Robert Reich wrote a piece today in which he says he’s “nauseously optimistic” a phrase I can relate to. There is no such thing as pure optimism anymore. Whenever I see a little ray of light now, my stomach starts churning because I don’t want to get my hopes up.
Reich’s little bit of optimist comes from the fact that the courts, so far, have been coming through.
All told, more than 120 Trump-Musk moves are now being reviewed by federal courts. So far, courts have ruled against the duo in the vast majority of these.
This is a constraint on Trump only if he feels bound by the rulings, of course — which raises the key question: Will Trump obey the rulings?
At least for now, the answer seems to be yes. Even as his war on the judiciary hits new heights, Trump vowed this week that he has never, and will never, defy the courts.
In a Tuesday interview with Laura Ingraham on Fox News, Trump bluntly told the MAGA faithful that “you can’t” ignore the rulings of the judicial branch.
Although Trump blustered and raged during the interview, he was clear about this. “I never did defy a court order,” he repeatedly said. Pressed by Ingraham to say if he might defy a court order in the future, he said: “No, you can’t do that.”
Despite calls from MAGA supporters for radical action against the judiciary, Trump seems to have concluded, at least for now, that he will not defy the courts.
That was not the first time he’s answered that so clearly. (I wrote about it here.)
“I always abide by the courts and then I’ll have to appeal it. But then what he’s done is he’s slowed down momentum. And it gives crooked people more time to cover up the books. The answer is I always abide by the courts, always abide by them. And we’ll appeal. But appeals take a long time.”
I thought at the time (about 6 weeks ago) that this might be his way of keeping Musk at arms length but now I’m not so sure. Reich has another idea that might make more sense.
The answer, I think, is that although Trump doesn’t pay attention to opinion pieces in The New York Times or The Washington Post (and certainly not this Substack), he does pay attention to opinion pieces in the Rupert Murdoch-owned press — specifically in the New York Post and The Wall Street Journal.
Their opinions have been uniformly against Trump defying the courts.
A sampling: “Sorry, Elon: Even deporting illegal gangbangers must heed the rule of law” (NY Post editorial board, 3/16) … “He campaigned on deporting gang members, but he can’t defy court orders” (WSJ editorial board, 3/17) … “Chief Justice Roberts Speaks Up for the Judiciary” (WSJ editorial board, 3/18) … “Trump, don’t heed the dangerous urge to attack the rule of law” (Isaac Schorr, NY Post, 3/18).
In other words, Murdoch is sending Trump a clear warning: If you take on the judiciary, you’re on your own.
We can’t trust anything Trump says so it’s probably best not to try and figure it out when he means something and when he doesn’t. And who really knows what Murdoch is doing? But as Reich says:
At most, it’s a reason for a modest bit of nauseous optimism, at the end of another difficult week.
I’ll take it.