Trump v. Everyone: War on Drugs, War on Courts, War on the Fed

Law Talk With Epstein, Yoo & Cooke

The Civitas Institute at the University of Texas at Austin

Politics, News, History, Government

4.8 • 704 Ratings

🗓️ 12 September 2025

⏱️ 59 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Richard Epstein, John Yoo, and host Charles C.W. Cook dive into Trump’s decision to blow up a Venezuelan drug boat (was it legal? was it war?), the Supreme Court’s green light for immigration profiling in Los Angeles, and the growing showdown between lower courts and SCOTUS. They finish with Trump trying to fire Fed governor Lisa Cook and ponder whether or not the president can take control of the Federal Reserve.

Transcript

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0:00.0	You're very handsome today, John.
0:09.8	Welcome to Law Talk.
0:12.9	I am Charles C.W. Cook, the host, and as ever, I'm joined by Richard Epstein and John
0:20.3	You. This is a production of the Civitas Institute at the University of Texas at Austin.
0:29.1	Now, before we start today, I just want to quickly acknowledge the abomination that took place in Utah yesterday, in which Charlie Kirk
0:43.5	of Turning Point USA was murdered, assassinated. And it seems for his political views, for his
0:52.8	willingness to speak his mind and debate.
0:56.2	That's where the reporting is going.
0:59.4	We all have Charlie Kirk and his family and his friends,
1:04.2	and more broadly the United States of America and his future in our thoughts.
1:10.0	Our first topic today is the Venezuelan boat that was destroyed by the U.S. military.
1:22.9	I will start this off by saying that I think this action was crazy.
1:29.0	I am astonished that it happened, that it has been defended as legal.
1:38.2	The federal government, which at present in the executive branch, is run by the Trump administration,
1:43.3	says that those aboard were running
1:46.5	drugs. Okay, that's an accusation. I don't know if that's true. I'm not sure I'll ever know
1:53.8	if that's true because they were vaporized. And the questions that I have as a layman citizen are, how is this authorized under statute?
2:07.0	How is this authorized under the Constitution?
2:11.3	What authority does the president have to determine that 11 people, I believe it was, aboard this boat,
2:21.9	was so obviously, presumptively guilty that they could be killed without a trial.
2:27.2	How does this fit in with historical analogies, pirates, for example?
2:33.7	And as a practical matter, I would like to know how it could
	...

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