Trump
48 briefs
Ten Republicans Voted Against Trump on Immigration. It Will Not Matter.
The House passed a bill protecting Haitian immigrants. The Senate will kill it. Trump will veto anything that survives. The vote was not for policy; it was for the record.
The First State to Say No to AI
Maine just passed the nation's first statewide moratorium on AI data centers. The governor hasn't signed it yet, and that's where the real story begins.
The DOJ Just Said Trump Can Burn His Papers
The Justice Department declared the Presidential Records Act unconstitutional. The law was passed because a president tried to do exactly this before.
The Justice Who Said What the Court Won't
Ketanji Brown Jackson's Yale speech against the shadow docket is not just dissent: it is a warning about what the Court has already become.
The Fourth Time Is Not the Charm
Senate Republicans blocked the Iran war powers resolution again. But the 60-day War Powers Act clock is ticking, and their private words no longer match their public votes.
He Said It Was Defeated
In January, Trump told G7 leaders inflation was beaten. The IMF now projects the US will have the worst inflation of any G7 country in 2026.
SCOTUS Is About to Rule on Birthright Citizenship. The Market Says 94% Chance They Strike It Down.
The Supreme Court heard final arguments on Trump's executive order redefining citizenship. The constitutional question is live. The outcome almost certainly isn't.
The Hormuz Blockade Is Not About Iran. It's About What China Will Agree to Before Trump Arrives in Beijing.
The US naval embargo that's halting oil tankers in the world's most critical shipping lane has a secondary audience of one: Xi Jinping, who needs that oil and who Trump is visiting in six weeks.
Europe Is Building a NATO Without the US. Germany Just Agreed to Help.
European allies have moved from theorizing about American withdrawal to actively designing command structures that exclude Washington. The 80-year alliance is splitting in plain sight.
A Judge Froze RFK Jr.'s Vaccine Changes. He's Already Working Around the Ruling.
US District Judge Brian Murphy blocked all Trump-era changes to the national vaccine schedule. The same day, HHS announced new criteria for the advisory panel RFK Jr. had already stacked. The courts and the executive are playing whack-a-mole with public health infrastructure.
Trump Threatens to Fire Powell. The Market Says He Won't Get What He Wants Either Way.
The Federal Reserve chair's term ends May 15, but his replacement can't get confirmed, a criminal investigation is blocking the vote, and Powell says he's staying. No one is getting a rate cut.
The Court That Was Defied Just Got Its Inquiry Killed
A DC Circuit panel of Trump appointees has shut down the year-long contempt investigation into who ordered deportation planes to ignore a federal judge's order. The mechanism for holding the executive accountable just broke.
The Arms Transfer That Could Detonate the Xi Summit
US intelligence says China is routing air defense systems to Iran. Trump is threatening 50% tariffs. A May summit hangs in the balance. Beijing denies everything.
The Deregulators Are Getting Blocked by Their Own Side
The EPA is delaying dozens of PFAS approvals because Administrator Zeldin fears backlash from RFK Jr.'s MAHA movement. The administration that promised the largest deregulatory push in US history is holding up chemical approvals to avoid a fight with its own base.
446 Hospitals Are Now at High Risk of Closing. Most Are in Trump Country.
A new Public Citizen analysis names 446 hospitals across 44 states at heightened risk of closure after the Medicaid cuts in the One Big Beautiful Bill. The hospitals most exposed are rural, and the counties they serve voted heavily for Trump.
The Court Ordered $133 Billion Back. Now What?
The Supreme Court struck down Trump's IEEPA tariffs. A federal court ordered refunds. Trump is already testing a workaround using a different statute. The constitutional crisis is just starting.
The Fed Has No Good Options Left
A Federal Reserve study confirms tariffs drove 3.1% cumulative inflation. Consumer spending is holding. Growth is stalling. The Fed cannot cut rates into a supply shock without making it worse.
Who Is an American
SCOTUS heard two hours of argument on birthright citizenship. Conservative justices were skeptical of Trump. A ruling isn't the end of the story.
God's Man Versus Caesar's
Trump called the first American pope 'WEAK,' posted AI of himself as Jesus, and got the US Conference of Catholic Bishops in return. The feud is real and the stakes are not about optics.
The Truce That Never Was
Russia and Ukraine agreed to a 32-hour Easter ceasefire. Ukraine counted 2,299 violations. The ceasefire expired with both sides accusing each other and Trump's peace plan no closer than before.
The Flag That Forced a Settlement
The Trump administration spent two months fighting to keep the Pride flag off a federal flagpole at Stonewall. A lawsuit filed in Manhattan federal court changed that in days.
The Shoulder Missile Gambit
Trump threatened China with 50% tariffs over a reported MANPADS shipment to Iran. The shipment is unverified. The tariff is untriggered. Both sides are using the threat as a bargaining chip before a May summit.
The Judge Who Ruled Wrong
The Trump administration fired the immigration judges who dismissed deportation cases against Ozturk and Mahdawi. The message is not subtle: rule against us and lose your job.
The Citizen Collapse
2025 began with a surge in naturalization applications as immigrants sought security before Trump took office. It ended with the fewest approvals in years. The pipeline is now poisoned in both directions.
Funding Half a Border Agency
Congress reopened DHS after 40 days but left ICE and Border Patrol unfunded. Now Republicans want reconciliation to finish the job without Democrats. The shutdown is over in name only.
Alliance Without a War
Trump threatened to pull the US from NATO after European allies refused to back his Iran war. The alliance survived its first real test of whether it still means anything when Washington acts unilaterally.
Two Drug Prices at Once
Trump is simultaneously threatening 100% tariffs on brand-name drugs that do not cut prices and expanding Medicare's power to negotiate drug prices downward. These are opposite levers. One of them is a bluff.
Tariff Whack-a-Mole
After SCOTUS killed the IEEPA tariffs, Trump pivoted to Section 122. Now that too is before a federal court, and the question is whether any statutory authority can sustain his trade policy.
The Bureaucracy That's Losing the Chip War
Trump's plan to sell AI chips to allies is collapsing inside the Commerce Department, where staff have fled and license approvals now take months.
Shutdown Theater
DHS ordered furloughed workers back to their desks during a shutdown, which is either a constitutional violation or proof that 'shutdown' no longer means what it used to.
The Tariff That Outlived Its Legal Theory
Trump's 10% global tariff is standing on a 1974 law the Supreme Court already gutted, and a panel of judges just told him so.
The DHS Shutdown Ended. The Fight It Was About Did Not.
After 40 days, the Senate reopened most of the Department of Homeland Security but deliberately left ICE and Border Patrol funding unresolved. The compromise is not a settlement. It is a timeout.
The EPA Just Declared It Has No Legal Authority Over Climate Change
Revoking the 2009 endangerment finding does not disprove climate science. It just removes the government's legal obligation to act on it.
The Pentagon Keeps Losing in Court and Keeps Not Caring
Judge Friedman found the Defense Department in contempt for evading his press access ruling. The administration's plan is not to comply. It is to appeal.
SCOTUS Is About to Strike Down the Birthright Citizenship Order. That Is Not the Hard Part.
The justices are almost certain to rule against Trump. The question they are really debating is how far the 14th Amendment's citizenship clause reaches, and the answer will outlast this case.
Sotomayor Says the Supreme Court Did This to Itself
The Trump administration has filed 30 emergency SCOTUS applications. The court has ruled in its favor more than 80% of the time. Sotomayor's diagnosis: the conservative majority created the incentive by treating temporary orders as permanent wins.
Trump's Backup Tariff Plan Is in Court. It Has a 150-Day Clock and a Dubious Legal Theory.
After the Supreme Court killed his IEEPA tariffs in February, Trump pivoted to Section 122 of the Trade Act. The new 10% global levy requires a real 'balance-of-payments deficit' and expires in 150 days. Both conditions are working against him.
Putin's Easter Ceasefire Is a Trap, and Both Sides Know It
A 32-hour pause that neither side believes in, brokered by no one, enforced by nothing, is not a step toward peace. It is a rehearsal for blaming the other side.
Zero Federal AI Laws, 1,561 State Bills, and a White House Framework Nobody Has to Follow
The US has no binding AI law while the EU enforces its Act across 27 countries. The federal-state collision is now the biggest AI governance story in the world.
The MAGA Stronghold Held. But a Democrat Got 42% in Marjorie Taylor Greene's Old Seat.
Clay Fuller won Georgia's 14th district special election, but the margin collapsed from a 29-point blowout to 15 points. Republicans are calling it a spending anomaly. Democrats are calling it a bellwether.
The Court Took Away the President's Tariff Gun. He's Already Looking for Another One.
SCOTUS killed $166 billion in tariffs in February. By April, Trump was threatening new 50% levies with no named legal authority.
Beijing Invited the Opposition. Taiwan's Government Should Be Alarmed.
The KMT chair's 'Journey of Peace' to Beijing is a sophisticated move to split Taiwanese politics before Trump meets Xi.
The SAVE Act Would Disenfranchise 21 Million People. Speaker Johnson Says That's the Point.
Trump's voter ID bill passed the House in February. A Republican speaker was caught on a hot mic saying it would cut 18% of the electorate. The Senate is now deciding whether that counts as a selling point.
SCOTUS Will Almost Certainly Strike Down the Birthright Order. The Reasoning May Be Worse Than the Order.
Polymarket gives Trump's birthright citizenship executive order a 4.9% chance of surviving. But Justice Sotomayor raised the question nobody wants answered: if the logic works for future babies, does it work for people already born?
NATO Survived the Cold War. Whether It Survives Trump Depends on Who Blinks First.
Trump called NATO a 'paper tiger' and threatened withdrawal after European allies refused to join Operation Epic Fury. The alliance is now more fractured than at any point since 1966.
The Iran Ceasefire: Trump's Victory Lap Is a Cover Story
The deal was built on Iran's 10-point plan. Calling that a win requires ignoring what the plan says.
Sánchez's Bucket and What It Costs to Say No Inside NATO
Spain's PM said the obvious thing. you don't get credit for putting out a fire you started. The interesting question is why he's the only one.
Trump's Iran Ceasefire: Victory or Surrender?
The strongman who threatened to destroy Iran just settled for a two-week pause.