The List on Democracy at Risk

The convicted felon in the White House

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Let’s just say it plainly: the President of the United States is a convicted felon.

On May 30, 2024, a jury found Donald Trump guilty on all 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. The crime: covering up hush money payments to a porn star to hide an affair and influence the 2016 election. The jury deliberated, considered the evidence, and came back guilty. Thirty-four times.

He was sentenced on January 10, 2025 — ten days before taking office. The sentence: unconditional discharge. No jail. No probation. Nothing. He walked out, flew to Mar-a-Lago, and two weeks later was sworn in as President.

Trump mocks McCain's POW service

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

At a conservative forum on July 18, 2015 in Ames, Iowa, Donald Trump looked at a man who spent five and a half years being tortured in a North Vietnamese prison and said he wasn’t really a war hero. Why? Because he got captured.

“He’s a war hero because he was captured,” Trump said. “I like people that weren’t captured.”

John McCain, a Navy pilot shot down over Hanoi, refused early release as a POW because it would have meant leaving his fellow prisoners behind. He came home with both arms permanently damaged. Trump, who received five draft deferments during the same war, decided that didn’t count.

DOJ scrubs Jan. 6 case records

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 -0700

They’re erasing the record. Not metaphorically — literally deleting it.

The Trump Justice Department removed official news releases from its website documenting the charges, convictions, and sentences of January 6 defendants. Real criminal cases. Cases that went through the federal court system. Gone. The DOJ called them “partisan propaganda.”

Let me be clear about what just happened: the government prosecuted these people, won those cases, and now is pretending the prosecutions were political bias. They’re not just pardoning the attackers — they’re rewriting the history of the attack itself.

Green cards only if you leave

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 -0700

You’ve lived here for years. You work here. Your kids go to school here. You’ve been doing everything right, following the legal path to permanent residency. Now they’re telling you to leave and apply from abroad.

And if you leave? You might not get back in.

The Trump administration announced that large numbers of green card applicants can no longer complete the process from inside the United States. Pack up your life, go back to where you came from, and wait. How long? Nobody knows. What are the chances you get denied reentry on some technicality while you’re waiting? Nobody’s saying.

DOJ 'Anti-Weaponization Fund'

Tue, 19 May 2026 00:00:00 -0700

He pardoned the January 6 attackers. He erased the prosecution records. He called the whole thing a hoax. And now he’s created a $1.776 billion fund that could pay them.

The Justice Department — his Justice Department — announced an “Anti-Weaponization Fund” as part of his IRS settlement. It will hear claims from people who say they were victims of government “weaponization and lawfare.” It can award monetary relief. And when asked directly whether January 6 defendants could collect from it, senior DOJ officials would not rule it out.

IRS immunity addendum in Trump settlement

Tue, 19 May 2026 00:00:00 -0700

Remember when he promised to release his taxes? Yeah. Instead he got the government to guarantee they can never be audited again.

Buried in a settlement addendum — not announced, not explained, just quietly signed by his own Acting Attorney General — is a clause saying the IRS is “forever barred and precluded” from auditing Trump, his family, his businesses, his trusts, and anyone associated with them for any returns filed before the settlement date. Forever. Not this year. Not ever.

Orders targeting major law firms

Thu, 14 May 2026 00:00:00 -0700

Courts said it was unconstitutional. He’s doing it anyway.

Trump issued executive orders targeting four major law firms — Perkins Coie, Jenner & Block, WilmerHale, and Susman Godfrey. The punishment: bar their lawyers from federal buildings, revoke security clearances, terminate government contracts with their clients. The crime: representing clients he didn’t like, running diversity programs, having the wrong political associations.

Lower court judges threw the orders out as unconstitutional. The administration appealed. They’re still fighting to make this stick.

Q1 2026 stock trades

Thu, 14 May 2026 00:00:00 -0700

While running the country, Trump reported 3,642 stock trades in the first quarter of 2026. Not “thousands” — 3,642. That’s 58 trades every single market day. Worth somewhere between $220 million and $750 million — they don’t have to tell you exactly, just a range.

Think about what that means. The man setting trade policy, tariff policy, regulatory policy, and export controls holds massive positions in the companies affected by those decisions. Every policy call he makes, every executive order he signs, every phone call with a foreign leader — all of it happens while he’s sitting on hundreds of millions in corporate securities that go up or down based on what he does.

Rapid deportations to third countries

Wed, 25 Feb 2026 00:00:00 -0800

The administration was deporting people to countries they’d never lived in, with as little as six hours’ notice, with no meaningful chance to say “I’ll be killed if you send me there.”

A federal judge ruled it unlawful. An appeals court expressed unease. The administration kept pushing anyway.

This isn’t about whether someone should be deported. It’s about whether the government has to follow basic legal procedure before shipping a human being to a country where they might face persecution, torture, or death. Six hours. That’s what they were offering. Six hours to somehow prove you’ll be murdered if they put you on that plane.

Threatening force against parade protesters

Tue, 10 Jun 2025 00:00:00 -0700

He threw himself a military parade. And then threatened anyone who showed up to protest it.

Trump warned that demonstrations around his parade would be met with “very big force.” Not “we’ll handle any disturbances appropriately.” Not “law enforcement will maintain order.” Very big force. Said out loud, in public, about American citizens exercising their constitutional right to protest.

This is a president using the language of military intimidation against his own people for disagreeing with him in public.

Army anniversary parade and birthday overlap

Sun, 01 Jun 2025 00:00:00 -0700

The U.S. Army turned 250 years old. Trump turned 79. Guess whose party it became.

A massive military parade rolled through Washington on Trump’s birthday, with Trump front and center as the focal point of the whole spectacle. The Army’s 250th anniversary — a genuine milestone worth celebrating — got absorbed into a made-for-TV event built around one man’s image.

This is what authoritarian aesthetics look like when they’re trying to seem normal. You don’t announce “I’m having a military parade for myself.” You find a legitimate occasion, you attach yourself to it, and you make sure the cameras can’t tell the difference between honoring the institution and honoring you.

Third-term rhetoric

Sun, 30 Mar 2025 00:00:00 -0700

He says he’s joking. He’s not joking.

Trump told NBC he was “not joking” about a third term and that there are “methods” to make it happen. The 22nd Amendment is not ambiguous. Two terms. That’s it. That’s been the law since 1951. There is no method. There is no loophole. There is no constitutional path.

But he keeps saying it. And that’s the point.

This is how authoritarian instincts work in a democracy — you don’t announce you’re going to torch the Constitution, you just keep suggesting it’s negotiable. You say it’s a joke when people push back. You say you’re “not joking” when the crowd cheers. You float the idea until it stops sounding outrageous and starts sounding like just another political debate.

January 6 pardons

Mon, 20 Jan 2025 00:00:00 -0800

On his first day back in office, Trump pardoned the people who attacked the Capitol to stop the certification of an election he lost. Not a few disputed cases — sweeping clemency for most January 6 defendants, sentence commutations for 14 others, and orders to dismiss pending cases and release prisoners immediately.

Let that sink in. People who beat cops, smashed windows, and tried to stop the peaceful transfer of power got pardoned. On day one. Before he did anything else.

The Access Hollywood tape

Mon, 20 Jan 2025 00:00:00 -0800

In 2005, Donald Trump was caught on a hot mic telling Billy Bush exactly who he is.

“I just start kissing them. It’s like a magnet. I don’t even wait. And when you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything. Grab ’em by the pussy. You can do anything.”

That’s not gossip. That’s not a rumor. That’s him, on tape, in his own voice, bragging about sexual assault. He apologized for it in 2016 — called it “locker room talk.” Then later tried to claim the tape was fake. Access Hollywood went on air to set the record straight: “The tape is very real. He said every one of those words.”