Just one full week into Donald Trump’s presidency, the dizzying pace of news has left many of us feeling a sense of political vertigo—and dread.

The new administration began with a poorly attended inauguration that led a wounded Trump to lash out at the media in a bizarre speech at the CIA’s headquarters. As millions of women and men marched in Washington and cities around the world, press secretary Sean Spicer summoned reporters to the White House briefing room and, defying clear evidence to the contrary, brazenly and falsely claimed that Trump drew “the largest audience ever to witness an inauguration—period.” A day later, Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway went on national television and rebranded Spicer’s bald-faced lies as “alternative facts.” Later in the week, White House chief strategist Stephen K. Bannon launched a calculated strategy of open war on the press, saying the “elite media” should “keep its mouth shut.”

Read the full text of Katrina’s column here.