| This week, President Donald Trump’s top health official, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., came under fire from senators of both parties for what they described as a weakening of vaccine regulations that makes it harder for parents to vaccinate their children. Some House Republicans joined Democrats in demanding all the files from the Justice Department’s investigation into sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, despite Trump’s urging to drop it. And the United States added far fewer jobs than expected last month under the weight of Trump’s tariffs and other economic policies. Here’s what else happened under Trump this week. Courts strike down some of Trump’s major policies The Trump administration lost several big court cases this week on some of the president’s biggest focuses: using the Alien Enemies Act to rapidly deport Venezuelan migrants without a hearing; withholding funds from Harvard, which a federal judge said amounted to unconstitutional coercion; and deploying troops to Los Angeles, which violated the law by them acting as police. At the end of last week, yet another court ruled most of his tariffs were enacted illegally. The through line for many of these cases is that judges found Trump declared emergencies or invasions when he shouldn’t have. “There is no finding that this mass immigration was an armed, organized force or forces” read a ruling from one of the most conservative courts in the nation, saying Trump shouldn’t have used the Alien Enemies Act to deport Venezuelans he alleges are gang members. Trump did win two cases this week: to keep open Alligator Alcatraz, a detention center for migrants in the Florida Everglades, and to keep troops in Los Angeles for now. Much of this could end up at the Supreme Court; Trump already asked the court to allow his tariffs to go forward. The conservative justices have been notably accepting of Trump’s assertion of broad presidential power. “In the face of the most aggressive expansion of peacetime presidential authority in history, the justices have — with just a few notable exceptions — squirmed and wriggled to avoid confronting the White House,” writes Michael Waldman, head of the Brennan Center for Justice. One of those exceptions: On immigration, the justices have stepped in twice to stop some of Trump’s rapid deportations, including in an extraordinary, middle-of-the-night ruling. Trump helps an ally as his government goes after his perceived enemies Retribution has been an animating driver of the president, and this week underscored how the apparatus of much of the federal government lifts up his allies while going after people who criticize him. The U.S. Navy restored the military rank to Republican former congressman and Trump’s former doctor, Ronny Jackson, who was demoted during the Biden administration after an official report found he drank on the job as White House physician, berated staff and made inappropriate sexual comments about a female subordinate. The Justice Department opened a criminal investigation this week into Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook, whom Trump is trying to fire in his push to take more control over interest rates. No president has ever tried to fire a Federal Reserve leader, and legally, Trump would need a cause. And the FBI took files marked “Trump” when it searched the home of John Bolton — Trump’s former national security adviser — last month, The Washington Post reported this week. Bolton has become one of Trump’s fiercest critics, and Trump attacked him on social media days before the FBI raided his home. Trump is planning to move troops to Chicago — and maybe more cities “We’re going in,” Trump said this week of sending the military into Chicago, as he published a flurry of social media posts — with city officials saying many were exaggerated or false — claiming the city’s murder rate is too high. A few days later, the Pentagon approved a Navy Base on the Great Lakes outside Chicago as a potential staging ground for troops to go into Chicago. In D.C., Congress is not planning to vote to extend Trump’s 30-day police takeover, but federal agents are likely to remain on city streets. And Republicans in Congress are considering taking even more control over the city, including a proposal to remove its elected attorney general (who has sued the administration twice over the troops). D.C.’s mayor has been more or less conciliatory, but the Democratic leaders in Illinois are gearing up for a potential fight. “Know your rights,” said Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, a Democrat and potential 2028 presidential candidate. “Film things you see happening in your neighborhoods and streets, and share them with the news media. Authoritarians thrive on your silence. Be loud for America.” Trump launched strikes at a Venezuelan boat Trump said in a social media post that the boat targeted by the U.S. military strikes was carrying drugs destined for the U.S., adding that 11 were killed, and included a video of an explosion and the boat engulfed in flames in the Caribbean Sea. “Please let this serve as notice to anybody even thinking about bringing drugs into the United States of America. BEWARE!” he wrote in the post. It’s a dramatic escalation against Venezuela and in the Western Hemisphere in general, where such attacks are exceedingly rare, The Post reported. Two days later, Venezuelan military aircraft flew close to a U.S. Navy vessel in international waters in a “highly provocative move,” according to the Defense Department. A day later, the Trump administration rescinded protections for more than 250,000 Venezuelan migrants (temporary protected status is one way that asylum seekers can stay in the United States). They may now have to return to dangerous situations in their home country. The Justice Department is also making it harder for immigrants to qualify for asylum if they are fleeing domestic abuse. | 
