Emily Bazelon

And then I have a kind of question mark in my head about the Supreme Court.

I could kind of argue it both ways.

On the one hand I think the court set the terms for a lot of this administration with its decision granting presidents immunity for most of their official acts.

And then on the other hand, they have basically just like gone along with a lot of what the administration has wanted to do.

And so that is a kind of conciliatory enabling role as opposed to like directing all the action.

David, what do you think about that?

I think that Trump uses his mouthpiece, like the presidency and what he says as his main mechanism of power.

Right.

So we started the year with the flurry of executive orders and those have continued.

And that's the president just declaring this is what the law is now.

You can go ahead and sue me and try to stop me.

It's not making a deal in Congress.

It's making a declaration, planting a flag, and then seeing if people are going to go along or not, which in the Republican Party, they almost entirely have.

And of late, you know, and Venezuela is another example of this, we see him taking the same idea of just like edicts and decrees into the international realm.

And then it sets off a kind of diplomatic crisis.

And, you know, then Trump undermines our allies by like posting their private signal and text messages to him on social media.

And then when he declares that, you know, he's reached an agreement, like somehow it's all going to be OK.

It's right.

It's all a drama of words that he instigates and then tries to see where the dare leads and how other people react.

I mean, I think it depends on the area of policy, right?