American Acceptionalism

Trump Defies SCOTUS, Harvard Defies Trump

Two authoritarians walk into an Oval Office. No, that's not the set up for a joke. It's reality playing out right in front of our eyes. Last week, the Supreme Court ruled that a man mistakenly sent from America to a famously abusive El Salvadorian prison should be returned. The worst case scenario was that the Trump administration would make believe that the decision was out of their hands and pretend to leave the decision up to El Salvador President Nayib Bukele. And here we are. Bukele told reporters he would not return Kilmar Abrego Garcia. "How can I return him to the United States? Like if I smuggle him into the United States? ... Of course I'm not going to do it. The question is preposterous." Trump then turned to Bukele and said of the assembled reporters: "They'd love to have a criminal released into our country. These are sick people." NBC: President of El Salvador says he won't return mistakenly deported man to US.

+ Look at these two in the Oval Office. This is what American has become. American Exceptionalism has turned into America Acceptionalism: We're all getting a wake-up call about how much Americans are willing to accept. And we're likely to soon find out how much this Supreme Court is willing to accept from a defiant ruler whom they've already granted immunity.

+ "The Roberts Court will now have to decide whether to side with the Constitution or with a lawless president asserting the power to disappear people at will. This is not a power that any person, much less an American president, is meant to have." The Atlantic (Gift Article): The Constitutional Crisis Is Here.

+ Heather Cox Richardson: "Make no mistake: as Supreme Court Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Ketanji Brown Jackson recently warned, if the administration can take noncitizens off the streets, render them to prison in another country, and then claim it is helpless to correct the error either because the person is out of reach of U.S. jurisdiction, it could do the same thing to citizens."

+ Surely she's exaggerating... Oh wait. Trump Reveals He Asked A.G. to Look Into Deporting U.S. Citizens.

+ "Before press came in — but while live feed was running on Bukele’s feed — Trump said to him: 'home-growns are next … You’re gonna need to build about 5 more places.'" The reaction in the room? Laughter.

+ A reminder: "The majority of the more than 200 immigrants he’s already sent to El Salvador were not murderers or drug dealers. They were ordinary people without criminal records, victim to the Trump administration’s baseless lies about their pasts."

+ WaPo: No evidence linking Tufts student to antisemitism or terrorism, State Dept. office found. "An internal memo, prepared days before Rumeysa Ozturk was detained by ICE agents, raises doubts about the Trump administration’s claims that she supports Hamas."

+ Over the weekend, the US deported 10 more alleged gang members to El Salvador. How will we know for sure they're gang members without due process? The same way we'll know if American citizens sent to foreign prisons without due process are really guilty of something. We won't.

2

Give it the Old College Try

Some good news from the attack on higher eduction. Harvard Will Fight Trump’s Demands. From University President Alan M. Garber: "No government — regardless of which party is in power — should dictate what private universities can teach, whom they can admit and hire, and which areas of study and inquiry they can pursue." Oh yeah, we live in America.

+ "This is my radical proposal for universities: Act like universities, not like businesses. Spend your endowments. Accept more, not fewer students. Open up your campuses and expand your reach not by buying real estate but by bringing education to communities. Create a base. Become a movement. Alternatively, you can try to negotiate with a mafia boss who wants to see you grovel. When these negotiations fail, as they inevitably will, it will be too late to ask for the public’s support." M Gessen in the NYT (Gift Article): This Is How Universities Can Escape Trump’s Trap, If They Dare.

+ Adam Unikowsky in The Atlantic (Gift Article): Why My Firm Is Standing Up for the Constitution. "Big Law should remain independent rather than have the government dictate who it represents." (These battles can be won, but only if a lot more universities and law firms join the fight.)

3

Paramount Rushmore

"President Donald Trump bitterly attacked '60 Minutes' shortly after the CBS newsmagazine broadcast stories on Ukraine and Greenland on Sunday, saying the network was out of control and should 'pay a big price' for going after him." The big question here is not how 60 Minutes will respond. They'll keep reporting. The big question is how CBS owner Paramount will respond. The same goes for the big corporate owners of other major media brands. They have big dollars at stake and their news orgs are a rounding error.

+ Meanwhile, Trump reminded Americans of his view on the invasion of Ukraine: "You have millions of people dead. Millions of people dead because of three people. ... Let's say Putin number one, but let's say Biden, who had no idea what the hell he was doing, number two, and Zelensky. And all I can do is try and stop it."

+ Days after more talks with Trump envoy Steve Witkoff, Putin launched a deadly missile attack that resulted in many civilian deaths. I suppose this was partly Biden and Zelensky's fault too?

4

It's Your Funeral

"One Saturday morning in August of 2021, more than 200 people assembled in an Arlington church for the funeral of Richard Hanneman, a onetime Capitol Hill staffer and longtime trade association executive who died of lung cancer at the age of 78. Four of Hanneman’s seven children spoke at the service. So did two of his grandchildren and his best friend...But the most compelling presence was the third speaker on the program, a white-haired man in a dark suit. Dick Hanneman himself." Dan Pink in WaPo (Gift Article): Why not attend your own funeral? (I hate going to out to social events. The one good thing about death is that it provides a perfect excuse to RSVP No.)

5

Extra, Extra

Chiplash: Tariffs on Tariffs off. Over the weekend, tariff exceptions were made for phones and electronics, which was good news for Apple. By Monday, new chip tariffs were being threatened that would be bad news for Apple. Welcome to another day of market whiplash. Meanwhile, more and more CEOs are expecting a recession.

+ A Jury of One? "The Federal Trade Commission's blockbuster antitrust case against Meta kicks off on Monday in a courtroom in Washington, D.C. It's the culmination of a nearly six-year investigation into whether the social media giant broke competition laws in acquiring Instagram and WhatsApp." Because this is a new American age, stakeholders on both sides are directly lobbying the president.

+ Kleptomania: "We are living through a revolutionary change, a broad shift away from the transparency and accountability mandated by most modern democracies, and toward the opaque habits and corrupt practices of the autocratic world." Anne Applebaum in The Atlantic (Gift Article): Kleptocracy, Inc. Meanwhile, from WSJ (Gift Article): Trump Administration Retreats From White-Collar Criminal Enforcement. (Time for a Midnight Run digression: "I'm a white collar criminal.")

+ Rory Rory Hallelujah: "It happened! It happened. So many times it seemed like it never would. There was the 0-for-38 streak in major tournaments dating back to 2014. The heartbreak at the U.S. Open in 2023 and 2024. The double bogeys at holes 15 and 17 during Thursday’s opening round of the Masters. The opening double bogey on Sunday, followed by the shocking double bogey at the par-5 13th, which turned a seeming runaway victory into a whole new ballgame. The Rory McIlroy Roller Coaster. It’s been impacting golf fans—and McIlroy himself—for decades now." By winning the Masters, Rory McIlroy Finally, Finally Did It.

+ Tinder Box: "This kind of violence is becoming far too common in our society. And I don’t give a damn if it’s coming from one particular side or the other. It has to stop." Fire set at Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro’s home is the latest in a string of political violence.

+ Flight of Fancy: In a marketing plan that was out of this world, Blue Origin's all-female flight launched to the edge of space with Gayle King, Katy Perry and Lauren Sánchez on board.

+ Need a Ride? Can old school and new tech coexist? Yes, apparently. Because people have been leaving handwritten notes in Waymos. Tech workers are leaving notes in robot taxis seeking workers and lovers. (I thought the whole point of Waymos was that you wanted to ride alone...)

6

Bottom of the News

Viewers of the White Lotus watched a scene that featured what looked like the world's biggest squirt gun fight. Apparently, it's a real thing. Songkran: The world's biggest water fight. (Wait, so squirting is real?)