It’s Labor Day today. To celebrate, last week the Department of Labor hoisted a giant banner of President Trump on its HQ in D.C., alongside a similar banner of Teddy Roosevelt. Nothing says “we’re definitely not becoming an authoritarian country” than putting a giant banner of our glorious leader on a government building, amirite?

Trump has kept an exceptionally low profile since a Cabinet meeting 6 days ago, with no public appearances until yesterday morning, when he was seen getting into a limo to go to his Virginia golf club. Later yesterday his social media account posted a picture of him playing golf with football coach Jon Gruden; except that Trump wasn’t wearing the same golf clothes in the picture as he was when he entered the limo, and Gruden was wearing the same golf clothes he wore in pictures he’d posted the previous Sunday, sparking speculation that the picture was in fact a week old. Nothing says “we’re definitely not hiding information about our glorious leader’s health” than keeping him out of the public eye for several days and then posting an old picture without admitting that it’s old, amirite?

In industrial policy news, last week the U.S. government purchased a 10% stake in chip manufacturer Intel, using funds that had originally been earmarked under the Biden-era CHIPS Act as direct grants to Intel. This came less than three weeks after Trump had called for Intel’s recently appointed CEO to resign due to purported links to China, and after Trump had struck a (probably illegal) deal with two of Intel’s competitors (Nvidia and AMD) to grant them export licenses to China for certain AI-related chips in exchange for the U.S. government getting 15% of the revenues. This is where I’m obligated to remind the reader that Trump represents the Republican Party. Nothing says “we’re definitely not devolving into crony capitalism” than bullying a CEO into accepting direct government investment and having the government take a cut of private company revenues, amirite?

One of the major stories of the past week involves Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook, a Black woman originally appointed in 2022 on a 51-50 Senate vote (with VP Harris breaking the tie) and then re-appointed in 2023 for a 14-year term ending in 2038 on a 51-47 Senate vote. Trump’s appointed head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency recently alleged that back in 2021, Cook had committed a form of mortgage fraud by virtue of, in separate mortgage applications for two different properties, indicating that both properties were a principal residence. Without providing any opportunity for Cook to respond to these allegations, Trump then used the allegations as his grounds for purportedly firing Cook “for cause”, the only grounds under which a Fed governor may be removed involuntarily prior to the end of their term. Cook has sued to remain in her position. Recall that in the Wilcox shadow docket decision earlier this year, SCOTUS appeared to distinguish between Fed governors and other appointees; as such it will be particularly interesting to see how this case develops. Nothing says “we’re definitely still committed to the rule of law and the appropriate use of power” than using a political appointee to gather dirt on a political enemy and using that dirt pretextually, amirite?

Enough of that schtick, amirite? Catching up on some other news:

• Gerrymandering. After two weeks as refugees the Texas Democratic legislators returned to their home state, providing the quorum needed for Texas Republicans to enact their mid-decennial Congressional redistricting plan, which is expected to transfer 5 seats from Democratic to Republican hands in 2026. California has now also enacted their own mid-decennial redistricting plan, which is expected to transfer 5 seats the other way; however, the California plan requires ratification by the voters this November. Other states may be taking action soon. There was also a recent court ruling in Utah against the current gerrymandered map, which splits Salt Lake City into 4 districts to dilute Democratic voting power.
• Tariffs. On Friday the Federal Circuit issued its 7-4 en banc ruling in the IEEPA tariffs case, V.O.S. Selections v. Trump. The majority per curiam opinion was intentionally silent on the question of whether IEEPA authorizes tariffs at all, but ruled that the tariffs in question exceeded the authority given to the President under IEEPA. Four of those seven judges wrote separately to argue that IEEPA does not authorize any tariffs, period. In a separate order, the ruling was stayed for 45 days to allow the government to appeal to SCOTUS. As such, it now seems likely that this case will reach the regular merits docket of SCOTUS in the upcoming term.
• Federalization of the National Guard. There are currently over 2,000 National Guard members from six different states in D.C., purportedly to deal with an emergency situation regarding violent crime, but largely there as a show of force by the President. He has signaled that Chicago may be next, to which both Mayor Johnson and Governor Pritzker take great objection. The bench trial in the L.A. Posse Comitatus Act case, Newsom v. Trump, ended two weeks ago with no ruling yet. DHS Secretary Noem yesterday made the ludicrous claim that L.A. would have burned down in June without federal intervention.
• Trump Organization fraud trial. After taking almost a year to rule, a New York appellate court finally released its ruling on Trump’s appeal in the Trump Organization civil fraud trial under Judge Engoron. The five-judge panel was quite splintered, to the extent that there is no majority opinion. Four of the five agree that the prosecution was warranted. However, only two of those four concur with the outcome of the trial; the other two believe that the errors made at trial were sufficiently critical that a new trial would be required, but of course such trial would be impractical at this point. As such, the ~$500 million disgorgement order has been thrown out, while the injunctive relief that would prevent Trump or his sons from running a New York business remains intact (but continues to be stayed pending full resolution of the appeal).