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🌊 Washington's Loneliest Man
A review of this week's stories plus a deep dive into the most interesting one
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We nearly drowned in news this week. Let’s run through the days:
On Monday, Trump announces steel tariffs, orders an end to penny production, and begins shutting down the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
A day later, his DoJ orders a halt to the enforcement of anti-bribery legislation and the prosecution of Eric Adams, while Trump gives Hamas five days to free all hostages. Amid this, Elon Musk somehow finds the time to make a $97B offer for OpenAI.
Okay – Wednesday: Tulsi Gabbard is confirmed, the federal government sues New York’s governor and other officials, and Trump announces that he has begun negotiating with Vladimir Putin to end the Ukraine war. European countries condemn the move; Russia’s stock market climbs.
Thursday: RFK Jr. is confirmed; Hamas says it will free hostages, avoiding another round of war; and an Afghan asylum seeker drives a car into 30 Germans, Germany’s third apparent terror attack by an immigrant in 10 weeks. At the end of the day, the top federal prosecutor in Manhattan resigns over the Trump Administration’s interference in the corruption case against Eric Adams.
And Friday: Eric Adams’ lead prosecutor refuses to enact the administration’s orders to drop the charges against Adams. He resigns, writing, “No system of ordered liberty can allow the Government to use the carrot of dismissing charges, or the stick of threatening to bring them again, to induce an elected official to support its policy objectives.” The situation sets up a major legal showdown less than four weeks into the new administration.
We’ll dive into several of the above stories next week. Yet it was one story, not mentioned here, that we found most interesting: How Senator Mitch McConnell went from being Washington’s most powerful Republican to perhaps its loneliest.
That story is the one we tell today.
The rest of this report is for paid subscribers, who fund our journalism. If you start a two-week free trial today, you’ll be automatically entered to win a free year. Once you sign up, you can access all of our articles here!
Our question for you today: Is the “establishment” done, or will it have a comeback? Will Trump actually shake it up? Should he? Very curious to hear your thoughts on this one. You can reply here to let us know.
Also, in case you missed it, here are our reports this week:
And a look at the panic in Washington, DC
We’ll be back soon with a deep-dive into the legal philosophy underpinning Trump’s actions as president. Until then, enjoy the weekend!
–Max and Max
RocaNews co-founders