The Trump Presidency Timeline

Benjamin Netanyahu is heading to Mar-a-Lago to brief Donald Trump on fresh options for bombing Iran, because nothing says responsible statecraft like planning new airstrikes at a golf resort that also sells wedding packages. Israel wants Trump to sign off on, assist with, or just outright own another round of attacks on Iran’s ballistic missile program and air defenses, on top of June’s U.S.-led Operation Midnight Hammer — the one Trump insists "totally obliterated" Iran’s nuclear capabilities while U.S. assessments quietly say, "lol, not quite."

While Tehran is publicly floating the idea of resuming talks, Trump is privately being handed a familiar four-course war menu: Israel goes solo, Israel with U.S. backup, joint strikes, or the full "America does it all" special. At the same time, he’s considering military strikes in Venezuela, boasting on TV that he’s "destroyed the Iran nuclear threat and ended the war in Gaza, bringing, for the first time in 3,000 years, peace to the Middle East" — which is a bold claim, especially for a region that is currently being managed via ceasefires, proxy wars, and PowerPoint target lists on the Oval Office coffee table.

The White House is still thumping its chest about bunker-busting Iran’s enrichment sites, Israel is demanding more action before Iran rebuilds its missile and air defense infrastructure, and Trump is threatening to "obliterate" anything Tehran reconstructs unless they come back to the table on his terms. In other words, U.S. foreign policy is now a protection racket: nice ballistic program you’re trying to rebuild there, shame if something happened to it. But sure, tell yourself this is about "regional stability" and not about a president auditioning for Strongman of the Year while dangling new wars over two continents.

Trump sat down with Kristen Welker and, in classic fashion, used the opportunity to threaten another foreign country, lie about health care, and mangle basic math on tariffs — so, you know, presidential.

First up, Venezuela: the guy who ran on ending forever wars now says he “doesn’t rule out” war with Caracas and has ordered a “blockade” on Venezuelan oil tankers. He won’t say if regime change is the goal, just that Nicolás Maduro “knows exactly what I want.” Because nothing says ‘peace president’ like openly dangling invasion while choking a foreign economy.

On health care, Trump claims his big national address already unveiled his master plan: just give people money and let them “buy their own health insurance” with various “health care accounts.” No details, no structure, no numbers — just vibes and buzzwords. He also insists he doesn’t need to repeal Obamacare because it will “repeal itself,” which is a bold new legal theory where laws vanish if Trump says they’re unpopular on TV.

Then there are tariffs, which Trump now declares will be “permanent” because they supposedly give the U.S. “great national security” and “tremendous wealth.” He even says they’ll pay for his new “warrior dividend” for service members. Tiny problem: a senior administration official and a Senate appropriations source say the money is actually coming from military housing funds, not tariff revenue. In other words, troops get a bonus while their barracks crumble, and the White House calls it a win — but sure, tell me more about how tariffs are writing the checks.

The US has launched large-scale airstrikes across central Syria, because nothing says "careful, measured response" like dropping a bunch of bombs in a country we never officially declared war on. Two US soldiers and a civilian interpreter were killed in Palmyra, and in true forever-war fashion, the answer is apparently more of the same: a bigger strike package, more targets, and still no coherent strategy beyond "hit back and hope it looks tough on TV".

According to anonymous officials (the only truly permanent branch of government at this point), the strikes hit "dozens" of Islamic State targets, as part of the ongoing US-led campaign that has somehow become a semi-permanent occupation without Congress ever bothering to do its job. In other words, the Trump administration is still running on the same dusty 2001 and 2002 AUMFs like they’re an all-you-can-bomb buffet, because why ask for updated authorization when you can just keep pretending the war on terror is a single, unending episode?

The US is now routinely coordinating with Syria’s own security forces in these operations, which is a fun little reminder that American foreign policy has fully entered the "everyone’s awful, but we brought the jets" phase. But sure, tell us again how this is all about "precision" and "deterrence" and not about a president flexing military power whenever he needs a ratings bump or a distraction from whatever scandal is currently on fire back home.

Pope Leo XIV has appointed Rev Manuel de Jesús Rodríguez — a Dominican-born, pro-immigrant priest from Queens whose flock is mostly migrants — as the new bishop of Palm Beach, aka the diocese that has the misfortune of containing Trump’s self-declared “Center of the Universe”, Mar-a-Lago. In other words, the Vatican just dropped a pastor who openly worries about Trump’s immigration raids right into the heart of the golf-cart gulag.

Rodríguez, whose parish lost more than 100 people to Covid and whose congregants now live in fear of Trump’s immigration crackdown, is politely trying to help the administration stop deporting five-year-olds and parents with no criminal records. Because nothing says family values like forcing parents to sign caregiver affidavits so their US-born kids don’t end up in foster care when ICE does a pre-dawn no-knock on the way to Mass.

While Trump rants about ‘bad hombres’ from his Palm Beach bunker, the US Conference of Catholic Bishops — including the conservatives — has issued a rare special message condemning his mass deportations, migrant ‘vilification’, and denial of pastoral care in detention centers. So now, in the same zip code where Trump rails against ‘invaders’, the local bishop will be preaching that migrants are not to be demonized, that they share American values, and that they deserve dignity and respect. But sure, tell us more about how the real religious persecution here is people saying ‘Happy Holidays’ at Target.

The White House has decided that if you can't argue with the science, you just smash the lab. Budget director and professional theocrat Russ Vought jumped on X to announce a plan to dismantle the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder, calling it "one of the largest sources of climate alarmism in the country"—because nothing says "sound public policy" like nuking the people who make your weather forecasts work.

NCAR has spent more than 60 years helping universities understand global weather, water, and climate, which is apparently now a firing offense in Trump's America. Its leadership says they got zero advance notice and that the move is "entirely political". They're right: the administration insists "vital" weather work will be shipped somewhere else, as if you can just put world-class atmospheric science in a cardboard box and mail it to Mar-a-Lago.

Colorado officials are pointing out the obvious: this looks a lot like retaliation. Gov. Jared Polis says the plan "puts public safety at risk and attacks science," while Sen. Michael Bennet and Rep. Joe Neguse note the timing—coming right after Colorado refused to spring MAGA folk hero Tina Peters, the county clerk who illegally accessed voting machines after the 2020 election and is now doing nine years for it. Trump issued her a symbolic pardon (because federalism is hard), and when that didn’t work, the White House apparently reached for Plan B: threaten to blow up one of the country's premier climate and weather centers.

In other words, the guy who once took a Sharpie to a hurricane map is now trying to take a wrecking ball to the people who make the maps in the first place—both to punish a state that locked up his election-tampering fan and to silence "alarmism" about the planet catching fire. But sure, this is all just normal governance and definitely not an administration using federal power to settle scores and blindfold the country in the middle of a climate crisis.