The Trump Presidency Timeline

The Trump White House has decided the real problem with American government isn't corruption, incompetence, or rampant grifting – it's that people keep finding out about it. So OPM has rolled out a draft NDA for federal workers that lets the administration chase them for civil and criminal penalties if they talk to journalists about anything Team Trump later waves a "confidential" wand over. As a bonus, the government claims rights to any "royalties" from those disclosures, because if you're going to criminalize whistleblowing, you might as well turn it into a revenue stream.

This isn't just for current workers either; former employees would need written permission from an "authorized agency official" to speak to the press about information the administration deems confidential after the fact. So your First Amendment rights now come stapled to a permission slip from the people you might be exposing. Totally normal democracy stuff. The NDA technically says it doesn't override whistleblower protections, but when the same crew is also banning AP from the press pool, restricting Pentagon access, suing news outlets, and demanding reporters pledge to only print officially released information, the message is pretty clear: accountability is for losers.

Union leaders like Steve Lenkart from NFFE point out this is part of the broader campaign to kneecap federal employee unions – the pesky "eyes and ears" that notice when the government is being used as a personal loyalty cult and PR machine. Legal experts note that NDAs can't override the Constitution or federal law, which makes large chunks of this scheme "legally suspect" – a phrase that could be safely tattooed on the entire Trump administrative state at this point. Still, the chilling effect is the point: if you scare enough people into silence, you don't need the law to be on your side, just the threat of it.

The Trump Justice Department is proudly marching toward its big fall blockbuster: The People v. James Comey’s Beach Day. A federal judge just set an October 21 trial date for the former FBI director over an Instagram photo of seashells arranged as “8647,” which prosecutors insist is not a dad-tier vacation post but a “serious expression of an intent to do harm to the President of the United States.” Restaurant workers across America have gently explained that “86” is basic service-industry slang for “we’re out of it” or “take it off the menu,” but the administration has heroically decided that context, common sense, and the First Amendment are luxuries for weaker nations.

Comey’s lawyers plan to file motions to dismiss, arguing this is a classic case of vindictive and selective prosecution — because apparently you now need to formally prove in court that Trump uses the Justice Department as his personal revenge concierge. They’ve already beaten back one earlier case, after a judge ruled that Trump loyalist Lindsey Halligan was never actually properly appointed when she went grand-jury shopping in Virginia. Meanwhile, federal grand juries keep embarrassing the administration, from rejecting indictments of six Democratic lawmakers over a social media video to a Chicago judge torching prosecutors for allegedly strong-arming a grand jury in an anti-ICE protest case.

So the pattern is pretty clear: if you criticize Trump, post the wrong photo, or stand near a protest, the DOJ will try to turn your life into a cautionary tale — and then get smacked down by judges who still remember how laws work. But sure, the real threat to democracy is baristas posting memes and James Comey arranging seashells like a bored camp counselor. At this rate, by October the only thing left on the national menu to 86 will be the rule of law.

NPR sat down with Brennan Center for Justice president Michael Waldman, who politely described the Trump administration’s latest antics as "epic corruption in plain sight," which is a very lawyerly way of saying, "they’re looting the place with the lights on and the doors open." When the Brennan Center — the group that usually writes dense reports on campaign finance and voting rights — starts sounding like they’re live-tweeting a smash-and-grab, you know the situation has achieved advanced banana republic status.

Mary Louise Kelly asked the obvious question: what can be done about it? The depressing answer, as always, is some combo of "stronger laws," "independent institutions," and "voters giving a damn" — all of which Trump and his cronies have been methodically stripping for parts like a stolen Honda. The White House keeps testing how much open, unapologetic corruption the system can absorb, while the rule of law responds by scheduling another panel discussion on norms. Waldman is basically standing on the roof with a megaphone yelling "the house is on fire," while half of Washington debates whether it would be partisan to call the fire department.

The White House has announced that Donald Trump is going in for a totally normal, completely routine, absolutely nothing-to-see-here "annual" medical and dental exam at Walter Reed — just seven months after his last "annual" visit and a few months after a follow-up CT scan, and a few months after that was also declared perfectly fine. At this point, "annual" appears to be defined as "whenever the president’s hands look like a banana that lost a bar fight."

Trump, who turns 80 in June and is now the second-oldest president in U.S. history after Joe Biden, continues to be described by his revolving-door White House doctors as in "excellent overall health" despite the recurring bruised hands, swollen ankles, and on-camera lethargy that keep forcing them back to the podium to insist he’s basically a Marvel character. Capt. Sean Barbabella dutifully signed off after a CT scan of Trump’s cardiovascular and abdominal health, because nothing says medical independence like repeatedly vouching for the wellbeing of the guy who can end your career with a Truth Social post.

The administration line is that Trump is tireless and sharp, and they are working extremely hard to prove it, which is always a good sign. Communications Director Steven Cheung spent the weekend live-tweeting the president’s packed schedule during U.S.-Iran peace talks as if he were documenting a rare endangered species still capable of locomotion. Meanwhile, Trump is still bragging about "acing" cognitive tests like they’re the LSATs, and blaming his mystery bruises on taking too much aspirin, which is a refreshingly low-tech excuse from a man who once recommended injecting disinfectant.

Having ridden to power (again) by calling Biden "Sleepy Joe" and turning age and acuity into a political weapon, Trump is now very bravely demanding everyone stop talking about how old and fragile he looks on camera. The same movement that insisted Biden was unfit if he tripped on a sandbag now wants you to believe that three Walter Reed visits in 13 months, a CT scan, and visible makeup over bruises are just what peak male performance looks like. America, your Commander-in-Chief is fine. The press release says so.

The president has announced his latest galaxy-brain peace plan: if Middle Eastern countries want in on the Iran deal, they have to join the Abraham Accords and normalize relations with Israel — including, checks notes, Egypt and Jordan, which already have diplomatic relations with Israel and have for decades. Bold strategy: threaten to exclude countries from a major regional security agreement unless they agree to do something they literally already did.

Trump also magnanimously declared that Iran itself is invited to the accords once it signs a deal with him, because nothing says "mutual trust" like forcing your negotiating partner into a public loyalty ceremony with their regional rival as an entrance fee. Analysts, who still insist on using words like "reality" and "conditions," note that the odds of key states signing on after Gaza are somewhere between slim and "Lindsey Graham tweet." Speaking of which, Graham rushed onto X to proclaim the idea "simply brilliant" and the most significant Middle East change in "thousands of years," which is a normal thing to say about a plan that confuses basic facts available on Wikipedia.

This administration’s approach to diplomacy continues to be: treat complex regional conflicts as a branding exercise, slap "Abraham Accords 2.0" on everything, and hope nobody notices that the fine print is mostly vibes, amnesia, and domestic political damage control for Iran hawks who get cranky if Trump wanders within ten feet of actual de-escalation.

Robert Reich has finally run out of normal presidential vocabulary and is now workshopping terms from the "oh cool, we live in a failing state" section of the dictionary. He argues that Trump doesn’t have an administration, he has a regime—the kind that blows off hundreds of federal court orders, screams for judges’ impeachment, grabs Congress’s war and spending powers like they’re classified documents at Mar-a-Lago, and tries to muzzle universities and the press for noticing.

The regime’s greatest hits: over 300,000 federal workers gone, inspectors general fired, whistleblowers punished, marginalized groups targeted, political opponents persecuted, and a pardon list that now includes a Honduran ex-president who helped ship 400 tons of cocaine into the US and a fan club of January 6 seditionists. ICE deaths are spiking, people merely suspected of immigration violations are disappeared by masked agents without hearings, and the US military is allegedly killing suspected smugglers in international waters. Totally normal democracy stuff.

On the corruption front, Trump is openly hoovering up foreign gifts in defiance of the Constitution while shilling his family’s crypto scheme from the Resolute Desk. He’s suing the IRS for $10 billion, and his DOJ’s response is to propose a $1.8 billion "compensation" slush fund that might conveniently shower cash on January 6 attackers, while also helpfully dropping IRS audits of Trump and his relatives. Reich concludes that calling this a "government of laws" is generous; the more accurate label is lawless catastrophe—though "banana republic, but make it crypto" also seems to fit.

Texas Republicans are having a runoff for U.S. Senate, which in a functional democracy would mostly be about, you know, the candidates. Instead, it’s about whether John Cornyn – a boring party man who occasionally remembers the Constitution exists – can survive a late-stage intervention from Dear Leader, who just endorsed Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton after people already started voting.

So while ballots are being cast, Trump strolls in from Mar-a-Lago to declare that the proper choice is the indicted attorney general who treats the law like a loose suggestion. Voters who already mailed in their Cornyn ballots now get to spend the week wondering if they’ve committed the ultimate sin in the modern GOP: failing to obey the leader’s most recent whim. The message is clear: elections are less a process than a live-streamed loyalty test, and Trump reserves the right to rewrite the script mid-show.