2020 Day 1174: Trump removed the Pentagon’s acting inspector general, who was tapped to lead the group responsible for preventing "waste, fraud, and abuse" of the $2 trillion coronavirus emergency stimulus package; acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly resigned a day after he ridiculed and then apologized to a captain he had ousted for raising concerns about a coronavirus outbreak on the USS Theodore Roosevelt; Trump's economic adviser warned the White House in January that there was "an increasing probability of a full-blown COVID-19 pandemic that could infect as many as 100 million Americans"; Trump has a personal financial interest in the company that makes the brand-name version of hydroxychloroquine; and Trump replaced the White House press secretary with his re-election campaign spokeswoman. Apr 7, 2020
2021 Day 78: The CDC said the coronavirus variant first identified in the U.K. is now the dominant strain in the United States; Biden signaled that he was open to "good faith negotiations" with Republicans on his $2.3 trillion infrastructure proposal, but insisted he would "not be open to doing nothing"; Biden will announce new executive actions to curb gun violence on Thursday; the U.S. and Iran agreed – through intermediaries – on a plan to try to get both countries back into compliance with the 2015 nuclear deal; and the National Republican Congressional Committee is warning donors who opt out of recurring monthly donations that "we will have to tell Trump you’re a DEFECTOR." Apr 7, 2021
2022 Day 443: The Senate voted 53 to 47 to confirm Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson as the 116th Supreme Court justice; New York Attorney General Letitia James asked a Manhattan judge to hold Trump in contempt of court; the Manhattan district attorney said the criminal investigation into Trump and his company is continuing; the Justice Department is investigating the 15 boxes of White House records that Trump took to Mar-a-Lago after leaving office; the House voted to recommend criminal contempt of Congress charges against Peter Navarro and Dan Scavino; and Congress voted to revoke Russia’s “most favored nation” trade status and banned the import of Russian energy into the U.S. Apr 7, 2022
2025 Day 1539: Trump insisted that he would not reverse course on his tariffs despite wiping out over $6 trillion in global market value, raising the risk of recession and alienating allies; Trump threatened to impose an additional 50% tariff on Chinese goods if China doesn’t reverse its retaliatory 34% tariffs on all U.S. imports – a response to Trump’s own "Liberation Day" 34% tariff on all Chinese imports; Trump reposted a video claiming he is “purposely crashing the stock market”; Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell warned that Trump’s tariffs will likely lead to higher inflation and weaker growth; Trump threatened to veto a bipartisan Senate bill that would limit his ability to impose tariffs without congressional approval; and Trump spent the weekend golfing at his private Florida clubs as markets lost trillions, retirement accounts cratered, and businesses assessed the fallout from his tariffs. Apr 7, 2025