The Week Trump's DOJ Got Busted Spying on Reporters, Caught Fibbing About a Golf Course, and Still Can't Crack 33%
Three losses, one theme: nobody around this administration can keep a straight story. Pour something cold — a Reagan judge, a Trump-appointed fact-checker, and the stubbornest polling floor in modern politics are all waiting for you below.
1. A Reagan-Appointed Judge Just Shredded Trump's DOJ for Secretly Spying on Reporters' LinkedIn DMs
A unanimous Fourth Circuit panel ruled this week that Trump's Justice Department can't have the sweeping LinkedIn message logs it secretly subpoenaed from journalists in a leak probe — six users, eighteen months, roughly 1,900 interactions, all gagged under a nondisclosure order so the reporters wouldn't even know they were being hunted. Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson, a Reagan appointee, wrote that the demand would inevitably sweep in every confidential source those journalists ever talked to and deal a "damaging blow to First Amendment freedoms." Editor & Publisher reports the case stayed almost entirely sealed — which is usually how you know the ask was this bad.
They tried to subpoena LinkedIn — the website where ambition goes to die and nobody has secrets — and still got told no by a judge Ronald Reagan put on the bench.
2. Trump's DOJ Got Caught (Maybe) Lying About a Golf Course. The Judge Picked One of Trump's Own U.S. Attorneys to Find Out.
U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes moved this week to appoint Jessie Liu — a former Trump-administration U.S. Attorney for D.C. — to investigate whether Justice and Interior Department lawyers misled her about plans to shut down East Potomac Golf Links. The dispute traces back to an October hearing where a DOJ lawyer told Reyes there was "no plan to close the course," a claim that hasn't aged well against the administration's own announced November 15 closure date. WCAX reports both sides have until Friday to object, but for now the government's own hand-picked fact-checker is a Trump appointee — and even she's being asked to check the math.
They couldn't even tell the truth about a golf course — the one sport where lying about your score is basically tradition — and they still blew it.
3. Trump's Approval Rating Is So Bad That 'Basically Unchanged' Is the Good News
A new Reuters/Ipsos survey, fielded November 6–9 among 1,705 U.S. adults, puts Trump's approval at 32% — just one point off the 31% career low the same pollsters clocked in October. His numbers on the cost of living are even grimmer, with only 21% approving, which tracks for an administration that just got shellacked in the midterms over grocery prices. Three straight Reuters/Ipsos polls now, and the needle hasn't moved off the floor.
He didn't hit a new record low. He just moved into the old one and started paying rent.
Now go back to doomscrolling. You've earned five minutes of not-doom.