Trump Is the End of a 100-Year Experiment
4/16/20261 hr
President Trump has tested the limits of presidential power since he returned to office — from his assertion of total control over federal agencies to his war in Iran. But so far, many of Trump’s most aggressive moves have been stopped by the Supreme Court.
My guest this week is Sarah Isgur, a conservative court watcher, who argues that the Supreme Court isn’t just a firewall against Donald Trump, but the real power center in American politics today.
- 0:00 - Intro
- 01:28 - Remaking the presidency: The hundred-year experiment
- 04:26 - Trump’s legal retribution campaign
- 09:15 - The Supreme Court’s strategy in the face of Trump
- 18:15 - “Looming" cases: Tariffs and birthright citizenship
- 28:23 - Supreme Court internal dynamics
- 43:32 - The future bench
(A full transcript of this episode is available on the Times website.)
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Ross Douthat· Host0:15
[upbeat music] From New York Times Opinion, I'm Ross Douthat, and this is Interesting Times. President Trump has been testing the limits of presidential power since he returned to office, from his assertion of total control over federal agencies to now his undeclared war with Iran. But so far, many of Trump's most aggressive moves have ended in defeat, usually in the courts and increasingly at the Supreme Court, and it may be that a key revelation of his second term is that the judicial branch is the real power center in American democracy right now. That's the argument of this week's guest, Sarah Isgur, a conservative court watcher, a lawyer, and the author of the new book, Last Branch Standing. I wanted to talk to her about Trump's power grabs, the internal politics of the court, and whether we should be reassured or troubled that it takes an imperial