Category: Opinion

Source: Responsible Statecraft
by Connor Echols

“Will he or won’t he? The president offered little insight, but built a case for potential Mideast escalation if he chose to do it.” (02/25/26)

https://responsiblestatecraft.org/state-of-the-union-iran/

Source: The UnPopulist
by Joe Bishop-Henchman

“The administration’s rapid pivot to Section 122 reflects necessity, not legal strength. It rests on redefining a ‘balance-of-payments crisis’ beyond recognition, disregarding its own recent legal positions, and assuming that courts will decline to examine economic realities too closely. That is a fragile foundation for a policy affecting hundreds of billions of dollars in commerce and millions of consumers. And it’s possible he will get away with it. Ultimately, this episode underscores a constitutional reality that no statutory workaround can erase: trade policy belongs to Congress. And unless Congress takes it back, it will not be able to put a definitive end to his tariff mischief.” (02/24/26)

https://www.theunpopulist.net/p/trump-has-other-means-to-make-tariff

Source: Town Hall
by Americans for Prosperity

“When the Founders wrote ‘Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness’ into the Declaration of Independence, they weren’t guaranteeing comfort, equality of outcome, or a government-managed society. They were making a bolder claim that became the foundation of the American Dream: that people could build meaningful lives if government protected liberty and then got out of the way. That idea still matters today. At its core, the phrase shows trust in the American people. The Founders believed individuals, given freedom and responsibility, could make better choices for their lives than distant officials ever could. Perhaps more important is the idea that, as adults who are created equal, we have inherent dignity that must be recognized by our government. When this dignity is recognized, we can truly thrive as humans and give our best to our families, communities, and workplaces.” (02/25/26)

https://townhall.com/columnists/americans-for-prosperity/2026/02/25/what-does-life-liberty-and-the-pursuit-of-happiness-mean-n2671821

Source: Independent Institute
by Phillip W Magness

“The Supreme Court dealt a serious blow to President Trump’s economic agenda by ruling that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act doesn’t allow him to rewrite the U.S. tariff schedule. Mr. Trump immediately invoked a different law to impose a 10% tariff on all countries, followed by threats to raise it to 15%. The White House’s tariff Plan B looks copied from President Biden’s playbook when the court overruled his student-loan forgiveness scheme in 2023 and Mr. Biden began statute shopping for anything to back it. That strategy hit a roadblock in federal court, as a succession of rulings invalidated his attempt to revive the policy under different laws.” (02/24/26)

https://www.independent.org/article/2026/02/24/section-122-cant-carry-trumps-tariffs/

Source: Desultory Scribblings
by Tyler Harris

“‘Why do Trump’s supporters keep trying to kill him?’ That’s the question I’ve most seen floating around in the wake of the killing of Austin Martin, a 21-year-old man who attempted to storm the cordon at Mar-a-Lago this past week while wielding a shotgun. It’s mostly rhetorical, but the glib and obvious answers – that Trump’s unique detestability and employment of violent rabble-rousing makes him an alluring target, even for his own acolytes, or that MAGA itself is a mental illness particularly prone even to internal violence – obscure a far more sweeping challenge. The online right has created an incredibly efficient and effective engine for breaking and radicalizing lonely young men.” (02/24/26)

https://tylerjohnharris.substack.com/p/the-online-right-is-radicalizing

Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
by Ron Paul

“Those who have examined the Epstein files have seen information about how connected Jeffrey Epstein was to members of the political, business, and academic elites. Many of these connections started after Epstein’s 2008 conviction. The Epstein files support claims that Epstein worked with intelligence agencies, in particular Israel’s Mossad and the American CIA. Yet the mainstream media and most politicians seem uninterested in whether Epstein used underage girls in a scheme to blackmail powerful individuals on behalf of intelligence agencies. Fortunately, the alternative media is not afraid to discuss Epstein’s intelligence connections or any other matters related to Epstein, including suspicious circumstances surrounding his death.” (02/24/26)

https://mises.org/power-market/epstein-files-opportunity-libertarians

Source: The American Prospect
by David Dayen

“When we last left Rep. Valerie Foushee (D-NC), she was getting massively outspent in her March 3 Democratic primary for re-election in the Fourth Congressional District, where she faces Durham County commissioner Nida Allam. But that million-dollar deficit has now been mostly made up by a super PAC linked to artificial intelligence model designer Anthropic, makers of Claude, which is now dumping nearly $700,000 into supporting Foushee. Another $250,000 has been put toward Foushee by a mysterious PAC with ties to Democratic leadership. Jobs and Democracy PAC is Anthropic’s super PAC and part of an umbrella organization called Public First, which has been trying to give off a vibe of being the kinder, gentler AI super PAC, dedicated to prudent regulation rather than rampant accelerationism. The headline on Jobs and Democracy PAC’s website reads: ‘Supporting Democrats who put people before Big Tech.'” (02/25/26)

https://prospect.org/2026/02/25/ai-anthropic-claude-super-pac-valerie-foushee-congress-north-carolina/

Source: Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression
by Adam Goldstein

“Walkouts are a recurring form of student protest; students have used them to oppose gun violence, protest against racial injustice, call attention to climate change, protest wars, and more. Is there a right to walk out? Are states censoring students by pushing back? The short answer is that the First Amendment protects students’ rights to express views, but not the right to walk out of class to express them. But there’s a lot to unpack.” (02/24/26)

https://www.fire.org/news/do-k-12-students-have-right-walk-out-protest

Source: Garrison Center
by Thomas L Knapp

“On February 20, the US Supreme Court ruled part of US president Donald Trump’s crazy-quilt tariff scheme illegal in its particulars. … Tariff victims had already begun preemptively suing for the restitution they’re owed even before the Supreme Court ruling, and since that ruling other companies, including FedEx, have also initiated court proceedings. The victims shouldn’t HAVE to sue.  President Trump SHOULD just order the US Treasury to refund the money immediately. That would be the honest thing to do. … Refunding the money wouldn’t just be honest policy, it would be smart politics. … eight months of economic recovery would certainly help his party, and him, out.” (02/24/26)

https://thegarrisoncenter.org/archives/20390

Source: USA Today
by Chris Brennan

“It has been just 36 days since Trump asked [Aileen] Cannon to prohibit the release of the report compiled by former special counsel Jack Smith, based on the investigation and Trump’s 2023 indictment in hoarding classified documents at his Florida estate after he lost the 2020 presidential election. The judge predictably ruled in Trump’s favor on Feb. 23, permanently prohibiting the U.S. Department of Justice from releasing the special counsel’s report, even while the 11th Circuit considers whether the report should be made public. … the DOJ has a long-standing policy that sitting presidents can’t be prosecuted. But that doesn’t mean Americans can’t know what Trump did to get indicted in the documents case.” (02/24/26)

https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/columnist/2026/02/24/judge-cannon-jack-smith-report-trump/88828565007/