May 8, 2026

• Trade Court Rules Trump’s Section 122 10% Global Tariffs Are Illegal — The Court of International Trade’s 2-1 panel found Trump failed to meet the statutory threshold under the 1974 Trade Act to use Section 122 — the backup tariff law he invoked after SCOTUS killed his IEEPA tariffs in March. Tariffs expire in July anyway. Trump blames “two radical left judges” and says the administration will now pursue Section 301 investigations.

• Trump Signs Counterterrorism Strategy Designating Antifa and “Radically Pro-Gender” Left-Wing Groups as Major Terror Threats — The plan places drug cartels as the top priority, then Islamist extremism, then loosely defined “violent secular political groups whose ideology is anti-American, radically pro-gender or anarchist such as antifa.” No domestic right-wing extremism appears on the list.

May 6, 2026

• 7th Circuit Panel Splits Over ICE Mandatory Detention — Rejects Claim Undocumented Immigrants Have No Due Process Rights — A divided 7th Circuit panel on Tuesday rejected the Trump administration’s sweeping argument that immigrants unlawfully in the US have no due process rights whatsoever, though the panel remained split on the ultimate outcome of the mandatory detention policy. One judge said the administration had “subjected millions of people to detention without due process.” An estimated 60,000+ people are currently in ICE detention.

• ICE Reports 18th Detainee Death in 4 Months, Pace Far Exceeds Any Prior Year — A 33-year-old Cuban man, Denny Adan Gonzalez, died at the privately-operated Stewart Detention Center in Lumpkin, Georgia — apparent suicide. ICE recorded 31 detainee deaths in all of 2025, itself a two-decade high. The 2026 pace projects to roughly 54 deaths if it continues — nearly double any prior year on record.

• Cinco de Mayo Parades Canceled Across Multiple Cities Due to ICE Fears — Organizers in several cities called off or significantly scaled back Cinco de Mayo events as immigrant communities refused to gather in public. A cultural holiday that typically draws hundreds of thousands has been effectively suppressed by enforcement fear.

May 5, 2026

• DOJ fires more than 100 immigration judges, then advertises for “deportation judge” replacements — The mass firings — targeting judges seen as insufficiently aligned with deportation priorities — left immigration courts further understaffed on top of the 3.3 million pending cases and 600+ military lawyers deployed as temp judges. The new job postings use language emphasizing deportation as a core function, formalizing the administration’s view of immigration courts as enforcement instruments rather than adjudicatory bodies.

• US military sinks six Iranian boats as Project Freedom attempts to reopen Strait of Hormuz — CENTCOM Adm. Brad Cooper said US helicopters destroyed six Iranian small boats targeting civilian ships on Day 1 of “Project Freedom,” while also intercepting Iranian cruise missiles and drones. Two American-flagged merchant ships transited the strait under US escort; Iran denied any of its boats were sunk. Commanders have blanket authority to defend commercial shipping — a posture that risks reigniting full-scale war.

May 4, 2026

• Trump Announces “Project Freedom” to Guide 850+ Stranded Ships Out of Hormuz — CENTCOM confirmed the operation is backed by guided-missile destroyers, 100+ land and sea-based aircraft, multi-domain drones, and 15,000 service members — but the Wall Street Journal says no Navy warships will actually escort ships through the strait. Instead, the plan is a “diplomatic coordination” mechanism for shipping stakeholders. The 850+ vessels have been trapped since the war began in late February; it is unclear how Iran’s ongoing blockade is resolved operationally rather than diplomatically.

• Hegseth Is Now Bringing His Wife to Official Pentagon Meetings After Purging Top Officials — Following the ouster of experienced advisers, Jennifer Hegseth has been present at official Pentagon meetings, per reporting. Hegseth has fired or forced the retirement of 24 generals and senior commanders, 60% of them Black or female.

• Retired Generals Warn Hegseth’s Officer Purges Leave the US Military Exposed During Active Combat — Retired Army Major General Paul Eaton, who commanded US forces after the 2003 Iraq invasion, compared Hegseth’s removals to Stalin’s pre-WWII Red Army purge — widely blamed for hampering Soviet military capacity in 1941.

• Second Cuban Detainee Dies in ICE Custody in Alleged Suicide — The man had been held since February after an arrest at Miami-Dade County Jail. He is the second Cuban national to die in ICE custody in recent weeks and the latest in a pace that is on track to be the deadliest ICE detention year since 2004. At least 17+ immigrants have died in ICE custody since January 2026.

• Arizona’s Top Election Official Warns Trump Is Trying to “Select His Own Citizenry” by Gathering All Americans’ Personal Data — Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes warned that the administration’s mass data collection through DHS and voter roll reviews is not about fraud prevention but about controlling who can vote. DOGE algorithms flagged more than 50% of legal voters as potentially ineligible in trial runs; the SAVE Act remains stalled in Congress but similar provisions have already passed in 23 states.

May 3, 2026

• Trump says Iran has “not yet paid a big enough price” as he reviews new peace proposal — Said Saturday at Florida rally. Comes as it has been more than nine weeks since US/Israel launched initial attacks.

• Pentagon withdraws 5,000 US troops from Germany; Wicker and Rogers warn it sends “wrong signal to Putin” — The withdrawal of a full brigade, to be completed over 6–12 months, was ordered by Trump after German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said Iran was “humiliating” the US and he couldn’t see an exit strategy. The chairs of both Senate and House Armed Services Committees — both Republicans — called it “very concerned” and said it “is in the US interest to maintain a strong deterrent in Europe.”

• ICE hires firm accused of ‘torture’ to track down undocumented children — ICE awarded a contract to MVM Inc., a private security company that has faced lawsuits alleging “torture,” “enforced disappearance,” and inhumane treatment of children during family separations, including transporting and holding kids in harsh conditions. The contract is for “safety and wellness checks” to locate unaccompanied minors who entered the US alone. MVM denies the allegations.

• Trump says US will be “taking over Cuba almost immediately” at Florida speech — At the Forum Club of the Palm Beaches on May 1, Trump said: “We will be taking over [Cuba] almost immediately. On the way back from Iran, we’ll have one of our big…USS Abraham Lincoln stop by.” Framed as a joke by Fox News; framed as alarming regional aggression by Latin American governments.

• Trump says US Navy was “like pirates” seizing Iranian ships — “it’s a very profitable business” — At Florida rally, Trump boasted about the blockade ship seizures: “We land on top of it and we took over the ship. We took over the cargo, took over the oil.”

May 2, 2026

• Trump says Iran war ‘terminated,’ invokes ceasefire to stop War Powers Act 60-day clock — In a letter to congressional leaders sent on the 60-day deadline (May 1), Trump claimed “the hostilities that began on February 28, 2026, have terminated,” using the ongoing ceasefire to argue the War Powers clock is paused. No ceasefire agreement has been signed, Hormuz remains closed, and Iran has not agreed to nuclear talks. The letter has no legal force.

• FBI Redirected a Quarter of Staff to Target Immigrants Under Trump’s Deportation Push — The FBI, which is supposed to investigate federal crimes, reassigned 25%+ of its personnel to immigration enforcement at the peak of Trump’s deportation drive, with over 5,700 agents on immigration by May 2025. The bureau set a new quota of 3,000 arrests per day that spring. Legal experts and former agents warn the diversion gutted counterterrorism, cybercrime, and financial fraud investigations.

May 1, 2026

• House Speaker Mike Johnson says the U.S. is ‘not at war’ with Iran as White House approaches 60-day deadline — The “we’re not at war” argument is the second prong of the admin’s legal defense, alongside the ceasefire-pauses-clock theory. 13 US service members are dead, 50,000+ troops are deployed, two carrier strike groups are in theater, and a naval blockade of Iranian ports remains in force.

• US falls to ‘historic low’ in press freedom tracker: RSF — Reporters Without Borders dropped the US seven places to 64th out of 180 countries in its annual World Press Freedom Index — the lowest ranking in US history. The report cites Trump’s “coordinated war on press freedom,” FCC Chair Brendan Carr’s broadcast license threats, and the consolidation of media ownership (Skydance/Paramount/CBS).

• FISA Section 702: Congress passes short-term surveillance program extension just before deadline — Hours before the April 30 deadline, Congress punted again: Senate rejected the House’s 3-year reauthorization and instead passed a 45-day extension — the second short-term patch this month. The program allows warrantless surveillance of foreign intelligence communications.