Chris Edelson

So when Trump says he wants Iran's UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER, that's apparently not what he means. Leavitt via White House Pool:

I was often thinking of your point about decades-long failure of accountability as I wrote. If you'd like a review copy, please let me know

🧵

We are all going to need to read this book.

precisely right

"This book explains how we have arrived at this point and
what this means for the US constitutional system." 6/x

"Even if Trump does not fully realize his authoritarian
ambitions during his second term, a path has been opened for other would-be authoritarians who could use a real or pretextual emergency as a basis for consolidating power & undermining democracy in the US". 5/x

"As I discuss in the conclusion of this book,
there are ominous questions as to how Trump might seek to exploit emergency power as a way to undermine democracy in the 2026 and 2028 elections." 4/x

"As detailed in Chapters 8 and 9, Trump claims more power
than the British king formally possessed in 1776, a kind of unlimited power reminiscent of the absolute prerogative exercised by seventeenthcentury English monarchs." 3/x

"Trump’s 1st term showed a would-be authoritarian could
abuse emergency power without being held...to account...In his 2nd term, Trump, emboldened by the S Ct decision on presidential immunity & by congressional acquiescence, is abusing emergency power in new and increasingly dangerous ways." 2/x

excerpts from the introduction: "The framers’
vision of emergency power bounded by limits in the context of presidents being accountable for their actions has been upended because government officials have failed to strike a balance between power and limits on it." 1/x

The central argument in my book is that trump is using contrived emergencies in an effort to claim the kind of unlimited power asserted by 17th century British monarchs. The Iran War is one example of this.

The table of contents and introduction to my new book, Above the Law? The Evolution of Emergency Presidential Power, are now available here: www.rienner.com/uploads/698e...

ha! a philosophical question of sorts but, yes, if he breaks the law and no one stops him, it's still illegal. It does, however, mean the constitutional system has failed. This is at the heart of my new book on emergency presidential power: www.rienner.com/title/Above_...

excellent piece--however, I would argue that presidents don't have prerogative (at least not in the sense of royal prerogative or unlimited power as you suggest). I agree that trump *claims* such power, but I think this is illegitimate--an attempt to make himself a kind of American monarch

trump is the Amusing Ourselves to Death president. As Postman explained in mid 80s, politics has become entertainment; what matters is whether something is entertaining, not whether it is true or a good idea. trump-a reality TV showman--has brought that to new depths with his reality TV presidency

nyt website currently resembles one of those mock covers people made before 2016 election: economy floundering, war in the middle east, scandal-plagued cabinet sec, brazen corruption....

a graph of unemployment rates by immigration status

a graph of prime-age employment rates by immigration status

Unsurprisingly, Trump's immigration crackdown is still not delivering labor market improvements for the US-born

Over the last year, native-born unemployment is up from 4.3% to 4.7% while native-born employment has decreased

Look, on the one hand, there’s a wildly illegal war going on & we’re murdering people on the high seas & it should immediately end this presidency. But on the other hand, now we’re really facing the “stagflation” that never existed but we pretended to be obsessed with when Joe Biden was president.

Here's the point to remember about the brutal negative revisions in today's job market report: They aren't saying the labor market showed green shoots that withered. It's saying that there never were any green shoots. They were an illusion.

good piece. Even the Adams and Jefferson examples don't support unilateral action--as you note, this was defensive action *and* each was ultimately authorized by Congress. Specifics are available, for example, in Lou Fisher, Presidential War Power 3rd edition pp. 24, 34

What does this imply for those of us who are not Christian, and who labor under the assumption that we're protected by the First Amendment?

ICE detains reporter Estefany Rodríguez in Nashville - Nashville Banner Reporter Estefany Rodríguez, detained by ICE with no arrest warrant, may face deportation. Her attorneys seek immediate review of the legality of her case.

ICE has arrested and detained a Nashville journalist who reported stories critical of ICE. She’s married to a U.S. citizen and has been seeking asylum here after fleeing death threats in Colombia because of her journalism there.

They’ve already sent her to Louisiana.

quite possible that his delusion works that way

How can trump admin claim this illegal war can continue past the 60/90 day War Powers Resolution window? The trump admin war is *already* illegal bc no actual emergency justified unilateral action v. Iran w/out congressional authorization, but what is the rationale for continuing past 60/90 days?

Opinion | No Empire. No Kings.

trump has admitted (more than once) that he believes he can rule as an American monarch: "Minnesota Governor Tim Walz has said that in January when he questioned the federal government’s actions in his state, Trump told him, “it was successful in Venezuela” www.nytimes.com/2026/03/03/o...

Also “used slurs to talk about Jewish and gay people and mused about Hitler’s politics.”

the words in my head recently are that trump appears as a junior partner to Netanyahu. Even that may be a euphemism.

We identified 12 shootings by federal agents that led to the deaths or injuries of citizens & immigrants since Sept.

Nearly every time, the Trump admin blamed the injured and dead. Experts say this apparent lack of accountability demands that local authorities step up to investigate federal agents.

The video of a United States Senator joining the violent removal of U.S. marine from a hearing and hideously breaking his arm in a door is an example of what has been unleashed in this country. They’re tapping in to get in on the violence.
And then he bragged about it on X later.