Trump ratchets up the chaos in an October barrage

President Trump is carrying his insatiable appetite for controversy into the most unforgiving stretch of the electoral calendar, fortified by a decade of political survival.

"Bottom line, it's gonna all work out.

You know why? It always does," Trump told reporters this week.

Why it matters: Gone are the days of a single "October surprise," swallowed by a familiar barrage of scandals, provocations and shattered conventions that have persisted in the closing weeks of Trump's final midterm election.

The big picture: Axios has documented Trump's steady demolition of presidential norms in his second term, from the transition through his first 100 days and first year in office.

This year, even the threat of losing Congress — and with it, much of his ability to pursue his agenda over the next two years — has done little to temper the pace or audacity of Trump's presidency.

Consider the first 15 days of October alone, and the succession of controversies that might have shaken the foundation of a more conventional presidency: Raid on a political opponent: Federal agents searched Rep.

Ilhan Omar's (D-Minn.) home and seized her phone as part of an investigation aimed at stripping the sitting member of Congress of her U.S. citizenship and ultimately deporting her, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Omar denies wrongdoing.

Calls to shoot leakers: Trump declared at an Arizona campaign rally that officials who leak sensitive military information "should be shot," invoking an earlier era when he claimed the government routinely executed leakers.

Concessions to Vladimir Putin: Trump eased sanctions ⁠ on Russian diesel, demanded the ouster of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and pressured Kyiv to stop attacking Russian refineries.

Late Friday night, Trump waived sweeping new Russia sanctions ⁠ under a bipartisan law named for the late Sen.

Lindsey Graham that he signed just last month.

Taxpayer-funded political ads: Trump spent millions in taxpayer dollars on campaign-style ads promoting his presidency, until a federal judge ordered them halted.