Phillips P. O’Brien tries to convey the enormity of Trump’s failure in Iran. His bottom line: This is no run of the mill TACO. This is complete US strategic failure. Read the whole thing. The Iranian regime may end up with a stronger hold on power, unfettered access to enriched uranium, and massive revenue from […]
I don’t know if he has the legal authority to do this, but does it even matter with Trump? Domestic prices will rise if 1) foreign supplies fall and 2) domestic production is diverted to fill demand overseas. Trump could keep domestic supplies from being diverted and we could still use world markets to fill […]
Yesterday the House (barely) rejected an effort to block members from challenging Trump’s “emergency” tariffs. The sordid details are here. The Senate has previously taken some steps in this direction, and with Trump’s approval ratings still declining and the possibility of a mid-term wipe out looming it seems possible that we will see Congress move […]
The murders of Renee Good and Alex Pretti have put Trump and his congressional enablers on the back foot. Senate Democrats may refuse to fund the Department of Homeland Security, and it is not even clear that the other appropriations bills will pass. Prediction markets now put the odds of a shutdown this week at […]
On October 1, 2025, the first day of the most recent government shutdown, Donald Trump’s net disapproval was 12 points. By the time the shutdown ended 6 weeks later, his net disapproval had risen to 16 points. Democrats should keep this in mind as the government funding wars heat up again. The Dems do not […]
The election results might pressure Republicans in congress to distance themselves from Trump, and they might pressure Trump himself to change course. I would not expect either factor to lead to an immediate course correction in the short run, but minor course corrections seem possible. The main reason not to expect immediate change by Republicans […]
I took constitutional law from Richard Fallon in the mid-1990s, and he subsequently became my favorite legal theorist. I am currently in the middle of his latest – and unfortunately last – book: The Changing Constitution: Constitutional Law in the Trump-Era Supreme Court. Fallon does a masterful job situating current doctrinal developments at the Court […]
There is nothing more important that regular folks like us can do to protect our democratic institutions than to show Trump and his congressional lickspittles that we oppose what he is doing and we will not be intimidated. For dates and times near you, see here. For an interesting discussion of the logic of protest, […]
Paul Campos has a post up asking: “What are the main sources of the immense amounts of social dissatisfaction that have fueled among other things the political ascent of the worst person in the history of American politics to the presidency?” He lists several factors: Campos’ discussion of these factors is worth reading. Obviously, there […]
We are in the middle of a government shutdown, and one point of contention between Democrats and Republicans is the extension of “enhanced” premium subsidies for policies purchased on the exchanges set up under the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare). Yesterday Tyler Cowen put up a blog post titled “The unraveling of Obamacare?”. I haven’t followed […]