I wrote up the tariff ruling. There are well-established ways in which Congress has delegated the ability to impose tariffs to presidents. Trump got impatient, took an untested path, and got nothing. Thank the flying spaghetti monster for incompetency. prospect.org/politics/202... - ThreadSky

ddayen.bsky.social • 2 days ago

I wrote up the tariff ruling. There are well-established ways in which Congress has delegated the ability to impose tariffs to presidents. Trump got impatient, took an untested path, and got nothing. Thank the flying spaghetti monster for incompetency.
https://prospect.org/politics/2025-05-29-fortunately-trump-has-trouble-achieving-his-goals/

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rogerwallacetn.bsky.social•2 days ago

For Trump, the show of strength is more important than actually achieving the goal. If it succeeds, great, but if it fails, it's almost even better, because it gives him a enemy to point to who is always persecuting him (and by proxy, his followers). That's the most important thing.

cedichou.bsky.social•2 days ago

Depends what the goals are. Vietnam fast tracked trump organization projects due to tariffs, for instance. So they worked. Would he get it through another tack? Not if it's explicitly in the hands of Congress.

Same with the insider trading.

He also got major press coverage of him "acting".

ddayen.bsky.social•2 days ago

One thing I didn't get to: the major questions doctrine, nondelegation doctrine, and Biden v. Nebraska (the SCOTUS case throwing out student debt forgiveness) is all over the ruling. The case was brought by libertarians, & these judges, at least, applied their fantasy Lochnerism heavily.

ddayen.bsky.social•2 days ago

It's bad news that shitty judicial review still rules the nation, but there are also legitimate reasons why an emergency law doesn't confer unlimited tariff authority to a president.
And it highlights how the next Dem majority will need to think hard about jurisdiction stripping to make progress.

theiconoclast.bsky.social•2 days ago

All the above are symptoms that manifest from a broken, do-nothing Congress. Trump isn't the problem, its a Congress captive to special interests that created the conditions for Trump to take power. Guns, immigration, wage equality, monopolization, education cost - All Congressional failures.

bergmayer.net•2 days ago

in cases I've been involved with we're always on the the losing side of major questions / nondelegation and similar theories, but that said, there's a big gap between delegating to an agency that follows the APA, creates a record, must respond to comments, etc, and random Presidential decrees

ddayen.bsky.social•2 days ago

But also, of course, it means that the ruling was crafted specifically to put the Supreme Court in a corner. These are doctrines the conservative majority holds dearly, and they generally don't want to reverse precedents they themselves just established.

joeyblau.bsky.social•2 days ago

edburmila.bsky.social•2 days ago

Their stupidity and impulsiveness is the only “guardrail” that seems to work.

johncarlbaker.bsky.social•2 days ago

This is why the criticism that they’re putting incompetent people into government is often misplaced. Why would you want them to be effective?

mcbiohazard.bsky.social•2 days ago

I would like competent people in the roles that are supposed to benefit the public, like not RFK Jr. in charge of our public health and not Linda McMahon in charge of our public education. Please and thank you.

neemah.bsky.social•2 days ago

There's a difference between being competent in carrying out the ostensible goals of a dept and competent in carrying out goals to destroy it or use it to harm

mcbiohazard.bsky.social•2 days ago

Well yeah, they're not good at either. I'm just idly wishing that the idea of them at least making the trains run on time wasn't so hilariously untrue.

josalo.bsky.social•2 days ago

Folks with ill-intent often change the subject, but the #1 qualification for public office is integrity.

Without that, competency is a sharp knife in untrusted hands.

wicksanchez.bsky.social•2 days ago

May his noodley appendages continue to effect their just will upon us 🙏🏼

smtuffy.bsky.social•2 days ago

Yeah, across the board, the only thing keeping things from being much worse is that the admin has no impulse control and isn’t willing to put in the work to do things the right way

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