A White House spokesman, said: “It is not for unelected judges to decide how to properly address a national emergency,” adding that Mr. Trump would use “every lever of executive power to address this crisis.”
You can see why Project 2025: Mandate for Leadership, the right-wing blueprint for Trump's second term put so much emphasis on Article II of the US Constitution. Section One of the 'mandate', Taking the reins of government, says this:
"At the core of this goal is the work of the White House and the central personnel agencies. Article II of the Constitution vests all federal executive power in a President, made accountable to the citizenry through regular elections. Our Founders wrote, 'The executive Power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America.' Accordingly, [Russel] Vought writes, 'it is the President’s agenda that should matter to the departments and agencies,' not their own."
Mr Vought, a co-author of Project 2025, is now director of the United States Office of Management and Budget (OMB), a key role in controlling federal expenditure. As far as I can see, the 920-page document never concedes that the president's domestic power is in any way constrained or limited to implementing laws passed by Congress.
I am sure the Heritage Foundation, the gang behind Project 2025, knew that what they wanted to achieve could not be done easily under the Constitution without a big majority in the Senate, something they knew was impossible. So, they put great emphasis on Article II, giving the POTUS virtually unlimited power to do as he likes. They want to sideline the Senate wherever possible.
However, the Trade Court has now declared presidential overreach, in line with dozens of other courts and judges appointed by both Democrat and Republican presidents in many other cases on different legal issues, with hundreds more in the pipeline. Trump's entire agenda is becoming bogged down in judicial proceedings and eventually, the Supreme Court will probably have to decide.
Trump is known for dragging out legal cases at huge cost, even if he's footing the bill, so when there is unlimited taxpayer's money available, he will delay, delay, and delay until every avenue is exhausted, and he will probably ignore the law finally anyway.
Elon Musk is stepping down from the administration after saying he was "disappointed" with Trump's budget bill, which proposes multi-trillion dollar tax breaks for the wealthiest and massive spending cuts in federal healthcare programmes. His Tesla company is struggling with a dramatic fall in demand following his drift into extreme right-wing politics and his crazed support for the madmen running America at the moment.
He said in an interview with CBS that the "big, beautiful bill", as Trump calls it, would increase the federal deficit and would "undermine the work" of Doge. Disappointed isn't something I would be if I had spent $277 million dollars getting a pillock elected. I might be tempted to say something a bit stronger, and I'm sure Musk does - in private.
Tesla's fall from grace has been most notable in Europe where he has offered support for the Neo-Nazi party AfD in Germany. This is hardly a surprise but I want to draw your attention to the uncomfortable truth that it isn't just Musk. Trump and those billionaires financing and surrounding him are viscerally opposed to European values.
Samuel Samson, a senior advisor for the Bureau for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor in Trumpland, has written a post on the official Substack Blog of the US State Department which is eye-popping to me. It is a piece of extremist claptrap of the worst kind. The title is: The Need for Civilizational Allies in Europe.
"Our transatlantic partnership, " he begins, "is underpinned by a rich Western tradition of natural law, virtue ethics, and national sovereignty. This tradition flows from Athens and Rome, through medieval Christianity, to English common law, and ultimately into America's founding documents."
But the promise of a new world order, created in the aftermath of two devastating wars, has been betrayed by Europeans, and now "lies in tatters", according to him:
"What endures instead is an aggressive campaign against Western civilization itself. Across Europe, governments have weaponized political institutions against their own citizens and against our shared heritage. Far from strengthening democratic principles, Europe has devolved into a hotbed of digital censorship, mass migration, restrictions on religious freedom, and numerous other assaults on democratic self-governance."
"These concerning trends have only increased in recent years. In the United Kingdom, police are arresting Christians—such as Adam Smith-Connor and Livia Tossici-Bolt—for silently praying outside of abortion clinics. In 2023, over 12,000 British citizens were arrested for online posts, including comments critical of Europe’s migration crisis, that authorities deemed to be 'grossly offensive'."
I find this next paragraph particularly ironic given Trump's relentless attacks on universities, the media, political opponents, immigrants, the rule of law, habeas corpus, due process rights, election processes and every democratic and legal foundation you can think of:
"Our hope is that both Europe and the United States can recommit to our Western heritage, and that European nations will end the weaponization of government against those seeking to defend it. We will not always agree on scope and tactics, but tangible actions by European governments to guarantee protection for political and religious speech, secure borders, and fair elections would serve as welcome steps forward."
I wouldn't minimise what we are up against with these people. It is truly terrifying. Nothing is beyond them when they think they're infallible and on a crusade to save Western civilisation.
This is what happened in the 1930s.
