Donald Trump celebrated a “tremendous win” in the Supreme Court – who severely curtailed the ability of judges to block his orders and boosted his own power.
The ruling will remove federal judges’ powers to halt or delay his executive orders nationwide – even if they’re unconstitutional.
It effectively means the Supreme Court is the only hurdle between Trump and doing anything he wants. And the Supreme Court is stacked in Trump’s favour.
Anyway, yesterday Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth had an early morning press conference, theoretically to counter claims that the precision strike on Iran’s nuclear capabilities had not been entirely successful.
We were all hoping to learn more details of the strike, and any new intel they could share about its success or failure.
What we actually learned was that Hegseth really doesn’t like the media.
He gave a series of shouty and bitter rants about the reporters covering the strike, whom he sees as insufficiently glorifying of the Trump regime and its controversial military activities.
Here’s more of that, and all the other things that went on in Trump land in the last 24 hours.
Everything is fine, here’s what you need to know.
1. Trump’s enormous power grab – gifted to him by the Supremes
The Supreme Court basically ruled this morning that Trump can do whatever he wants without individual judges being able to stop him.
Trump has repeatedly rattled at “radical left judges” blocking his – often apparently unconstitutional – orders.
And he said today’s decision was a “monumental victory for the constitution, the separation of powers and the rule of law.”
Others might argue that with an unassailable conservative majority on the Supreme Court, it’s a massive blow to the separation of powers – and a huge boost to the power of the President.
He also reassured those present that the ruling would only take “bad, sick” power away from judges, which is certainly a relief.
The ruling was in response to judges blocking Trump’s order banning “birthright citizenship” – the right of people born in the US to be US citizens automatically.
Republicans have long argued this leads to undocumented immigrants having “anchor babies” – a truly unpleasant term suggesting some people have children to make them harder to deport.
It’s enshrined in the 14th amendment to the Constitution, and federal judges decided it would require a congressional supermajority to change and blocked it – despite Trump’s claims to be able to set it aside with an executive order.
The Supremes decided not only were the judges wrong to block it, but that the President might be able to do it by a wave of his hand. They’re going to make that decision in October.
2. …and suggested he’s considering ‘investigating’ judges who ruled against him in 2020
In response to a question from Lindell TV, a channel owned by Mike Lindell, the far-right conspiracy theorist and pillow salesman, Trump indicated he’d be up for the Department of Justice launching investigations into the judges who ruled – accurately – that he lost the 2020 election.
“All I can say is…I hope so. I hope they’re doing their thing because that election was rigged and we can’t allow that to happen,” he said.
Should be noted that one of the people the Lindell TV “reporter” suggested had been subject to “political persecution…during the Biden administration” was… Mike Lindell, who recently lost a $2.3 million defamation case brought by former employees of a voting equipment company.
3. Trump’s big beautiful balderdash
“We’re cutting $1.7 trillion in this bill and you’re not gonna feel any of it,” Trump said, implausibly yesterday at an event celebrating his “big, beautiful” budget bill.
“Your Medicaid is left alone. It’s left the same.”
Analysts suggest this is unlikely to be true. It’s the biggest cut to the Medicaid budget in history – and will almost certainly lead to millions of people losing their health insurance.
He also claimed the bill changed the rules so there is “no tax on social security for our great seniors.”
That is, in fact, not in the bill.
4. Trump promises even more mass deportations
If you thought people were upset with ICE rounding people up for deportation, occasionally at random, well just you wait.
Trump yesterday pledged to ramp up deportations to 1 million a year.
(While that’s significantly higher than last year, it’s actually slightly lower than in 2023.)
5. He told a particularly thirsty story about a waitress
“I will never say good looking waitress, because looks don’t matter anymore in our modern society,” Trump said, during an unscripted weave at the White House event.
“She happened to be beautiful but I won’t say that….”
He went on to claim the waitress, who addressed him as “sir” – often a sign that a Trump anecdote is apocryphal – had given him the idea to scrap tax from tips.
The idea has been around since the 1980s, it wasn’t invented by this mythical waitress who called Donald Trump “sir.”
And here’s the thing about tax on tips – it’s probably not going to help many people. Only 5% of workers in the bottom earnings quartile earn tips. And among those, 37% earn so little that they pay no income tax anyway, so wouldn’t benefit at all.
6. Pete Hegseth is very disappointed in you
Earlier, across town, Pete Hegseth had been expressing his extreme displeasure at the fourth estate.
He scolded he media at a Pentagon briefing Thursday for “breathlessly” focusing on an intelligence report he downplayed as preliminary.
The Pentagon briefing included a detailed narrative about military tactics and hardware. But it was short on information about how much the attack setback the Iranian nuclear program.
He said they decided to hold Thursday morning’s news conference because “there was a great deal of irresponsible reporting” based on a preliminary intelligence assessment. He criticised “biased leaks to biased publications.”
“If you want to know what’s going on at Fordo, you better go there and get a big shovel,” he said.
He blasted the media for “hunting for scandals all the time.”
And he accused reporters of failing to acknowledge “historic moments” like improved military recruiting and increased spending on European defence by NATO members.
He then shifted to attacking the “fake news” for reporting on a preliminary assessment about the impact of recent US strikes on Iran.
“President Trump,” Hegseth concluded, “directed the most complex and secretive military operation in history, and it was a resounding success.”
The strategists behind D-Day, the bombing of Hiroshima, the killing of Osama Bin Laden and the thing with the Hamas pagers would probably like a word.
Hegseth also urged reporters, instead of holding them to account and asking reasonable questions about the success or failure of a military operation, to “Wave an American flag. Be proud of what we accomplished.”
7. Even Fox – Hegseth’s former employer – didn’t escape unscathed
Fox News Reporter Jennifer Griffin asked a fairly reasonable question – are you sure none of the highly enriched uranium was removed?
And Hegseth replied studs up: “Jennifer, you’ve been about the worst. The one who misrepresents the most intentionally…”
She replied: “I take issue with that.”
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8. Trump, of course, loved it
“One of the greatest, most professional, and most ‘confirming’ News Conferences I have ever seen!” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
“The Fake News should fire everyone involved in this Witch Hunt, and apologise to our great warriors, and everyone else!”
He also baselessly suggested that CNN and the New York Times, which reported on the intelligence assessment “will be firing the reporters who made up the FAKE stories.”
9. Karoline Leavitt knows a lot about totalitarian regimes
At the end of a press conference on Thursday, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said the following about Iran refusing to surrender to the US.
“When you have a totalitarian regime, you have to save face. I think any common sense, open-minded person knows the truth about the precision strikes on Saturday night. They were wildly successful.”
At least, we think she was talking about Iran.
10. Florida’s governor showed off his new detention camps on Fox News
Ron DeSantis gave Fox News a tour of his newly constructed…we’ll call it a detention camp for migrants.
There are places for migrants to be processed, he said. And to be housed. And to be fed.
“There’ll be an ability for them to consult legal rights,” he added. “If they have that.”
Yikes.