Weekly Round-Up May 30, 2025
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Tariffs ruled illegal
On Wednesday, the Court of International Trade dealt a major blow to Donald Trump’s tariff regime when they ruled that most of Donald Trump’s sweeping “Liberation Day” tariffs are illegal. The Court concluded that Trump does not have the authority under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act to impose sweeping tariffs unilaterally without Congress, and therefore reversed many of the most aggressive levies Trump imposed.
Trump immediately appealed the decision, and on Thursday, the U.S. Federal Court of Appeals paused the ruling, temporarily restoring Trump’s unilateral power to impose tariffs. Both sides are now required to submit written arguments on the issue by early next month.
Musk out
On Wednesday, after teasing his exit from Washington, D.C. last week, Elon Musk confirmed he officially ended his tenure as a “special government employee” in the Trump administration. Musk leaves in his wake an utterly failed “DOGE” effort, plummeting stock values for his businesses, and irreparable harm to his personal and business brands.
His exit came a day after Musk went on camera to slam Trump’s “Big Beautiful” budget bill, saying he was “disappointed” that it “increases the budget deficit” and “undermines the work that the DOGE team is doing.” Who wants to tell him Trump never cared about cutting spending (and that his relationship with Trump was always going to end this way?)
War on Harvard
In its latest legal defeat, after the Trump administration sent a letter to Harvard last week seeking to prohibit the university from enrolling foreign students, a federal judge in Boston moved to block the maneuver, at least for now.
The Trump administration tried to pull a fast one by allowing a 30-day window for Harvard to contest the revocation of its ability to enroll foreign students, but Judge Allison D. Burroughs wasn’t having it, confirming she would issue a preliminary injunction against the administration, giving foreign students at least temporary relief.
Musk isn't "out." He finished what he came to do:
Delete all of the findings and evidence, and destroy of all of the government agencies that were investigating his businesses.
Get himself billions of dollars in new government contracts.
Insert back doors and malware into government agencies computer systems, probably to drain their accounts.
Gain a copy of EVERYONE'S DATA EVERYTHING. He's got your name, address, social security numbers, your tax records, any credit cards you've used to pay your taxes, and any bank account number where you have government deposit payments or withdraw payments. Every. Fucking Thing.
Again, he's not "out" but Trump wants to make himself look better so Musk is now "out" but still has his old and new contracts. Finished.
Given that 'early next month' is like next week, what's The Big Picture take on the US Federal Court of Appeals decision? I'm thinking they're going to go with the Constitution, rule that Trump exceeded his authority as president, and that tariff and taxing authority belong to congress.