It's the Brian Laird Show on WNYC. Good morning, everyone.

So on Thursday, we'll be at the two-month mark of the Trump administration.

There are, of course, all these chainsaw cuts,

as Elon Musk himself describes them, to the U.S. government. There are also machine gun

intensity, changes in policy domestically and internationally. And then there are the democracy

versus autocracy and rule of law versus authoritarianism questions that underlie how much of this is being done

with implications, let's face it, that go beyond any specific policy, no matter how consequential

those particular policy changes themselves are in the moment.

In the headlines right now is the apparent thumbing their noses

at the judicial branch of government around the judicial order not to fly suspected Venezuelan

gang members en masse to El Salvador this weekend under the so-called Alien Enemies Act.

That's supposed to be only invoked during wars. The president of El Salvador,

Trump ally, posted the words, oopsie, too late about the deportees being in the air after the judge

ordered them not to be flown. And Trump's deputy chief of staff, Stephen Miller, said this on CNN,

directly challenging the court's authority.

The district court has no ability to in any way restrain the president's authorities under the Alien Enemies Act or the ability to conduct the foreign affairs of the United States.

Stephen Miller there, and you have this from Borders'ar Tom Holman on Fox.

I'm proud to be a part of this administration. We're not stopping. I don't care what the judges think.

I don't care of the left thinks. We're coming.

So at least publicly, if not in court, they're leaning into not caring what the judge thinks, as Holman put it there, from that.

And one of the questions is, how broadly does that apply?

Then you have yesterday shutdown of the U.S. Institute for Peace.

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