Trump Pressures Supreme Court, Allies Ahead of Xi Summit

Trump's broadside against his own Supreme Court appointees set the tone of the day. In a long Truth Social post on Sunday rebroadcast across Monday's news cycle, the president named Justices Amy Coney Barrett and Neil Gorsuch and said their votes in the 6-3 February decision against his emergency-statute tariffs had "hurt our Country so badly" and cost the United States $159 billion that the federal government now has to refund. He framed the criticism explicitly in terms of personal loyalty — "it's really OK for them to be loyal to the person that appointed them to 'almost' the highest position in the land" — and used the same post to warn the Court ahead of its pending review of his executive order repealing birthright citizenship, telling the justices that a "negative ruling on Birthright Citizenship, on top of the recent Supreme Court Tariff catastrophe, is not Economically sustainable." Last month, Customs and Border Protection identified more than 330,000 importers who had paid the duties; Trump has said he will "remember" companies that fail to request a refund.

The Iran war's diplomatic fallout sharpened on the same day. Allied governments in Europe and the Indo-Pacific are openly hedging in the wake of Trump's 5,000-troop drawdown from Germany, broader threats to thin US forces in Europe, and a muted American response to Iranian strikes on the United Arab Emirates. European capitals are stepping up joint procurement and weapons development to reduce reliance on Washington, while Gulf and Asian partners are quietly diversifying their security relationships. The unresolved status of Iran's nuclear material is the structural driver: Iran is assessed to hold more than 440 kilograms of uranium enriched to 60 percent — material that could be brought to weapons-grade 90 percent quickly — and the stockpile has been inaccessible since the US bombing campaign in June 2025. Trump's claims about its fate continue to conflict with statements from Iranian officials, and Russian President Vladimir Putin said over the weekend that Moscow had not been able to verify the material's location.

Thursday's Trump-Xi summit in Beijing is shaping every other story in Washington this week. Taiwan's Foreign Minister Lin Chia-lung said the island "hoped for no surprises" on Taiwan-related issues during the meeting, while on the ground in Taipei and other cities ordinary Taiwanese have begun enrolling in mass-attendance civilian self-defence classes amid concern that the talks could touch on the island's status. In Washington, the US auto industry, the auto unions, and a bipartisan group of lawmakers are pressing the White House not to grant Chinese automakers any market access in any side-deal coming out of Beijing, citing data-collection risks and the threat of state-subsidised Chinese EVs to domestic producers; legislation codifying a ban on Chinese vehicles has broad cross-party support.

The Middle East thread remained live. Iraqi security sources confirmed to the Wall Street Journal that a covert Israeli military base used in operations against Iran is located on a disused airstrip originally built under Saddam Hussein near Najaf in southern Iraq, after Iraqi troops were attacked approaching the site. Iraq's parliament summoned ministers over the reports last week, complicating Washington's effort to keep Baghdad on side as it manages the post-strike Iran file.