What’s New?

Iran to the rescue! For days, President Trump has sought to move the spotlight off the Helsinki press conference and onto – well, anything. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, a relative moderate, complied, warning that the U.S. would see the “mother of all wars” if it pursued conflict with Iran. Trump tweeted a response – in all caps – warning that Iran would suffer “CONSEQUENCES THE LIKES OF WHICH FEW THROUGHOUT HISTORY HAVE EVER SUFFERED” if he continued to threaten the U.S. Good times! The Iran imbroglio is likely to continue to be a subject of discussion when President Trump travels to the heartland this week to speak with voters. On Tuesday, he heads to Kansas City for the VFW national convention, then on Thursday he travels to Debuque, Iowa and Granite City, Illinois. In both places, ...

Whatever you do, don’t call it a summit: The meeting between President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, currently underway, is just a meeting. But as the White House tried to play down the importance of the meeting on Sunday, President Trump said he will ask about Russian “meddling” in the election. Which, if it happened, he said, was the fault of the Democrats and the Obama administration, of course. Asked if he would request that Russia extradite the 12 Russian intelligence agents who were indicted last week on charges they sought to interfere in the American presidential election, President Trump responded, “I hadn’t thought of that.” He allowed that “certainly I’ll be asking about it, but again, this was during the Obama Administration.” It’s almost certain, however, that th ...

Oyez! Oyez! Oyez! President Trump is expected to use a prime-time television address on Monday to announce whom he will nominate as the next Associate Justice of the Supreme Court. The president was reported on Sunday to be giving another look at Judge Thomas Hardiman, a colleague of Mr. Trump’s sister on the Third Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia. Other finalists are said to be Judge Brett Kavanaugh, thought to be the front-runner, and Judge Amy Coney Barrett, a social conservative whose confirmation would give the court its first-ever 5-4 male-female split. As members of the Senate Judiciary Committee dig in to begin studying the nominee’s record on judicial and other matters, the Supreme Court will be the subject of other conversations this week as well, as the Heritage Foundati ...

Good morning, and Happy Independence Day week! Congress is on vacation, the president will travel to West Virginia and Montana, and the Supreme Court is wherever Supreme Court justices go for the summer. The most exciting action in town this week will be at Nationals Park, where the Boston Red Sox are visiting for a three-game set. Behind the scenes, there will be plenty of activity, however, as both Republicans and Democrats prepare for a Supreme Court nomination. President Trump said he will announce his nominee for the Supreme Court on July 9, a week from today. But most eyes will be on the Senate, where the president can afford to lose only a couple of Republican votes to maintain a single-party majority to confirm his choice. On Sunday, Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine said she ...

Good morning! It’s officially summer, which means that the Supreme Court is in the final week of its term, and with six cases remaining to be announced, there was plenty of midnight oil burning throughout the weekend in the justices’ chambers. Among the issues awaiting a decision are President’s Trump’s ban on people from five majority-Muslim countries entering the U.S.; whether non-union workers at public employee sites still have to pay fees to the unions; and the legality of California regulations at clinics that steer women with unplanned pregnancies away from abortion. Immigration, of course, continues to be Topic A in Washington. On Sunday, President Trump tweeted that the U.S. should deport undocumented immigrants “with no Judges or Court Cases,” calling the current system “a mocker ...