We're several weeks in now, and the second Trump administration’s emphasis on a "flood the zone" strategy is not solely limited to signing executive orders like a giddy movie star dispersing autographs at a meet-and-greet event. It’s not even limited to taking action after action which appear to tread suspiciously close to illegal territory. This overwhelming political strategy also encompasses the insurmountable number of lies with which Donald Trump and his loyalists keep invading our collective consciousness.

Lies like Elon Musk’s favorite — that his pseudo-government agency, DOGE, isn’t scrambling to stay alive, or Donald Trump’s current calling card, which exposes how little he understands about conflict on the world stage. 

Dear reader, do you know who launched not one, but two invasions, one in 2014 and another in 2022, the latter of which sparked a devastating war that is ongoing to this day? Because Trump sure doesn’t. He seems to think it was Ukraine, which means the current POTUS either has his historical knowledge mixed up – again – or he's facing down a fact that does not suit his agenda, so it must be twisted into a falsehood.

All of which seems to precisely follow Trump’s new despot playbook, now that he’s trying to claim “unrestricted power” from his position as leader of the free world. That kind of language might strike a bolt of fear through the rest of us, but at least Trump has his desperate wannabe bestie, Marjorie Taylor Greene, on his side. She’ll do anything to catch Trump’s eye, including demanding praise for his toadies as they stomp all over our rights. All this from a woman who’s typically too busy tweeting to do a lick of work at that part-time job she enjoys at the Capitol.

Even Musk does more work than our Congressional Representatives, but that may not be a good thing, as America’s shadow president sets his sights on a new enemy. Like Trump, it seems Musk only supports the Constitution when it suits him, and the First Amendment isn’t doing him — or suspiciously-sipping Pete Hegseth — any favors at the moment. 

All of which makes it nearly impossible to keep up, as we close out the first month of Trump’s second term. It’s hard enough to track the lies contained in a single ironically named “truth,” let alone a whole day or week in this progressively deeper hellhole that is the Trump 2.0. Era.

DOGE is falling apart faster than Musk can find someone else to blame for it

Elon Musk may think he's Tony Stark, but he acts more like the parody of a Bond villain who bought his way into power with bad ideas. Now, under the thinly veiled guise of "efficiency," he’s running the U.S. government like it’s one of his failing startups. What’s Musk’s revolutionary idea for fixing America’s problems? Well, firing anyone who knows anything. FDA scientists? Gone. Nuclear security staff? Axed. FEMA funds for migrants? Pocketed.

Firing FDA staff who were reviewing a brain implant from his own company, Neuralink, is the kind of conflict of interest that would make even the most corrupt politicians blush. How is anyone supposed to trust the safety of a medical device when the very people ensuring its not a death trap have been kicked to the curb? Musk might call it "streamlining," but we all know it’s just regulatory intimidation. And the message is clear: cross Musk, and you’re out.

Musk’s so-called "efficiency" hit a new low with DOGE bungling things at the National Nuclear Security Administration. Not only did they fire critical employees — the literal experts who keep America’s nukes from launching, getting hacked, or, God forbid, exploding — but they didn’t even bother to retain their contact information. Now they’re scrambling to get these people back. Honestly, if I were one of those fired experts, I’d take my nuclear know-how someplace where I wasn’t treated like a temp at Musk’s ego factory. 

The writing’s on the wall for DOGE. You can only fire so many experts, siphon off so much money, and screw up so many critical institutions before the whole house of cards collapses. The question isn’t if DOGE will implode — it’s how much damage it’ll do before it finally does.

Donald Trump bafflingly accuses Ukraine of launching the Russian invasion

If you needed any more evidence that old people can't tell truth from reality online, look no further than President DJT. The septuagenarian made international headlines yet again this week after spreading misinformation and proving he might just be the most oafish president to ever sit in the Oval Office. After years of the U.S. backing Ukrainian citizen-soldiers as they held off the Russian invasion, Trump's administration is finally brokering a potential ceasefire. Except the ceasefire is more like a hostage negotiation set during a romantic dinner for Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Ukraine isn't even allowed at the negotiation table, and yet here Trump is, demanding that the country not only provide the U.S. with $500 billion in precious metals, but also cede to Russia the land that it unlawfully occupies. Adding insult to insult, Trump blasted Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy on social media, calling him a "dictator," and senselessly declaring that Ukraine had started the years-long border conflict with Russia. Ah yes, just like the United States of America started World War II by responding to Japanese attacks.

The septuagenarian has been touting his deal-making prowess for as long as he's been in the public eye, but his recent conversations around Ukraine have everyone wondering how he ever earned the label in the first place.

Despot Donald aims for "unrestricted power” and, oh yeah, declares himself the king

Well, that didn't take long. Here we are, only a single month after his swearing in and Trump is already calling himself the monarch of America and making moves to achieve "unrestricted power."

The week began bonkers enough on the "what's Trump going to do next?" front when the power-mad president set his legal team on the Supreme Court, in order to bully them into granting him the executive power to fire anyone he liked — including the heads of those pesky independent watchdog agencies who police what he can and can't do. Team Trump's legal argument is, essentially, he's president so he can do what he likes. The specific phrase they used was that the POTUS has "unrestricted power" over the government's executive branch. Coolcoolcool, nothing wrong with that.

On a totally unrelated and not-at-all brain-breaking note, just a few days later, Trump took to social media to declare "LONG LIVE THE KING." Unless this was a random reference to buddy King Charles (father of his man-crush, Prince William), we're pretty sure he was talking about himself. Four weeks in and Trump has already reached his Lion King villain era. Be prepared, the scars of the damage this man is doing will run deep and dent this land's pride for a long time to come.

Maladjusted Marjorie, who barely works, demands more praise for Trump

While much of the world and well-informed Americans are reeling in the wake of aggressively overreaching executive orders, Republicans couldn't be happier with Donald Trump — and ardent supporters like Marjorie Taylor Greene are first in line. The bombastic blond is all over social media spreading praise for Trump's toadies, but only border czar Tom Homan comes close to matching the love she has for the Orange Julius Caesar.

The Obama-era holdover is notorious for methods that invoke images of history classes long past. His zero-tolerance policy has led to some seriously dubious "policing" techniques, like using armored vehicles to break into an unarmed 70-year-old man's house or allowing officers to cover their faces. The brutality is sparking unrest across the country, as anyone with a heart or the ability to empathize looks on in horror.

MAGA minions like Greene are lavishing praise on the barbarism, but at the end of the day, she only has room in her heart for one man: Donald J. Trump. The Georgian spent President's Day with the true object of her affection, announcing multiple times over social media that he is "her favorite president," in posts so desperate it seemed impossible to top the cringe — until she upped the ante. Taking a break from the ferocious butt-kissing, she shared an image of Trump and one of his granddaughters while attending the Daytona 500, gushing over how precious the image was. Girl, he is never going to call.

Her incredible penchant for wasting hundreds of hours tweeting begs the question, when do these people actually work? Trump has spent more time golfing (like 30% of his presidency so far) and making public appearances at the Daytona 500 or the Super Bowl than working on policy (which might be a good thing), and Greene is just as bad. She occasionally manages to take breaks from social media to pretend to do her day job, but like most of our elected officials, she barely works throughout the year.

Greene shared her schedule for 2025, and as it turns out, Representatives actually work fewer hours than the average part-timer puts in. They are only set to work 136 days in 2025, enjoy four-day work weeks, and get the whole month of August off. It's a privileged life working-class Americans would hardly dare to dream of. Oh, and they technically get 17 weeks of paid vacation. But please, tell me again how immigrants are leeches.

Elon Musk joins Trump’s anti-truth tantrum with fresh attacks against 60 Minutes 

The Trump team is built on anything but honesty. Over the last month of stress-inducing appointments and insane schemes, everyone from Trump himself to Musk, Karoline Leavitt, and the aforementioned Tom Homan have seemingly made it their mission to mislead the American people as much as possible. 

Since Trump is busy blaming everything from inflation to plane crashes on Joe Biden, who left office weeks ago, it seems he had no choice but to pass the truth-hating torch to his second-in-command, Musk. All it took was an investigation into DOGE’s potentially illegal activity to direct the billionaire’s ire at 60 Minutes and its parent network, CBS, whose employees he now believes should be jailed. 

He’s leaning on Trump’s old lie about edited interviews — what other kind of interview is there? — to deliver an attack on the First Amendment, and it won’t stop with 60 Minutes. Anytime anyone dares to challenge him, they’ll land in Musk’s crosshairs, and it’s only a matter of time before the rest of us join it on the chopping block.

Pete Hegseth seemingly ditches his alcohol-free promise within weeks of taking office 

Look, I get it — we could all use a drink right now. It was a terrible time for any of us to attempt a dry month (dry day, more like it), but the rest of us aren’t the head of the United States defense department. 

Pete Hegseth is, and during his embattled confirmation hearing, the Fox News host-turned Trump appointee faced broad push-back over allegations of alcohol abuse. He assured senators that his drinking wasn’t a problem — despite rampant reports to the contrary — and even promised to stop drinking if he was confirmed. That seems to have worked out for him, since he secured the position, but it seems those promises went out the window the moment he got the job. 

Footage of Hegseth facing down reporters following his meeting with NATO defense ministers seemingly exposes how short-lived those assurances were, after the 44-year-old took several swigs from a glass that did not seem to be filled with water. It honestly may have been perfectly innocent, but paired with the type of glass Hegseth chose, the whole image practically screamed “scotch.” Besides, promises are for the campaign trail, don’t you know? They’re never meant to kept — at least not in Trump’s America.