A Bit of Could-Be-Worse News

And other topics from a busy weekend.

Three items today. I’ll paywall the third one.

Bad vs. Could Be Worse News: The very bad news over the weekend was the increasing signs of extremist violence. Most notably the assassination in Minnesota, but there were also sporadic reports of anti-protester violence by Trump supporters at various other sites. And yes, it’s appropriate to say this comes from the Trump faction; he’s earned that by praising and pardoning those who committed violence on his behalf. (And yes, conservative extremists dominate political violence in the US).

This is bad, bad, bad. I don’t know of a way out; about the most hopeful thing I can remind people is that when leftist political violence was common in the US in the 1970s, it eventually faded out. But while it did have some support from cultural leaders, there was never the kind of sympathy from political leaders that Trump — and others — have provided.

The could-be-worse news? Yes, the attacks on the first amendment are very real, and the deployment of police, national guard, and even active duty troops are threatening. But at the end of the day, millions of people marched against the president and his policies and…and don’t overlook this…they were basically free to do so, and even protected by authorities.

As with free and fair elections so far in 2025, it was imperfect, and there’s no guarantee that this will continue. At all. But the doomers have been wrong so far — not, as far as anyone can tell, because Trump and his allies support democracy and the Constitution, but because they can be beaten by democracy and the Constitution. Which gets to the next point…

Trump-is-a-Loser Update: Previously (here and here) I’ve talked about what a huge loser Donald Trump is. He’s constantly being rolled by or otherwise defeated by everyone — the courts, state governments, organized groups outside of the government, even Republicans in Congress. As I emphasize every time this comes up, this isn’t actually reassuring; the fact that the President of the United States is so weak is extremely dangerous. But it sure is true.

The latest? Last week, a whole bunch of business interests hurt by Trump’s deportation policies and the GOP politicians who represent them succeeded in getting Trump to back off on one of his top priorities — mass deportation. At least in some situations.

But that was last week! Monday the policy flipped back. Pretty clear what happened here: First organized groups, acting apparently through Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, got to the president — only to have White House staffer Stephen Miller outmaneuver them after all. Or, as WaPo’s Catherine Rampell puts it: “Shadow President Stephen Miller wins again.” So far.

Which is all well and good, and Miller should be called out, but the story overall is one of actual president Donald Trump’s weakness, not Miller’s or anyone else’s strength. This isn’t the only example since I last wrote about Trump as a loser, but it is the most recent one. Although by the time you read this, there will probably be more.

In Which I Take the Third-Party Bait: My apologies. I can’t help it.