<....Progressive presidents have indeed enlarged government’s regulatory capacity, but invariably because public interest and public safety demanded it. Congress established the departments and agencies that these presidents sought and the public desired. The growth of the administrative state did not come from presidential decrees, unlike the destruction of the administrative state flowing from unlawful executive orders today.

Teddy Roosevelt persuaded Congress to create the Food and Drug Administration so that Americans wouldn’t be poisoned so frequently by what they consumed. Wilson’s allies pushed a bill through Congress that established the Federal Trade Commission to aid consumers and small businesses struggling to deal with corporate domination of markets.

FDR signed congressional legislation establishing the Securities and Exchange Commission and the National Labor Relations Board. Congress, responding to the financial chicanery that led to the crash of 2008 and the ensuing Great Recession, passed a bill, which Obama signed, creating the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

This was all government by consent of the governed, with Congress passing, the president signing, and the courts upholding the constitutionality of these newly created agencies. None of these fundamental changes were due to presidential executive orders, decrees, tweets, or pronunciamentos.

If there is a model in the annals of our history for the agency closures and funding impoundments that Trump has unilaterally ordered, it’s the despotic one that James Madison cautioned against in his Federalist Papers arguments. There, he explained why the Constitution he’d just co-authored created separate branches of government precisely to forestall the prospect of a despot’s rise.

The possibility that the new American nation could degenerate into the monarchical form of government that then prevailed across Europe was very much on Madison’s mind. “The accumulation of all powers—legislative, executive and judiciary—in the same hands, whether of one, a few or many, and whether hereditary, self-appointed or elective, may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny,” Madison wrote in Federalist 47. To keep that from happening, he wrote in Federalist 51, “Ambition must be made to counteract ambition.” To this end, he installed the French philosophe Montesquieu’s ideas of separation of powers and checks and balances as the centerpiece of the Constitution.

Despite that, a cowed and supine Republican Congress has raised nary a peep at Trump’s seizure of its power; because Republicans want these agency closures and funding impoundments but know they could not get them through their chambers of the legislature, they’d rather the president seize their power while they go mute. And while federal courts, so far, have sought to curtail those seizures of power, the Supremes have yet to be heard from.

Ours is the only constitution enacted in the 18th century that’s still operative; the constitutions of every other nation were drafted and enacted in more modern times, when the specter of a monarchial despot had by then generally receded.

Ours was by no means a fully democratic document, limiting popular sovereignty to the lower levels of government and endeavoring to ensure rule by elites. While amendments have mitigated some of these biases, vestiges (the Senate, the Electoral College) are still with us today.

Yet the Founders’ emphasis on a separation of powers rooted in fear of a despotic president has long been a kind of background noise in discussions of our constitutional order. It’s there, and we’re generally glad it’s there. But as a result of the nearly 250 years that we’ve gone without a wannabe despot president, it’s not the sort of thing that has merited much attention.

Mr. Will’s and the Journal’s stabs at Trump normalization notwithstanding, it does now.>

<President Donald Trump has demonstrated an uncanny ability to command fealty among Republican lawmakers throughout his political career.

And now with Elon Musk publicly pledging to spend $100 million or more to primary any GOP member of congress who objects to any aspect of Trump’s agenda, that fealty is being compelled out in the open, with the administration essentially declaring that GOP dissenters won’t be tolerated — or re-elected.

Yet the aggressiveness with which Musk’s DOGE and Trump’s foreign policy team have moved to reset the federal government and upend the global order has been so swift and comprehensive that some Republicans are shaking their heads (gently) and objecting despite the risks.

When DOGE made obvious errors in its calculations as it pursues the holy grail of “efficiency,” conservative Republican Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE) chided the haste and execution of the mission.

“Measure twice before cutting,” he said, a version of the famous axiom “measure twice, cut once.” Bacon, who is hardly anti-Trump, said of DOGE: “They have had to backtrack multiple times.”

But the DOGE domestic errors pale in comparison to what Bacon implies is a much more critical error the Trump administration is making.

Trump today called Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky a “dictator” — claiming that he was unpopular in Ukraine, that half the funds the U.S. provided for Ukraine’s defense went “missing,” and that the U.S. outspent European allies in supporting Ukraine.

Bacon refuted Trump’s assertions point-by-point, beginning with the fact that Russia, not Ukraine, started the war.

“Putin started this war. Putin committed war crimes. Putin is the dictator who murdered his opponents,” Bacon wrote. “The EU nations have contributed more to Ukraine. Zelensky polls over 50%. Ukraine wants to be part of the West, Putin hates the West. I don't accept George Orwell's doublethink.”

In response to comments, Bacon weighed in with the notion that now is the time and place to draw a line and not, as Europe did in 1938, engage in appeasement.

Many commenters point out that Orwell is dead and that the doublethink is being done now — not in a fictional 1984. “It’s Donald Trump’s doublethink,” wrote former Republican prosecutor Ron Filipkowski, “You can say it.”

A fervent anti-Trump account named for a potential third impeachment surfaced a statement by former Vice President Mike Pence in response to the President’s assertions.

Hundreds of responses on X also hit back at Bacon’s temerity in contradicting Trump, with one writing “Zelensky is that bully” and another that “Biden & Obama were the bullies” and many commenters criticizing the 1938 reference as a tired trope meant to “fearmonger.” (“Every year is not 1938,” wrote one.)

On the other side, Republicans Against Trump, a group of non-MAGA GOPers asked Bacon: “What do you plan to DO about Trump trashing Ukraine and openly siding with Putin?”

Trump had written on Truth Social:

"Think of it, a modestly successful comedian, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, talked the United States of America into spending $350 Billion Dollars, to go into a War that couldn't be won, that never had to start, but a War that he, without the U.S. and "TRUMP," will never be able to settle. The United States has spent $200 Billion Dollars more than Europe, and Europe's money is guaranteed, while the United States will get nothing back. Why didn't Sleepy Joe Biden demand Equalization, in that this War is far more important to Europe than it is to us - We have a big, beautiful Ocean as separation. On top of this, Zelenskyy admits that half of the money we sent him is "MISSING." He refuses to have Elections, is very low in Ukrainian Polls, and the only thing he was good at was playing Biden "like a fiddle." A Dictator without Elections, Zelenskyy better move fast or he is not going to have a Country left. In the meantime, we are successfully negotiating an end to the War with Russia, something all admit only "TRUMP," and the Trump Administration, can do. Biden never tried, Europe has failed to bring Peace, and Zelenskyy probably wants to keep the "gravy train" going. I love Ukraine, but Zelenskyy has done a terrible job, his Country is shattered, and MILLIONS have unnecessarily died – And so it continues…..">

<Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said President Donald Trump is in a "disinformation space" as public recriminations between the two leaders deepened on Wednesday amid nascent talks to end Russia's three-year-old full-scale invasion of its neighbor.

The series of attacks, Zelenskyy suggested, were informed in part by "disinformation," which the Ukrainian president said "comes from Russia -- and we have evidence."

Trump called Zelenskyy a "dictator without elections," claiming -- without providing evidence -- that his Ukrainian counterpart's approval rating was as low as 4%. Trump also wrote on Truth Social that Zelenskyy "better move fast or he is not going to have a Country left."

Trump's apparent push for new elections in Ukraine aligns with longstanding Kremlin talking points framing Zelenskyy as an "illegitimate" leader unsuitable for peace talks.

Ukraine's latest presidential election was scheduled to be held in 2024, but was postponed due to Russia's war on the country. Ukraine's constitution stipulates that elections cannot be held under martial law, which was introduced within hours of Moscow's February 2022 invasion.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has sought to weaponize the delay to undermine Kyiv. "You can negotiate with anyone, but because of his illegitimacy, he has no right to sign anything," Putin said of Zelenskyy in January.

The country's parliament and its speaker "remain the only legitimate authorities in Ukraine," Putin declared in May 2024, the month that was supposed to mark the end of Zelenskyy's term.

Trump's broadside against Zelenskyy included a call for new elections, despite the ongoing war. "That's not a Russia thing, that's something coming from me and coming from many other countries also," Trump said.

Dmitry Medvedev -- Russia's former president, prime minister and a longstanding top ally of Putin -- was gleeful in his response to Trump's most recent remarks.

"If you'd told me just three months ago that these were the words of the US president, I would have laughed out loud," Medvedev -- who is now the deputy chairman of Russia's security council -- wrote on X. Trump, he added, "is 200 percent right," describing Zelenskyy as a "bankrupt clown."

Russia's ambassador to the U.K., Andrei Kelin, also celebrated the U.S. pivot. "For the first time we have noticed that they are not simply saying that this is Russian propaganda and disinformation," he told the BBC.

"They have listened and they hear what we're saying," Kelin said.

Trump suggested this week that Ukraine's long-time desire to join NATO was a major cause for Russia's 2022 invasion. The assertion won him more praise in Russia.

"He is the first, and so far, in my opinion, the only Western leader who has publicly and loudly said that one of the root causes of the Ukrainian situation was the impudent line of the previous administration to draw Ukraine into NATO," Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told lawmakers.

Like Moscow, Trump and his domestic allies appear to be presenting Zelenskyy as a key impediment to peace.

Vice President JD Vance said the Ukrainian leader's "badmouthing" of Trump was an "atrocious" way to interact with the administration.

"We obviously love the Ukrainian people," he told the Daily Mail. "We admire the bravery of the soldiers, but we obviously think that this war needs to come to a rapid close."

"That is the policy of the President of the United States," Vance said. "It is not based on Russian disinformation. It's based on the fact that Donald Trump, I think, knows a lot about geopolitics and has a very strong view, and has had a strong view for a very long time."

Trump confidante Steve Bannon, meanwhile, told Italy's La Repubblica newspaper he believed Zelenskyy is "finished."

"Of course, if he decides to accept the terms of the agreement with Russia, he will be welcome, but he no longer has the power to dictate them," Bannon said.

Russian officials, meanwhile, also framed Kyiv as the key impediment to peace.

"The Ukrainian side is practically ready to use any tool that will be aimed at stopping or preventing dialogue and preventing the search for a scenario for a political and diplomatic settlement," Rodion Miroshnik, an ambassador-at-large for Russia's Foreign Ministry, told state television on Thursday, as quoted by Russia's state-run Tass news agency.

Several of Kyiv's European partners, meanwhile, expressed deep concern over the latest developments.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer "stressed the need for everyone to work together," in a statement, expressing "his support for President Zelenskyy as Ukraine's democratically elected leader." Starmer said it was "perfectly reasonable to suspend elections during war time as the U.K. did during World War II."

<The top Department of Justice prosecutor in Washington D.C. is now sending letters to elected officials who criticize President Donald Trump and his administration that include ominous ultimatums.

That's according to Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.), who posted the full text of a letter he received from Edward Martin — the acting U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia. Martin's letter is just one of several he sent to Democrats who publicly criticized both Trump and centibillionaire Elon Musk. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) also received letters from Martin, with each one including a deadline to respond.

"So if you criticize Elon Musk, Trump’s DOJ will send you this letter," the California congressman wrote on Bluesky. "Members of Congress must have the right to forcefully oppose the Trump Administration. I will not be silenced."

Martin's letter asks Garcia to elaborate on comments he made about Musk during an interview on CNN, in which he called the Tesla and SpaceX CEO a "d---."

"During a live interview with CNN, when asked how Democrats can stop Elon Musk, you spoke clearly: 'What the American public wants is for us to bring actual weapons to this bar fight. This is an actual fight for democracy,'" Martin wrote, adding that Garcia had until Februrary 24, 2025 to respond. "This sounds to some like a threat to Mr. Musk – an appointed representative of President Donald Trump who you call a 'd---' – and government staff who work for him. Their concerns have led to this inquiry."

Garcia defended his comments, and retorted that "no reasonable person would view my comments as a threat."

"We are living in a dangerous time, and elected members of Congress must have the right to forcefully oppose the Trump Administration," he wrote in a subsequent post. "I will not be silenced.">

<[Event "CCA ChessWise International"] [Site "Stratton Mountain VT"]
[Date "1999.06.12"]
[Round "2"]
[White "Ivanov, Alexander"]
[Black "Young, Ronald"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "B50"]
[WhiteElo "2572"]
[BlackElo "2374"]

<This has been a dizzying and disorienting week in international diplomacy. One with wild implications for Ukraine, the future of America’s standing in the world and President Trump’s legacy.

Trump is absolutely right in wanting to end the bloodshed in Ukraine. The suffering has been appalling and the stalemate brutal. But in the furious mix of wild opinions this week from the White House down, there are at least 10 truths that every American voter must hang onto.

In Trump’s rush to end the bloodshed, these are also the truths against which any deal will be judged and which will define him when the history books are written.

To ignore them or not treat them with the gravity they deserve will also have enormous consequences for decades to come:

Truth No. 1

Vladimir Putin started this war, despite what Trump said days ago.

In February 2022, following a massive buildup on Ukraine’s borders, Putin’s army launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. There is no rational narrative outside of Russian propaganda that blames “aggressive” actions by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky or NATO that can justify such a military action. This came after Putin had already seized Crimea in 2014 and launched a war in the Donbas, in eastern Ukraine.

And that doesn’t include the other wars he started, like that against the tiny nation of Georgia in 2008.

Trump is absolutely right that the war “never had to start.” I believe it is true that it wouldn’t have started if he had been in the Oval Office. But it was Putin, not Zelensky, who started the war.

Russia is fighting for conquest. The Russian Federation invaded Ukraine in 2022. Whatever you think of the country or its leadership, Ukraine is an internationally recognized, sovereign nation. Putin invaded in the hope of devouring the country wholesale. By contrast, Ukraine has absolutely no territorial ambitions in Russia.

And remember the brutality of Russia’s actions. Among the multitude of depravities and war crimes committed by Putin’s army has been the abduction of some 20,000 Ukrainian children. Who wants to live in a world where the strong can simply devour the weak, and kidnap little children by the thousands? Why hasn’t the US put their release at the top of the list of its negotiating demands?

Truth No. 3

Ukraine is fighting for its independence. Most Ukrainians do not want to be part of Russia. They do not want to be governed from Moscow. The vast majority want to live in an independent, sovereign country in control of its own future.

Truth No. 4

Ukrainians are not Russians. Ukrainians and Russians are not “one people — a single whole,” as Putin wrote in a 2021 essay. He is also simply lying in his assertion that “modern Ukraine is entirely the product of the Soviet era.”

Ukrainians and Russians are two separate ethnic groups. They speak different languages and have distinct histories.

Truth No. 5

Putin is a dictator. Putin has ruled Russia with an iron KGB fist since coming to power in 1999. He has ruthlessly quashed independent media, ended free and fair elections, crushed civil society and killed his political opponents. And not just inside Russia, but around the world. People who live inside Russia and express any opposition to the war are imprisoned.

Truth No. 6

Zelensky is not a dictator. A political outsider, Zelensky won the 2019 presidential election, which was relatively free and fair. He has a 57% approval rating, not the 4% Trump claimed.

Unlike in Russia, Ukraine has vibrant independent media that hold the government to account — despite claims to the contrary by internet swamp creatures and Russian bots.

Many Ukrainians freely criticize the government’s conduct of the war. When Britain was fighting for its survival against the Nazis in the 1940s, it too did not hold elections.

The Russian ambassador to the UK spent yesterday crowing that he’s “not sure” Zelensky would be re-elected if there were elections today. But we all know one thing for sure. Whether or not Zelensky would be re-elected in Ukraine, Putin will always be re-elected in Russia. Because his elections are con jobs, pageant shows. Putin hasn’t won a free and fair election in his life. Because he doesn’t hold them....>

<....Truth No. 7

Russia is not a friend of the US. It is a hostile, nuclear-armed state that resents American power and the world the US has built. It has ever closer relations with China, Iran and North Korea. In fact, all of its main friends are countries that are the biggest foes of America.

Truth No. 8

Ukraine is a friend of the US. Ukraine wants to be part of the American-led order. Its people and government are deeply pro-American. Since the start of the Russian invasion, the Ukrainian men and women I have seen fighting at the front lines are fighting the Russian military to protect their loved ones and their country. They also do it in the knowledge that if they fail, other countries will be next.

Truth No. 9

Putin cannot be trusted. This isn’t just a statement of fact. It is also something that 81% of American voters agree on.

Putin has invaded multiple countries in violation of every international treaty. He has interfered in multiple elections in his nearest neighbors. He has violated international agreements, including the INF Treaty with the US.

He has lied to American presidents and European leaders his whole career. He has lied to Trump even since Trump has been back in office. Most recently Putin promised that he wouldn’t target Ukrainian energy facilities.

Yet just this week he carried out a massive missile and drone attack against multiple energy facilities in Ukraine. It is almost as though Putin’s word doesn’t count for very much and he doesn’t care if you know it.

Truth No. 10

American aid to Ukraine is not being wasted.

Nobody would argue that Ukraine is a country without corruption. But that does not mean its people and sovereignty should not be protected.

We should also remember which country in this war is truly corrupt. Russia is one vast, kleptocratic state, led by Putin and a small cartel of oligarchs who have made themselves among the richest people on Earth. All while keeping most of the Russian population in a state of poverty that would not be believed by most of us in the West.

Putin and his cronies have been accumulating power and wealth all their careers. And they will torture and kill anyone who exposes this corruption. Remember his political opponent Alexey Navalny and the lawyer Sergei Magnitsky? It is easy to expose corruption in Ukraine. But in Russia, it is deadly.

Besides, according to the Department of Defense, some $58 billion out of the $183 billion in Ukraine aid has been spent in America. It is money that has benefited American workers and industries.

The war has also degraded the military of one of the despotic regimes in the world and reduced its threat to not just Europe but America without one US soldier being killed. It has also sent a strong deterrent message to China, Iran and North Korea not to try the same.

You can criticize Zelensky, complain. But we should be under no illusions about who started this fire and who the true dictator or villain of this tragic tale is.

Trump has a chance to bring an end to this war, to stop the killing. Maybe even win a Nobel Peace Prize.

But he will not be honored if the peace is an appeasement, one that bows down in the face of evil as it denies obvious truths.

The judgment of history will be even harsher — decades of peace and prosperity in Europe and America thrown away to a resurgent Russia harassing the East. Without a strong peace, it won’t be just Ukraine that suffers. It is all of us.

That is the ultimate truth.>

<Donald Trump once again refused to criticize Russian President Vladimir Putin and instead blamed Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy for the destruction in his own country.

The U.S. president appeared Friday on Fox News host Brian Kilmeade's radio program, where he lamented that important cultural sites had been destroyed since Russian troops launched a full-scale invasion on Feb. 24, 2022 – but he refused multiple opportunities to blame Putin for the devastation.

"You have a man who has let a country that had the more beautiful cities get demolished," Trump said, apparently referring to Zelenskyy, "had the most beautiful domes. Those domes are the most beautiful in the world."

Kilmeade stepped in to gently correct him, saying "that's Russia's fault, Mr. President," but Trump was undeterred.

"They're all demolished, a thousand-year-old domes," Trump continued, "and everything's demolished, it looks like a demolition site. It's sort of like Gaza. In fact, it's more – at least Gaza has a couple of buildings standing. This place, you take a look at demolition of so many of those cities, also, those people are killed, never to come back again. They're all killed."

"But Mr. President, that's Vladimir Putin's fault, don't you agree?" Kilmeade interjected.

Apparently not, and Trump then attacked Zelenskyy for complaining that his country was shut out of talks in Saudi Arabia between U.S. and Russian officials on a peace deal to end the invasion that Trump wants conditioned on giving up perpetual control of his nation's resources and infrastructure.

"I get tired of listening to it, I tell you what," Trump responded. "I've seen it enough, and then he complains that he's not in a meeting that we're having with Saudi Arabia trying to intermediate peace. Well, he's been at meetings for three years with a very – uh, with a president [Joe Biden] who didn't know what the hell he was doing."

Critics were shocked and appalled that Trump was attacking Zelenskyy and refused to blame Putin for starting the war.

"He will not critize [sic] Putin," noted The Tennessee Holler account.

"If Brian Kilmeade had a soul left, you'd hear it leaving his body," said writer Gary Legum.

"At the risk of pointing out the obvious, Zelensky is negotiating with a very big card: 3 years of thwarting Putin's attempted conquest, at an immense cost to Russia which they cannot sustain," added Nicholas Grossman, international relations professor at the University of Illinois. "We can be confident Trump gets, at some level, how big that card is, because he keeps trying to weaken it."

"If Biden was this detached from our shared reality, Trump and co. would be talking about 25th amendment remedies," posted conservative writer Noah Rothman. "Oh, that's right: he was and they were."

"No matter how many chances he’s had, Donald Trump has never — ever — condemned Vladimir Putin," said the account Republicans Against Trump. "Putin’s puppet."

“'Oh please Mr President, please say it was Putin’s fault. Please. Pretty please?'” posted former GOP congressman Joe Walsh. "Bless your heart Kilmeade.">

<One federal judge appointed by former President Joe Biden is now under the microscope of President Donald Trump's Department of Justice (DOJ).

CBS News reporter Jake Rosen tweeted Friday that the Trump DOJ is now filing an official complaint against Judge Ana Reyes, who sits on the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. The administration is arguing that Reyes displayed "hostile and egregious conduct" this week during oral arguments in the Talbott v. Trump case, in which transgender members of the military are alleging the administration's ban on trans service members is unconstitutional.

"Judge Reyes engaged in the unacceptable misconduct at issue in this complaint, questioning a Department of Justice attorney regarding his religious beliefs and then using him unwillingly as a physical prop in her courtroom theatrics," wrote DOJ chief of staff Chad Mizelle.

The complaint may stem from a viral moment that occurred during oral arguments, in which Reyes and a DOJ attorney sparred over pronoun use in the military. When the DOJ asserted that respecting transgender service members' pronouns harmed military readiness, Reyes said "the greatest fighting force" should not be "impacted in any way by less than one percent of the soldiers using a different pronoun."

"if our military is negatively impacted in any kind of way that matters… We all have a lot bigger problems than pronoun use. We have a military that is incompetent." Reyes said. "Any common sense rational human being knows that it doesn’t. It is pretext. It is frankly ridiculous. If you want to get me an officer of the U.S. military who is willing to get on the stand and say that because of pronoun usage the U.S. military is less prepared because of pronoun usage. I will be the first to give you a box of cigars.”

Transgender service members are suing under the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution, arguing that the nation's founding document guarantees that transgender members of the military are entitled to protection from sex-based discrimination.

"President Trump states that transgender service members cannot meet the 'high standards for troop readiness, lethality, cohesion, honesty, humility, uniformity, and integrity,'" plaintiffs argue. "But these are the very same justifications that have been cited, time and again, by enemies of greater integration of our military—and they are the same concerns that, time and again, have proven to be rooted in unsupported stereotypes and misplaced fears.">