IMMEDIATE RELEASE 1 August 2026WASHINGTON MERRY-GO-ROUNDToday’s Events in Historical PerspectiveAmerica’s Longest-Running Column, Founded 1932A palace revoltBy Douglas Cohn and Eleanor Clift WASHINGTON – After a halcyon eighteen months where he had an iron grip on power, President Donald Trump is facing pushback from the military, the Supreme Court, and Congress. It is a virtual palace revolt. Those three power centers have literally taken the helm on several serious issues, neutering Trump’s authority, or, at least in the case of the judicial and legislative branches, reestablishing their co-equal constitutional powers.Trump ordered another round of strikes in the Iran war even though the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Dan Caine, Central Command Admiral Brad Cooper, the officer leading the U.S. campaign against Iran, and Vice President Vance warned him just days earlier that the Pentagon was depleting its stocks of weapons, particularly defensive weapons like the Patriot missile, making the country vulnerable to other bad actors.They also told him they have run out of targets, which was another way of saying the war cannot be won through air alone, a message Trump does not want to hear.The fact that the top brass, Caine and Cooper, pushed back is highly unusual (It is unheard of for the military to turn down a commander-in-chief’s attack order, even if only for a few days). And this comes at a time that most of the nation’s generals and admirals despise and disrespect their immediate boss, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, who dubs himself Secretary of War and whom others dub the president’s war whisperer, while all the while he has gone on a purging spree of their fellow generals and admirals.The next blow to Trump’s power is likely to come from the Supreme Court, which is weighing his latest use of tariffs. The justices ruled his first effort to impose tariffs by executive order unconstitutional, and they are expected to do the same for his latest gambit. He has placed 10 percent-plus tariffs on imports from 60 countries claiming they use child labor, even though most do not, and it is not his decision to make. Switzerland, listed among them, was stunned and filed suit.Congress has the power to impose tariffs, not the executive, and the Supreme Court will almost certainly slap back Trump once again on this issue.Finally, Congress and specifically the Senate is pushing back. Trump wants the Senate to pass the SAVE Act, which should more appropriately be called the STEAL Act because it is aimed at rigging the November elections in such a way that Republicans can win.It requires certain approved IDs for people to vote, and it would give the federal government access to voter rolls allegedly to make sure no illegal or undocumented people are voting (In reality, why would such non-citizens even bother to risk such an effort?) . Elections are run by the states, and the SAVE act would be like letting the fox into the hen house. All kinds of mischief would ensue.Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., has stood firm against Trump on the issue, saying he does not have enough Republican votes to pass the SAVE Act, and he is not going to eliminate the filibuster to pass it with just 51 votes. Republicans are not going to give up the filibuster now when they know Democrats might return to power after the midterms.What is Trump to do? Recognize his constitutional limitations as well as his impactable military options. In short, Trump needs to retreat. See Eleanor Clift’s book Selecting a President, and Douglas Cohn’s latest books The President’s First Year: The Only School for Presidents Is the Presidency and World War 4: Nine Scenarios (endorsed by seven flag officers).Twitter: @douglas_cohn© 2026 U.S. News Syndicate, IncDistributed by U.S. News Syndicate, Inc.END WASHINGTON MERRY-GO-ROUND
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