Week 8: Power, Pretense, and Punitive Moves
Courts, Congress, and foreign skies all felt the reach of a lawless administration
Reading Time: 10 mins.
Introduction
Week 8 laid the regime bare: courts bent, Congress folded, and bombs fell overseas. Mahmoud Khalil’s reprieve showed the law could still throw up a speed bump, but by week’s end, Trump steamrolled a federal injunction and deported hundreds anyway. Congress wrote him a blank check, foreign leaders lined up for staged diplomacy, and when blocked at home, he turned to airstrikes abroad. The pattern screamed through every day: law bent, power unrestrained.
Here’s what Week 8 looked like day by day.
“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”
— George Santayana, Spanish-American philosopher, essayist, poet, and novelist
TL;DR
Monday, March 10: Khalil’s deportation was frozen — a pause, not a stop, in the machine.
Tuesday, March 11: Lawmakers surrendered oversight, funding Trump’s crackdowns with no strings attached.
Wednesday, March 12: Trump paraded Irish Taoiseach Micheál Martin for optics while tightening control at home.
Thursday, March 13: A handshake with NATO’s Mark Rutte fronted the day; behind the curtain, Trump ordered ISIS leader Abdallah Makki Muslih al-Rifai killed.
Friday, March 14: South Africa’s ambassador expelled, Thai officials banned, while a sweeping new travel ban took shape.
Saturday, March 15: A judge shot down Trump’s grab for the Alien Enemies Act; hours later, U.S. bombs killed 31 in Yemen.
Sunday, March 16: 261 deported to El Salvador despite an injunction. The law was rubble, power the only thing left standing.
Monday, March 10 — Courts Bent, Cabinet Tilted
The Senate confirmed Lori Chavez-DeRemer as Labor Secretary — an unusual pick praised by labor groups, a fig leaf of credibility in a Cabinet built for corporations. Kristi Noem swore in Sean M. Curran to run the Secret Service, deepening Trump’s loyalty lock. And then, a crack: Judge Jesse M. Furman froze the deportation of Mahmoud Khalil. It wasn’t justice, only delay. But in a regime addicted to speed, even delay was resistance.
Tuesday, March 11 — Congress Folded
The House rammed through a spending bill with no checks, no oversight. They called it pragmatism; it was capitulation. Congress folded, funneling cash into deportations, bans, and bombs. Trump got everything. The people got nothing.
Wednesday, March 12 — Cameras Over Substance
Trump paraded Irish Taoiseach Micheál Martin through the White House. Flashbulbs, handshakes, smiles — theater masking rot. While the cameras clicked, repression at home ground on.
Thursday, March 13 — Diplomacy Masked Force
Another handshake, this time with NATO’s Mark Rutte. Polished optics, empty talk. Offstage, the truth: Trump ordered U.S. forces to kill Abdallah Makki Muslih al-Rifai, ISIS’s Chief of Global Operations. Diplomacy for the feed. Violence for the record.
Friday, March 14 — Outrage on Cue
The Senate passed the spending bill without any checks, averting a government shutdown. Abroad, Rubio branded South Africa’s ambassador persona non grata for calling Trump a white-supremacist enabler, then slapped visa bans on Thai officials over Uyghur deportations. Righteousness abroad, repression at home.
Trump used a DOJ speech as cover while his administration quietly unveiled a draft blacklist of 43 countries — the blueprint for another sweeping travel ban. The mask ripped off: borders closing, critics punished, liberty gutted for show.
Saturday, March 15 — Blocked, Then Bombing
Trump clawed at the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to brand Venezuelan gang members as enemies of the state. Judge James Boasberg torched the move. Denied a weapon at home, Trump found one abroad — airstrikes on Yemen killed at least 31. Blocked one hour, bombing the next.
Sunday, March 16 — Courts Defied Outright
The administration deported 261 alleged gang members to El Salvador, plowing through a federal injunction. The excuse — they had “already left” — was a paper-thin lie. Khalil’s reprieve looked like a fluke. By Sunday, the law was smashed, power the only thing left standing.
The Week in Trump’s Regime
Week 8 revealed the core truth: when challenged, escalate; when blocked, pivot; when restrained, smash through. A single judge bought Khalil time, but days later hundreds were deported in contempt of the law. Congress surrendered oversight, feeding the machine. Abroad, the regime cloaked itself in human-rights outrage while drafting travel bans and dropping bombs.
This was not governance. It was performance — handshakes, expulsions, strikes — all staged to enforce one lesson: law bent, power unrestrained.
Next Week
Week 9’s Chronicle will pick up where this leaves off: a regime still in motion, its next collision with law, power, and resistance yet to be tallied.
If this piece shook something in you, please subscribe and share, but also talk to your family, friends, and neighbors. This fight to save democracy ends when people stop engaging.