This will not end well for Donald Trump

Aug 07, 2026

At 4:10 pm today, the President of the United States signed two executive orders inside the Oval Office of the White House in direct defiance of the Supreme Court. He was joined by four of his closest advisers standing behind him, and a small group of journalists directly in front of him. While the men surrounding him struggled to explain what Trump had signed, and why it was legal, Donald Trump sat in his chair, leaning onto the Resolute Desk, with his left hand covering his right from the camera’s view, struggling to stay awake through the short 20-minute event. By the time the president was done talking and the press was being rushed out of the room, there was no question that Donald Trump believes he is above the Constitution and the truth.

Over those few short minutes, the president was asked about the idea of prosecuting Dr. Anthony Fauci, triggering him to go on a long tangent defending Steve Bannon and Peter Navarro and saying that “maybe he (Dr. Fauci) should” be prosecuted. He confirmed that some war munitions were “a little bit tighter,” even after denying that earlier in the day on Truth Social and threatening people with prison for reporting that American munitions were running low.

But one of the more revealing moments was when Trump was talking about bringing semiconductor manufacturing back to the United States, and he injected a random thought about how much longer he might actually be president: “by the time I leave office, which could be a long time. Who knows? But it could also be fairly quick. They say two and a half years. We’re going to find out.” He said this on the same day that he shared his new favorite Trump 2028 campaign poster on Truth Social again.

Donald Trump was once again testing how far his enablers will allow him to stretch the rule of law. There might be people around him telling him there is no legal path to a third term, but he either can’t accept that answer or simply doesn’t care whether there is a legal path or not. And no matter why he keeps doing this, one thing it accomplishes every single time is creating chaos. Chaos is the one thing Donald Trump has always been good at, because he knows it works. It keeps us arguing about whether we should take him seriously and whether he could or would actually do what he is threatening to do, while the people around him quietly continue doing things that are very real and very dangerous behind the scenes.

The actual reason for the event in his office today was the signing of two executive orders limiting birthright citizenship, a constitutional right that has been the law of this country since 1868. On Trump’s first day back in office, on January 20, 2025, he signed his first executive order attempting to strip that right from children born on American soil to noncitizen parents. Lower courts called it unconstitutional, and on June 30, 2026, the Supreme Court agreed, ruling six to three in Trump v. Barbara that his order was unlawful. Five justices agreed that it violated the 14th Amendment, while a sixth, Justice Kavanaugh, struck it down on statutory grounds. Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the majority and traced the history of birthright citizenship back through English common law and specifically called out the deliberate, broad language chosen by those who wrote the amendment after the Civil War. The Court said no.

Now, five weeks later, Trump sat in the Oval Office and said, “We had a very unfortunate decision in the Supreme Court concerning birthright. It was close.” But it was not close. It was six to three, and two of the justices who ruled against him were his own appointees.

He knew exactly what he was doing when he called it “close”. Because he needed that cover for what he did today, even after he was told no by the highest court in the land. He wrote this new order with slightly different language and presented it to us as if the prior ruling had actually given him permission. He had Stephen Miller, the architect of many of his worst policies, including his ones on immigration, stand behind him and say that Trump was “using the new ruling the Supreme Court issued to expand the definitions of people who are ineligible for birthright citizenship.” But that is not what the ruling did by any stretch of the imagination. The ruling struck them down. Miller reframed the defeat as their authorization to try again.

Trump then told reporters that “hundreds of thousands” of people were exploiting birthright citizenship, even claiming that one man had his children born here to acquire US citizenship and that he “said he had 56 children” and another claimed he had 98. There is no evidence for any of this. His own Solicitor General, John Sauer, was asked during oral arguments at the Supreme Court how many people take advantage of birth tourism, and he could not provide a number. Now Trump appears to have invented these radical figures, and he said them with complete confidence.

Stephen Miller also added that this amendment “was done right after the Civil War. This was for the babies of slaves.” Miller continued that it “was passed exclusively in the aftermath of the Civil War so as to ensure that the children of slaves would be citizens. It had no other meaning and purpose outside of that.”

He said this with confidence too. But the reality is that the 14th Amendment was written in broad language on purpose. The men who drafted it rejected narrower versions, and the Supreme Court confirmed this five weeks ago. The idea that a constitutional amendment adopted to expand who counts as an American should now be used to shrink that definition is legally and morally wrong.

And we can’t forget about the “Trump Gold Card” program, which allows any foreign national with a million dollars to buy their residency in the United States with expedited processing. Because what Trump was really saying is that he only wants the “right” immigrants to come here. He only wants his favorite “type” of babies born into citizenship here. The constitutional promise that you belong here, because you were born here is a “disgrace” and a “scam.” But if you are wealthy enough, you can purchase your way in. That is the America Donald Trump and his enablers want.

The ACLU, whose attorneys won the case at the Supreme Court, responded within hours. Cody Wofsy, the lead counsel in Trump v. Barbara, said any new attempt to “rewrite” birthright citizenship “will meet the same fate as the last one.” We have to believe that he is most certainly right. These new executive orders will be challenged, and they will likely be blocked. But that is not the point for Trump. He didn’t do this because of any strong calling or care for our country. This was another gesture of his to show his loyal followers that no court, constitution, or precedent will stop him from doing what he wants. The law is simply an obstacle to outmaneuver for Donald Trump.

That wasn’t the only moment the President showed unearned defiance. When a reporter asked whether the Department of Justice should prosecute Dr. Anthony Fauci, Trump did not hesitate. He went on a long and convoluted story about how Steve Bannon and Peter Navarro, both of whom were convicted of contempt of Congress for refusing lawful subpoenas, were “two very decent people.” He said they were prosecuted “over something that essentially was never prosecuted before.” Then he turned his attention back to Fauci: “What he did is far more serious than a lot of crimes, frankly. But they prosecuted two people when nothing like that has ever taken place before.”

He is trying to convince us that the two men who refused to comply with Congress were treated unfairly, and therefore, a scientist and medical doctor should be prosecuted because Trump’s fan base has been trained to see him as the enemy.

What Trump is doing is what so many authoritarian regimes of the last century have done before. Scientists were often among the first to be targeted. In the Soviet Union, geneticists who contradicted state ideology were imprisoned or executed under Lysenko’s reign. In Nazi Germany, Jewish scientists were stripped of their positions, driven from their universities and forced into exile, while those who remained under Nazi rule faced persecution and, for many, eventually murder. The pattern is always the same. You do not silence scientists because they are dangerous; you silence them because they represent an authority that does not come from the leader. It comes from evidence, and evidence cannot be bullied, threatened, or ordered to tell a dictator only what he wants to hear. That is intolerable to men like Donald Trump because truth places limits on what they can convince people to believe, and they don’t want any limits to what they can say.

Earlier that morning, hours before the signing, Trump himself proved why he doesn’t want any limits on what he says when he posted this on Truth Social: “The U.S. has massive amounts of ‘munitions,’ especially of certain types.” He went on to say that “the ‘leakers’ of these treasonous statements are being hunted down. Long term jail sentences will be sought!” He was responding to reporting, including from the Washington Post, that American weapons stockpiles were being strained by the Iran conflict. He called that reporting “treasonous,” a crime punishable with the death penalty.

Yet hours later at the signing, a reporter asked about munitions. And Trump said, “We have certain types of munitions that are very powerful that we have unlimited, virtually unlimited supply. We have others where it’s a little bit tighter.”

He acknowledged the same shortage he denied existed earlier when he threatened jail time for the “leakers” of these statements. He did not even seem to realize he had contradicted himself.

What happened today in the Oval Office, arguably one of the most powerful places on the planet, might make us want to shake our heads and ignore this clearly empty man. But this moment goes beyond that kind of response. It is overwhelmingly exhausting. And I’m sure many of us watching or reading about what he has done just want to check out. To walk away from his chaos and visible decline and just wait it out. It’s something I struggle with too. I think about the years we have lost and continue to lose, pushing back and carrying the weight of what could happen to our country if he keeps going and keeps destroying it. I think about why we do this. Why we go through everything he says and does. Why we fact-check someone who has never cared about facts or the truth.

This is why. First, because it is our job to bear witness, document, and make sure as many people know what is happening to energize them to vote. Plus, paying attention gives us a head start on what is coming, and it tells us where to put our energy.

Second, we do this because it reminds us that we are not alone. That there are others like us who see what is happening and who are refusing to bow down to a pseudo-king. It’s important to know that we are not losing our minds, that it really is as bad as we know it is.

And third, because knowledge is power, even when it is a painful load to carry. We have to know that we did everything we could to rid our country of this rot, so future generations don’t have to live through the days we are living through. Because no matter what happens, we can say we did not look away, and we did not stay silent.

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