Trump Takes on the Courts

◼ Claiming authority to deport without judicial review Venezuelans tied to the vicious Tren de Aragua (TdA) international criminal syndicate, President Trump had approximately 250 aliens, most of them in custody on immigration and criminal charges, flown out of the U.S. Now El Salvador is holding them in a “mega-prison” designed for gangs and terrorists. Trump has cited the 1798 Alien Enemy Act, which generally applies only to aliens from a nation against whom the U.S. is in a “declared war.” It has been invoked three times, and never since the Second World War. After the ACLU filed an emergency habeas corpus petition, Chief Judge James Boasberg of the Washington, D.C., federal district court intervened, instructing the administration not to deport any alleged TdA members for 14 days and to turn around any deportation flights that were already in the air. Two flights had taken off before Boasberg’s order, and another departed a few minutes later. Prosecutors did not give the judge straight answers about the state of play, and the administration did not turn the flights around. After they landed, El Salvador’s president mocked the judge’s order (“Oops . . . Too late”) in a social-media post. The judge is now demanding an explanation under oath, the Department of Justice is stonewalling (under the cover of accusing Boasberg of usurping the president’s foreign-relations powers), and the mess appears headed to the Supreme Court—whose chief justice, John Roberts, reprimanded Trump for labeling Boasberg a “Radical Left Lunatic” who should be impeached. Trump has proven that he could gain control of the southern border on his own; he has not proven that it is wise, or permissible, to govern in contempt of the other branches.

◼ There’s a difference between holding wrongdoers accountable and wreaking vengeance. Trump’s executive order against Democratic law firm Perkins Coie crosses that line. Trump’s “retribution” campaign responds to real abuses. Two Perkins Coie lawyers, Marc Elias and Michael Sussmann, were behind the bogus Steele dossier that was used to gin up the yearslong investigation into Trump’s alleged ties to Russia. Sussman was indicted by John Durham for deceiving the FBI about who he was working for (the Clinton campaign) to generate surveillance of the Trump campaign, but a jury acquitted him. The Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee paid over $100,000 in fines to the Federal Election Commission for falsely categorizing the Steele opposition research as “legal services” paid to Perkins Coie—a deception similar to what Trump was convicted of doing in using Michael Cohen to disguise payoffs to Stormy Daniels as legal fees. All of this, however, was eight years ago; Elias and Sussman have long since left the firm. Trump complains of Perkins Coie’s efforts to “judicially overturn popular, necessary, and democratically enacted election laws,” but that’s part of what lawyers do. A presidential order subjecting the entire firm to sanctions such as investigations, contract debarment, and withdrawal of security clearances is disproportionate and unjust. Vengeance is a dish best served without abuse of power.

◼ Tuesday, Trump and Russian dictator Vladimir Putin had a much-touted phone call about a proposed cease-fire in Ukraine. According to the Russian readout of the call, “Trump put forward a proposal for the parties to the conflict to mutually refrain from attacks on energy infrastructure facilities for 30 days,” and “Vladimir Putin responded positively to this initiative and immediately gave the Russian military the corresponding order.” A few hours later, Trump jumped onto Truth Social to boast: “My phone conversation today with President Putin of Russia was a very good and productive one. We agreed to an immediate Ceasefire on all Energy and Infrastructure, with an understanding that we will be working quickly to have a Complete Ceasefire and, ultimately, an END to this very horrible War between Russia and Ukraine.” About an hour later, a Russian guided bomb knocked out the electrical power in half of the Ukrainian city of Slovyansk. Later that night, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky reported “a direct hit by a ‘Shahed’ drone on a hospital in Sumy, strikes on cities in the Donetsk region, and attack drones currently in the skies over the Kyiv, Zhytomyr, Sumy, Chernihiv, Poltava, Kharkiv, Kirovohrad, Dnipropetrovsk, and Cherkasy regions.” To the surprise of no one with even a passing familiarity with Putin, his promises mean nothing. He seems to be taking a perverse pleasure in making Trump look gullible and foolish. So far, Trump is cooperating.

◼ An executive order dramatically curtailed the functions of the U.S. Agency for Global Media, which oversees long-standing “radios”: the Voice of America, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Radio Martí, Radio Free Asia, and others. These services are lifelines to many under dictatorship. But defects within the agency—lapses in vetting foreign employees, mismanagement of resources, and the promotion of anti-American narratives—have counteracted its important work. Legal challenges to Trump’s actions have already emerged, as have substantive defenses of USAGM. In the abstract, the case for piecemeal reform over dramatic action may seem persuasive. But the latter course has already been tried, and has failed. There’s a stronger case for starting fresh, reconstituting specific parts of the agency that function well, with the ultimate goal of reinvigorating American public diplomacy.

◼ On Fox News early this week, Trump casually endorsed Canada’s acting prime minister, Mark Carney, the leader of the Liberal Party who took over after Justin Trudeau’s resignation in failure. Until a few months ago the Canadian Conservative Party looked poised to win a historic majority after years of Liberal misrule. That polling advantage disappeared once Trump took to jacking up tariffs on the country and threatening to annex it as the 51st state. Now the Liberals may narrowly cling to power. Is the endorsement a crude attempt at political reverse psychology, with Trump belatedly concerned that he has thrown away a sure thing for Canadian conservatives? More likely, Trump first forced the Conservative candidate, Pierre Poilievre, to criticize him, and then decided that he dislikes people who criticize him. But we hope the reverse psychology works, even if unintended.

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◼ Planned Parenthood’s flagship Manhattan facility, formerly known as the Margaret Sanger Center, will shut down this year owing to financial strain, the organization announced this week. (Sanger’s name came off the clinic in 2020 based on her eugenicism.) The closure comes after the center announced last year that it could not afford the “deep sedation” required to perform abortions after 20 weeks. Open since the 1990s, Planned Parenthood’s Manhattan center has overseen tens of thousands of abortions. Dozens of women who have sought abortive services at the facility have been harmed, pro-life organization LiveAction reported; in one instance, after Joe Biden won the presidential election in 2020, staffers reportedly stood outside the clinic cheering as a woman clutching her stomach on a gurney wheeled past them. Abortion remains unconscionably accessible in New York State: completely legal through 24 weeks of pregnancy, available thereafter for typically broad health and life-of-the-mother justifications. So the day is likely long off when all such clinics in the state (and elsewhere) have closed as well. But pro-lifers should continue working toward it all the same.

◼ On Saturday in Belgrade, 100,000 protesters gathered to direct “enormous negative energy toward the authorities,” as Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić described the event. The prime minister, an ally and member of Vučić’s populist party, soon resigned. Two hundred miles north, also on Saturday, 50,000 supporters of Hungary’s leading opposition party descended on Budapest to rally for an end to the regime of “illiberal democracy” advanced by Prime Minister Viktor Orbán during his 15 years in office. Earlier this month in Bratislava, a demonstration, one of many throughout Slovakia in the past two months, drew 12,000 protesters against Prime Minister Robert Fico, a pro-Russian Euroskeptic who has stopped the nation’s military aid to Ukraine, attempted to wrest control of media, and abolished the office that investigates government corruption. Particular grievances of this new wave of protests in Eastern Europe vary by country. The common thread running through the various movements is anger at efforts by political leaders to realign their governments with Moscow or, in the case of Serbia, simply to trample democratic norms and impose authoritarian rule. The spirits of Budapest 1956, Prague 1968, and Gdansk in the 1980s beckon again.

◼ Meghan Markle has found a way to become even more insufferable. In her new lifestyle series on Netflix, With Love, Meghan, the former Duchess of Sussex performs fabricated domestic rituals from a Montecito mansion that is separate from her private Montecito mansion. While raking in $100 million for the show, Meghan assures her viewers that they, too, can harvest fresh lavender from their Tuscan garden, on a budget. With a condescending smile, she concocts a bath salt mixture that could cause burns, pretends to make an artisanal waffle while her team supplies the “finished product,” and praises her own inclusivity and hospitality to her gay best friend. The series ends with a staged garden brunch attended by Meghan’s posse—a collection of skin-care homeopaths, Pilates gurus, and other Californian charlatans. If you listen closely, you can almost hear the British shouting “Good riddance!” from across the pond.

◼ Alan K. Simpson was a “oner,” to use a crossword-puzzle word: one of a kind. The “K” stood for “Kooi,” his mother’s maiden name (Dutch). He was born in 1931 and grew up in Cody, Wyo. His father, Milward Simpson, would be the state’s governor and then a U.S. senator. Young Alan was a hellion, by his own testimony (and that of the local police). But he straightened out and eventually went to the U.S. Senate himself. That was in 1979. A Republican, like his father, he served as the party’s whip for ten years: 1985 to 1995. He was both a whip and a wit, being one of the funniest politicians in recent memory. He was a “fiscal hawk” who constantly warned about the debt and deficit. He was a restrictionist on immigration without a hint of nativism. He was, unfortunately, also an advocate of legal abortion. Simpson retired from the Senate in 1997, but remained in public life. In 2010, President Obama asked him to co-chair a commission on “fiscal responsibility and reform,” with Clinton administration alumnus Erskine Bowles. This became known as the “Simpson-Bowles Commission.” Its recommendations were ignored by both Democrats and Republicans. Someday, someone, somehow, will have to do something. Tall and thin, Simpson was often likened to a bird. He was a rare bird, who has now died at 93. R.I.P.