Washington Post: “Missions have shifted or shattered. Entire agencies were deleted. Nearly 300,000 employees were forced out of the federal workforce. The Trump administration froze or shut off billions of dollars in scientific research, gutted or eliminated offices and programs devoted to civil rights and diversity, rewrote the federal hiring system to reward loyalty to the president, and shrank Social Security while installing Immigration and Custom Enforcement agents in hundreds of new offices across the country.”

“More changes are coming: Trump officials are planning to cut tens of thousands of open positions from the Department of Veterans Affairs, downgrade performance ratings across the government, and replace the State Department’s traditional condemnation of torture and the persecution of minorities worldwide with scrutiny of abortion and youth gender transitioning in other countries.”

New York Times: “In his first year back in office, Mr. Trump has unabashedly adopted the trappings of royalty just as he has asserted virtually unbridled power to transform American government and society to his liking. In both pageantry and policy, Mr. Trump has established a new, more audacious version of the imperial presidency that goes far beyond even the one associated with Richard M. Nixon, for whom the term was popularized half a century ago.”

“He no longer holds back, or is held back, as in the first term. Trump 2.0 is Trump 1.0 unleashed. The gold trim in the Oval Office, the demolition of the East Wing to be replaced by a massive ballroom, the plastering of his name and face on government buildings and now even the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the designation of his own birthday as a free-admission holiday at national parks — it all speaks to a personal aggrandizement and accumulation of power with meager resistance from Congress or the Supreme Court.”

Wall Street Journal: “Some of the most influential people in President Trump’s orbit, past and present, are facing off in the unfolding drama over the future of Warner Bros. Discovery. Netflix, which wants to buy Warner’s studios and HBO Max streaming business, is in a multibillion-dollar game of tug of war with Paramount, which wants to buy the entire company.”

“The Trump administration escalated pressure on the Smithsonian this week, threatening to withhold federal funds if it does not submit extensive documentation for a sweeping content review,” the Washington Post reports.

“President Donald Trump earlier this year set out to purge what he called ‘improper ideology’ from the nation’s most prestigious museum system, efforts that are expected to intensify as his administration tries to shape the country’s 250th anniversary celebrations next year.”

“I did something no other president’s ever done. I took cognitive tests because I know that and by the way, not easy. You get to those last questions, those last 10, 15 questions…and I aced them. And no other president’s taken a cog–… Could you imagine sleepy Joe taking a cognitive test?”

— President Trump, quoted by The Independent.

Bloomberg: “No one wants to claim credit for helping the first couple launch cryptocurrencies that plummeted more than 90% from their peak.”