Tag Archives | Trump

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The Good Intentions License for Tyranny

The Good Intentions License for Tyranny by James Bovard “He who saves his country violates no law,” tweeted President Trump in February. He was echoing a line often attributed to Napoleon Bonaparte. His supporters were electrified by Trump’s tacit invocation of a right to boundless power. The Trump presidency is already spurring legal battles across […]

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Trump’s Iran Bombing Is the Latest in Presidential Absolutism

Trump’s Iran Bombing Is the Latest in Presidential Absolutism by James Bovard, American Conservative     June 26, 2025 Does President Trump have any legal basis for his foreign policy actions aside from his personal entitlement to absolute power? Presidents have been scorning congressional leashes on their foreign interventions since at least the Korean War. But […]

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1995: My Mini-Musk Strikeout Fighting Government Waste

1995: When I Testified Before the Train Wreck Known as Congress by James Bovard President Trump hosted Elon Musk for a farewell press conference on Friday. Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) team savvily exposed federal follies and spurred over $100 billion in canceled federal contracts and cutbacks. It remains to be seen […]

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No Vaccination against Unlimited Political Power

No Vaccination against Unlimited Political Power by James Bovard, May 18, 2025 Late in the last century, theater goers were jolted when a character in the X-Files movie declared that the Federal Emergency Management Agency can allow “the White House to suspend constitutional government upon declaration of a national emergency.” If the same line was […]

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Political Slavery in the COVID Era

Political Slavery in the COVID Era by James Bovard, May 12, 2025 In 1977, East Germany ransomed hundreds of its leading intellectuals and artists to West Germany, partly because it did not wish to endure public criticism by its own citizens during an International Rights Conference. In spite of the human sale, there was no […]

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Federal Judge Sets Free Op-Ed Writer

[reposted on the Mises Institute blog and the Libertarian Institute blog and elsewhere] FEDERAL JUDGE SETS FREE OP-ED WRITER Federal judge orders Trump administration to release Tufts University grad student Rumeysa Ozturk from ICE lockup. Ozturk, who had a valid student visa from Turkey, was only guilty of writing an op-ed.  Secretary of State Marco […]

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