Thirsty for Power

Trump wants an unauthorized war, taxpayer money for his allies, freedom from audits, detention without hearings, courtrooms without lawyers and higher drug premiums for seniors.

The kids are much better, which is the most important news from our little corner of the world. My husband and I are medium. We have spent too much time recovering in bed, and our backs have responded by filing formal complaints against management. Apparently there is a point at which rest becomes an ergonomic hazard, and we found it together.

Still, life goes on. I made it into the garden this morning and watered all the plants, which are now happy and considerably less thirsty than they were. That is more than I can say for Donald Trump, although plants possess the important biological ability to recognize when they have had enough. Trump remains parched for power, money and freedom from consequences, while his administration works methodically to remove protections from everyone else.

The Senate came within one vote of restricting Trump’s authority to continue the war with Iran without congressional authorization. The war powers resolution failed 49 to 50, with Republicans Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski and Rand Paul supporting it while Democrat John Fetterman helped defeat it.

The war has continued for more than five months, despite Trump’s original prediction that it would last four or five weeks. At least 18 American service members have been killed, more than 450 have been wounded and over $37 billion has already been spent. The Pentagon is asking Congress for approximately $80 billion more, because nothing says fiscal responsibility quite like financing the indefinite expansion of a war lawmakers never authorized.

Congress possesses the constitutional power to declare war, but it has spent so many years surrendering its authority to presidents that asking senators to exercise it now feels like requesting that a decorative pillow operate heavy machinery. The Senate needed one more vote to remember that it is a branch of government rather than an audience, but unfortunately the Constitution lost another close contest to political cowardice.

While Americans are paying for the war in blood and money, Trump is defending a proposed $1.8 billion fund that could compensate his political allies with taxpayer dollars. The fund emerged from negotiations to settle Trump’s $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS over the leak of his tax returns. The proposed agreement would also prevent the IRS from auditing Trump and his family, combining public money for his friends with private immunity for himself in a corruption package so complete it should come with a ribbon.

The controversy is now holding up Todd Blanche’s nomination for attorney general. Blanche, Trump’s former personal defense lawyer and current acting attorney general, previously said the fund was dead, but Republican senators John Cornyn and Thom Tillis want that promise in writing. Trump responded by publicly defending the fund and threatening to withdraw Blanche’s nomination until the troublesome senators are gone.

Trump says the money should compensate supporters who were mistreated by the government, which may include people convicted for their roles in the January 6 attack on the Capitol. The president who pardoned the rioters would now like taxpayers to provide the gift bags.

At the same time, thousands of unaccompanied immigrant children could lose their lawyers as a federal legal-services contract expires today. The contract supports more than 100 organizations representing over 20,000 children, some of whom are navigating asylum claims, deportation proceedings and allegations of trafficking or abuse. Providers say the administration has withheld roughly $65 million for work already completed while demanding confidential information about the children they represent. The government says it offered a new contract with additional data requirements, while attorneys argue that some of the requested information is legally privileged.

Without representation, children may be expected to appear alone in immigration court and argue their own cases against the federal government. Some are too young to understand the proceedings, but the administration appears confident that childhood is no excuse for inadequate litigation skills.

There are few images that capture the moral condition of a country more clearly than a child standing alone before a judge while government attorneys work to remove them. The richest nation on Earth can locate billions for war and potentially $1.8 billion for presidential allies, but a lawyer for a frightened child has apparently become an extravagance.

The courts, meanwhile, are still attempting to install a few guardrails around Trump’s immigration machinery. The Ninth Circuit rejected the administration’s effort to subject immigrants arrested inside the country to mandatory detention without an opportunity to seek bond. It became the fourth federal appeals court to reject the policy, although two other circuits have upheld it, making eventual Supreme Court review increasingly likely.

The administration’s position would allow longtime residents, including people without criminal records, to remain imprisoned throughout their immigration proceedings without asking a judge for release. The government argues that a 1996 law grants it this authority, while the Ninth Circuit concluded that immigrants arrested in the country must retain access to bond hearings.

This isn’t an argument over whether the government can enforce immigration law. It’s an argument over whether the executive branch may imprison people indefinitely without meaningful review, which used to be the sort of question Americans answered before printing “freedom” on every available surface.

Finally, I feel urged to mention again that the administration is ending a Medicare program that helped stabilize premiums for standalone Part D prescription-drug plans. The program will conclude after 2026, affecting a market serving approximately 25 million people.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services says insurers now have enough experience with the redesigned Part D system to operate under “traditional market conditions.” Actual premiums won’t be known until September, although analysts warn that some beneficiaries could face larger increases once the subsidy disappears.

“Traditional market conditions” is a wonderfully sterile phrase for asking older Americans to open a letter and discover what their medication will cost next year. The administration insists most increases will remain modest, which is comforting if we ignore that “modest” is usually defined by someone who won’t be standing at a pharmacy counter deciding which prescription can wait.

Taken together, these stories reveal the operating principle of the Trump administration with unusual clarity. The president must be free from Congress, free from audits, free to reward his allies and free to detain people without hearings. Immigrant children can lose their lawyers, seniors can absorb higher costs, service members can continue dying and taxpayers can finance the entire arrangement.

The plants in my garden needed water this morning, so I gave it to them. They absorbed what they needed, lifted their leaves and returned quietly to the work of living. Trump’s thirst is different. It can’t be satisfied because it isn’t really a need; it’s an appetite without a stopping point, and every institution that refuses to restrain it becomes another dry patch he intends to drain.

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