America changes today, forever.

The great grift has begun.

Well, friends, the time has come. Today, Donald Trump returns to the White House as the 47th President of the United States. Although many people contend that his dark vision for America—with political prosecutions, mass deportations, a gutted civil service, criminal-minded officials, and unlimited dollars flowing into the coffers of power in exchange for influence—won’t actually happen.

I am not one of them. It’s impossible to predict the horrors that are in store. Many are already here. On Friday, he announced his meme coin, $TRUMP, in a Truth Social post, claiming that the cryptocurrency is celebrating “WINNING” the presidential election and his upcoming inauguration. Starting at $10 each, the price rose to $70 by Sunday morning. Melania Trump launched her own coin at $5 each. The couple has already cashed in on public service to the tune of billions.

Trump’s inaugural committee raked in a record-breaking $200 million in cash and pledges. He has since cancelled the outdoor inauguration and the inaugural parade, claiming it’s too cold in Washington, D.C. (It is 32 degrees Fahrenheit as of 7 PM Sunday, which is eminently bearable, but I’m a Buffalo girl.) The rules governing Trump’s return of the unused funds are, well, either unclear or non-existent.

As painful as it is to say it, let’s face it. Neither the Constitution nor the rule of law will ever be the same after noon Eastern today. But this might be the very reason why so many Americans voted for him.

Today is also Martin Luther King Jr. Day—a day was meant to celebrate and honor the great work that Dr. King did to promote unity and equality through nonviolence.

I encourage everyone to consider his wise words: "I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant."

Sometimes we must regress into near darkness before change can occur. There are reports of mass deportations beginning as soon as tomorrow in Chicago. We might also see pardons for people prosecuted for crimes on January 6, 2021—including assaulting police officers and seditious conspiracy—an act that would send a message to MAGA-world that violence is okay in Trump’s America.

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Even though it feels as if Trump got away scot-free from all four of his criminal prosecutions, there were some small wins that I pointed out in my latest piece for The Bulwark.

Where do Trump’s federal criminal cases stand?

Trump was involved in two federal criminal cases: the classified documents case in Florida and the case in Washington, D.C., which involved the insurrection on January 6th and his attempt to overturn the 2020 election.

The Florida case was initiated after Trump took classified documents containing national security information to Mar-a-Lago and refused to return them to the FBI, even after being served with a subpoena, instead taking actions to hide them—actions that DOJ believed amounted to obstruction of justice. The trial judge, Aileen Cannon, dismissed this case on the spurious grounds that Special Counsel Jack Smith’s appointment was unconstitutional. The case was appealed to the Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. After Trump won the election, Jack Smith requested dismissal of the case, which the Eleventh Circuit granted.

As of now, the final report that Smith is required to prepare is complete but the volume on the classified documents matter remains unpublished. There was a dispute in the courts over whether it could be released to the public, and the Eleventh Circuit ultimately sided with Smith, ruling that it could be. Merrick Garland, attorney general, has said that he will wait to publish the report of this case until the co-defendants are finished with their proceedings.

The portion of the report discussing the January 6th case was released last week. That prosecution ended when Smith filed a similar motion to dismiss before Judge Tanya Chutkan in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

What about his state ones?