Friday Insights-March 21, 2025

The assault on the Constitution continues, this time the judiciary.

YouTube screen capture of WTVC News coverage of Venezuelan gang members being deported without due process.

It has been a bad week for the president but a worse one for America’s future. One friend told me this week that the Constitution is hanging on by a thread. That friend believes the president will cancel the 2026 mid-term elections if polls suggest the GOP will lose control of the House or Senate. I hope my friend is wrong, but while my friend is worried that Trump will effectively kill the legislative branch of government, my fear is that he will kill the judiciary.

President Trump is at war with courts for issuing injunctions against his dismantlement of the federal government. He now appears ready to “go nuclear” with Federal District Court Judge James Boasberg for issuing an injunction against the deportation of more than 200 alleged Venezuelan members of the Tren de Aragua gang without due process.

Trump officials, citing the 1798 Alien Enemies Act, ignored an order for planes carrying some of the arrestees not to depart for El Salvador, where the Trump administration has arranged and will pay for a brutal prison to house the Venezuelans and probably kill some of them. Judge Boasberg also ordered planes already in the air to turn around. The order was ignored.

Judge Boasberg is not done with the Trump administration. He has demanded information from the administration regarding the noncompliance with his order. President Trump is not expected to comply. Stay tuned.

Arguably more important than the details of the case is President Trump’s attack on Judge Boasberg. He has called him a “lunatic,” among other things. Is everyone who disagrees with Trump, attempts to hold him accountable, or demands compliance with the law a “lunatic?”

Department of Education.

In positive news, President Trump acknowledges that the Department of Education cannot be closed without an act of Congress. Congress is unlikely to approve eliminating the Department, but that did not stop the President yesterday from signing an order directing Secretary McMahon to take all steps necessary to prepare for its termination.

U.S. Department of Education headquarters photo via Wikipedia.

Programs within the Department’s administration that are not being ended will be transferred to other federal agencies, which haven’t been specified yet. The employees with expertise in administering the programs who have not been fired or quit will presumably be transferred to another federal agency.

Why isn’t Trump just downsizing the Department of Education instead of going through the disruption of transferring programs and people to other agencies? I guess he wants the optics of closing a department MAGA hates. I also believe that once most surviving ED programs are transferred to other agencies, the administration will argue that continuing a cabinet-level department with few programs will waste money. This may convince Congress, possibly including some Democrats, to acquiesce in the termination of ED and give Trump a victory.

Is Elon Musk being briefed on China war plans, or isn’t he?

Somebody is lying. The New York Times, Washington Post, and other news outlets reported that Defense Secretary Hegseth invited Elon Musk to visit the Department of Defense later today to be briefed on top-secret contingency war plans outlining how the U.S. would fight China in the event of war.

The news prompted an immediate outcry from national security experts. Why share this information with Musk, who is not a government employee and has significant business interests in China?

President Trump has dismissed the Times’ reporting as false and blasted the paper and other news outlets that repeated the news.

Here’s what I believe happened: Secretary Hegseth invited Musk to the Pentagon, intending to share the war plans with him and get Musk’s take on them. Because Hegseth believes Musk to be a genius, what better way to get informed feedback on the plans than by asking Musk, the CEO of SpaceX, what he thinks?

Hegseth should not be Secretary of Defense. Past Defense Secretaries would not imagine sharing top-secret war plans with a civilian with minimal security clearances under any circumstances.

Are Americans paying attention to what Trump is doing?

President Trump’s popularity continues to surprise me, but it continues despite the things he is doing. Do Americans want federal employees fired, especially those who provide them with service at the Veterans Administration, Social Security Administration, National Parks, IRS, and other federal agencies? Do they support the president’s tariff war, a war already undermining America’s relationship with Canada, Mexico, Europe, and China?

And why aren’t Americans telling Trump to “cool it” as he continues to rail against President Biden, fire anyone involved with criminal and civil prosecutions against him in the past, and, on Monday morning, claimed to “void” pardons issued by President Biden? Americans should be saying, “Stop it, Donald!” but they aren’t.

A recent NBC News poll found Donald Trump’s popularity at an all-time high—47 percent of Americans approve of his job as president. That isn’t a majority, but it is amazing considering Trump’s agenda.

What is going on? My conclusion: People like an activist President, especially one promising a “Golden Age.” Americans want to believe the future will be brighter. Many of us also believe Trump when he tells us that things like DEI, federal support for education, and vaccines are “destroying” America.

We need to listen closely to what President Trump is saying. It is scary.

Thank you.

Thank you for reading Friday Insights. I may have more on Sunday. Just because the president will likely be playing golf this weekend doesn’t mean that the administration’s assault on the Constitution and democracy will take the weekend off.