Welcome to The Beat. I'm Ari Melbert. We have a lot in tonight's program, including by the end of the hour,

a look at how protest is shifting right now. But our top story is all about a line that I've told you will be important in this era.

Between the big things, and there are some big things going on, and the little things that they want you to believe are big things.

Allow me to explain.

President Trump right now is doing something that could be a big thing if it worked, if it happened,

if it actually goes into effect. And many people care about it. And the government is dealing

with it. And the courts will deal with it. And we've been covering it. Other channels,

other outlets are covering it. No one's saying this is something to ignore. But if you keep your head on straight and the facts in

front of you with a little knowledge of law and history, this could end up being a little thing,

even though he wants you to think it's very big. What we're talking about is a path that could lead

to another relatively quick legal defeat

for Donald Trump. And you had one last week. You remember on the citizenship issue, an initial

court setback, because Donald Trump is doing a lot with these orders. Every president can sign

executive orders, but if you sign orders that aren't really in their structure orders, they're more like what a law would be or what the Constitution would be.

Calling it an order doesn't mean you override existing laws or the Constitution.

Even if you haven't brushed up on civics in a while, you probably remember that.

And so Donald Trump right now is doing something where we already have a constitution

and a lot of legal precedent that says, this is Congress's power, not his. So before I get into

the weeds of it, just keep that in mind. We're talking about something that is a government power,

but it's Congress's power, which is spending, not the president's power. So Donald Trump has said he wants to just freeze

something that involves spending, all the federal grants. So Washington Post, it's news. I'm not saying

we would ignore it. It's actually, if he got away with it, it would be a huge thing. But this is a plan.

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