Executive orders, tariffs and lawsuits: How the ‘deep state’ is outmanoeuvring Trump As the president’s second term nears the 100 day mark, it seems his radical agenda has this week been blunted on multiple fronts ...

... For the first time, whether Trump can push through his agenda is an open question. If he fails, analysts may well look back on this week as the moment serious cracks appeared. Because the blob is not rolling over. The blob is fighting back ...

... For the first time, whether Trump can push through his agenda is an open question. If he fails, analysts may well look back on this week as the moment serious cracks appeared. Because the blob is not rolling over. The blob is fighting back.
Things fall apart

If you were looking for a single document summarising Trump’s experience in office to date, you could do a lot worse than Executive Order 14257: the implementation of the “Liberation Day” tariffs targeting the “lack of reciprocity in our bilateral trade relationships” that posed “an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and economy of the United States”.

Everything is there: the use of executive authority to make changes with immense and sweeping impact, legal rationales based on national security concerns and the declaration of a national emergency, the desire for greater independence and autonomy, Trump’s unique approach to negotiations, and the subsequent “lawfare” backlash. ...

... Just 100 days in, then, the stakes could hardly be higher. If Trump falters now, he may be doomed to see out the rest of his term raging in futility against the structures that thwarted him. And that is precisely what his enemies are hoping for. ...