Holding The Line: How The Federal Courts Are Largely Rejecting Trump's Worst Authoritarian Instincts
Donald Trump is losing 96% of the time.
Of course, it doesn't feel that way. Each successive "win" for the Trump Administration is a loss for the American people. Whether it's TPS being stripped away from Venezuelans or the administration being allowed to fire independent agency heads, last week alone brought a series of devastating losses to our democracy and some of our most vulnerable community members. But while those stories made headlines, they were the exception and not the norm. Because as the graphic at the top of this article shows, Donald Trump is actually losing much more than he is winning. We simply don't hear about his losses because our corporate media doesn't want us to.
Authoritarianism only works if the people being ruled give up hope. And people only give up hope if they feel they cannot win. With our media in the pocket of the budding authoritarian administration, hopeful news stories have taken a back seat to those that paint Donald Trump and his ilk as malevolent dictators who simply cannot be stopped. Large protests against the administration are barely covered, if at all. Flipped state government seats from blue to red hardly makes it beyond regional news coverage. The only time prominent Democrats receive media attention is when a tell-all book comes out, and all of a sudden, it's back to the old "Dems in disarray" trope that our media loves so, so much. The only way the media can normalize what is going on is for them to distort their reporting so much that down is up, left is right, and that we've always been at war with Eurasia.
But we haven't always been at war with Eurasia. Donald Trump has not successfully implemented every single policy outlined in Project 2025. In fact, a lot of it has been stalled and/or rejected by federal courts. Other polices, like his disastrous tariff ones, have been gradually rescinded to save face with the billionaire class, the ones truly running the country at this point in time. As much as Trump and Elon Musk would like to dismantle the federal government and openly attack their perceived political enemies, there exists a federal court system where federal judges elected by both Republican and Democratic presidents still believe in the rule of law. While Trump continues to receive occasional victories from his bought-and-sold Supreme Court, he is losing at a phenomenally high level at the federal courts, which have proven in many cases to be a firewall against some of Trump's worst authoritarian instincts.
Of course, it doesn't feel that way. Each successive "win" for the Trump Administration is a loss for the American people. Whether it's TPS being stripped away from Venezuelans or the administration being allowed to fire independent agency heads, last week alone brought a series of devastating losses to our democracy and some of our most vulnerable community members. But while those stories made headlines, they were the exception and not the norm. Because as the graphic at the top of this article shows, Donald Trump is actually losing much more than he is winning. We simply don't hear about his losses because our corporate media doesn't want us to.
Authoritarianism only works if the people being ruled give up hope. And people only give up hope if they feel they cannot win. With our media in the pocket of the budding authoritarian administration, hopeful news stories have taken a back seat to those that paint Donald Trump and his ilk as malevolent dictators who simply cannot be stopped. Large protests against the administration are barely covered, if at all. Flipped state government seats from blue to red hardly makes it beyond regional news coverage. The only time prominent Democrats receive media attention is when a tell-all book comes out, and all of a sudden, it's back to the old "Dems in disarray" trope that our media loves so, so much. The only way the media can normalize what is going on is for them to distort their reporting so much that down is up, left is right, and that we've always been at war with Eurasia.
But we haven't always been at war with Eurasia. Donald Trump has not successfully implemented every single policy outlined in Project 2025. In fact, a lot of it has been stalled and/or rejected by federal courts. Other polices, like his disastrous tariff ones, have been gradually rescinded to save face with the billionaire class, the ones truly running the country at this point in time. As much as Trump and Elon Musk would like to dismantle the federal government and openly attack their perceived political enemies, there exists a federal court system where federal judges elected by both Republican and Democratic presidents still believe in the rule of law. While Trump continues to receive occasional victories from his bought-and-sold Supreme Court, he is losing at a phenomenally high level at the federal courts, which have proven in many cases to be a firewall against some of Trump's worst authoritarian instincts.
This past week alone, various federal courts shot down Trump's plans to overhaul the federal government, ban Harvard from enrolling international students, and terminate the legal status of international students. Even Trump's latest win allowing him to fire independent agency heads came with a specific ruling that this did not apply to the Federal Reserve, effectively ending Trump's long-held desire to remove Jerome Powell from the position. Despite Trump's mighty bluster on the issues, the fact of the matter remains that we still have a federal judiciary that, unlike this administration, actually understands and respects the rule of law. The fact that the administration is getting rejected more and more each month shows that they are getting more and more desperate to shove through their unconstitutional agenda. And while there will be periodic victories enabled by the right-wing Supreme Court, there are enough career professional judges in the federal court system that won't allow Trump and his administration to simply steamroll the 249 years of our nation's history overnight. The rule of law, facing its most serious challenge since our nation's founding, has bent but not broken to the will of a wannabe tyrant.
Donald Trump is not used to being told no. So expect him to continue to push the envelope on his unconstitutional acts. But know this: courts, as of today, are largely holding the line. As much as Republicans want, we still don't have a dictator in this country. What we have is someone desperate to push through his (read: the GOP oligarchs') agenda at any cost. Enacting this unpopular agenda can only be done through the executive branch. And while there is a certain constitutional power associated with the executive branch, that power is not sweeping. That power cannot overturn the rule of law. That power cannot overreach in a 249-year-old tricameral political system designed by the Founding Fathers. Donald Trump may see himself as king, but in this country in 2025, he is still at the mercy of the courts.
A mercy we must all be thankful for.
A mercy we must all be thankful for.