Trump Losing

And, some anger management cartoons

A federal judicial panel served Trump a big blow yesterday, ruling that his tariff scheme is illegal. They found that federal law did not grant him “unbounded authority” to tax imports from nearly every country around the world. They said his actions exceeded any powers of the presidency, and were illegal. Of course Trump calls this “judicial overreach.”

I was unaware of this, but in 1977, Congress passed the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, often abbreviated as IEEPA, delegating to the president the power to adjust tariffs in times of national emergency, but Trump has used that power far beyond what the Constitution will permit. This is what Trump has been using to manipulate tariffs in ways his position does not normally allow.

“Congress manifestly is not permitted to abdicate or to transfer to other the essential legislative functions with which it is thus vested,” the court writes.

Also yesterday, a nickname was floated around in the media, calling Trump “TACO TRUMP,” an acroynm to say “Trump Always Chickens Out.” Amid his tariff behavior, it implies that he “chickens out” when the markets tumble over his tariffs, then rebound when he changes them back. When asked about it at a press conference, Trump appeared very annoyed and said, “I chicken out? I’ve never heard that. Don’t ever say what you said,” he told the reporter. “That’s a nasty question. To me, that’s the nastiest question.”

Let’s find more nicknames to annoy him, give him some of his own medicine.

A federal judge in Boston blocked Trump’s order to block Harvard from enrolling international students. Let’s hope this sticks; Trump will appeal. Our country should be open to foreign students, as well as immigrants of all kinds.

The Trump administration set an agenda to arrest 3,000 people a day in an anti-immigration plan. “ This administration came into office with the illusion that they had been given a broad mandate to effectuate an aggressive immigration enforcement agenda, and they are doubling down now on that agenda,” said Nayna Gupta, policy director for the American Immigration Council. “ Public polling is showing decreasing support for Trump’s immigration agenda, as Americans wake up to the reality that mass deportation means arrests of our neighbors and friends, masked agents in our communities and people afraid to go to work and show up to school, in ways that undermine our local economies.”

Don’t you wish that those doing the raids would revolt? Refuse to do what they are told to do when instructed to go after people? That’s a story I’d like to read.

Elon Musk is leaving Washington. Thank god. He said he was disillusioned with “Washington and frustrated with the obstacles he encountered as he upended the federal bureaucracy, raising questions about the strength of the alliance between the president and the world’s richest man.”

Some good-ish news today, Trump keeps losing. But I know we are all frustrated, so go find a pillow and punch it.

This cartoon below was drawn in 2016. I wonder how Trump’s MAGA base is feeling now. Is his presidency helping their anger with the world? Or, will their anger turn on him?

Thanks for being here, everyone. I am very appreciative.