{"id":134,"date":"2026-06-02T09:09:45","date_gmt":"2026-06-02T09:09:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/frontierhousingreport.com\/?p=134"},"modified":"2026-06-02T09:09:45","modified_gmt":"2026-06-02T09:09:45","slug":"the-inflection-point-is-here","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/frontierhousingreport.com\/?p=134","title":{"rendered":"The Inflection Point Is Here"},"content":{"rendered":"
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In the past week, federal judges have blocked one Trump executive excess after another. It doesn\u2019t bode well for Trump\u2019s attempted dictatorship.<\/p>\n

Read more NYC Immigration Courts Speed Deportations as Striking Detainees in Newark Suffer<\/a><\/p>\n

Last Friday, Trump\u2019s $1.776 billion slush fund intended to compensate supposed victims of alleged lawfare, including those convicted of committing crimes in connection with the January 6, 2021, insurrection at the Capitol. Brinkema\u2019s court order prohibits the Justice Department from transferring any money into the \u201cAnti-Weaponization Fund\u201d or processing any claims.<\/p>\n

Late Monday, in the face of a revolt by numerous Republican senators, Trump paused the fund. The Department of Justice issued a statement saying that it \u201cdisagrees strongly\u201d with the judge\u2019s decision but would abide by it.<\/p>\n

More from Robert Kuttner<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Leaks by two White House officials to Axios suggested that Trump was giving up on the fund. However, the judge\u2019s ruling merely ordered a temporary suspension. The Justice Department statement stops well short of saying that the fund is defunct, and one official quoted by Axios left open the possibility that Trump may yet try to revive it.<\/p>\n

The court ruling was a convenient pretext for political backpedaling. The deeper reason for Trump\u2019s apparent capitulation was the defection of key Republican senators opposed to the slush fund, who have blocked Trump\u2019s requested $72 billion for immigration enforcement. Even House Speaker Mike Johnson, who met with Trump at the White House Tuesday afternoon, reportedly urged him to scrap the fund.<\/p>\n

Judge Brinkema has scheduled a hearing for June 12. She was responding to a suit brought by several plaintiffs, including a former prosecutor of cases from the January 6th attack. Others include a professor prosecuted after protesting an immigration raid, a city threatened with loss of federal funding in retaliation for limiting cooperation with ICE, and an association of abortion clinics. These plaintiffs and others argued that the fund was illegal and intended to benefit only Trump allies. Indeed, the only lawfare being systematically practiced is Trump\u2019s.<\/p>\n

The fund was created based on a settlement agreement between Trump and the Justice Department in response to a personal lawsuit that Trump filed in federal district court in Florida challenging his treatment by the IRS. But now that deal is also under fresh judicial scrutiny.<\/p>\n

The presiding judge, Kathleen Williams, had closed the case after Trump\u2019s personal lawyers moved to drop it. But last Wednesday, in an action without precedent, a group of 35 former federal judges urged her to reopen the case, pointing out that Trump was corruptly on both sides of the case, as private citizen and as president, negotiating with himself. On Friday, Williams reopened the case and ordered Trump\u2019s lawyers to respond, also by June 12.<\/p>\n

These two rulings interact with a long-deferred mutiny by dozens of Republican senators who were caught completely by surprise by the announcement of the slush fund. According to numerous press reports citing sources who were in the room, the anger from Republican senators directed against acting Attorney General Todd Blanche at a May 21 meeting was blistering.<\/p>\n

The Senate then went into recess without passing the administration\u2019s $72 billion request for immigration enforcement. Senate leaders, who returned to session yesterday, have told Trump to forget about that funding until the slush fund is repealed. It\u2019s not yet clear whether the ambiguous White House and Justice Department statements on the slush fund will be sufficient to persuade the Senate leadership to cut loose the immigration financing unless the elimination of the fund is locked into law.<\/p>\n

At least seven GOP senators have demonstrated the capacity to defy Trump. The group includes moderates Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, and Kentucky\u2019s two senators, former Republican leader Mitch McConnell and libertarian Rand Paul. In addition, senators forced into early retirement by Trump\u2014John Cornyn of Texas, Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, and Thom Tillis of North Carolina\u2014have nothing to lose by opposing him.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do think the best way to handle it is if the administration decides to shut it down themselves,\u201d Senate Majority Leader\u00a0John Thune\u00a0(R-SD) told reporters Monday.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Read more One Company May Know Everything About You<\/a><\/p>\n

The judicial revolt against Trump doesn\u2019t stop there. Judges and dissenting GOP senators have become emboldened in tandem.<\/p>\n

On Friday, Judge Christopher Cooper of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ordered the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts to remove Trump\u2019s name from the building, and from all official materials and signage, within 14 days. \u201cCongress gave the Kennedy Center its name,\u201d he wrote, \u201cand only Congress can change it.\u201d Judge Cooper also blocked the plan to close the center for two years.<\/p>\n

Yet another judge has blocked funding for Trump\u2019s ballroom. And Thune explicitly defied Trump\u2019s request to add it to the aforementioned immigration legislation.<\/p>\n

TRUMP\u2019S PROPOSED SLUSH FUND<\/strong> is his most extreme case of executive overreach yet. While it is satisfying to watch other judges overrule his vanity projects, the interactions of the courts and the Senate is far more important.<\/p>\n

In devising separation of powers, the constitutional founders created the legislative and judicial branches as restraints on executive power. After some hesitation, the two other branches are acting as the founders intended.<\/p>\n

For a few days, Trump was energized by his successes in primaries. But rather than consolidating Trump\u2019s dominance, the successes weakened Trump\u2019s power where it counts: in Congress.<\/p>\n

John Cornyn is very well liked by his Republican colleagues, and the Senate Republican leadership is justifiably worried that state Attorney General Ken Paxton, the winner of the Texas primary, will be far easier for Democrat James Talarico to defeat. Resentment that Trump used his influence to help Paxton take out Cornyn was perfectly timed to accelerate Senate outrage over the slush fund surprise.<\/p>\n

The constitutional founders, mindful of executive overreach, also provided that only Congress can declare war. Both houses may well invoke the War Powers Act to cast votes against Trump\u2019s stalemated Iran war, which will leave the U.S. weaker and Iran stronger than before the war began. A war powers vote is expected in the House this week. Trump will veto any such legislation. But politically, the vote of no confidence against a disastrous and needless war will be real.<\/p>\n

The long-awaited inflection point will constrain Trump\u2019s drive to be a dictator. This will make it less likely that the November 2026 election will be replaced by some kind of coup.<\/p>\n

When the Duke of Wellington described his hard-fought victory over Napoleon at the decisive Battle of Waterloo in 1815, he characterized it in remarks often summarized as \u201ca close-run thing.\u201d As democracy\u2019s guardrails have sometimes seemed too frail to contain Trump, I have consistently believed and written that our democracy will survive Trump. But future historians will write that it was a close-run thing.<\/p>\n

Read more Left Anchor: AOC for President?<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n


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The revolt of the courts meets the mutiny of Senate Republicans.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":133,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[66],"class_list":["post-134","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-tagged-anti-weaponization-fund-congress-donald-trump-executive-power-iran-john-thune-law-justice-politics-republicans-war-powers"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Inflection Point Is Here - Frontier Housing Report<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/frontierhousingreport.com\/?p=134\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Inflection Point Is Here - Frontier Housing Report\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The revolt of the courts meets the mutiny of Senate Republicans.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/frontierhousingreport.com\/?p=134\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Frontier Housing Report\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-06-02T09:09:45+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/frontierhousingreport.com\\\/?p=134#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/frontierhousingreport.com\\\/?p=134\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/frontierhousingreport.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/13a8c63a4bd3b73600b541c1532fc247\"},\"headline\":\"The Inflection Point Is Here\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-06-02T09:09:45+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/frontierhousingreport.com\\\/?p=134\"},\"wordCount\":1166,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/frontierhousingreport.com\\\/?p=134#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/frontierhousingreport.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/06\\\/2ed8a98c4efb267dd3c93c1173c0c91f.webp\",\"keywords\":[\"Tagged: anti-weaponization fund,\u00a0Congress,\u00a0Donald Trump,\u00a0Executive Power,\u00a0Iran,\u00a0John Thune,\u00a0Law & Justice,\u00a0Politics,\u00a0Republicans,\u00a0war powers\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Politics\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/frontierhousingreport.com\\\/?p=134#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/frontierhousingreport.com\\\/?p=134\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/frontierhousingreport.com\\\/?p=134\",\"name\":\"The Inflection Point Is Here - 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