Month: April 2026

After his trip to the Supreme Court, Trump is scheduled to appear on national TV tonight. From all appearances, he plans to declare victory and go home, leaving the theocracy in place and in possession of its enriched uranium and the Strait of Hormuz. Some victory, that.

Realizing that his fondest hopes for the war are about to go down the drain, Bret Stephens is calling on all of the war’s opponents to lobby Trump to finish the job. Good luck with that.

It was stupid for Stephens to trust a man like Trump to become a war president like FDR or Lincoln. Now he and his friends will have to live with the ugly consequences, which will probably include the weakening of NATO and a further lessening of support for Ukraine.

There is nothing in the language of the Fourteenth Amendment which supports Trump’s executive order. There is nothing in the legislative history, either. The case law is completely consistent with the traditional interpretation. In short, there is absolutely no principled basis for any of the justices—liberal or conservative, originalist or not—to rule in Trump’s favor. This is a slam dunk.

Nevertheless, expect Thomas and Alito to flaunt their MAGA credentials by doing so. My best guess is that Kavanaugh, who is now more interested in rewriting the Constitution than interpreting it, will join them. Susan Collins will be concerned.

Trump apparently plans to attend the oral argument to overawe the justices. If he does, it will just offend them and make him look like more of a loser when the decision is released.