We begin 2026 by documenting Trump’s cruelties, collusions, corruptions and crimes –
I commissioned this art before the 2016 election. The artist wanted to use Hillary Clinton for the politician being chased by the watchdog press. I insisted it had to be Trump, figuring he would win: Evan Riddle
By Glynn Wilson –
Tales From the MoJo Road –
SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. – As the year 2025 came to an ignominious close, a few friends were having drinks while the view of the fireworks out the front apartment window was obscured by fog, clouds and rain. You could hear the booms off in the distance, but see no lights exploding in the sky. I guess it’s as good a way as any to bring on the end of the worst year ever for American democracy.
Before we get to the naughty list of bad things committed by U.S. President Donald Trump and his cronies in crime, let me issue a caveat on a personal note. It was not a bad year for me personally. I went from hanging out at Wayne Perkins’ house in Birmingham working on a rock and roll book, then back to Washington, D.C. for successful cataract surgery. After Labor Day, I finally engaged in a long dreamed of and amazing cross country camping trip that landed me in the historic town of Coulterville, California, where I started an FM radio station from scratch, with an apartment in San Francisco.
But since someone needs to compile a list of just how bad the year was for American governance, to document the unprecedented level of corruption being thrust on the country by the most corrupt president by far in American history, I covered some of it, especially the disaster of Elon Musk taking over DOGE and beginning to dismantle our democracy.
Elon Musk Comes to Washington as a Republican ‘Deep Throat’
But for the rest, I turned to McSweeny’s Internet Tendencies.
“Early in President Trump’s first term, McSweeney’s editors began to catalog the head-spinning number of misdeeds coming from his administration. We called this list a collection of Trump’s cruelties, collusions, corruptions, and crimes, and it felt urgent to track them, to ensure these horrors — happening almost daily — would not be forgotten. Now that Trump has returned to office, amid civil rights, humanitarian, economic, and constitutional crises, we felt it critical to make an inventory of this new round of horrors.”
The categories?
– Constitutional Illegalities, Collusion, and/or Obstruction of Justice
– Environment
– Harassment, Bullying, Retribution, and/or Sexual Misconduct
– Lies and Misinformation
– Musk Madness
– Policy
– Public Statements and Social Media Posts
– Trump Family Business Dealings
– Trump Staff and Administration
– White Supremacy, Racism, Misogyny, Homophobia, Transphobia, and/or Xenophobia
A few sample entries. Feel free to add your own with links in the comments.
July 1, 2025 – Trump toured “Alligator Alcatraz,” the new immigration detention center surrounded by alligator-filled swamps in the Florida Everglades. Trump suggested it could be a model for future lockups as his administration raced to expand the necessary infrastructure for increasing deportations. He said, “Pretty soon, this facility will handle the most menacing migrants, some of the most vicious people on the planet.” During the tour, he endorsed having Florida National Guard forces serve as immigration judges. Immigrant advocates criticized the Trump administration’s move. Mark Fleming, the associate director of federal litigation at the National Immigrant Justice Center, said it amounted to an “independent, unaccountable detention system.” Florida Republican Party (RPOF) Chair Evan Powers claimed the project had “immense public support,” and said they had sold thousands of “Alligator Alcatraz”–themed shirts, hats, and gear.
July 2, 2025 – Pardoned January 6 rioter Jared L. Wise was named as an advisor to counselor Ed Martin, leader of the “Weaponization Working Group” in Trump’s Justice Department. Martin was an outspoken supporter of the January 6 defendants. According to a memo from Attorney General Pam Bondi, the group’s mission includes investigating “improper investigative tactics and unethical prosecutions” tied to the insurrection. A source familiar with Martin’s thinking told The New York Times that Martin was “thrilled” to have Wise, even suggesting that if “we could genetically design an adviser,” he or she would look like Wise. During the January 6 insurrection, Wise allegedly shouted, “Kill ’em! Kill ’em! Kill ’em!” at law enforcement officers.
July 2, 2025 – Paramount, the parent company of CBS News, agreed to pay Trump $16 million to settle his lawsuit over the editing of a 60 Minutes pre-election interview with then Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris. Trump’s legal team said the settlement was “another win for the American people,” who were holding “the fake news media accountable.” The move by Paramount, according to a statement by the Freedom of the Press Foundation (FPF), smacked of favoritism and referenced Paramount’s planned merger with Skydance Media. First Amendment lawyer Floyd Abrams, who represented The New York Times during the Pentagon Papers case, told the FPF that “the agreement of Paramount to pay any settlement amount to Donald Trump based on a broadcast that was both journalistically responsible and fully protected by the First Amendment is an ominous blow to press freedom.”
July 3, 2025 – Jewish advocacy groups slammed Trump for using the antisemitic term “Shylock” during a speech celebrating the passage of his spending bill. “No death tax, no estate tax, no going to the banks and bar exam for, in some cases, a fine banker, and in some cases, Shylocks and bad people,” Trump said. Later, he told reporters he had “never heard” that the term was considered an offensive stereotype. “Shylock” refers to the villainous Jewish moneylender in Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice. Amy Spitalnick, the CEO of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, condemned Trump’s comments and said in a statement that he had used one of “the most quintessential antisemitic stereotypes.” Trump has made cracking down on antisemitism a priority. His administration said it is screening for antisemitic activity when granting immigration benefits, and its fight with Harvard University has centered on allegations that the school tolerated antisemitism.
July 4, 2025 – After signing the spending and tax bill known as the “One Big Beautiful Bill,” Trump declared, “I can say very proudly that our country is more proud right now than it has been in many, many years.” House Speaker Mike Johnson said of the bill, “If you’re for common-sense fiscal responsibility and reducing the deficit, this bill is for you. If you’re for fairer and lower taxes, bigger paychecks, then this is the bill for you.” Economists have estimated that the bill’s greatest benefits would go to the wealthiest Americans. It would cost the poorest Americans an estimated $1,600 a year, mainly due to reductions in Medicaid and food aid. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office predicted that cuts to Medicaid could leave 11.8 million more people without health insurance by 2034. The budget office also reported the measure would swell the already soaring national debt by at least $3.4 trillion over a decade.
July 5, 2025 – An email sent by the US Social Security Administration (SSA) claiming Trump’s new spending bill had eliminated taxes on benefits for most recipients was slammed by critics as misleading. The email claimed the new law “includes a provision that eliminates federal income taxes on Social Security benefits for most beneficiaries” and “it provides an enhanced deduction for taxpayers aged 65 and older.” Howard Gleckman, a senior fellow at the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center, said, “The SSA statement implies there is a direct tax cut on Social Security benefits, which there is not.” The legislation provides a temporary tax deduction of up to $6,000 for people aged sixty-five and older and $12,000 for married seniors. Jeff Nesbit, who served as a top SSA official under Republican and Democratic presidents, posted on X, “The agency has never issued such a blatant political statement. The fact that Trump and his minions running SSA have done this is unconscionable.”
July 7, 2025 – Despite criticizing Democratic administrations over their handling of Hurricane Helene and the Los Angeles wildfires, President Trump sought to defuse blame over his own administration’s handling of the Texas floods, which killed over one hundred people, including many children. “This is a hundred-year catastrophe, and it’s just so horrible to watch,” Trump told reporters at his golf course, while rescue teams in Texas continued to search for the missing. When asked whether the disaster was worsened by his administration’s cuts to the National Weather Service, Trump responded, “What a situation that all is. That was really a Biden setup. That was not our setup. But I wouldn’t blame Biden for it either.”
July 7, 2025 – US measles cases reached their highest total in thirty-three years, according to data published by Johns Hopkins showing at least 1,277 confirmed cases, 155 hospitalizations, and 3 deaths in 2025. According to the CDC, approximately 92 percent of measles cases this year were in people who were unvaccinated or whose vaccination status was unknown. The three individuals who died from measles this year, including two otherwise healthy children, were all unvaccinated. Although measles was officially eliminated from the US in 2000, public health experts warned that the country was on track to lose its elimination status. Earlier this year, anti-vaccine activist Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. downplayed concerns about measles, spread misinformation about the MMR vaccine’s safety, and recommended bogus treatments. “It’s not unusual,” Kennedy Jr. said of the West Texas measles outbreak, “We have measles outbreaks every year.”
July 7, 2025 – According to a document written by the Salvadoran government in response to a UN inquiry, the US bears legal responsibility for Venezuelan men who were deported to El Salvador. “The actions of the state of El Salvador have been limited to the implementation of a bilateral cooperation mechanism with another state, through which it has facilitated the use of the Salvadoran prison infrastructure for the custody of persons detained within the scope of the justice system and law enforcement of that other state,” the document stated. “In this context, the jurisdiction and legal responsibility for these persons lie exclusively with the competent foreign authorities, by virtue of international agreements signed and in accordance with the principles of sovereignty and international cooperation in criminal matters.” For months, the Trump administration insisted in court filings and hearings that the US had no control over the deported Venezuelans and no authority to return them to the United States.
July 7, 2025 – On an otherwise quiet Monday morning, heavily armed federal immigration agents and California National Guard troops stormed through MacArthur Park, an area of Los Angeles where many immigrants live. As the agents and troops marched through the park, some on horseback and many wearing masks and helmets, armored vehicles blocked the street; a federal helicopter also flew overhead. The widely criticized show of force came after Trump ordered National Guard troops and Marines to Los Angeles in June to quell protests against immigration raids. “What I saw in the park today looked like a city under siege, under armed occupation,” said Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass. “It’s the way a city looks before a coup.”
July 7, 2025 – The Justice Department announced there was no evidence that accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein was murdered or kept a client list. “This systematic review revealed no incriminating ‘client list,’” the Justice Department stated in an unsigned memo. “There was no credible evidence found that Epstein blackmailed prominent individuals as part of his actions. We did not uncover evidence that could predicate an investigation against uncharged third parties.” The memo’s conclusions contradicted prior statements made by Attorney General Pam Bondi, who for months hyped conspiracy theories and promised to release files related to the case. Back in February, Bondi told Fox News that a client list was “sitting on my desk right now to review.”
July 8, 2025 – The New York Times reported that the Energy Department hired three scientists who rejected the overwhelming scientific consensus on climate change: Steven E. Koonin, a physicist who has called climate science “unsettled”; John Christy, an atmospheric scientist who has cast doubt on the relationship between human activity and global warming; and Roy Spencer, a meteorologist who has said that clouds impact global warming more than people do. “What this says is that the administration has no respect for the actual science, which overwhelmingly points in the direction of a growing crisis as we continue to warm the planet through fossil-fuel burning, the consequences of which we’ve seen play out in recent weeks in the form of deadly heat domes and floods here in the US,” said Michael Mann, a climate scientist at the University of Pennsylvania. Earlier this year, the Trump administration fired hundreds of scientists working on a climate change report, cut funds for global warming research, and removed mentions of climate change from government websites.
July 14, 2025 – The Supreme Court allowed the Trump administration to fire over one thousand Education Department employees. While the ruling was not the final word in the case, the move functionally eliminated the agency. The department manages federal college loans, tracks student achievement, and enforces civil rights laws in schools. The court’s order was unsigned, and no explanation was given regarding the decision. In a press release, US Education Secretary Linda McMahon said, “It is a shame that the highest court in the land had to step in to allow President Trump to advance the reforms Americans elected him to deliver using the authorities granted to him by the U.S. Constitution.” In the Court’s dissenting opinion, Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote that the decision was “indefensible” and that “it hands the Executive the power to repeal statutes by firing all those necessary to carry them out.”
July 14, 2025 – Trump responded to pushback from his base after defending his administration’s review of the so-called Epstein Files. His supporters and conspiracists do not believe the government’s narrative and think the sex trafficker’s death is proof that the government is run by shadowy figures who are potentially out to get Trump. On Truth Social, Trump declared, “They’re all going after Attorney General Pam Bondi, who is doing a FANTASTIC JOB! We’re on one Team, MAGA, and I don’t like what’s happening.” He went on to blame Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton for writing the files and said to “not waste Time and Energy on Jeffrey Epstein, somebody that nobody cares about.”
July 16, 2025 – NPR reported that the Trump administration delayed and may cancel roughly $140 million in grants to fund fentanyl overdose response efforts, according to staff members at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The CDC staffers said it appeared the funding interruption was being caused by bureaucratic confusion involving the Trump administration’s DOGE cost-cutting efforts at the Office of Management and Budget. “These are lives at stake,” said one CDC staffer involved in administering the addiction grant program known as the Overdose Data to Action Program (OD2A). “OD2A funding has been a critical piece of the decrease we’ve seen in overdose deaths,” said Chrissie Juliano, executive director of the Big Cities Health Coalition, an organization that includes thirty-five urban public health departments. She added, “Any changes to funding levels would be catastrophic.”
July 17, 2025 – The Wall Street Journal reported that a collection of letters gifted to convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein for his fiftieth birthday contained a note and signed drawing by Donald Trump. The drawing depicted an outline of a naked woman with Trump’s signature drawn across the woman’s waist, meant to mimic the appearance of pubic hair. The drawing included a note that read, “Happy Birthday—and may every day be another wonderful secret.” Trump denied writing the letter. “I never wrote a picture in my life. I don’t draw pictures of women. It’s not my language. It’s not my words.” He later announced he was suing the Journal. The New York Times reported that, for years, Trump was a “high-profile doodler” and even sold his sketches at auctions.
July 18, 2025 – Trump signed the GENIUS Act into law. The law is meant to set new regulations and consumer protections for cryptocurrency and to bolster consumer confidence in the industry. At the bill signing, Trump told crypto industry executives, “This signing is a massive validation of your hard work and your pioneering spirit. For years, you were mocked and dismissed and counted out.” He then added, “I also did it for the votes.” The crypto industry spent heavily to help Trump win the 2024 election. Critics of the law cited how the legislation will personally benefit Trump, who owns a majority stake in one of the largest stablecoins in the world. A report by the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs said, “The bill will turbocharge President Trump’s ability to benefit from his crypto deals.”
July 18, 2025 – Congress approved a bill to cancel all federal funding for public broadcasting programs, including PBS and NPR. Passage of the bill was fueled by President Trump’s threat to support primary challenges to any Republicans who opposed the bill. Senator Edward J. Markey of Massachusetts, a longtime advocate of public media, said, “When Trump sets a loyalty test today, Republicans fall in line.” He added, “It’s all part of a plan to intimidate and control the media and how they cover his presidency.” PBS president and CEO Paula Kerger said that the Senate’s approval of the package “goes against the will of the American people.” NPR’s CEO Katherine Maher said, “Nearly three in four Americans say they rely on their public radio stations for alerts and news for their public safety.”
July 21, 2025 – Following The Wall Street Journal’s reporting that Trump had sent a lewd birthday card to Jeffrey Epstein and Trump’s subsequent lawsuit against the newspaper, the White House barred the Journal from its press pool covering Trump’s upcoming trip to Scotland. “As the appeals court confirmed, The Wall Street Journal or any other news outlet are not guaranteed special access to cover President Trump,” said Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt. “Due to The Wall Street Journal’s fake and defamatory conduct, they will not be one of the thirteen outlets on board.” In response, Weijia Jiang, president of the White House Correspondents’ Association, said, “This attempt by the White House to punish a media outlet whose coverage it does not like is deeply troubling, and it defies the First Amendment. Government retaliation against news outlets based on the content of their reporting should concern all who value free speech and an independent media.”
July 21, 2025 – An analysis by The Washington Post found that Trump officials were accused of defying approximately one-third of judges who ruled against the administration. As part of their analysis, the Post found that judges ruled against the administration in 165 lawsuits and that the administration was accused of defying court orders in fifty-seven of those cases through noncompliance, giving false or misleading information, withholding evidence, and creating pretext to go around the court orders. “The judiciary is being put under siege,” said Robert J. Cindrich, a retired judge who helped form the Article III Coalition to push back on attacks against the courts.
July 22, 2025 – Three Venezuelan men, who were deported from the US to El Salvador’s notorious Terrorism and Confinement Center and then subsequently released, said they were repeatedly beaten, robbed, and denied access to lawyers, cleaning and sanitation products, and timely medical treatment. “I practically felt like an animal,” said Julio González Jr., who described his experience as “a horror movie.” “The officials treated us like we were the most dangerous criminals on Earth… They shaved our heads, they would insult us, they would take us around like dogs.” Added Angel Blanco Marin, “With time, we lost all our fear because we were practically dead people living. We felt dead.”
July 23, 2025 – Maryland Governor Wes Moore revealed that the Trump administration denied his request for FEMA disaster relief after historic flooding in May damaged more than two hundred Maryland homes. “These communities demonstrated a clear need through FEMA’s own process, and Maryland will appeal the decision to seek all available resources to support the recovery efforts,” said Moore. The week before Moore’s statement, FEMA granted requests for disaster relief to West Virginia, Kentucky, Indiana, and Michigan—all states that Trump won in the 2020 presidential election.
July 23, 2025 – The Justice Department announced the formation of a task force to investigate unsubstantiated claims made by President Trump about former President Barack Obama’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. Hours before the announcement, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard released a document that she claimed undermined the conclusion of the intelligence agencies that Russia favored Trump in 2016. Gabbard accused the Obama administration of a “yearslong coup and treasonous conspiracy” against Trump. “The evidence that we have found and that we have released directly points to President Obama leading the manufacturing of this intelligence assessment,” said Gabbard. “There are multiple pieces of evidence and intelligence that confirm that fact.” None of the documents released by Gabbard have shown any evidence of criminal wrongdoing.
July 23, 2025 – The Wall Street Journal reported that Attorney General Pam Bondi told Trump in May that his name was in the Epstein files multiple times, directly contradicting Trump’s claim the week prior to the report that Bondi had never told him his name was in the files. Two days after the Journal article was published, when a reporter asked Trump whether he was briefed about his name appearing in the Epstein files, Trump again denied that Bondi had ever informed him: “No, I was never briefed. No.”
July 25, 2025 – In a Newsmax interview, Trump refused to rule out a pardon for convicted sex trafficker and Jeffrey Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell, who is currently serving a twenty-year prison term. “I’m allowed to do it. But nobody’s asked me to do it. I know nothing about it. I don’t know anything about the case, but I have the right to do it. I have the right to give pardons,” Trump said. In 2021, Maxwell was convicted on charges of sex trafficking of a minor, transporting a minor with intent to engage in criminal sexual activity, and conspiracy. In an effort to contain backlash over the Trump administration’s handling of the Epstein files, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche spent two days interviewing Maxwell, who was subsequently moved to a lower-security prison.
July 25, 2025 – Darren Beattie, who was fired as a White House speechwriter during the first Trump administration after attending a gathering of white nationalists, was appointed the acting president of the US Institute of Peace. His responsibilities will include “messaging to counter terrorism and violent extremism.” In 2016, Beattie appeared on a panel with Peter Brimelow, founder of the anti-immigrant website VDare, which the Southern Poverty Law Center has labeled a “hate website,” and he has frequently promoted white nationalist views online. In a social media post last year, Beattie wrote, “Competent white men must be in charge if you want things to work.”
July 26, 2025 – The Washington Post reported that DOGE was using a new AI tool to cut federal regulations with the goal of slashing 50 percent of regulatory mandates by the beginning of President Trump’s second year in office. The “DOGE AI Deregulation Decision Tool,” which was already used to analyze regulations at the Department of Housing and Urban Development, will reportedly analyze 200,000 federal regulations in a matter of weeks and determine which are no longer required by law. As the Post journalists noted, “It’s unclear whether a new, untested technology could make mistakes in its attempts to analyze federal regulations typically put in place for a reason.”
July 28, 2025 – White House officials confirmed plans to destroy millions of dollars’ worth of taxpayer-funded contraceptives meant for women in low-income countries. A stockpile of family-planning products—including IUDs, implants, and pills—worth $9.7 million has been stuck at a warehouse in Belgium since the administration dismantled the US Agency for International Development (USAID). The contraceptives were intended for girls and women, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. “Destroying valuable medical items that were already paid for by US taxpayers does nothing to combat waste or improve efficiency,” said Avril Benoît, CEO of the US offices of Doctors Without Borders. “This administration is willing to burn birth control and let food supplies rot, risking people’s health and lives to push a political agenda.”
July 29, 2025 – The Trump administration proposed revoking a scientific finding that has long been the basis for US action to regulate greenhouse gas emissions and fight climate change. The proposed Environmental Protection Agency rule would rescind a 2009 declaration that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases endanger public health and welfare. Speaking at a car dealership in Indiana, EPA administrator Lee Zeldin said, “Repealing the finding will be the largest deregulatory action in the history of America.” In response, Christy Goldfuss, executive director of the Natural Resources Defense Council, stated, “As Americans reel from deadly floods and heat waves, the Trump administration is trying to argue that the emissions turbocharging these disasters are not a threat. It boggles the mind and endangers the nation’s safety and welfare.”
July 30, 2025 – Trump announced the launch of a new program that will allow Americans to share personal health data and medical records across health systems with apps run by private tech companies. The president promised the new program would make it easier to access health records and monitor wellness. “The existing systems are often slow, costly, and incompatible with one another, but with today’s announcement, we take a major step to bring health care into the digital age.” Google, Amazon, and UnitedHealth Group have agreed to share patient data in the new system. The Trump administration has already shared highly personal data, including Medicaid information and home addresses to ICE. Patient advocates worry about how their health information could be used to harm them and their families. Jeffrey Chester, at the Center for Digital Democracy, said, “This scheme is an open door for the further use and monetization of sensitive and personal health information.”
July 31, 2025 – The president signed an executive order imposing tariffs ranging from 10 percent to 41 percent on imports from dozens of US trading partners, including India, Taiwan, South Africa, and Switzerland. Brazil’s tariff rate was set at 10 percent, but a recent order signed by Trump placed a 40 percent tariff on some Brazilian goods, to punish the country for prosecuting its former president, Jair Bolsonaro. The new rates unleashed a fresh round of uncertainty for dozens of countries. It also raised fears of inflation. “There’s one person who can afford to be cavalier about the uncertainty that he’s creating, and that’s Donald Trump,” said Rachel West, a senior fellow on labor policy at the Century Foundation. “The rest of Americans are already paying the price for that uncertainty.”
Delve into the list more for yourself.
Meanwhile, Happy New Year. I hope it turns out better than 2025, and that by the end of it, democrats will have taken over control of both houses of Congress and are in the process of investigating and impeaching Trump, this time with a conviction in the Senate. Remove his dumbass from office, and let’s get back to building a better democracy, a more perfect union.
Annum novum faustum felicem!
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