Politics

(WASHINGTON) — Nearly two years after the Supreme Court’s monumental 2024 decision granting President Donald Trump sweeping immunity from prosecution, the ruling’s broader impact on American government is beginning to come into focus as Trump and his lawyers repeatedly invoke the case in an effort to get the justices to endorse expansive presidential power.

“That’s not a coincidence, it’s a strategy,” said James Sample, a constitutional scholar at Hofstra Law and ABC News legal contributor. “They’re not just invoking a precedent, they’re building an architecture.”

An ABC News review of the unprecedented 29 Trump emergency applications to the Supreme Court in his second term found that nearly a third directly cited Chief Justice John Roberts’ majority opinion in the immunity case, Trump v. U.S.

Trump attorneys reference portions of the court’s immunity decision at least 21 times to argue for “unrestricted” presidential power to fire executive branch employees; unreviewable control over “matters related to terrorism, trade and immigration;” and absolute authority as commander-in-chief to deploy troops to aid domestic law enforcement.

The Constitution “creates an ‘energetic, independent executive,’ not a subservient executive,” Solicitor General John Sauer wrote the court, quoting Roberts, in a September request to allow Trump to remove Federal Reserve Board Governor Lisa Cook.

“These aren’t random citations,” Sample said. “The White House Counsel’s Office has read that opinion very carefully, and they are using it methodically.”

The court is still crafting a decision in the Cook case but has generally embraced the administration’s broad view of presidential authority to remove federal employees and supervise agencies.

Since January 2025, however, the justices have not referenced Trump v. U.S. to justify any of its decisions in favor of the Trump administration, leading some court analysts to question why the conservative majority has avoided explicitly invoking its own precedent.

“We just don’t know yet what this case means, and it will be up to a future Supreme Court to define it,” said Sarah Isgur, SCOTUS blog editor and ABC News legal contributor.

On several occasions, Trump appeals relying on the immunity decision have been rejected.

The court declined to embrace Trump administration claims in April 2025 that the deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia was interwoven with the president’s “important foreign relations responsibilities,” which Roberts had indicated in the immunity decision were off limits for judicial review.

A majority of justices also rejected Trump’s argument that a lower court block on his National Guard deployment in Chicago infringed on core constitutional powers as commander-in-chief, which were detailed in Roberts’ opinion in the immunity case.

“They have been making a more powerful president — with more complete control over the executive branch and its employees,” said Isgur of the high court’s conservative majority, “but also a weaker presidency that has to go back to Congress if it wants to move the law in any meaningful way.”

Some legal scholars note the Trump v. U.S. decision also broke new ground by putting in writing the idea that the president has exclusive authority to enforce federal law and unchecked prosecutorial discretion — an endorsement that some say has had at the very least a psychological impact on the president and his team.

Roberts’ opinion enshrines the idea that “investigation and prosecution of crimes is a quintessentially executive function” and that the president has “exclusive authority and absolute discretion to decide which crimes to investigate and prosecute.”

“The Justice Department will likely use [the ruling’s] discussion of the exclusive power over prosecution and investigation to push the bounds of this discretion,” wrote Harvard Law professor and former assistant attorney general during the George W. Bush administration Jack Goldsmith in a recent law review article.

Trump has asserted himself as the nation’s top law enforcer in his second term, personally directing the attorney general and other top officials on whom to investigate and whom to prosecute.

Trump has pushed indictments of many of his perceived opponents, including former FBI Director James Comey, New York Attorney General Letitia James, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, California Sen. Adam Schiff, and former special counsel Jack Smith.

When six Democratic members of Congress posted a video telling military service members that they had the right not to carry out unlawful orders, Trump said the “traitors” should be “arrested and put on trial.” Efforts to secure an indictment subsequently failed.

The Supreme Court’s opinion in the Trump immunity case explicitly enshrines the president’s right to active involvement in the cases and others like them.

“The president may discuss potential investigations and prosecutions with the Attorney General and other Justice Department officials to carry out his constitutional duty to ‘take care that the laws be faithfully executed,'” Roberts wrote, quoting Article II of the Constitution. Later, Roberts adds on behalf of the court, a president has “exclusive authority over the investigative and prosecutorial functions of the Justice Department and its officials, and the president cannot be prosecuted for conduct within his exclusive constitutional authority.”

“Those quotes are also just true as a matter of the Constitution,” Isgur said. “That’s what a president is supposed to do. What’s new is using criminal prosecutors for partisan purposes — and there’s no quotes about that in the case.”

A majority of Americans, 55%, believe Trump is using the Justice Department to file unjustified criminal charges against his opponents, according to a November 2025 Marquette Law School poll; 45% think the charges have been justified.

At the same time, most Americans — 56% — disapprove of the way the Supreme Court is handling its job, compared with 44% who approve, the Marquette poll found.

“The Court has traditionally proceeded cautiously and carefully when marking out exclusive presidential power because the president is known to run hard when the Court recognizes such power. But it did the opposite in Trump v U.S.,” Goldsmith argues.

“The Court issued an incautious and overly broad ruling on exclusive presidential powers that presidents will use to their advantage against the other branches,” Goldsmith wrote, “until the Court, in more considered reflection, acknowledges its imprudence and alters course.”

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(WASHINGTON) — Vice President JD Vance is in Hungary on Tuesday, meeting with Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, an ally of President Donald Trump, ahead of the country’s April 12 election which could threaten Orbán’s long hold on power.

Orban faces criticism over the decline of democracy in the country as he and his allies have destroyed checks and balances and taken control of the country’s media.

He faces a strong challenge from opposition leader Peter Magyar, who was once part of the prime minister’s party but launched his own in 2024 and began attacking Orbán’s Fidesz party over alleged corruption.

The authoritarian leader has long been a close ally of Trump and was among the first European leaders to endorse him in the 2016 presidential election. Orbán’s nationalist party has become a model for MAGA populists, particularly for its aggressive stance on immigration.

Orban met with Trump three times in 2024, one of those visits coming after Trump won the 2024 election. Orbán has spoken several times at the Conservative Political Action Conference, known as CPAC.

Most recently, Orbán, also an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, visited Trump at the White House in November, where he received a special exemption from sanctions imposed on Russian oil because of its invasion of Ukraine. Hungary is a major importer of Russian energy and the sanctions would have impacted the country’s already weakening economy.

While Hungary is a member of the European Union, Orbán has repeatedly attacked it and clashed with his European counterparts on several issues, including Russia’s war in Ukraine, using his veto power to try to block the EU’s efforts to support Ukraine.

Trump has already endorsed Orban in his reelection bid and has praised him, calling him “strong and powerful.”

During his visit, Vance will hold bilateral meetings with Orbán and publicly deliver remarks on the U.S.-Hungary partnership.

In a statement to ABC News, a spokesperson for Vance said that the vice president is looking forward to his visit and building “on the progress President Trump and Prime Minister Orbán have made on many key issues, including energy, technology, and defense.”

Vance’s trip to Hungary follows Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s visit in February, during which he reinforced the Trump administration’s support of the embattled Orbán.

“I can say to you with confidence that President Trump is deeply committed to your success because your success is our success, because this relationship we have here in Central Europe through you is so essential and vital for our national interests in the years to come,” Rubio said then.

In early 2025, Vance delivered blistering remarks at the Munich Security Conference, where he made the argument to European lawmakers to pay attention to the interests of conservative voters, take stronger actions on immigration and that Europe was moving towards censorship and away from Democracy.

Vance’s remarks were not well received by many European allies, with German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius saying at the time that it appeared that Vance was comparing parts of Europe to “authoritarian regimes,” calling it “unacceptable.”

 

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(WASHINGTON) —  President Donald Trump on Monday shared new details about the harrowing lengths a U.S. aviator shot down in Iran went through to keep himself alive and the scope of the mission to rescue him.

“Despite the peril, the officer followed his training and climbed into the treacherous mountain terrain and started climbing toward a higher altitude, something they were trained to do in order to evade capture,” Trump recounted in a briefing on the operation to the media. “He scaled cliff faces, bleeding rather profusely, treated his own wounds, and contacted American forces to transmit his location.”

Trump said the weapons system officer, who ejected along with the pilot from an F-15 fighter jet, was “injured quite badly” and stranded in an area “teeming” with members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, militia and local authorities.

The pilot was rescued in a separate and challenging broad daylight mission on Friday.

But finding the second aviator, who landed miles away, was “comparable to hunting for a single sand of grain of sand in the middle of a desert,” CIA Director John Ratcliffe said.

Trump said the U.S. has taken out Iran’s radar and air defense capabilities but the F-15 was shot down by a shoulder-launched, heat-seeking missile.

“They had probably a little luck because you got to get lucky,” the president said.

Trump said the second rescue mission involved involved “hundreds” of service members and 155 aircraft, including four bombers, 64 fighters, 48 refueling tankers, 13 rescue aircraft and others, as well as efforts to deceive the Iranians about where U.S. forces were searching.

“We had seven different locations where they thought, and they were very confused,” Trump said of the Iranians.

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth described Iran’s military as “embarrassed and humiliated” by the rescue.

Trump said the Central Intelligence Agency was responsible for finding “this little speck” in the mountainous area in which he was hiding.

Ratcliffe, the CIA director, said the U.S. deployed both human assets and “exquisite technologies that no other intelligence service in the world possesses” to locate the weapons system officer on Saturday, who was “concealed in a mountain crevice, still invisible to the enemy, but not to the CIA.”

Ratcliffe said some of the unique capabilities the CIA used are ones that only the president can deploy and that he would not publicly divulge what they were.

“As an agency, the CIA possesses unique capabilities that only the president can deploy. Some of these capabilities fall under covert action authorities. And because covert means exactly that, I’m not going to be able to tell you everything that you want to know,” Ratcliffe said.

Ratcliffe said finding the downed aviator was “comparable to hunting for a single sand of grain of sand in the middle of a desert.”

“This was also a race against the clock, as it was critical that we locate the downed aviator as quickly as possible, while at the same time keeping our enemies misdirected,” he added.

Hegseth said once the airman turned on his transponder, his first message was “God is Good.”

“In that moment of isolation and danger, his faith and fighting spirit shown through,” Hegseth said. 

Trump said once it was determined that the two airplanes used to ferry in troops and equipment could not take off from the soft, wet sand in the makeshift landing area, “we blew them up to smithereens” so that the technology they carried couldn’t be captured by the Iranians.

“And we had a contingency plan, which was unbelievable, where lighter, faster aircraft came in and they took them out. We blew up the old planes. We blew them up to smithereens, because we had equipment on the planes that, frankly, we’d like to take, but I don’t think it was worthwhile spending another four hours there taking it off,” he said.

ABC News’ Mariam Khan contributed to this report.

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(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump on Monday called a proposal to end the war with Iran a “significant step” but “not good enough” to persuade him to end his military campaign.

“They are negotiating now, and they have made a very significant step,” Trump said to reporters as he attended the annual White House Easter Egg Roll. “We’ll see what happens.”

It was not immediately clear which proposal Trump was referring to. The president had touted ongoing negotiations with more “moderate” parties but tensions ramped up over the weekend after the downing of a U.S. fighter plane.

According to a U.S. official and another person close to the ongoing talks, mediators are attempting broker a 45-day ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran ahead of Trump’s latest deadline, which calls for Iran to fully open the Strait of Hormuz by 8 p.m. ET on Tuesday or face attacks on bridges and energy infrastructure.

Iran signaled it would not accept the mediators’ proposal on Monday, responding instead with its own 10-point plan, which a U.S. official described as maximalist.

In the past, Iran has said it wants a permanent commitment from the U.S. to end the attacks rather than a shorter-term ceasefire.

Trump has moved the deadline several times citing progress in ongoing negotiations only to renew the threat of military destruction once again.

Both sources downplayed expectations that a deal could be reached in time, saying that so far Iran has refused to cede what it views as its main leverage in the negotiations: control over the Strait of Hormuz and its stockpile of highly enriched uranium.

“We are obliterating their country. And I hate to do it, but we’re obliterating and they just don’t want to say ‘uncle.’ They don’t want to cry, as the expression goes, ‘uncle.’ But they will,” Trump said. “And if they don’t, they’ll have no bridges, they’ll have no power plants, they’ll have no anything.”

But the president also seemed to acknowledge that the conflict was unpopular domestically.

“Unfortunately, the American people would like to see us come home,” he said.

Earlier on Monday, a White House official said the proposal was just “one of many ideas” and indicated that the president had not signed off on it.

Mediators are floating confidence-building measures aimed at bringing both sides closer to an agreement, sources say, and stressing to the Iranian regime that even though Trump has previously moved back deadlines he has set, Tehran would likely need to signal a willingness to make major concessions in order to buy more time for negotiations to play out.  

In their public messaging, Iranian leaders have signaled little room for compromise, issuing demands the U.S. views as maximalist.

Mediators have floated the idea that perhaps access to the Strait of Hormuz and the elimination of Iran’s uranium stockpile could be fully resolved after a ceasefire is reached. However, a U.S. official said it appeared highly unlikely the Trump administration could be convinced to accept those terms–particularly on the Strait of Hormuz. 

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(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump will hold a news conference Monday in the White House briefing room, where he’s expected to give more details on the “daring” weekend rescue of a U.S. airman whose fighter jet was shot down over Iran.

Trump teased the upcoming briefing at the White House Easter Egg Roll.

“Those two pilots were incredible, brave, and we thank them,” Trump said.

Looming large over the president’s upcoming comments, however, is his latest deadline for Iran to make a peace deal or reopen the Strait of Hormuz — by 8 p.m. ET Tuesday — or face massive U.S. attacks on critical infrastructure, including energy and water facilities.

“Right now they’re not too strong at all, in my opinion,” Trump said of Iran at the Easter event. “But we’re soon going to find out, aren’t we?”

Trump told ABC News Senior Political Correspondent Rachel Scott on Sunday that if no peace deal is reached with Iran in the next 48 hours, “we’re blowing up the entire country.”

Trump has previously pushed his deadlines for Iran to comply with his demands.

But in a profanity-laced post on his social media platform early on Sunday, Trump told the Iranian regime, “you’ll be living in Hell” if it did not open the critical maritime shipping channel for oil and trade.

“Tuesday will be Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day, all wrapped up in one, in Iran. There will be nothing like it!!!” Trump wrote in the post.

Experts have warned that possible attacks on civilian infrastructure could constitute war crimes and violate international law, a claim Iran makes as well. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, when pressed on the issue last week, told reporters: “Of course, this administration and the United States Armed Forces will always act within the confines of the law.”

Iran’s deputy foreign minister, Kazem Gharibabadi, said in a post on X that if the U.S. attacks power plants, then Iran would deliver “a decisive, immediate, and regret-inducing response.”

Amid the threats of escalation, questions remain about the status of talks between the U.S. and Tehran, after President Trump said last week that the U.S. was carrying out negotiations with “much more reasonable” leadership.

Asked about reports of a new draft proposal that includes a 45-day ceasefire and reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, a White House official told ABC News on Monday: “This is one of many ideas, and POTUS has not signed off on it. Operation Epic Fury continues. President Trump will speak more at 1 p.m.”

When asked about the ceasefire proposal, Trump said at the Easter event that he’s seen “every proposal.”

“It’s a significant step, it’s not good enough but it’s a very significant step,” Trump said.

Iran said it will not accept a ceasefire without “suitable guarantees,” a Pakistani security official told ABC News.

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(WASHINGTON) — The Supreme Court on Monday vacated contempt-of-Congress charges against ex-Trump advisor Steve Bannon, who had refused to honor a subpoena from the committee investigating the Jan. 6 , 2021, attack, and later served a four-month sentence.

The Court did not explain its decision. There were no noted dissents.

In a brief order, the Court noted that the Trump Justice Department has moved to drop the indictment against Bannon and returned the case to a lower court for dismissal.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

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(WASHINGTON) — Republican Rep. Mike Turner defended the U.S. war with Iran on Sunday and said that he doesn’t believe an American ground force would be required to restore freedom of navigation through the Strait of Hormuz.

“I don’t think U.S. ground troops are going to be necessary in any direct conflict,” Turner told ABC News’ “This Week” anchor George Stephanopoulos after being pressed on whether troops on the ground would be needed to reopen the strait.

“The straits are going to be open,” Turner told Stephanopoulos, but said that the U.S. cannot allow Iran to continue developing missile technology or nuclear weapons that could threaten the American homeland and Europe.

“You have to be able to address this … great sponsor of terrorism, this … global power ambition that Iran has,” he said.

Turner’s comments come as President Donald Trump has repeatedly indicated that the Strait of Hormuz is not the U.S.’s problem.

“The United States imports almost no oil through the Hormuz Strait and won’t be taking any in the future. We don’t need it. We haven’t needed it and we don’t need it,” Trump said Wednesday in a prime-time address to the nation, adding that it was the responsibility of other countries to secure the strait.

“We will be helpful, but they should take the lead in protecting the oil that they so desperately depend on,” he said.

Turner said that despite the impact of the war on global oil markets, the consequences of inaction from the U.S. against Iran would have been greater.

“Certainly, you know, Iran is going to have some things that they’re going to be able to do during the conflict,” Turner said. “But if you don’t undertake the conflict, if you just step back and watch, as the Obama administration was going to do while Iran became a nuclear power and they became North Korea, we wouldn’t be looking at the Strait of Hormuz,” he added, claiming that if Iran had developed nuclear weapons the world would be “held hostage by a terrorist state.”

“They still are being significantly diminished,” Turner said, “and their ability to be able to be marching toward a nuclear state is being eliminated.”

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(WASHINGTON) — The White House, in its budget request for the 2027 fiscal year, is asking Congress to approve roughly $1.5 trillion for defense — a record-breaking military spending request as the U.S. remains in its fifth week of war with Iran.

That is a $445 billion, or a 42% increase from the 2026 total level, according to the White House. Non-defense spending would be then be reduced by $73 billion, or 10%, according to the budget released by the White House on Friday.

Major targets of the proposed spending cuts are environmental programs across many federal agencies, including canceling more than $15 billion in Department of Energy grants related to clean energy.

The White House budget also continues the Department of Education’s “path to elimination,” proposes cuts to agriculture spending by 19% and proposes slashing the Internal Revenue Service’s budget by $1.4 billion. 

“The 2027 Budget builds on the President’s vision by continuing to constrain non-defense spending and reform the Federal Government,” Office of Budget and Management Director Russ Vought wrote in the request to Congress. 

President Donald Trump’s budget request, which is largely a wishlist sent to Congress in order to signal the administration’s priorities, lists “reducing violent crime and protecting national security” along with “protecting the homeland and removing dangerous illegal aliens” as the other two spending priorities for the upcoming year. 

The budget proposes more than $19 billion for federal law enforcement — a 15% increase from 2026. The budget maintains “critical funding” for Immigration and Customs Enforcement next year, equal to the 2026 level, including $2.2 billion to maintain 41,500 immigration detention beds.

The White House said that an investment in defense and Department of Homeland Security would be, in part, achieved through budget reconciliation.

The reconciliation process comes with a key advantage of not being subject to a filibuster. This means legislation can be passed with a simple majority vote in the Senate and that Republicans wouldn’t necessarily need Democratic support, signaling an attempt from the White House to avoid Democratic demands for non-defense increases.

“Reconciliation funding in 2027 will enable DHS to fully implement the President’s immigration enforcement initiatives, finish construction of the border wall on the Southwest border, procure advanced border security technology, and continue the largest recapitalization investment in the history of the U.S. Coast Guard,” according to the White House. 

Currently, DHS funding is caught in gridlock on Capitol Hill, resulting in the longest partial government shutdown in history.

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(WASHINGTON) — The White House, in their budget request for the 2027 fiscal year, is asking Congress to approve roughly $1.5 trillion for defense — a record-breaking military spending request as the U.S. remains in its fifth week of war with Iran. 

That is a $445 billion, or a 42% increase from the 2026 total level, according to the White House. Non-defense spending is reduced by $73 billion, or 10%, according to the budget released by the White House on Friday.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

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(WASHNGTON) — President Donald Trump said on Thursday that he plans to sign an order to pay “all” employees at the Department of Homeland Security amid the record-long agency shutdown.

“Help is on the way for our Brave and Patriotic Public Servants who have continued to work hard, and do their part to protect and defend our Country,” Trump wrote in a post to his social media platform.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

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