◼ Israel’s remarkable early success in its campaign against Iran has clearly won over President Trump, who has now taken to using the term “we” when discussing the operation. This has increased the debate over whether — and to what extent — the U.S. should join the effort. In under a week, Israel has achieved complete air supremacy; it has degraded Iran’s ballistic missile production, its stockpiles of missiles, and its rocket launchers; it has damaged or destroyed its air bases and planes; it has struck Iran’s major oil refineries; and it has taken out dozens of top Iranian military leaders and nuclear scientists. But the nuclear facilities are harder targets, especially Fordow, the deeply fortified nuclear-enrichment facility built into the side of a mountain. If Fordow is not destroyed, or at least rendered inoperable by destruction of the infrastructure necessary to operate it, Iran could move whatever stockpiles of uranium it still has and race to enrich it at the facility — an unacceptable conclusion to the current conflict. If Israel can’t destroy Fordow under its own power, the U.S. should take on the challenge itself. Israel may be on the cusp of ending an Iranian nuclear threat that has bedeviled it and the West for decades. It is imperative to finish the job.

◼ The Supreme Court ruled in United States v. Skrmetti that Tennessee did not offend the Constitution by banning minors from being given puberty blockers and hormone therapy to change how they identify their gender. If all the justices followed the original meaning of the Constitution, the 6–3 decision in an opinion by Chief Justice John Roberts would have been 9–0 But they didn’t need to get that far. The esoteric theory of sex discrimination advanced by the Biden administration and the ACLU was that the Tennessee law discriminated by allowing the same hormones to be used for entirely different treatments, such as “to treat a minor’s congenital defect, precocious (or early) puberty, disease, or physical injury.” But as Roberts noted, “a key aspect of any medical treatment” is “the underlying medical concern the treatment is intended to address.” Because “different drugs can be used to treat the same thing . . . for the term ‘medical treatment’ to make sense . . . it must necessarily encompass both a given drug and the specific indication for which it is being administered.” At that, the discrimination claim evaporated. Other disputes, such as those involving sports and bathrooms, will press again upon the Court whether transgenderism is a distinct class protected by the 14th Amendment at all. Three of the justices — Samuel Alito, Amy Coney Barrett, and Clarence Thomas — urged the Court to conclude that it is not. They’re right. But for now, this is a victory for basic reality and a defeat for judicial adventurism.

◼ Representative Sarah (formerly Tim) McBride (D., Del.), the first transgender member of Congress, has admitted that the Democratic Party moved too quickly on pushing transgender issues. The lawmaker believes the left “went to Trans 201, Trans 301, when people were still at a very much Trans 101 stage.” Yet the representative still fails to understand the root of the problem: The left’s strategy on transgenderism failed because the left is wrong on transgenderism. Men cannot become women. Pretending like accepting the most outré claims of transgenderism is achievable through taking higher-level classes won’t change that. Besides, Americans are increasingly uninterested in enrolling in such courses. Polls show that support for so-called gender-transition procedures for children has declined, and Americans believe that trans people should use the bathroom that matches their sex, not their “gender identity.” The activists’ problem isn’t that they have failed to finesse their message; it’s that they have failed biology.

◼ Police in Minnesota announced the arrest of Vance Luther Boelter, the man who authorities believe shot two state Democratic lawmakers and their spouses early Saturday morning. Boelter allegedly shot and killed Minnesota Representative Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, in their home, then moved on to the home of Senator John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette. The fact that the Hoffmans appear likely to survive after being shot so many times is near miraculous. Media reports indicated Boelter’s “hit list” also featured Minnesota Senators Amy Klobuchar and Tina Smith, as well as Democratic Representatives Kelly Morrison and Ilhan Omar and abortion providers. The shooter’s roommate claimed that Boelter was a Trump voter and a “strong supporter” of the president, even though he also said that the shooter didn’t talk about politics much. As of this writing, however, his political profile remains a bit of a mystery. He was twice appointed to the Minnesota Governor’s Workforce Development Board, first by former governor Mark Dayton, a Democrat, and then by Tim Walz, also a Democrat. But the shooter’s political views matter less than his actions, which deserve universal condemnation.

◼ Randi Weingarten, the longtime president of the American Federation of Teachers, resigned from the Democratic National Committee, leaving after 23 years. Her resignation came at the same time as that of Lee Saunders, president of AFSCME. The incestuous relationship between union bosses like Weingarten and Saunders and the Democratic Party has always laid bare the corruption at the heart of public sector unionism. By gripping the hidden reins of power within one party, they essentially negotiate with themselves when that party controls D.C. and state capitols. It is telling that both labor leaders left because newly elected DNC Chairman Ken Martin refused to renew their assignments on the Rules and Bylaws Committee, which controls the presidential nomination process. Both leaders are now free to focus their efforts entirely on their day jobs. Saunders can continue to ask taxpayers to fund exorbitant pension and benefit demands at the state and local levels. And Weingarten can continue to burnish her legacy of school shutdowns, masking requirements, and a generation of youth afflicted by learning loss. We wish them all the worst in their endeavors.

ENERGY TAX CREDITS

◼ America’s long global ascendancy has been buttressed by the dollar’s status as the nearest the world comes to a reserve currency. This rests not only on the U.S.’s military and economic strength, but also on its political stability and strong, independent judiciary. The dollar is, despite occasional gyrations, seen as the safest of safe havens, attracting foreign capital, in good times and bad. This has helped fuel economic growth and enabled the U.S. to borrow more cheaply than would otherwise be the case, if not always wisely. But there are troubling signs that international confidence in the U.S. is waning. The dollar has declined sharply in the currency markets and has fallen nearly 30 percent against gold, a rival safe haven, over the past six months. Markets are worried about our fiscal position and fear that tariff hikes and fights within NATO mean that the U.S. is no longer as reliable as it once was. Scenting an opportunity, both China and the EU have been talking about a reduced role for the dollar. It’s all the more proof of how valuable that role is — and of the importance of maintaining it, through, among other things, sound fiscal policy. Perhaps we’ll get some someday.

◼ Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick announced what amounts to the nationalization of U.S. Steel. The government will not become a majority shareholder in the company, but as a condition of allowing Nippon Steel’s purchase of the company, it will have a token “golden share.” That gives the president of the United States power to directly appoint one of the company’s three independent directors and veto power over the other two. The president also gets veto power over a wide variety of business decisions. By the U.S. government’s own standards, as applied to foreign companies in trade disputes, that means U.S. Steel is state-owned. This peculiar arrangement is arguably even worse than the 2009 “Government Motors” takeover of GM because it exists in perpetuity, with no plans to ever return U.S. Steel to fully private sector control. Other private U.S. steel companies will now have to compete with a government-backed firm. One of the things that makes the U.S. an attractive place to invest is that the government doesn’t do stuff like this. Now, it does.

◼ As open war broke out between Israel and Iran, China’s People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) for the first time sent two aircraft carriers to operate as a pair beyond the so-called second island chain. This strategically essential geographic feature of the allied maritime containment strategy for China stretches south from Japan, to Iwo Jima, to the Marianas and Guam, to New Guinea. The Chinese ships and their air wings drilled off Iwo Jima and provocatively chased away a Japanese reconnaissance plane. Neither the Liaoning, which began life as the Soviet navy’s Kuznetsov-class aircraft carrier Riga, nor the Shandong, are a match for a U.S. supercarrier. But there should be no mistaking the fact that Beijing fully intends to rival and even to surpass the U.S. Chinese shipyards have recently produced the Type 003 Fujian, which is the first PLAN carrier of an all-Chinese design. She is undergoing her sea trials in preparation for full operational status. And multiple reports indicate that China is preparing to build its first Type 004 nuclear-powered carrier. Beijing could build a half dozen more over the next decade. The U.S. must not grow complacent, lest the Pacific become a Chinese lake.

◼ On Tuesday, 379 members of Parliament voted in favor of an amendment that prevents the police in England and Wales from investigating, arresting, prosecuting, or imprisoning women who obtain an abortion illegally. Labour MP Tonia Antoniazzi, who tabled the amendment, said during a radio interview prior to the vote that she was comfortable with a woman receiving an abortion for any reason even at 37 weeks. (The current limit in the U.K. is 24 weeks.) One hundred and thirty-seven members of Parliament voted against it, including every member of the Reform Party, except its leader Nigel Farage, who abstained. In theory, medical professionals who perform a late-term or sex-selective abortion would still face prosecution. And the amendment does not change the legal circumstances that allow for procuring an abortion, such as the 24-week gestation time limit and the requirement for two doctors’ approval. But the overwhelming tendency of liberalized abortion laws has been to beget further liberalization. We fear a similar fate for the U.K — and for its unborn.

◼ Two former employees of Caltrain, the San Francisco area commuter rail line, were convicted of theft of public funds after spending over $40,000 to build apartments for themselves in two different train stations. They made a classic mistake: Not setting up a homelessness NGO first. Governor Gavin Newsom’s initiative against homelessness has spent about $200,000 per homeless person in the state since 2019. When NGOs scoop up that money, all while homelessness increases, that’s not theft of public funds, it’s California’s idea of good government. Since government-approved affordable apartments in San Francisco can cost over $1 million per unit to construct, the Caltrain employees really ought to be getting an award for cost-effectiveness in building public housing.