The Trump Presidency Timeline

Trump ran on “no new wars” and is now racking up at least 26 boat strikes, nearly 100 dead, a double-tap strike under congressional scrutiny, the seizure of an oil tanker, and a "total and complete blockade" of sanctioned Venezuelan oil tankers — but don’t worry, it’s not a war, it’s just peace with explosives. The White House insists this is all about "narcoterrorism" and fulfilling campaign promises on drugs, because nothing says "America First" like turning the Caribbean into a live-fire zone to enforce an economic chokehold.

MAGA world, which supposedly hates foreign entanglements, is apparently fine with undeclared military campaigns so long as the targets are "drug boats" and the dead people aren’t American. As one friendly think tanker helpfully explains, you can run "wild and crazy foreign policies" as long as the costs stay low — meaning low for U.S. domestic politics, not for the civilians caught between sanctions, blockades, and missile strikes. The administration is dusting off the Monroe Doctrine, rebranding it as an anti-cartel crusade, and betting the base won’t notice that "ending forever wars" has quietly morphed into forever gunboat diplomacy.

The right is now having a very serious discussion about whether regime change in Venezuela would be a bridge too far, not because killing people and blockading a country might be wrong, but because it might finally pierce the illusion that Trump is some kind of anti-interventionist dove. For now, he gets to posture as both the tough Monroe Doctrine enforcer and the guy who "doesn’t want a protracted war" — a Schrödinger’s warmonger whose bombs are apparently exempt from the "no new wars" promise as long as they’re dropped in the name of fighting drugs.

The Kennedy Center board has apparently decided that American arts history wasn’t humiliating enough and has voted unanimously to rename the iconic venue the Trump-Kennedy Center, according to the White House. Press secretary Karoline Leavitt announced the move and praised the "unbelievable work President Trump has done over the last year in saving the building" — because nothing says cultural stewardship like stapling the name of a reality TV landlord to the memorial of a murdered president.

Leavitt then "congratulated" John F. Kennedy, assuring everyone this will be a "truly great team" going forward, as if we’ve just watched the Celtics trade for a backup power forward instead of witnessing a sitting president glue his brand onto a national performing arts institution. In other words, it’s the Trump era’s favorite genre: state-sponsored rebranding, where every public space is just another opportunity for a naming-rights grift and a little forced gratitude.

The move is expected to be wildly unpopular in Washington, DC, where the building has been an enduring landmark and memorial to Kennedy for decades — but sure, let’s pretend this is about "saving the building" and not about building the Trump cult into the architecture. Authoritarian regimes build statues; the Trump crowd just quietly rewrites the plaques and calls it a unanimous board decision.

The DNC has finished its much-hyped 2024 election ‘autopsy’ on how Kamala Harris managed to lose to Donald Trump, and has bravely decided the American public should never see it. DNC chair Ken Martin says releasing the report would be a “distraction” from winning, because nothing screams confidence in your conclusions like locking them in a drawer and throwing away the key.

According to officials, the review covers organizing, messaging, fundraising, and structural problems, and even notes that Democrats outspent Republicans at every level — in other words, they lit a mountain of cash on fire and still lost to a guy who tried to overthrow the government. But don’t worry, party insiders assure us they’re “already putting our learnings into motion,” which is consultant-speak for “trust us, we definitely read the PDF.”

The New York Times previously reported the autopsy was expected to tiptoe around the obvious questions: whether Biden should’ve run again, whether he should’ve dropped out sooner, and whether Harris was the right understudy to send onstage against a fascist game show host. A progressive group, RootsAction, released its own report blaming the loss on chasing moderates instead of energizing working-class, young, and progressive voters — so naturally that’s the one the party is ignoring while former DNC flacks celebrate the decision to keep the official findings secret as the “right call.”

So as Trump’s second-term clown car accelerates toward the Constitution, Democrats’ big takeaway from their last catastrophic loss is: no public reckoning, no transparency, just vibes and vibes-based strategy. But sure, nothing to see here — democracy will be fine as long as no one ever finds out who screwed up and how.

The Trump administration, with Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr proudly leading the charge, has unveiled its latest plan to "protect" children by cutting them off from medically recommended healthcare. HHS is rebranding gender-affirming care as "sex-rejecting procedures" — because when you can't win on science, you can always try focus-grouped slurs — and CMS will start rule-making to tell every hospital in America: if you want Medicare or Medicaid money, you don't treat trans minors. In other words, deny care or lose your funding. Very normal, very free-country behavior.

The proposal would also ban Medicaid and CHIP from covering this care at all, targeting the half of American children who rely on those programs, because nothing says "protect the vulnerable" like making sure only rich kids can even try to see a specialist. HHS is also sending FDA warning letters to breast binder manufacturers for allegedly "illegal marketing" to minors — turning basic, non-surgical support garments into a federal case, while pretending this is about safety and not about making trans kids' lives as miserable as possible.

Not content with that, HHS is moving to strip gender dysphoria of disability protections under Section 504, rolling back Biden-era recognition so schools and institutions can go back to ignoring or punishing trans students without pesky legal obligations. This all builds on Trump's earlier executive orders declaring there are only two sexes and threatening federal funds for hospitals that dare treat trans youth — a science-free culture war masquerading as policy. Meanwhile, the House, led by Marjorie Taylor Greene, just passed a bill to criminalize parents and providers who follow mainstream medical guidelines, because when you can't run a country, you can always try running a witch hunt.

HHS even produced a handy "review" declaring the evidence for gender-affirming care in minors "very low", a conclusion that just so happens to contradict basically every major US medical organization. But sure, trust RFK Jr and Donald Trump over the American Academy of Pediatrics. This is not healthcare policy; it's a federally coordinated campaign to withdraw rights, weaponize poverty, and terrorize families — all under the banner of "protecting children" from their own doctors, their own parents, and themselves.