Dry Run

One of the ways to interpret the Trump administration’s flurry of early moves is that they are part of a dry run, a test of how much chaos each pronouncement causes.

Yesterday’s sudden announcement rescinding the previous day’s freeze on all federal aid payments is a case in point. Since there was a great deal of chaos, the White House backed down — for now.

But in so doing the Trump team gained some valuable intel about how easily they can freak out the population, elected officials and the media. So now they can file those insights away for use at a future time when the specific goal may be to deliberately create chaos as part of a larger strategy involving the centralization of executive power.

Trump is set on gaining absolute power. He doesn't care how much fear and panic his moves cause others, in fact he intends to use that fear and panic in his drive to establish himself as an autocrat. To quote Joe Biden, which I hate to do, this is not hyperbole.

If I am reading Trump’s behavior correctly, and I believe I am, we are witnessing a dry run for how to suspend the constitution during an upcoming, unspecified national “emergency.” Trump is probing for weak spots in the government bureaucracy and testing the various levers at his disposal to see which option will best help accomplish his ultimate objective.

So that’s why it is my opinion that what we’ve seen to date is a dry run.

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To develop an effective strategy to counteract Trump’s drive for absolute power, pro-democracy Americans need to get out in front of the firestorms he is constantly creating that are diverting public attention from his ultimate goal.

The difficulty of fighting multiple wildfires simultaneously is indeed an appropriate metaphor for what faces Democrats or anyone else in the opposition at the moment. As we saw in L.A. recently, officials could not make much progress toward containment until they could establish burn lines at the perimeters of the multiple fires and pull together huge amounts of resources from all over the place to finish the job.

What complicates this metaphor when we apply it to Trump is that he is the one setting the fires.

HEADLINES:

• ‘No survivors' after plane, helicopter crash into Potomac River (NBC)

• Hamas frees 8 more hostages but Israel puts prisoner release on hold after a chaotic handover (AP)

• White House rescinds federal aid freeze (CNN)

• While a federal judge on Tuesday temporarily blocked President Donald Trump's move to freeze all federal grants, loans and financial assistance, this is just opening salvo in what could be a long court battle over presidential power. [HuffPost]

• Trump’s federal spending freeze is straight out of Project 2025 (Politico)

• Fork in the Road (OPM)

• What to know about the ‘deferred resignation’ offer (WP)

• Trump and Musk’s plan for a massive purge of the federal workforce, explained (Vox)

• Trump offers federal workers buyout, promises eight months severance pay (Al Jazeera)

• Trump’s “Buyout” Offer for Federal Workers Is Already Backfiring (TNR)

• Trump’s ‘Flood the Zone’ Strategy Leaves Opponents Gasping in Outrage (NYT)

• Trump is playing all his cards all at once (WP)

• Trump's sweeping action, which has already spread panic and confusion, seemed to have finally jolted Democrats awake in a way they haven’t been in months. “This is a 5 alarm f-ing fire,” Rep. Sean Casten (D-Ill.) said. [HuffPost]

• Trump directing the opening of Guantanamo Bay detention center to hold migrants in US illegally (AP)

• Greenlanders overwhelmingly oppose becoming part of the United States, poll shows (Reuters)

• Trump Can’t Bully Latin America Without Consequences (Foreign Policy)

• Trump deported 200 Colombians. None were criminals, Colombian officials say. (WP)

• RFK Jr. grilled on his views on vaccines, abortion in first confirmation hearing (NBC)

• How Trump’s orbit used blunt force to squeeze Hegseth through (Politico)

• Pete Hegseth’s confirmation was a massive mistake (The Hill)

• Hegseth takes actions against Trump foe Mark Milley (WP)

• Pentagon Secretary Pete Hegseth is pulling retired Gen. Mark Milley’s security detail and revoking his security clearance. The plans include an inspector general inquiry into Milley’s work. [HuffPost]

• Scientists Re-Create the Conditions That Sparked Complex Life (Wired)

• The baby gap: why governments can’t pay their way to higher birth rates (Financial Times)

• The population exodus from antiabortion states is underway and may be picking up steam (LAT)

• Test scores show students still aren’t recovering from the pandemic. (WP)

• Gen Z is more fed up with work than ever (Business Insider)

• How wildlife survives after wildfires (BBC)

• Scientists find life-friendly molecules in NASA’s asteroid samples (WP)

• Nvidia is in danger of losing its monopoly-like margins (Economist)

• Chinese AI DeepSeek a 'Wake-Up Call' for U.S. Tech Firms, Donald Trump Says, After Nvidia’s World-Record $600 Billion Loss (IGN)

• OpenAI says Chinese rivals using its work for their AI apps (BBC)

• Why DeepSeek Could Change What Silicon Valley Believes About A.I. (NYT)

• Alibaba releases an artificial intelligence model it says surpasses DeepSeek (Reuters)

• Report: Everything Slightly Worse Than Yesterday (The Onion)