Dealing with Trump's ignor-ance

Trump ignored the law, the Constitution, Congress, judges. Now, he ignored Wall Street.

People are disappearing. If the Rapture happened, God left native-born Americans and took the immigrants. I know of at least one person who took their vacation time, told the boss they had to help some family “move out” of their state, and never returned. A quick check by HR indicated that the person’s work authorization had expired. Dollars to donuts they left for less cruel circumstances. I’ve heard similar stories from others. (If you know of any, send them in). With jackbooted disorder, the effects of all of this administration’s rush to do everything all at once are beginning to sink in.

The message to immigrants who arrived here legally or illegally, who can’t navigate our Brobdingnagian bureaucracy quick enough, or can’t get their I-765 renewed within the 540-day extension, the fear that “the government is coming for you” is earned. The IRS is roiling after the agency agreed to share protected tax records with ICE regarding immigrants.

The Supreme Court, under Chief Justice John Roberts, simultaneously addressed the core issue of President Trump’s ignoring the due process procedures due immigrants set for deportation, while allowing the deportations to continue. While the White House called it a victory, it gives the administration a choice between using the Department of Justice administrative courts to hear cases under the Immigration and Nationality Act, or using the federal courts to hear cases under the Alien Enemies Act. Trump had sought to skip due process entirely by declaring illegal immigrants as alien enemies under the 1798 law. Immigrants will get their day in court—their habeas corpus rights will be upheld. But the fear is still there, because student visas can be canceled, ICE agents can come and snatch people, and the government is indeed coming for anyone without the proper authorization.

“Your papers, please?” is how our government is operating in terms of dealing with illegal immigrants. Trump ordered this, along with his gung-ho Border Czar Tom Homan. Ignoring Constitutional guarantees is the go-to strategy for this administration.

In February, the White House booted the Associated Press from access to the president, and from boarding Air Force One, after the AP refused to alter its style guide to refer to the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America. A federal judge on Tuesday issued a stinging rebuke against the administration for violating the First Amendment guarantees of press freedom.

…under the First Amendment, if the government opens its doors to some journalists — be it to the Oval Office, the East Room, or elsewhere — it cannot then shut those doors to other journalists because of their viewpoints. The Constitution requires no less.

The president has ignored the First Amendment regarding press access. The court has reminded him it is still in effect. I expect the White House will appeal to the Supreme Court. I hope the Justices uphold the AP decision 9-0.

Trump has ignored the processes in place to protect federal workers. But the Supreme Court ruled the government does not have to rehire 16,000 probationary workers who were dismissed under Elon Musk’s heavy hand. The administration has also ignored the political careers of long time Republicans. Sen. John Cornyn of Texas is being primaried by once-impeached but not convicted Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. Paxton was notably the man who filed a giant lawsuit on behalf of his state in 2020 alleging that the election was stolen, that was laughed out of the Supreme Court.

On tariffs, Trump is ignoring his own best supporter, billionaire Elon Musk, who has indirectly attacked the president by skewering pro-tariff adviser Peter Navarro on the X platform.

The president is ignoring Wall Street, watching the markets crumble under his tariffs, which took effect at 12:01 a.m. this morning. Yesterday, there was a bit of a rally, while Trump supporters offered “I told you so”s and thumbs-up, but they misread the intent. The markets were reacting to the possibility that Trump might have a last-minute change of heart and relent. But he didn’t and the slide continued. The markets don’t want tariffs, which are really a tax on everything, and they are pricing everything accordingly.

Now, conservatives are punching back against the ignor-ance. The New Civil Liberties Alliance, which has the support of Federalist Society co-chairman Leonard Leo, filed a lawsuit claiming that Trump lacked the authority to enact the tariffs under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA). The Dispatch noted that “the lawsuit may have a point.”

Under these laws [the Trade Act of 1974, the Trade Expansion Act of 1962, and IEEPA], duties can’t be imposed in a day simply at the whim of the president—it took the better part of the year to follow the statutorily designated processes and fact-finding required for the first Trump administration’s tariffs. The Simplified lawsuit argues that Trump’s novel interpretation of IEEPA threatens all of Congress’ tariff authority: “If the president is permitted to use the IEEPA to bypass the statutory scheme for tariffs, the president will have nearly unlimited authority to commandeer Congress’s power over tariffs.”

The president is ignoring the Federalist Society, which he relied upon to supply sheafs of judge names in his first term. Many of those judges have ruled against Trump in various ways. He has done his best to ignore them also.

Perhaps, as these issues wind their way through the legal system, the ignore-ance will begin to slow down. Deportations will slow, but incarcerations will not, at least until the camps are full, while immigrants get their day in court. Meanwhile, the federal employees who were fired will remain fired, and immigrants will continue to disappear as they self-deport. The stock market will find a new equilibrium, pricing in 104 percent taxes on goods from China. Chinese firms will find ways to export to other countries to avoid the big tariff and pay the smaller ones—or none at all.

Will the man in the White House begin to listen, or will he continue to ignore? I know what I think, but I am sure you have your own predictions on that.

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