Letters from an American - May 28, 2025

Episode Date: May 29, 2025

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May 28, 2025. Today's news continues yesterday's. Judges continue to decide cases against Trump, with a three-judge panel at the U.S. Court of International Trade ruling today that President Donald J. Trump's sweeping Liberation Day tariffs are illegal. The judges, one appointed by President Ronald Reagan, one by President Barack Obama, and one by Trump himself, noted that the U.S. Constitution gives exclusively to Congress the power to impose tariffs. In 1977, Congress passed the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, often abbreviated

as IEEPA, delegating to the President the power to adjust tariffs in times of national emergency. But Trump has used that power far beyond what the Constitution will permit. Since he took office on January 20th, 2025, the judges noted, Trump has declared several national emergencies and imposed various tariffs in response. But the IEEPA has meaningful limits, the court writes, and an unlimited delegation of tariff authority would be unconstitutional. The court blocked all the tariffs Trump imposed under the IEEPA, thus ending Trump's tariff

spree, although the administration will appeal. Congress manifestly is not permitted to abdicate or to transfer to others the essential legislative functions with which it is thus vested," the Court writes. That principle echoes far beyond tariffs, as the impoundment of funds by the Department of Government Efficiency takes from Congress the power to pass laws that the executive branch must faithfully execute. Tariffs were in the news today in another way too, as Wall Street analysts have begun to talk of taco trade, short for Trump always chickens out. The phrase was coined earlier this month by Robert Armstrong of Financial

Times and refers to Trump's habit of threatening extraordinarily high tariffs and then backing down. Armstrong noted that investors have figured out that they can buy stocks cheaply immediately after Trump's initial tariff announcement and then sell higher when stocks rebound after he changes his mind. Trump's tariff machinations, he has moved them more than 50 times since he took office, are also enriching the Trump family. Last week, Trump's son Eric Trump joined Vietnam's Prime Minister Pham Minh Chin in a groundbreaking ceremony for a $1.5 billion luxury real estate development with three 18-hole golf courses outside the Vietnamese capital of Hanoi.

Vietnam sends more of its exports to the United States than to any other country. And after Trump hit Vietnam with 46% tariffs, top officials in Vietnam ignored the country's own laws to ink a hurry deal with the Trumps to head the tariffs off. The Trump Organization is also cutting deals in Serbia, Indonesia, and the Middle East. Trump's pardons also continue to be in the news.

Today, the President granted clemency to 25 people, including former Representative Michael Grimm, a Republican of New York, and former Connecticut Governor John Rowland, both of whom were convicted of tax fraud. Trump also commuted the six federal life sentences of Chicago gang leader Larry Hoover, 74, who was convicted of murder, extortion, money

laundering, and drug-related offenses, and from prison ran a notorious drug gang that had about 30,000 members across 31 states and brought in an estimated 100 million dollars a year. Hoover still faces what's left of a 200-year sentence in Illinois for murder. While Trump's pardons of Republicans convicted of tax crimes seemed in keeping with his favoring of the wealthy, Trump's commutation of the sentence of a gang kingpin seems an odd counterpoint to his administration's stance on undocumented immigrants. Administration officials insist they must be able to deport migrants they allege are gang members,

even if they have no criminal histories. They can ignore due process, they claim, because of the dangers those individuals present to the American people. And yet, Trump has now commuted the sentence of a gang leader convicted of the very sorts of crimes the administration insists justify denying to undocumented immigrants the rights guaranteed

by the Constitution. Hoover's pardon is reminiscent of Trump's advice to the right-wing Proud Boys in September 2020 to stand back and stand by as he courted the support of vigilante groups to help him steal the 2020 election. It is in keeping with Trump's statement that he's looking at pardons for the men convicted of conspiring to kidnap Democratic Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer. Tonight, after news broke that the judges had ruled his tariffs illegal,

and after he had reacted angrily to a reporter's question about the taco trade, a weakened Trump reached out to his alt-right base as he appeared determined to demonstrate dominance. He posted a meme on his social media account showing an image of himself walking toward the viewer on what appears to be a wet, nighttime city street. Pepe the Frog, a symbol of the far right, stands in the background. Above Trump, in all capital letters, are the words, He's on a mission from God.

Below his feet, also in all caps, the message continues, and nothing can stop what is coming. This is a phrase from the right-wing QAnon conspiracy community and refers to the idea that members of the deep state and its collaborators will soon be arrested. Letters from an American was written and read by Heather Cox Richardson. It was produced at Soundscape Productions, Dead in Massachusetts. Recorded with music composed by Michael Moss. This is a long road