Dear Leader Trump Wants Americans to Celebrate Him, Not Their Country, on Its 250th Anniversary: An Executive Watch Roundup
Our late-June selection of the president's latest and greatest assaults on the rule of law
The Institute for the Study of Modern Authoritarianism (ISMA), the parent organization of The UnPopulist, launched Executive Watch early in Trump’s second term. It has been meticulously documenting this White House’s illicit actions since then.
Below is our biweekly selection of new entries. Bookmark this page, which contains a chronological scroll of the abuses. And also this post, which sorts and lists them under our 5 “P” categories:
After reading the following entries, tell us: Which of these abuses is the most troubling, and why?
June 16, 2026
The Trump White House Seriously Weighed Suspending Habeas Corpus and Invoking the Insurrection Act
Category: Power Consolidation
Newly disclosed internal memoranda show that during the early months of his second term, Trump’s White House gave serious consideration to two of the most extreme assertions of executive power imaginable: suspending the writ of habeas corpus to detain immigrants, and invoking the Insurrection Act to put the military on American streets against protesters. Deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, Trump’s deportation czar, pushed to strip immigrants of their right to challenge their detention in court, and Vice President JD Vance argued for invoking the Insurrection Act to quell unrest in Minnesota after federal agents killed critical care nurse Alex Pretti. That neither was ultimately carried out is cold comfort—the deliberations show how close the administration came to crossing lines the country has held for generations.
The New York Times reports:
Suspending habeas corpus was one of two radical ideas Mr. Miller had been pushing that alarmed Mr. Scharf [an arch-conservative lawyer serving as the White House staff secretary]. The other was invoking the Insurrection Act to deploy the military to enforce the law on American streets as protests grew against deportation sweeps. …
“The history of habeas corpus dates back to the very dawn of English common law,” he recorded in his memo to Ms. Wiles [Trump’s Chief of Staff]. “Denial of habeas corpus rights was a key grievance underlying the American Revolution, and the right to apply to the federal courts for habeas review dates to the beginning of the republic.” …
In the case of the Insurrection Act, Vice President JD Vance pushed to invoke it just days after federal agents shot and killed Alex Pretti, a Minnesota critical care nurse who was protesting the administration’s immigration policies. …
“The Insurrection Act serves as a break-the-glass exception to the traditional, general prohibition on the use of the military in the domestic setting,” Mr. Scharf wrote in the memo, dated Oct. 29, tracing the history of its use.
It is a measure of how far this administration’s instincts run that suspending habeas corpus and deploying the military domestically were live options, debated on the merits at the highest levels of the White House. The constraints that stopped them were not the president’s own restraint but the prospect of losing in court—and the fact that a handful of advisers still see a downside to such measures. That the guardrail held this time is no guarantee it will the next.
June 15, 2026
Trump Turns White House Into Staging Area for UFC Fight
Category: Political Corruption
For his 80th birthday, Trump combined his two favorite things—celebrating himself and gaudy spectacles—in a UFC event on the White House lawn. Whatever one thinks of the UFC—or its Trump-enabling CEO Dana White—a cage fight is hardly appropriate symbolism for the land of the free.
The Guardian reports:
Fighters walked through the White House, bathed in warm amber light in the dark night sky, and down a military honor-guard corridor of flags and rifles, with the south portico repurposed as a grand entrance. Trump and White made the walk together, cameras trailing, before reaching a balcony where the Zac Brown Band played and military aircraft passed low overhead, which Trump saluted. They walked a red carpet to their seats in the front row. …
Sponsor logos on the mat included Polymarket; the offshore crypto casino Stake; a tourism campaign for the once-ostracized Riyadh; and Bud Light. The event was broadcast on Paramount+, the streaming service now controlled by the billionaire Ellison family, whose patriarch Larry happens to be a close ally of Trump. The Paramount Skydance CEO, David Ellison, was in attendance, and so was Meta’s CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, and Crypto.com’s CEO, Kris Marszalek. …
Some fighters were due bonuses in USD1, a stablecoin from World Liberty Financial, a Trump family venture and official sponsor of the card. (A White House spokesman said there was no conflict of interest, since the relevant assets sit in a trust run by the president’s children.)
Trump can display his poor taste at Mar-a-Lago to his heart’s content. But at the people’s house? The Founders would have been appalled.
June 15, 2026
‘Great Leader’ Announces Humiliating Peace Deal With Iran
Category: Policy Illegality
Last week we crossed the 100-day mark of Donald Trump’s foolish and strategically incompetent war of choice with Iran. Now, the administration is announcing yet another settlement that will leave the U.S., and most of the rest of the world, in a worse situation than before the war.
The Bulwark explains:
The text of the U.S.-Iran Memorandum of Understanding was digitally signed on Monday. But it still has not been released. Until that happens—and, frankly, even after it does—both sides will be spinning wildly. U.S. officials will claim Iran has made specific concessions on its nuclear program. Iranian media outlets have and will allude to massive sanctions relief.
But the overall framework of the MOU is clear on certain points: The ceasefire will be extended by sixty days; the Strait of Hormuz will be reopened in both directions; Iran will receive some sanctions relief; and negotiations will begin on restrictions on Iran’s nuclear program. …
For the United States, getting the Strait of Hormuz open was the most important outcome. Already oil prices are responding with a modest decline. … Of course, the strait was open before the war. Now we are paying to reopen it with sanctions relief. And Iran will attempt to derive additional revenue by imposing transit fees. Worse, Iran has taken a theoretical point of leverage and turned it into a very real and powerful one, imposing costs across the global economy that it now knows will rattle President Trump.
This cannot be understood as anything other than a disastrous and unnecessary own-goal for Donald Trump. He has acted directly against two of his biggest campaign promises—not involving the U.S. in foreign wars, and improving the economy—and has, additionally, further undermined the America-led world order. Getting out before he does even more damage is probably the right decision, but this whole mess is entirely self-inflicted.
June 15, 2026
Trump Rebrands the Nation’s 250th Birthday as a ‘TRUMP RALLY’
Category: Political Corruption
The Fourth of July marking 250 years of American independence is, by design, a nonpartisan civic occasion—a celebration of the country, not of whoever happens to hold office. Trump has decided it should be about him. The morning after his UFC birthday spectacle on the White House lawn, he announced that the federal government’s marquee semiquincentennial event on the National Mall would double as a campaign-style rally in his own honor.
CNN reports:
President Donald Trump said Monday that America’s 250th anniversary celebration on the National Mall next month will include a “TRUMP RALLY” on Independence Day.
“On July 4th, at The Lincoln Memorial and Washington Monument, in beautiful and safe Washington D.C., we are going to host the most spectacular TRUMP RALLY of them all, a ‘TRIBUTE TO AMERICA,’” Trump wrote on Truth Social. …
His announcement was notable as events marking signing of the Declaration of Independence are typically meant to be nonpartisan and focused on the country writ large, rather than representing one political party or president. Trump has previously drawn criticism for using his office to advance his own personal interests or making himself the star of what would otherwise be apolitical celebrations. He has also loomed large over celebrations of America’s semiquincentennial. After several artists pulled out of a concert series for the “Great American State Fair,” for instance, Trump made himself the host of an opening ceremony celebrating America’s 250th birthday.
The rally is of a piece with how Trump has commandeered the entire anniversary. Congress chartered a nonpartisan commission, America250, back in 2016 and appropriated $150 million for the commemoration. But after Trump created his own White House-controlled operation, Freedom 250, the Interior Department steered $100 million to the president's outfit and just $50 million to the congressional commission—which has so far received only $25 million. Watchdog groups have sued, calling it an unlawful diversion of taxpayer money from the body Congress actually designated. A quarter-millennium of American self-government, in other words, is being repackaged as a backdrop for one man’s pyrotechnics and applause—and paid for, in part, with funds meant to keep the celebration everyone's rather than his.
June 15, 2026
Trump DOJ Targets California’s Anti-Trump Governor and a Prospective Democratic Presidential Candidate, Gavin Newsom
Category: Presidential Retribution
Gavin Newsom has accused Donald Trump of adding him and his wife to the presidential “hit list” of political enemies, and reporting confirms Newsom’s accusation that Trump’s DOJ is investigating him.
MS NOW has the story:
A federal prosecutor’s office based in Sacramento is investigating California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s wife for potential tax fraud and evasion, MS NOW has confirmed with two sources familiar with the probe.
The probe stems back to early 2025, and is just one of several investigations that have encircled Newsom, his office and his family, the people said. The Justice Department’s public integrity section had been investigating for months potential crimes involving the tax filings of Newsom’s wife, Jennifer Siebel Newsom, and had teamed up with the U.S. attorney’s office in the Eastern District of California, based in Sacramento, the people said.
The outspoken governor announced the probe Monday, accusing President Donald Trump of again using the agency to target his foes. “Today, my wife & I joined Donald Trump’s hit list. He has directed his Department of Justice to investigate us. … We have nothing to hide,” Newsom said on X.
Of course, we do not know for sure that Newsom and his wife have not committed any crimes. But whether the facts bear that out or not, it’s indisputable that what is driving actions like this is pure political animus. That is not how the justice system works under law-abiding administrations.
June 12, 2026
Trump’s FBI Raids an Ohio Voter Registration Group in Its Latest Bid to Suppress the Vote
Category: Power Consolidation
With the midterms approaching in a key swing state, the FBI has raided the offices of the Ohio Organizing Collaborative—a pro-democracy coalition that registers voters and organizes for progressive causes—and searched the homes of its leaders and staff. It is one more escalation in the Justice Department’s campaign to turn federal law enforcement into a tool for intimidating the people who help Americans vote.
Democracy Docket reports:
The FBI raided the offices of the Ohio Organizing Collaborative (OOC), a pro-democracy organization that helps register voters and organizes political activities for Democratic and progressive causes in the state, MSNOW reports.
The bureau also searched the homes of OOC leaders and staff members. Agents appeared to be seeking information as part of an ongoing investigation into alleged voter fraud, though the bureau has in recent months opened similar investigations based on conspiracy theories. …
The raids represent a major escalation in the Department of Justice’s attack on voting ahead of the midterm elections. They are also a continuation of the Trump administration’s efforts to crack down on pro-voting and progressive organizations. …
The Brennan Center for Justice, which has worked with OOC on pro-voting lawsuits in the past, said the raids appear “to be an outrageous fishing expedition, an attempt to intimidate people working for democracy in our communities and country.”
The pretext is familiar: an avalanche of “voter fraud” referrals—here, some 1,200 cases handed over by Ohio’s Republican secretary of state, along with the registration data of nearly 8 million Ohioans—recycled into armed raids on the very groups that get eligible citizens onto the rolls.
The Constitution assigns the running of elections to the states precisely to keep the federal executive from putting its thumb on the scale. Sending agents to search the homes of voter-registration organizers, months before the midterms, in a state expected to be close, is exactly the kind of interference that design was meant to prevent.
This is on track with what Andy Craig pointed out in this space previously: “Donald Trump and his administration are waging an unprecedented, multi-pronged attack on this year’s midterm congressional elections. Even compared to his attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election, the scope and severity of this assault is unprecedented.”
June 11, 2026
Trump Asks His Congressional Lackeys for Symbolic Expungement of His Two Impeachments
Category: Political Corruption
Donald Trump continues his efforts—including handing out pardons and removing documents from the DOJ website—to rewrite the history of his first term. The push gained new momentum in April, after the administration published documents related to his first impeachment that Trump’s allies claimed undermined the witnesses against him. Now he is pressuring Republican lawmakers to symbolically vote to expunge his two impeachments from the record.
The Wall Street Journal has the story:
President Trump and his allies have discussed pushing lawmakers to pass a resolution aimed at voiding his first-term impeachments, according to people familiar with the matter.
The resolution would allow Trump to claim a symbolic victory on a matter that has dogged him since his first term, part of a broader effort to burnish his presidential legacy. It would have little legal significance, however, because the Constitution provides no procedure for undoing an impeachment, according to experts. …
“It should be done because I did nothing wrong,” Trump said when asked about the resolution in a phone call this week with The Wall Street Journal. “It was a rigged deal—it was a whole rigged situation.”
Speaker Mike Johnson—who has already confirmed he discussed the resolution with Trump and his legal allies—seems inclined to indulge him rather than tell the president there is no constitutional mechanism for what he wants. What the Dear Leader wants, the Dear Leader gets from Trump’s Own Party.
June 8, 2026
Kash Patel’s Hunt for a ‘Deep State’ Conspiracy Against Trump Wrecked Careers and Turned Judges Against the Justice Department
Category: Presidential Retribution
FBI Director Kash Patel’s obsession with uncovering a “deep state” plot against Donald Trump has, over the past year, hardened into a defining feature of the Justice Department under Trump 2.0—one built not on evidence but on the president’s list of enemies. Patel calls it “the grand conspiracy case.” Career investigators who examined his purported evidence found nothing of the kind.
The New York Times reports:
It was an investigation long sought by Kash Patel, the F.B.I. director, and it was announced not in court papers, but through a haze of cigar smoke on Joe Rogan’s podcast in early June of last year.
Mr. Patel’s prized criminal inquiry, known as “the grand conspiracy case,” sought to tie together actions by a group of people that President Trump blamed for various investigations into him, going back to the examination of possible ties between his 2016 campaign and Russia, and extending into events surrounding the 2020 election and the criminal prosecutions of Mr. Trump in 2023 and 2024. In the view of Mr. Trump and his supporters, there was a “deep state” cabal that had sought across multiple administrations and agencies to bring him down. …
To Mr. Patel, those documents, found in government burn bags — large brown paper bags with red and white stripes used to store papers designated for destruction — justified a sweeping investigation of former officials. To the former officials and the career investigators who looked at the evidence, the papers in the burn bags were nothing like a smoking gun.
An FBI director announcing a criminal investigation of the president’s enemies on a podcast, built on the contents of trash bags marked for destruction, is a grotesque inversion of how law enforcement is supposed to work. The point was never to follow evidence to a charge; it was to manufacture a charge to fit a predetermined list of targets. That the effort largely failed in court is no consolation: the damage to the department’s independence, and to the people whose careers were destroyed along the way, is already done.
June 8, 2026
Trump Rewards His Personal Lawyer and Toady, Todd Blanche, With AG Nomination
Category: Power Consolidation
Todd Blanche, Trump’s personal lawyer, has built his reputation as someone willing to do anything Donald Trump wants, no matter how absurd, unethical, or unjust. When Trump fired Pam Bondi as Attorney General in April—reportedly out of frustration that the department was not moving fast enough to prosecute his enemies—it was commonly understood that Blanche’s performance as acting AG was simply an audition for the full-time role.
The Guardian, after listing a series of aggressive actions Blanche oversaw as acting AG—vacating the Proud Boys’ seditious-conspiracy convictions; charging the Southern Poverty Law Center, which investigates and exposes hate groups and is a thorn for the MAGA right, with wire fraud; reviving a case against former FBI director James Comey; and personally signing an agreement giving Trump and his family immunity from tax audits—explains:
All of those actions have left little doubt that Blanche and the justice department will do whatever it takes to serve Trump’s interests.
“Todd Blanche has never stopped acting as Donald Trump’s personal lawyer. He has used his high position at the department to enter into a corrupt deal with the president and his family, advance vindictive prosecutions, illegally fire career employees, smear whistleblowers, and attack the judiciary,” said Stacey Young, a former justice department lawyer who now leads Justice Connection, which advocates on behalf of former department attorneys. … “A vote to confirm him as attorney general represents a rejection of the rule of law.” …
“As to whether or not I want this job, I did not ask for this job. I love working for President Trump, it’s the greatest honor of a lifetime,” he said in April, shortly after being named the acting attorney general. “If he chooses to nominate somebody else and asks me to go do something else, I will say, ‘Thank you very much. I love you, sir.’ I don’t have any goals or aspirations beyond that.”
As in any autocratic regime, sycophancy and a complete lack of personal or professional ethics in following the leader’s orders is the fast-track to career advancement. Blanche’s suck-up act has placed him one step closer to what he so clearly wanted, and it is probably too much to hope for enough Senate Republicans to find a backbone and oppose his nomination.
June 6, 2026
Trump Issues Yet Another Pardon, This Time to Former Republican Rep Convicted of Insider Trading
Category: Political Corruption
President Trump’s abuse of the pardon power is continuing, with the latest pardon going to a former Indiana congressman found guilty of insider trading. For Trump, the pardon power has wide utility: to protect political allies; reward behavior he would like to encourage; and incentivize people to be useful to Trump, either personally or politically, to improve their odds of receiving a pardon.
The New York Times reports:
President Trump has pardoned Stephen E. Buyer, a former Republican representative from Indiana who was convicted of insider trading in 2023. …
Mr. Buyer was sentenced in 2023 to 22 months in prison after being convicted on four counts of securities fraud. The authorities had filed civil and criminal charges against him for trading stock on information about two mergers that he had received from clients of the consulting firm he formed after leaving Congress in 2011, according to the complaint. …
In its complaint against Mr. Buyer, the S.E.C. said that he had learned of T-Mobile’s plan to acquire Sprint from an executive from T-Mobile, one of his clients. Mr. Buyer then purchased $568,000 in Sprint securities, which rose in value by more than $107,000 after the merger became public, the S.E.C. said.
In another deal in 2019, Mr. Buyer learned from one of his clients, the professional services firm Guidehouse, that it would acquire Navigant, a competitor. Mr. Buyer bought more than $1 million of stock in Navigant, which he sold after the acquisition was announced, making a profit of more than $227,000, the S.E.C. said.
One can question what counts as insider trading. But insider trading appears to be one of the Trump family and administration’s favorite pastimes, so this pardon isn’t exactly surprising. The timing is its own tell: even as House Republicans advance a watered-down bill nominally restricting lawmakers from trading on inside information, the president is using his clemency power to wipe away the conviction of a congressman who did exactly that. It is the latest demonstration of Trump’s repeated use of the pardon power in corrupt, self-serving ways.
© The UnPopulist, 2026
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I can't think of anything more troubling than even considering the suspension of Habeas Corpus.
Every generation believes its institutions are permanent. History suggests otherwise.