Day: April 17, 2025

The Looming Constitutional Crisis as Trump Continues to Defy the Supreme Court and Federal District Courts With “The Dog Ate My Homework” Excuses

We begin with a looming constitutional crisis as Trump continues to defy the Supreme Court and Federal District Courts with ridiculous “dog ate my homework” excuses for why he can’t return the wrongly-deported Maryland man when America’s “strongman” wannabe dictator who has the entire Republican Party intimidated, claims he can’t order the “cool” and corrupt El Salvadoran tin pot dictator he has on the payroll to put Abrego Garcia on a plane back to the US. Joining us is Bruce Fein, a constitutional lawyer who formerly served as associate deputy attorney general under the Reagan administration, general counsel of the Federal Communications Commission, research director for the Joint Congressional Committee on Covert Arms Sales to Iran, and member of the American Bar Association’s Task Force on Presidential signing statements. He has authored several volumes on the United States Supreme Court, the United States Constitution, and international law, and helped write the articles of impeachment for President Nixon and President Clinton. Bruce Fein is the author of Constitutional Peril: the Life and Death Struggle for Our Constitution and Democracy and American Empire: Before The Fall, his latest book is Congressional Surrender. We discuss his article at Responsible Statecraft, “In Garcia, SCOTUS risks handing Trump a ‘loaded weapon’.”

A Little-Noticed FEC Ruling Opens the Door for the Next Frontier of Plutocracy

Then we speak with Bill Scher, the politics editor of the Washington Monthly. He is the host of the history podcast When America Worked and the co-host of the bipartisan online show and podcast The DMZ. We discuss his latest article at The Washington, “The Next Frontier of Plutocracy: A little-noticed FEC ruling has opened the door for mega-donors to give nearly unlimited amounts of money directly to political campaigns. Elections will never be the same.”

The Tariff War Trump has Launched Against China That He Will Surely Lose

Then finally we examine the tariff war Trump has launched and will surely lose and speak with Scott Kennedy, senior adviser and Trustee Chair in Chinese Business and Economics at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. A leading authority on Chinese economic policy and U.S.-China commercial relations, he has traveled to China for 37 years and his books include China’s Uneven High-Tech Drive: Implications for the United States, Global Governance and China: The Dragon’s Learning Curve, The Fat Tech Dragon: Benchmarking China’s Innovation Drive and The Business of Lobbying in China. We discuss his article at Foreign Policy, “Why Beijing Thinks It Can Beat Trump.”