldn’t even have an election’ this year, to declaring war on Minneapolis, to escalating threats against Iran, Greenland, and Cuba, to pausing immigrant visa processing in 75 nations, to giving an autoworker the middle finger, here’s what Trump and his allies did this week to harm democracy and undermine the Constitution:
Saturday, January 10
The Trump administration refused to allow Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar to conduct an oversight visit at an ICE detention facility in Minneapolis, two days after Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem quietly signed a new policy memo restricting congressional visits. Speaking to reporters, including Zeteo’s Prem Thakker, after being denied entry, Omar said, “What happened today is a blatant attempt to obstruct members of Congress from doing their oversight duties.”
Sunday, January 11
The New York Times reported that during an interview with Trump last week, the president said he regretted not ordering the National Guard to seize voting machines in swing states after he lost the 2020 presidential election to find evidence of fraud. Trump also said he believes “white people were very badly treated” as a result of civil rights-era protections and claimed it resulted in “reverse discrimination.”
A federal judge ordered the Trump administration to restore $12 million in grants to the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) for projects, including efforts to reduce sudden infant death, address fetal alcohol spectrum disorders, and identify autism early.
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell announced that the Justice Department opened a criminal investigation into his June 2025 testimony to Congress about renovations of the Fed’s headquarters. Powell said the threat of criminal charges “is a consequence of the Federal Reserve setting interest rates based on our best assessment of what will serve the public, rather than following the preferences of the president.”
Asked by a reporter on Air Force One whether deadly force was necessary in the shooting of Renee Good, Trump said Good and her widow were “highly disrespectful of law enforcement,” falsely claimed they were “professional agitators,” and argued that “law enforcement should not be in a position where they have to put up with this stuff.”
On Fox, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said her department will deploy “hundreds more” federal agents to Minneapolis, joining more than 2,000 agents already in the city in what DHS has described as its largest operation in history.
The Guardian reported that ICE deported a man in a vegetative state after his health deteriorated rapidly while in custody. Randall Gamboa Esquivel, a 52-year old from Costa Rica, was deported in an air ambulance after spending nearly 10 months in detention, and died in October 2025 after arriving in his home country.
On Truth Social, Trump continued to threaten Cuba, saying “THERE WILL BE NO MORE OIL OR MONEY GOING TO CUBA” and adding, “I strongly suggest they make a deal, BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE.”
Monday, January 12
At least six leaders of the criminal section of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division resigned in protest after the DOJ decided not to investigate the ICE officer who shot and killed Renee Good in Minneapolis last week, a process that usually takes place after any fatal shooting by a law enforcement officer.
Minnesota and Illinois sued the Trump administration in separate lawsuits that argued the president’s immigrant crackdown operations in the Minneapolis and Chicago areas violated state sovereignty under the 10th Amendment of the Constitution. Illinois’s lawsuit urged a judge to block US Customs and Border Protection from “conducting civil immigration enforcement” in the state without “express congressional authorization.”
MS NOW reported that the Justice Department fired a federal prosecutor who served as first assistant to the now-disqualified US Attorney Lindsey Halligan after he declined to lead the prosecution of former FBI Director James Comey.
Senator Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) sued Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and the Pentagon to block their efforts to punish him for a video he participated in last year with other Democratic lawmakers calling on military members to refuse illegal orders, asking a federal judge to find the move “unlawful and unconstitutional.”
Meanwhile, Senator Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.) said in an interview that federal prosecutors are investigating her for participating in the same video as Kelly.
A dozen House Democrats asked a federal judge to compel the Department of Homeland Security to explain how its new policy requiring a seven-day notice for congressional oversight visits to immigration detention facilities doesn’t violate a December 2025 court order blocking DHS from implementing a virtually identical policy.
In a court filing, Secretary of State Marco Rubio told Judge James Boasberg that it’s impossible for the Trump administration to return or facilitate due process hearings for 137 Venezuelan men who were illegally deported in March 2025 under the Alien Enemies Act because the move may “risk material damage to US foreign policy interest in Venezuela” with interim President Delcy Rodríguez.
The ACLU dropped its lawsuit against the Trump administration to restore tens of millions in Title X family planning funds that had been withheld from health clinics, including Planned Parenthood, after the Department of Health and Human Services quietly issued the funds in December.
The New York Times reported that the Environmental Protection Agency is planning to roll back a decades-long policy for calculating the health benefits of reducing air pollution when setting regulations, a move that could make it easier to repeal limits on coal-burning power plants and oil refineries.
The Times also reported that the Pentagon used a secret aircraft designed to appear like a civilian plane in its first strike on a boat in September that killed 11 people, a move that could be considered a potential war crime called “perfidy” under the laws of armed conflict.
On Truth Social, Trump continued escalating tensions with Iran, announcing that any country doing business with Iran will face a 25% tariff “on any and all business” with the US, effectively immediately.
Tuesday, January 13
Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.) said he would take steps to hold Bill and Hillary Clinton in contempt after the couple refused to testify as part of the House’s investigation into Jeffrey Epstein. In a letter to Comer, the Clintons wrote, “Every person has to decide when they have seen or had enough and are ready to fight for this country, its principles, and its people, no matter the consequences. For us, now is that time.”
Zeteo reported that federal investigators assigned to the killing of Renee Good are set to look into possible connections Good and her widow have to legal-observer and racial-justice groups in the Minneapolis area, including any organizations that have received funding or grants linked to George Soros.
In another racist move against Somalis in the US, the Trump administration announced that it was terminating the Temporary Protected Status of Somali immigrants living in the US, claiming that conditions in the country have improved.
In an interview with USA Today, Trump’s Arctic commissioner Thomas Dans said the US could take action towards annexing Greenland within “weeks or months.”
The Trump administration filed a motion to dismiss its appeal of a November 2025 court decision that blocked it from withholding federal transportation funding from states that refuse to cooperate with immigration enforcement.
Six federal prosecutors in Minnesota resigned over efforts from the Justice Department to open a criminal investigation into Renee Good’s widow rather than investigating the shooter responsible for killing Good.
While speaking at the Detroit Economic Club, Trump said his administration would suspend all federal funding for sanctuary cities and states, beginning Feb. 1. He also said the US will “revoke the citizenship of any naturalized immigrant from Somalia or anywhere else who is convicted of defrauding our citizens.”
In an interview with CBS News, Trump warned that his administration would “take strong action” against Iran if it starts hanging protesters.
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. appointed two new members to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices who have questioned the safety of COVID-19 vaccines and the use of antidepressants by pregnant people.
CNN reported that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth directed the Pentagon to select judge advocate general officers who could be selected to serve as special assistant US attorneys in Minneapolis to assist in federal prosecutions related to the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown in the city. One official told CNN that the move, which Hegseth has done before, is “bleeding legal resources from the military.”
The Trump administration designated the Lebanese, Jordanian, and Egyptian chapters of the Muslim Brotherhood as terrorist organizations and imposed sanctions on them and their members.
On Truth Social, Trump went on an unhinged rant about Minnesota, and ominously warned that the “DAY OF RECKONING & RETRIBUTION IS COMING!”
Video footage showed Trump giving the middle finger and appearing to mouth the words “fuck you” to an autoworker who appeared to yell “pedophile protector” at him while the president toured a Ford factory in Michigan.
Wednesday, January 14
The FBI executed a search warrant at the home of Washington Post reporter Hannah Natanson, who has spent the last year covering the Trump administration, in connection with an investigation into a government contractor accused of unlawfully retaining classified materials. In an email, the Post’s executive editor Matt Murray called the move an “extraordinary, aggressive action” that is “deeply concerning and raises profound questions and concern around the constitutional protections for our work.” Natanson has not been accused of any wrongdoing.
On Twitter, the State Department announced that the Trump administration will pause immigrant visa processing from 75 countries, including Afghanistan, Brazil, and Somalia, starting next week, claiming immigrants from those countries “take welfare from the American people at unacceptable rates.” The tweet added that the suspension “will remain active until the US can ensure that new immigrants will not extract wealth from the American people.”
The Republican-controlled Senate voted against a war powers resolution designed to limit Trump’s ability to conduct further strikes on Venezuela after two Republican senators who joined with Democrats last week to advance the resolution flipped under pressure from Trump.
A federal court allowed California to move forward with its new congressional maps, which could net Democrats as many as five extra seats in the House in the 2026 midterm elections, rejecting claims from California Republicans that the new maps were unconstitutional.
NBC News reported that if Trump were somehow actually able to buy Greenland, it could cost American taxpayers as much as $700 billion.
Rep. Robin Kelly (D-Ill.) introduced three articles of impeachment against Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, which were backed by nearly 70 other House Democrats. The first article accuses Noem of obstruction of Congress by implementing policies limiting lawmakers from conducting oversight visits at ICE detention facilities. The second accuses her of violating public trust by directing DHS agents to arrest people without warrants, use tear gas against citizens, and ignore due process. The third accuses Noem of self-dealing by steering a federal contract to a firm run by her friend.
Survivors of Jeffrey Epstein sent a letter to the Justice Department’s Inspector General requesting a review of the Epstein files released by the DOJ and oversight for future releases to “ensure full compliance with US law and basic standards of survivor protection,” adding that “the manner in which these materials were released reflects serious failures in redaction practices, survivor protection, and oversight.”
The Justice Department sued Minnesota over its so-called affirmative action “regime,” accusing the state of using diversity, equity, and inclusion policies in its hiring practices at state agencies. On Twitter, Attorney General Pam Bondi called the practices “discriminatory DEI codified into bad state policy” and added that the Trump administration “will not stand for it.”
Four additional Democratic lawmakers said they are being investigated by the US attorney for the District of Columbia over their participation in a viral video calling on military members to refuse illegal orders.
E. Jean Carroll asked the Supreme Court to dismiss Trump’s petition calling for the court to review her successful $5 million defamation case against him, in which the president was found liable for sexually abusing her in the dressing room of a department store in the 1990s and then defaming her by claiming it never happened.
Trump’s Education Department launched Title IX investigations into 15 school districts and three colleges over their policies allowing trans athletes to compete in girls’ and women’s sports. The targets of the investigations include the New York City Department of Education, the largest public school system in the country.
The Congressional Budget Office estimated that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s rebranding of the Defense Department to the “Department of War” could cost taxpayers as much as $125 million, with the number growing to “hundreds of millions” if Congress officially changed the department’s name.
Immigrant rights lawyers urged a federal appeals court to reinstate the Temporary Protected Status of 600,000 Venezuelan immigrants living in the US, which had been terminated by the Trump administration last year.
The Trump administration restored nearly $2 billion in federal funding for more than 2,000 addiction services and mental health programs across the country, less than 24 hours after it told the program’s that their funding would be terminated immediately.
The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press asked a federal judge to unseal all judicial records related to the search warrant used by the FBI to raid the home of Washington Post reporter Hannah Natanson.
Thursday, January 15
A federal appeals court reversed a lower court’s ruling that allowed Mahmoud Khalil to be released from ICE custody, finding that the federal district court in New Jersey that issued the ruling did not have jurisdiction over his habeas corpus petition. In a statement, Khalil said, “The door may have been opened for potential re-detainment down the line, but it has not closed our commitment to Palestine and to justice and accountability.”
CNN reported that the Trump administration is planning to use private military contractors in Venezuela to protect oil and energy assets instead of deporting US troops.
Reuters reported that the US seized another oil tanker linked to Venezuela in the Caribbean, with the US Southern Command saying the tanker was “operating in defiance of President Trump’s established quarantine of sanctioned vessels in the Caribbean.”
In an interview with Reuters, Trump argued that the US “shouldn’t even have an election,” referring to the 2026 midterm elections.
During a White House meeting, Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado presented Trump with her Nobel Peace Prize medal. However, the Norwegian Nobel Committee and the Norwegian Nobel Institute said last week that “once a Nobel Prize is announced, it cannot be revoked, shared, or transferred to others,” adding, “The decision is final and stands for all time.”
On Truth Social, Trump threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act in Minnesota if the “corrupt politicians” don’t stop the “professional agitators and insurrectionists” from “attacking” ICE officers.
The Washington Post reported that the El Paso County Medical Examiner is expected to classify the death of 55-year-old Cuban immigrant Geraldo Lunas Campos in ICE custody as a homicide, with a witness saying he saw Campos choked to death by detention staff.
The ACLU filed a class-action lawsuit against the Trump administration to end the warrantless arrests and racial profiling of Latino and Somali residents in Minnesota by ICE and other federal agents.
A group of House Democrats sent a letter to House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) demanding an investigation into the Justice Department’s probe of Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell, which they called a “blatant abuse of DOJ’s prosecutorial power.” The lawmakers said the investigation is necessary to “ensure that the DOJ is not being used to coerce” the Federal Reserve “into artificially juicing the economy to benefit the President and his party ahead of the midterm elections.”
The New York Times reported that the Trump administration is pressuring Mexico to allow US military forces, either Special Operation troops or CIA officers, to conduct joint operations in the country to fight cartels producing fentanyl and smuggling it into the US.
During a press briefing, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt lashed out at The Hill reporter Niall Stanage after he said Renee Good was killed “because an ICE agent acted recklessly and killed her unjustifiably.” Leavitt responded by calling Stanage a “left-wing hack” who is “posing” as a journalist and said he “shouldn’t even be sitting in” the briefing room.
A federal judge blocked the Trump administration from trying to obtain sensitive data from California’s voter rolls, including driver’s license numbers and Social Security numbers. In his ruling, the judge wrote that “the centralization of this information by the federal government would have a chilling effect on voter registration which would inevitably lead to decreasing voter turnout as voters fear that their information is being used for some inappropriate or unlawful purpose.”
During a court hearing, the federal judge who issued a scathing ruling against the Trump administration last year over its efforts to deport pro-Palestinian activists called the move “an unconstitutional conspiracy to pick off certain people.” He also said Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Secretary of State Marco Rubio “have failed in their sworn duty to uphold the Constitution” by infringing on the First Amendment rights of pro-Palestinian activists.
ICE Deputy Director Madison Sheahan announced she would resign from her position to run for Congress in Ohio.
Friday, January 16
During a roundtable at the White House, Trump said he may impose tariffs on countries “if they don’t go along with” the US annexing Greenland.
CBS News reported that Trump is set to pardon Puerto Rico’s former governor, Wanda Vázquez Garced, who pleaded guilty last year in a federal public corruption case related to her 2020 campaign, with one White House official arguing her prosecution was “politically motivated.”
On Truth Social, Trump continued to rage against those protesting ICE in Minnesota, calling them “Troublemakers, Agitators, and Insurrectionists” who he claimed, without evidence, are “in many cases, highly paid professionals.” He added that “If, and when, I am forced to act, it will be solved, QUICKLY and EFFECTIVELY!”
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Do you have the entire year in a pdf or something downloadable? I’d love to review, use it to continue educating people who are unaware and share with others to do the same. Thank you! I love the straight forward, no BS approach.