How The Supreme Court Shocked Trump

Hi readers, happy Tuesday! Today we’re covering the Supreme Court’s tariff ruling, a major operation in Mexico, the men who control Tehran’s fate, a concerning immigration facility, Trump’s upcoming State of the Union address, and the end of the 2026 Winter Olympics.

“Whatever it is you're seeking won't come in the form you're expecting.” ― Haruki Marukami

The Court Causes Some Chaos

All the big news over the past few months seems to be taking place on Fridays. Last week followed that pattern – on Friday, the conservative-held Supreme Court came to a 6-3 decision ruling Trump’s sweeping tariffs unlawful, shutting down a key part of the president’s economic agenda. 

According to the court’s majority opinion, the 1970s emergency statute that President Trump invoked to justify implementing the tariffs does not actually allow him to bypass Congress in times of peace. In the words of the Constitution, Congress alone is the only branch of the government with the “Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises” – while Trump tried to leverage the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) to skip over Congress, the Supreme Court ruled that IEEPA “contains no reference to tariffs or duties,” adding that “until now no President has read IEEPA to confer such power.”

Trump responded quickly to the SCOTUS shutdown. Just hours after the court handed down its ruling, the president announced that he would be implementing a new 10% global tariff on all imports to the U.S. – just a day later, he announced that the global tariff would be raised to 15%. Now, the White House is scrambling to find new legal reasons to re-implement the tariffs it originally had in place under IEEPA. 

One law that the Trump administration is looking to leverage is Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974, which allows the executive branch to impose large tariffs on specific countries if it finds evidence that those nations are engaged in unfair trade behavior. That method will take some time, as the Office of the United States Trade Representative will need to conduct “investigations” to show that those unfair trade practices – such as excess capacity, forced labor, and pollution – are actually taking place. The Department of Commerce, meanwhile, is looking into using Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962, which allows the executive to create new tariffs on national security grounds.

Basically, the Supreme Court’s decision doesn’t mean much for the Trump administration due to the ruling only focusing on the executive’s use of IEEPA. Given enough time and resources, the government will be able to re-implement Trump’s tariffs, eventually re-paving the way for his spending agenda. But the decision has shaken the world economy – businesses are struggling with the tariff uncertainty – and there’s also the question of what to do with the IEEPA tariff revenues the government has already collected.

El Mencho Está Muerto

• On Sunday, Mexican special forces launched a raid targeting the head of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) in the country’s western Jalisco state. The attack ended with 62 people dead, including CJNG head Nemesio “El Mencho” Oseguera, 34 suspected gang members, and 25 members of Mexico’s National Guard military police. According to Mexican president Claudia Sheinbaum, no U.S. forces were involved in the raid, though there was “an exchange of information” between the neighboring countries.

• In the wake of El Mencho’s killing, Mexico has experienced a spike of violence. On Sunday and Monday, members of cartels affiliated with CJNG targeted roads, buses, and other public infrastructure, causing chaos across the country. Late yesterday, Sheinbaum told the press that most of the damage had been cleared up after the Mexican government deployed over 12,000 troops nationwide to protect civilians from cartel violence. The killing of El Mencho – one of the country’s highest-profile cartel leaders – indicates that Mexico’s government is taking its fight against cartels seriously, but it’s not clear exactly how CJNG and other cartels will respond in the long term.

Two Men Decide Tehran’s Fate

• Tensions between the U.S. and Iran are still running high as a massive U.S. armada has gathered in the Middle East. The buildup of military force has served to put pressure on Iran as the U.S. pushes for the country to give up on its nuclear enrichment program. For the time being, it seems like an all-out war between the U.S. and Iran is off the table, as negotiators from the two countries are set to meet in Geneva on Thursday to discuss an Iranian proposal. 

• According to the Guardian, those talks will be led by Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, two of the Trump administration’s so-called “special envoys.” Sources close to the negotiations said that Witkoff and Kushner’s assessment of the talks will play a large part in shaping Trump’s path forward with Iran, whether that’s continued negotiations, limited strikes on military targets, or a full-on assault aimed at regime change. 

• A brief background on each of those men: Kushner is Trump’s son-in-law, the husband of Ivanka Trump who has no history in diplomacy outside of the job his father-in-law handed him. You might remember him for describing the bombed-out shell of Gaza as “valuable waterfront property” and suggesting that Palestinians should be forced out of the territory while it was “cleaned up.” Witkoff, meanwhile, is a real estate developer and close friend of Trump’s who also has no background in diplomacy. Last year, a leaked audio recording captured him coaching Russian diplomats on how best to appeal to Trump during Russia-Ukraine peace talks.

Additional World News

• Peter Mandelson arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office (Guardian) 

• ‘We’ve been paying for happy endings for Andrew for years’: the inside story of a royal disgrace, by his biographer (Guardian) 

• The Looming Taiwan Chip Disaster That Silicon Valley Has Long Ignored (NYT, $)

• France moves to bar US Ambassador Charles Kushner from direct government access (NPR)

• Exclusive: Iran nears deal to buy supersonic anti-ship missiles from China (Reuters)

• Russia soldiers tell BBC they saw fellow troops in Ukraine war executed on commanders' orders (BBC) 

What’s The Deal With Dilley, TX?

• Over the past few weeks, an immigration processing center in Dilley, Texas has become the target of a growing wave of criticism. That’s because the facility – a family detention center – has seen more than 3,800 children “processed” through its doors as U.S. immigration officials decide whether they should be allowed to stay in the country or not. The criticism, which has led to multiple local-led protests around the facility, started when an immigration lawyer filmed a video capturing parents and children screaming and chanting “libertad” (“freedom”) from within the building’s walls. 

• There’s a whole laundry list of issues with the Dilley facility, but here’s a brief introduction. First, the detainment center is blatantly violating a 1997 legal settlement that bars the federal government from keeping children in immigrant detention facilities for more than 20 days. According to ProPublica, over 300 kids sent to the Dilley center have been in custody for over a month, and one family with five children has been imprisoned at the facility for more than eight months. Multiple parents being held in the facility have reported that their children have begun cutting themselves or talking about suicide since being detained, and others say their kids have lost their appetite after being told to eat food contaminated by worms or mold. 

• Diseases also seem to spread quickly through the facility – detainees are held in 12-person cells, and some have reported that facility doctors are painfully slow to meet their healthcare needs. “The only thing they tell you is to drink more water and the worst thing is that it seems like the water is what makes people sick here,” said one former detainee.

The State Of The Trump Admin

• Tonight, President Donald Trump is set to deliver the first State of the Union address of his second presidential term. The speech comes at a crucial time for the president – his approval rating has dipped to 36% (from 48% a year ago), the Epstein files continue to bring his administration grief, the Supreme Court just tossed a wrench into his tariff plans, and (worst of all for him) the midterms are coming later this year.

• Analysts expect the president to use the speech to bring attention to some of his victories from the past year, including the “big, beautiful bill,” ousting Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, and, apparently, “fixing” the economy. “We have the greatest economy we’ve ever had. We have the most activity we’ve ever had,” he said in a statement about the speech yesterday. “It’s going to be a long speech, because we have so much to talk about.”

Additional USA News

• Armed Man Shot Dead at Mar-a-Lago by Trump’s Secret Service Was a 21-Year-Old From N.C. (NYT, $) 

• Missed Funerals and Blocked Toilets: Iran Deployment Takes a Toll on U.S. Sailors (WSJ, $) 

• More than 5,000 flights cancelled as US east coast digs out of record snow (BBC)

• FedEx sues US government, seeking ‘full refund’ over Trump tariffs (Guardian)

• TSA says PreCheck still operational after previous announcement of suspension (NPR)

• ‘I lost a lot of hope’: Nevada pays $100K to woman convicted for miscarriage under 1911 law (AP)

No More Playing In The Snow

• The 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Olympics ended on Sunday, wrapping up 16 days of fun in the snow. The final day of competition was marked by two big wins for two big countries: the U.S. men’s hockey team won its third-ever gold medal (and its first since 1980’s “Miracle on Ice”) in a 2-1 comeback win against Team Canada, and China’s Eileen Gu won a record-breaking third gold medal in the freestyle skiing halfpipe. 

• Unfortunately, those wins were quickly followed by controversy and tragedy, respectively. Team USA was, for some reason, visited by FBI Director Kash Patel, who put the team on a call with President Trump. The president invited them to the State of the Union address – which they seemed all too happy to accept – and then cracked a joke about having to invite the U.S. women’s hockey team (which also won gold against Canada) to the speech as well. The men’s team seemed to really like that joke, though the women’s team has already rejected the president’s invitation. Meanwhile, Gu’s threepeat celebrations were interrupted by the news that her grandmother had passed away. “She was a steam ship,” Gu said. “This woman commanded life, and she grabbed it by the reins, and she made it into what she wanted it to be.”

• As for the final medal count: Norway collected the most total medals (41) and gold medals (18); the U.S. came in second (33 overall, 12 gold); and the Netherlands finished third (20 overall, 10 gold).

Additional Reads

• The Blurry Line Between Protein Bar And Candy Bar (Atlantic, $)

• Does Big Tech actually care about fighting AI slop? (Verge)

• Alysa Liu, Eileen Gu, and the biggest winners of the 2026 Winter Olympics (Vox)

• OpenAI resets spending expectations, tells investors compute target is around $600 billion by 2030 (CNBC)

• What is Seedance? The Chinese AI app sending Hollywood into a panic (BBC) 

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Peanut For Your Thoughts

This story is just terrible all around, I really have no words: Outcry Roils BAFTAs After Guest With Tourette Syndrome Shouts N-word at Michael B. Jordan and Delroy Lindo (Vanity Fair) 

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