{"id":520,"date":"2026-07-03T19:38:24","date_gmt":"2026-07-03T19:38:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/atlaslivingmedia.com\/?p=520"},"modified":"2026-07-03T19:38:24","modified_gmt":"2026-07-03T19:38:24","slug":"celebrate-americas-birthday-by-fighting-a-wannabe-king","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/atlaslivingmedia.com\/?p=520","title":{"rendered":"Celebrate America\u2019s Birthday by Fighting a Wannabe King"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Congress has been so neutered during Trump\u2019s kleptocratic presidency that the rare instances when it manages to pass any big, vaguely bipartisan legislation ought to be cause for celebration. There\u2019s something almost quaint about Congress using its constitutional powers.<\/p>\n

Read more My Doppelg\u00e4nger Trying to Attack AOC<\/a><\/p>\n

Last month, it briefly looked as if that\u2019s exactly what was happening with the housing bill titled the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act. Proponents and commentators described the legislation as the most important housing bill in a generation. It promised to expand incentives and government subsidies to build affordable housing, cut back regulations that both parties agree stymie development, and place limits on the ability of large corporations to buy up single family residences to put upward pressure on the rental market. All of this was, or should have been, low-hanging fruit. In an era in which more than half of voters under the age of 30 say their biggest concern is housing affordability and in which more than half of all Americans say that buying a house in 2026 is out of reach for them, there are no political downsides for legislators to vote in favor of moderate housing reforms.<\/p>\n

On June 22, the Senate overwhelmingly passed the bill. The next day, the House did too in a 358\u201332 vote. The legislation headed off to the White House for Trump to sign\u2014and that\u2019s, not surprisingly, where things went off the rails.<\/p>\n

After hyping a signing ceremony scheduled for June 24, Trump suddenly took to social media to announce that he wouldn\u2019t sign the bill until Congress passed his voter suppression legislation, the SAVE America Act\u2014even though Republican Senate leadership has told Trump it doesn\u2019t have the votes to pass it. The housing bill seems to have attracted Trump\u2019s scorn because it is cosponsored by Senator Elizabeth Warren. It was, Trump stated, the \u201cElizabeth Pocahontas Warren centric housing bill\u201d and was only of \u201cminor importance.\u201d<\/p>\n

GOP House Speaker Mike Johnson has repeatedly asserted that Trump won\u2019t veto the bill, and given the widespread support for the legislation in both chambers of Congress, the veto would almost certainly be overturned. But that hasn\u2019t stopped Trump from going on the attack. The housing legislation, he said on June 29, was a \u201cyawn.\u201d By contrast, his voter suppression legislation was vital to the national interest and failure to pass it constituted a \u201cnational emergency.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump has been talking a lot about \u201cnational emergencies\u201d as they relate to the elections. And as ex\u2013House majority leader Richard Gephardt and ex-senator Timothy Wirth wrote in this publication, that\u2019s likely no accident: Declaring a national emergency could give Trump access to a tool kit of secretive presidential powers originally designed to ensure continuity of government in the event of a catastrophic nuclear attack but which Trump could conceivably use to undermine elections that his party is on track to lose in November.<\/p>\n

In normal times, one might hope\u2014and even expect\u2014the Supreme Court to swat down such an unprecedented power grab. But almost every time the Roberts court has had the opportunity to block Trump\u2019s vision of an unbound executive, it has instead allowed this most megalomaniacal of presidents to trash the country\u2019s democratic infrastructure, right down to declaring that he can\u2019t be prosecuted for anything he does in an official capacity.<\/p>\n

Read more My Doppelg\u00e4nger Trying to Attack AOC<\/a><\/p>\n

To be sure, earlier this week. the court did<\/em> muster the collective courage to vote down, 6\u20133, Trump\u2019s efforts to end birthright citizenship via executive order. But given the 14th Amendment\u2019s unambiguous language about who qualifies for citizenship, any other decision would have been pretty much inconceivable even for this court. Yet even in this easiest-of-easy cases, which should have resulted in a 9-0 ruling against the administration, three of the six justices somehow found ways to contort themselves into agreeing with the administration\u2019s legal mumbo-jumbo on this. And a fourth, Brett Kavanaugh, ultimately came down against Trump but not before concluding that he was doing so because the executive order violated specific federal laws rather than because it stomped on a constitutional amendment. In other words, under this court, Trump came disconcertingly close to rewriting a part of the Constitution via social-media tantrums and poorly written executive orders.<\/p>\n

And while the court majority slapped Trump on the wrist for his cavalier disrespect for the 14th Amendment, in two other blockbuster decisions this week, it massively expanded presidential power: The first gave Trump a green light to fire independent regulators from supposedly independent regulatory agencies and institutions except for the Federal Reserve. That means that the Election Commission, the Federal Communications Commission, and the Securities and Exchange Commission are now subject to absolute political control. The implications for how elections are run, how broadcasting rights are distributed, and how markets are or aren\u2019t manipulated are stark. Trump and his henchmen can now rig the game, be the game political or economic, with little to no risk of being held accountable by regulators and with the Supreme Court backing them up.<\/p>\n

The second overturned limits on how much money political parties could funnel to individual candidates\u2019 campaigns, thus allowing pay-to-play donors to give huge amounts of money to parties that could then be laundered toward assisting individual politicians. The decision renders campaign contribution limits largely meaningless, because while donors still can\u2019t give unlimited amounts directly to a chosen politician, there\u2019s now nothing stopping them from giving those same funds to a party with the stipulation that that money then get spent on their favored candidate\u2019s campaign.<\/p>\n

Given Trump\u2019s stranglehold over the GOP and his ability to bring in oligarchs\u2019 money to boost MAGA candidates\u2019 fortunes, this is one of those ostensibly party-neutral decisions that in practice will benefit a Trumpified Republican Party and candidates most personally loyal to Donald J. Trump.<\/p>\n

And so we approach America\u2019s birthday. Frankly, this quarter-millennium event was always going to be a mawkish, sugar-plum fairy version of this country\u2019s complex history. But under Trump, it\u2019s gone from cornball to terrifying. It is a celebration of all things Trump\u2014from his love of violent sports to his fetishization of the military. A country that has long looked with scorn, and even pity, on parts of the globe where power is concentrated in the hands of strongmen now has its own wannabe strongman. A country that has long prided itself on an independent judiciary now has a largely pliant Supreme Court and an entirely pliant Department of Justice. A country that once touted the strength and valor of its legislative process now has a dysfunctional legislature that has ceded almost all its powers to a corrupt executive.<\/p>\n

The courts and the legislature aren\u2019t going to rescue us from this mess. But an aroused public just might. You want to celebrate America\u2019s birthday? Then skip the Trump show in Washington, DC, with its huge firework display and its flailing Great America Fair and start organizing. It\u2019s time to shout from the rooftops against MAGA\u2019s perversion of the American Dream and to start articulating a better, kinder, and more decent and honest narrative that can shape America\u2019s next chapters. That\u2019s a far better way to celebrate than mindlessly chanting \u201cUSA, USA\u201d while Trump snarls inanities and thinks up more ways to torment the vulnerable and cash in on his political power.<\/p>\n

Read more Or to Put It Another Way: 100 Years Ago, We Were Already 50 Years Old<\/a><\/p>\n<\/article>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Nation Magazine<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":519,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-520","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-authoritarian-watch","category-politics"],"yoast_head":"\nCelebrate America\u2019s Birthday by Fighting a Wannabe King - Atlas Living Media<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/atlaslivingmedia.com\/?p=520\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Celebrate America\u2019s Birthday by Fighting a Wannabe King - Atlas Living Media\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Nation Magazine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/atlaslivingmedia.com\/?p=520\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Atlas Living Media\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-07-03T19:38:24+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/atlaslivingmedia.com\\\/?p=520#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/atlaslivingmedia.com\\\/?p=520\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/atlaslivingmedia.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/f6233854b1f92a6d21147fe5d5e58abc\"},\"headline\":\"Celebrate America\u2019s Birthday by Fighting a Wannabe King\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-07-03T19:38:24+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/atlaslivingmedia.com\\\/?p=520\"},\"wordCount\":1275,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/atlaslivingmedia.com\\\/?p=520#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/atlaslivingmedia.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/574d83419130f941feedfa7e43d3fece.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Authoritarian Watch\",\"Politics\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/atlaslivingmedia.com\\\/?p=520#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/atlaslivingmedia.com\\\/?p=520\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/atlaslivingmedia.com\\\/?p=520\",\"name\":\"Celebrate America\u2019s Birthday by Fighting a Wannabe King - Atlas Living Media\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/atlaslivingmedia.com\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/atlaslivingmedia.com\\\/?p=520#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/atlaslivingmedia.com\\\/?p=520#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/atlaslivingmedia.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/574d83419130f941feedfa7e43d3fece.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-07-03T19:38:24+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/atlaslivingmedia.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/f6233854b1f92a6d21147fe5d5e58abc\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/atlaslivingmedia.com\\\/?p=520#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/atlaslivingmedia.com\\\/?p=520\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/atlaslivingmedia.com\\\/?p=520#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/atlaslivingmedia.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/574d83419130f941feedfa7e43d3fece.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/atlaslivingmedia.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/574d83419130f941feedfa7e43d3fece.jpg\",\"width\":1440,\"height\":907},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/atlaslivingmedia.com\\\/?p=520#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/atlaslivingmedia.com\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Celebrate America\u2019s Birthday by Fighting a Wannabe King\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/atlaslivingmedia.com\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/atlaslivingmedia.com\\\/\",\"name\":\"Atlas Living Media\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/atlaslivingmedia.com\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/atlaslivingmedia.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/f6233854b1f92a6d21147fe5d5e58abc\",\"name\":\"admin\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"admin\"},\"sameAs\":[\"http:\\\/\\\/atlaslivingmedia.com\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/atlaslivingmedia.com\\\/?author=1\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Celebrate America\u2019s Birthday by Fighting a Wannabe King - Atlas Living Media","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/atlaslivingmedia.com\/?p=520","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Celebrate America\u2019s Birthday by Fighting a Wannabe King - Atlas Living Media","og_description":"The Nation Magazine","og_url":"https:\/\/atlaslivingmedia.com\/?p=520","og_site_name":"Atlas Living Media","article_published_time":"2026-07-03T19:38:24+00:00","author":"admin","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"admin","Est. reading time":"6 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/atlaslivingmedia.com\/?p=520#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/atlaslivingmedia.com\/?p=520"},"author":{"name":"admin","@id":"https:\/\/atlaslivingmedia.com\/#\/schema\/person\/f6233854b1f92a6d21147fe5d5e58abc"},"headline":"Celebrate America\u2019s Birthday by Fighting a Wannabe King","datePublished":"2026-07-03T19:38:24+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/atlaslivingmedia.com\/?p=520"},"wordCount":1275,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/atlaslivingmedia.com\/?p=520#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/atlaslivingmedia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/574d83419130f941feedfa7e43d3fece.jpg","articleSection":["Authoritarian Watch","Politics"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/atlaslivingmedia.com\/?p=520#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/atlaslivingmedia.com\/?p=520","url":"https:\/\/atlaslivingmedia.com\/?p=520","name":"Celebrate America\u2019s Birthday by Fighting a Wannabe King - Atlas Living Media","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/atlaslivingmedia.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/atlaslivingmedia.com\/?p=520#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/atlaslivingmedia.com\/?p=520#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/atlaslivingmedia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/574d83419130f941feedfa7e43d3fece.jpg","datePublished":"2026-07-03T19:38:24+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/atlaslivingmedia.com\/#\/schema\/person\/f6233854b1f92a6d21147fe5d5e58abc"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/atlaslivingmedia.com\/?p=520#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/atlaslivingmedia.com\/?p=520"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/atlaslivingmedia.com\/?p=520#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/atlaslivingmedia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/574d83419130f941feedfa7e43d3fece.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/atlaslivingmedia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/574d83419130f941feedfa7e43d3fece.jpg","width":1440,"height":907},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/atlaslivingmedia.com\/?p=520#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/atlaslivingmedia.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Celebrate America\u2019s Birthday by Fighting a Wannabe King"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/atlaslivingmedia.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/atlaslivingmedia.com\/","name":"Atlas Living Media","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/atlaslivingmedia.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/atlaslivingmedia.com\/#\/schema\/person\/f6233854b1f92a6d21147fe5d5e58abc","name":"admin","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"admin"},"sameAs":["http:\/\/atlaslivingmedia.com"],"url":"https:\/\/atlaslivingmedia.com\/?author=1"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/atlaslivingmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/520","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/atlaslivingmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/atlaslivingmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlaslivingmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlaslivingmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=520"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/atlaslivingmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/520\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlaslivingmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/519"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/atlaslivingmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=520"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlaslivingmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=520"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlaslivingmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=520"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}