Trump s 100 Days of Revolution – by Matthew Continetti

Winning the popular vote last year after indictments, civil suits, a criminal conviction, and two assassination attempts has exhilarated and emboldened the president. And the GOP and conservative movement is far more nationalist and populist than it was in 2016.

The mainstream conservatism of a decade ago has moved to the periphery. Rush Limbaugh is gone. Tucker Carlson and Joe Rogan have taken his place. Mike Pence, an advocate of small-government conservatism, is a former vice president. The current veep, J.D. Vance, urges Trump to adopt a more active role for government at home and a less interventionist policy abroad. Former secretary of state Mike Pompeo exemplifies hawkish, peace-through-strength diplomacy. But the face of Trump s second-term foreign policy is his friend and business partner Steve Witkoff a political novice who leans more toward peace than strength.

Trump s first-term legal team included individuals affiliated with past Republican administrations and with the conservative legal movement: Attorney General Bill Barr and White House counsels Don McGahn and Pat Cipollone. Outside of government, the Federalist Society s Leonard Leo helped write the shortlists for Trump s Supreme Court picks. In the second term, key legal appointments from the associate attorney general to U.S. attorneys have been based not on movement credentials but on personal trust. Trump s new team seems less interested in making the courts more conservative than in showing them who s boss.

via www.thefp.com

The US is going to end up like Spain or Israel (and other countries too) if things stay on their current path, with a permanently alienated legal class led by its judges. This would be bad. Not sure what to do about it though.