Summarizing Trump’s Second Term Moves—Bigly!

December 5, 2025

Day of Trump's Second Term

A statue of President Donald Trump and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein holding hands has returned to the National Mall after it was removed by the National Park Service last week. Called “Best Friends Forever,” the statue shows Trump and Epstein each with a foot kicked back and a hand flailing into the air, as well
Employee messages at a Washington liberal advocacy group no longer linger on the office’s internal chat platform. Instead, they are deleted after seven days, to better protect communications from being subpoenaed as part of a government investigation. Other groups are mulling shifting some of their operations from nonprofit arms to corporate entities so they can
Republican Sen. Mike Lee offered some colorful commentary Wednesday night about Democrats and the government shutdown. “It’s going to harm them,” the Utah senator said. “Because Russ Vought, the OMB director, has been dreaming about this moment, preparing this moment, since puberty.” He added: “This is going to be the Democrats’ worst nightmare.” Lee was
President Donald Trump has determined that the US is in an “armed conflict” with the drug cartels his administration has designated as terrorist organizations, according to a notice the Pentagon provided to Congress on Wednesday obtained by CNN. The notice also says the president has determined that smugglers for the cartels are “unlawful combatants,” and
The Trump administration memo that landed in federal agency in-boxes last week wasn’t subtle. As Washington careened toward a government shutdown, there would be nothing normal about the agency contingency planning which has become commonplace in more than a decade of partisan warfare that’s consumed government funding deadlines. Instead, Office of Management and Budget Director
When President Donald Trump announced he was sending troops to “protect war-ravaged” Portland, his administration cited the need to protect Immigration and Customs Enforcement facilities from persistent demonstrations. But behind the scenes, White House officials say, Trump also had another goal in mind: he wanted to use the military to advance his federal crime crackdown
President Donald Trump has bestowed upon the nation of Qatar a remarkable security guarantee that could include coming to its defense militarily. In an executive order dated earlier this week, Trump declared that the United States will regard any attack on Qatar’s territory, sovereignty or critical infrastructure “as a threat to the peace and security
A version of this story appeared in CNN’s What Matters newsletter. To get it in your inbox, sign up for free here . Top American military brass looked on in silence Tuesday as they sat for an extensive lecture from US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, who wants to be known as the Secretary of
President Donald Trump has signed an executive order for the US to guarantee the security of Qatar — a significant commitment to a non-NATO, Arab ally. “The United States shall regard any armed attack on the territory, sovereignty, or critical infrastructure of the State of Qatar as a threat to the peace and security of
CNN  —  In the hours after Iran launched a missile attack on a US base in Qatar, President Donald Trump and a group of his top diplomatic and security officials worked furiously behind-the-scenes to try to broker a peace deal to end the conflict between Iran and Israel. While Trump communicated directly with Israeli Prime
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