Contrarians Strike Two Mighty Blows Against Trump
Two legal victories Friday put wind in our sails: Publisher’s Roundup 69
Contrarians, my democracy litigation colleagues and I just had two of the biggest victories yet in our over 300 legal cases and matters — ones that your paid subscriptions make possible.
Just weeks after I was in court to help argue the case, a federal judge blocked the administration’s attempt to close the Kennedy Center and change its name. The court ordered that Donald Trump’s name be stripped from the building within two weeks, rightly declaring that only Congress has the power to change the name of this national cultural landmark. Hat tip to my colleagues at Democracy Defenders Action and the Washington Litigation Group and, of course, to our wonderful client, Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-OH).
And that was not our only major breakthrough Friday in the fight against Trump’s illegality. As a result of a motion we and our great partners filed for 35 bipartisan former federal judges, a Florida federal court has reopened Trump’s IRS case — the one he used to create that notorious $1.8 billion fund. In a sternly worded order, the judge launched an investigation at our request. In addition to the judges, I thank Platkin LLP and Susman Godfrey for partnering with Democracy Defenders Fund on this case.
And I thank all of the Contrarians who support the work through your paid subscriptions. I don’t think I have ever had two of my cases as the top two stories on both The New York Times and The Washington Post websites, but that happened Friday because these two wins were good news for democracy.
People often ask me if the public is paying attention to what Trump is doing. I think it is, and that is reflected in his historically low polling numbers. These two cases represent scandals that broke through and dominated the media and public attention. The public outrage over Trump’s settlement of his case against his own government and the establishment of his enormous $1.8 billion fund has been vast. It moved beyond the usual swirl of one controversy after another and dominated news coverage, with analysts calling it a “grift fund,” “a pipeline to funnel taxpayer money to President Trump’s allies,” and “in a totally different solar system than any past government settlement on record.”
That’s why we swung into action for those 35 bipartisan former federal judges. They filed in federal court in Florida seeking an investigation of the events of the past two weeks. Our filing, before federal Judge Kathleen Williams, complemented a series of other lawsuits by our partners in the democracy movement addressing different aspects of the controversy.
Though Judge Williams previously accepted Trump’s voluntary dismissal of the case, she noted that no agency “submitted any settlement documents nor filed any documents ensuring that settlement was appropriate where there was an outstanding question as to whether an actual case or controversy existed.”
Those circumstances have now changed — and dramatically so — with the $1.8 billion settlement agreement that occasioned such an explosion of public controversy. As we noted in our motion (your motion), “The purported ‘settlement’ that the parties never placed before this Court raises profound questions about the parties’ candor toward the Court and manipulation of the judicial system, which threatens to undermine confidence in the administration of justice.”
With these kinds of circumstances and the many issues enumerated in the 16-page brief we and the judges filed, the court has the power to reopen the case and look into the matter. That’s just what she did.
Our matter is by no means the only legal action against Trump’s proposed $1.8B fund. In the Eastern District of Virginia, Democracy Forward filed a lawsuit on behalf of a coalition of individuals and organizations also requesting to block the Trump administration’s fund, arguing that it is an unconstitutional and politically discriminatory misuse of taxpayer money. They also had a big win Friday when their judge entered a temporary restraining order forbidding the $1.8 billion fund from operating while the case is briefed and argued in the coming weeks.
In the District Court for the District of Columbia, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW, which I cofounded and where I long served on the board) filed a lawsuit seeking a temporary restraining order to immediately halt this fund on the grounds that the program unlawfully favors political allies and violates constitutional protections. They are also seeking emergency relief.
Meanwhile, in a lawsuit also filed in D.C. federal court, the Public Integrity Project is representing two former police officers who defended the Capitol on January 6, 2021, asserting that the fund is unlawful because it would reward rioters and further endanger the officers’ safety.
Expect more news in all of these cases soon. And we will have another shoe to drop as well, so stand by for that, too!
Meanwhile, in the Kennedy Center case, we are bracing for an appeal of our wins, though we are confident that we can preserve them. But after the court issued its decisions, the president seemed to signal he might throw in the towel. He stated on social media Friday that if he couldn’t have his way with the center, he had instructed the commerce department to “transfer this failing Institution” to Congress — whatever that means.
We are ready for anything that may come next in both of these cases, thanks to you. Your paid subscriptions make our work possible and form the backbone of our litigation efforts in this matter and over 300 others.
Not only that, you also make possible our great coverage of these cases and of so much more. It’s the most unique bargain in American journalism. See for yourself in my usual weekly roundup of the best of the Contrarian.
Policy Disasters
Trump’s ‘Better’ Iran Nuclear Deal Is Worse
Tom Malinowski broke down why Trump’s revised nuclear deal will be far from the
“unconditional surrender” he promised — and will in fact leave the U.S. more vulnerable than before, at the cost of an unnecessary war. “Future presidents will have to reset confidence in the United States after this fiasco.”
How Trump’s Weird Fixation on DEI Continues to Hurt Women
Jennifer Weiss-Wolf reported on the Trump administration’s latest attacks on women — including blocking a women’s history museum, erasing “Black” from maternal health legislation, and slashing NIH women’s health grants by 30 percent. “Our voices and votes matter more than ever.”
We Are Not Ready for the Next Pandemic
Roberto Valadéz wrote on how the Ebola outbreak in East Africa is revealing the profound inadequacies of Trump’s “America First” approach to global health, both abroad and at home. “In a hyper-connected world, a pathogen circulating a continent away is only a single flight from our own backyards.”
Unseen Cracks
The Secret Court System That Rules Us All
Brendan Ballou joined Tim Dickinson to talk about “forced arbitration,” the secret court system that provides protection for corporations while stripping them from ordinary citizens. “This is a story about how the billionaire class gets to swindle you with impunity.”
Sen. Chris Murphy Is Looking for ‘Meaning and Connection in a Broken America’
On this week’s podcast, April Ryan spoke with Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT), who argues in a new book that Trump is a symptom of more foundational American ills. “We have created a culture where the winners take all, where modesty or restraint is a weakness…. And if our economic winners can just take everything, why can’t our political winners take everything?”
Danny Miller and Steve Silverman wrote on complicity, resistance, and how they both begin in the mirror. “Hannah Arendt called it the banality of evil because what she witnessed wasn’t exceptional. It was ordinary compliance at a mass scale…. But the historical record also offers something else. Ordinary people, in conditions far more dangerous than ours, chose differently.”
Fighting Back
Veteran and human rights advocate John F. Terzano gave us a reflection on the long, hard road out of any war — even one the administration is trying to minimize as much as Iran — and why “Memorial Day must never be simply a celebration of military power or nationalism. It must remain a solemn reminder of war’s terrible human cost.”
Jen Rubin reported on the fight against Jim Crow that is tearing across the South in the wake of the Supreme Court’s latest attack on voting rights. “Dogged voting rights activists refuse to accept [Louisiana v. Callais] as the final word on our 250-year experiment in multi-racial democracy.”
The Contrarian Covers the Democracy Movement
This week, we saw alarms raised about a California bill that would criminalize protests at churches, protests against redistricting in the South and data centers in Utah and Pennsylvania, global actions in Bolivia and Albania, and more. See this week’s Calls to Action for more local and national ways to make a difference in democracy: Prep for ‘Freedom Summer’ 2.0 and Stand Against the Cuba Blockade.
Cartoons, Culture & Fun Stuff
This week, our cartoonists took on messing with Texas (Hearts Afire, Nick Anderson), mistakes in Iran (Trump’s Dream Deal With Iran, RJ Matson; Iran War Status Updater, Nick Anderson), and missing sanity (Tom the Dancing Bug, Ruben Bolling).
What ‘Lord of the Flies’ Can Teach Us in 2026
Meredith Blake wrote on a new Netflix adaptation of William Golding’s novel from the writer of Adolescence, which proves how much the source material has to say to our current dystopic moment.
Maura McDonough shared a rescue pet of the week, and Marissa Rothkopf Bates encouraged readers to indulge in a coffee-flavored, chewy cookie.
I’m very proud to support you. Keep up the great work. The opposition is fierce and a lesser person would shrink from it. Thank you!
Thank you for all the work that you do! I’d like to know how those idiots thinks they’re going to keep Ebola and Hantavirus and other diseases out of the United States?How are they gonna screen people when they’ve dismissed all the medical and research personnel ?This shows even Dr. Oz who has a medical degree is an idiot!