THIS EDITION OF THE WEEK IS SPONSORED BY |
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NATIONAL REVIEW
FEB 14, 2025 |
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◼ We've made our view clear. But we look forward to finding out what dead animal shows up at HHS.
◼ President Trump has delivered an ultimatum, warning that if Hamas does not release all of the remaining 76 hostages by noon on Saturday, "all hell is gonna break out." The announcement came after Hamas had said it was pausing future hostage releases because of dubious claims that Israel had violated the current cease-fire. During his Super Bowl interview, Trump expressed frustration with the current cease-fire agreement under which hostages were released just a few at a time, over the course of weeks. His impatience only grew after seeing the images of emaciated hostages who were just released ("like Holocaust survivors"). The ultimatum is unlikely to trigger immediate "hell," as Hamas has returned to saying it will release the hostages on the schedule that had already been agreed to. There are indications that Israel will continue abiding by the six-week first phase of the cease-fire deal. However, Trump's comments indicate that Israel will not face U.S. pressure to make further concessions to Hamas. Trump's comments also suggest that if the war does resume on March 1, at the end of the current cease-fire, Israel will be able to operate with much more flexible rules of engagement. Hamas will not be able to say it wasn't warned.
◼ We are not in a constitutional crisis between the executive and judicial branches, but we might be slouching toward one. The legal Resistance has blocked the Trump administration, and in particular Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), on several fronts by obtaining injunctions from blue state federal district courts. While the arguments vary, the common theme is legal protection of the civil service and agency spending programs. There is sometimes less than meets the eye, given that many of these are temporary restraining orders issued before a full hearing, and some have already been partially walked back. On the other hand, Trump's positions on issues such as impoundment authority to refuse to spend appropriated funds are aggressive, and some court defeats are predictable. But courts have also exceeded the proper role of the judiciary by micromanaging who can perform what tasks inside an agency. Vice President JD Vance has made noises about resisting illegitimate court orders without explicitly saying so. Trump, when asked, insisted, "I always abide by the courts and then I'll have to appeal it." It is unfortunate that rogue judges issuing nationwide orders can slow down the proper cutting of government, but Trump had the correct response.
◼ The steel tariffs of Trump's first term didn't make sense, so naturally he is doubling down on them in his second term. The U.S. International Trade Commission studied his first-term steel and aluminum tariffs and found that they increased metal production but reduced production of other products by more, resulting in a net loss for the U.S. This is perfectly consistent with economic theory. The tariffs took money from a variety of industries and gave it to the steel companies, while lighting some money on fire along the way. Steel companies don't deserve these benefits at everyone else's expense, especially because the last time the Department of Defense needed a lot of specialty steel for explosive-proof vehicles—remember, this is supposed to be about national security—it had to import most of it from U.S. allies. One of the advantages of a president's second term in the Oval Office should be that he has learned from mistakes in the first term. On steel tariffs, Trump refuses to do so.
◼ Weaponizing the criminal law with abusive and selective charges to prosecute political opponents is wrong. The cure is not to immunize common crooks in public life, and still less to open shop to corrupt Democrats. Trump's first presidential term was marred by pardons for cronies such as Steve Bannon and Joe Arpaio. Now the president has pardoned former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, a Democrat, for selling Barack Obama's Senate seat. The new Department of Justice has dropped charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams, another Democrat, for selling influence to the Turkish government. Bob Menendez, who was sentenced to eleven years for taking gold bars and cash as bribes from Egypt while serving as a Democratic senator from New Jersey, is openly lobbying for clemency. Ed Burke, a former Democratic Chicago alderman convicted of racketeering and bribery, has asked Trump for a sentence commutation. Trump should not confuse the public's resistance to lawfare with a desire to reward outright corruption.
◼ Fort Bragg was established near Fayetteville, N.C., in the fall of 1918, in the final days of the First World War. It was named in honor of Braxton Bragg, an officer of the U.S. Army and then of the Confederate Army. He returned to civilian life after the Civil War. In his first term, President Trump vetoed a bill whose provisions included the requirement to rename military facilities that had been named after Confederate figures. Members of both parties in Congress overrode the veto and authorized the commission that later recommended, inter alia, that Fort Bragg become Fort Liberty. That name was officially adopted in June 2023. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has ordered the Army to change the name back to Bragg—but this time in honor of Roland L. Bragg, an Army private who served heroically in the Second World War. Among the most compelling arguments against the name change two years ago was that everyone was used to calling it Fort Bragg. They can keep calling it that. |
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◼ Trump has ordered the Treasury to stop producing pennies, a measure that presidents have entertained since Nixon. The penny has little practical purpose and each one costs about 4 cents to produce. The problem now is that the nickel costs even more to produce, 14 cents, and has similarly limited utility in everyday transactions. (Dimes cost about 6 cents.) While eliminating pennies, the administration should also strive to make nickels cheaper to produce, and it should put Lincoln on the dime instead of FDR. DOGE may be pinching pennies, but the rest of us should no longer have to do so literally.
◼ Legendary Chicago-area Republican Representative Henry Hyde, the late author of the eponymous amendment prohibiting federal Medicaid funding for abortions, is one of the few politicians that the state of Illinois can remain proud of. Naturally, that means that state-level Democrats, who have long since taken over his old power base in Chicagoland's western suburbs, loathe him. They moved this week to remove his name from the DuPage County Courthouse. The county board voted 10–5, along partisan lines. The board chairman argued that the removal was a "direct response to women who were marginalized or reminded" of the existence of the Hyde amendment "when they walked into the courthouse." Oh please. Democratic partisans can seek to erase Henry Hyde's name from buildings all they wish; his legacy remains.
◼ Pope Francis issued a lengthy statement to the bishops of the United States about the "major crisis that is taking place in the United States" with the "initiation of mass deportations." While he did not explicitly mention the vice president, he was obviously responding to Vance's recent comments about our obligation to take care of our countrymen before foreigners. Or, rather, to a caricature of those remarks, since Vance did not reduce people to "mere individuals." Note, too, that while Pope Francis has been admirably vehement about the evil of abortion, he never framed his statements on this issue as a response to President Biden. And the pope's claim to follow U.S. immigration policy closely is belied by his apparent ignorance of the context. Deportations have not increased dramatically, partly because the mere promise to enforce our laws has deterred the chaos and disorder we've been seeing for years at the border; we have one of the most generous legal immigration and refugee policies in the world; our enforcement mechanisms compare well, by any humane standard, with those of Australia, Turkey, or European nations. Our immigration system is most inhumane and least loving when it is least lawful—that is what allows human traffickers to flourish on the other side of the border, and exploitative labor and housing practices on our side. Or when it blurs the distinction between legal refugees and economic migrants, ultimately taking resources from the most needy and diverting them to the most ambitious. The pope's comments—even his true ones, about the dignity of all human beings—should not stand in the way of rectifying these ills. |
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◼ Speaking of American support of Ukraine, the president said, "We are going to have all this money in there, and I say I want it back. And I told them that I want the equivalent—like, $500 billion of rare earth" (meaning minerals). "And they have essentially agreed to do that, so at least we don't feel stupid." But a defense of Ukraine is in the U.S. interest all on its own. It is not stupid in the least. This defense is costly, yes—in money. But a Ukrainian defeat, and a Putin victory, may be costlier yet, not least in blood.
◼ Trump has announced that he will negotiate an end to the Ukraine war. But wars "end" in different ways. What will be the fate of Ukraine? In advance of negotiations, the administration signaled that Ukraine would not return to its pre-2014 borders. Instead, Russia would keep some, or all, of the parts of Ukraine it currently occupies. Moreover, the administration signaled that Ukraine would not be permitted to join NATO—and that the United States would provide no security guarantees. Why would we want to squander our leverage before negotiations even begin? What's more, the United States should affirm, if only in rhetoric, that international borders must not be redrawn by force. For three years, Donald Trump has said or implied that Ukraine is responsible for the assault on it. Most recently, he said, "I think they have to make peace. That was not a good war to go into." He also said, "They may be Russian someday or they may not be Russian someday." In response, Mike Pence said, "Mr. President, Ukraine will only 'be Russian someday' if the United States abandons them to Putin's brutal invasion." This is a time for unflinching realism—especially about Putin's appetite for expansion and control.
◼ Blasphemy laws were abolished in England and Wales in 2008, and in Scotland in 2021, but they may be returning de facto. Prime Minister Keir Starmer is "open" to giving official status to a definition of Islamophobia under which it is regarded as being "rooted in racism" and "which targets expressions of Muslimness or perceived Muslimness." Starmer distrusts free speech, and he also wants to win back the Muslim voters that Labour lost in the most recent election. The definition of Islamophobia under discussion is so loose that it could cover a wide range of opinions and, as probably intended, would have a chilling effect on criticism not only of the faith, but also of political Islam. And even if it were not formally incorporated into criminal law, it would inevitably seep into the way that existing laws are applied. This is free-speech-phobia, and it is rooted in cowardice and opportunism.
◼ Earth's orbit is a messy highway. Countless bits of debris burn up harmlessly in our atmosphere. Occasionally something larger gets through, most famously the helpful asteroid that saw off the dinosaurs. But there have been other bruisers from beyond. In 1908 an asteroid perhaps a tenth the size of the dinosaur-murderer exploded above a (fortunately) unpopulated part of Siberia, killing millions of trees rather than people. Another, much larger asteroid, Bennu, has a remote chance of ruining the 23rd century. There are tens of thousands of potentially dangerous rocks out there of which we remain unaware. The number of unknowns is being reduced as we peer—it's money well spent— ever more carefully into space, spotting, in December, asteroid 2024 YR24, a potential "city killer." The calculations will change, probably downward, but for now there's a roughly 2 percent chance it could detonate above Earth's surface with the force of 500 Hiroshimas just before Christmas 2032. It next passes by in 2028, and we should begin preparing—these missions take a while—to deploy a DART-style spacecraft to give it a nudge then. The cost? If completed, roughly a hundred wind turbines.
◼ In 2004, when he was 19, LeBron James had 41 points against the New Jersey Nets. He became the youngest player ever to score 40 or more points in an NBA game. That record still stands. Recently, he scored 42 against the Golden State Warriors (and had 17 rebounds and eight assists). He is 40—and the oldest player ever to score 40 or more points in an NBA game. What bookends! |
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