📋 DOJ Bars IRS From Auditing Trump, His Family, or His Companies — “Forever Barred and Precluded”

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche signed a one-page document Tuesday making public the full scope of the Trump-IRS settlement — declaring the US government “forever barred and precluded” from auditing or pursuing any tax claims against President Trump, his sons, or the Trump Organization for any returns filed before Monday, in an expansion of a deal reached Monday that settled Trump’s $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS over the leak of his tax returns, according to Axios and PBS NewsHour/AP.

The original settlement created a $1.776 billion “anti-weaponization” fund to compensate those who had faced politically motivated prosecutions — and most federal officials, including the president, cannot legally stop the IRS from pursuing specific investigations, though the attorney general appears to be specifically exempt from that restriction. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer called it a “get-out-of-jail-free card.” The DOJ said: “As is customary in settlements, both sides have executed waivers of a variety of claims that were or could have been brought.” The waiver applies to “tax returns filed before the effective date” of the agreement — meaning any returns Trump filed in his lifetime before Monday, CNBC reported.

The Founders who wrote the Constitution’s equal protection and due process principles would have found the core question here straightforward: does the president of the United States, who controls the Justice Department and the IRS, have the legal and moral authority to use those agencies to permanently immunize himself from tax enforcement? The DOJ’s legal theory that the attorney general can do what no other federal official can do on tax investigations deserves the kind of scrutiny only Congress can provide — and almost certainly will not receive from the Republican majority that currently controls both chambers.

⚔️ Senate War Powers Vote Passes for the First Time — Cassidy’s Final Act, Three GOP Absences Tip the Balance

The Senate voted 50-47 Tuesday to advance a war powers resolution that would direct the removal of US armed forces from hostilities against Iran — the eighth such attempt and the first to succeed — with four Republicans joining nearly all Democrats: Rand Paul, Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, and Bill Cassidy, whose vote came four days after losing his Louisiana primary and marked his first-ever support of a war powers resolution, while three Republican senators — Cornyn, Tuberville, and Tillis — were absent, allowing the resolution to pass on a procedural motion, according to CBS News.

The victory is largely symbolic — Republicans will almost certainly muster the votes to defeat the underlying resolution in the full floor vote required within three calendar days, and Trump would veto it regardless — but it marks the first time Congress has formally broken with the president on war powers since the Iran conflict began, and it came on the same day Trump announced a historic endorsement in Texas and celebrated Massie’s defeat in Kentucky. The House separately tied 212-212 on its own Iran war powers vote last week, and is expected to force another vote shortly, MS.Now/NBC reported.

The Founders who wrote the Constitution’s war powers clause — giving Congress, not the president, the authority to declare war — designed the system this way deliberately. The fact that it took eight attempts, required three Republican absences, and will almost certainly be reversed in the floor vote is a measure of how far the republic has drifted from that original design. Cassidy spent his final days in the Senate doing what the Founders intended senators to do. Whether anyone will do the same after he leaves is another question.

🪖 NATO Commander: Expect More US Troop Withdrawals From Europe — It Will Be “Ongoing for Years”

Supreme Allied Commander Europe Gen. Alexus Grynkewich said at a NATO press conference in Brussels Tuesday that European allies should “absolutely” expect additional US troop withdrawals beyond the 5,000 already announced from Germany — describing the redeployment as “an ongoing process for several years” as NATO allies build up their own conventional forces to meet The Hague defense spending commitments, while the US Army separately and abruptly canceled a planned 4,000-soldier armored brigade combat team rotation to Poland that had already been announced, according to Military Times.

Polish government leaders expressed concern over the canceled Poland deployment in unusually direct terms, while Rep. Don Bacon called it a “terrible message to Russia and our allies.” Grynkewich framed the withdrawals in a positive light — noting that Baltic states, Poland, and others have “substantially” built up their ground combat power since 2022, allowing the US to reduce its European presence and “use it for other global priorities.” Senate Armed Services chair Roger Wicker, who already co-signed a letter opposing the Germany withdrawal, said the Poland cancellation was done without notice to Congress, Defense News reported.

Washington’s Farewell Address warned against permanent alliances — but also against the kind of sudden, uncoordinated disengagement that damages credibility with allies who have just spent three years rebuilding their defenses on the assumption that America was a reliable partner. Poland has been one of the most pro-American countries in Europe and has increased its defense spending faster than almost any other NATO ally. Canceling its troop rotation without notice is not the way to reward good behavior.

🤠 Trump Endorses Paxton Over Cornyn — And Texas Republicans Have Real Conservative Reasons to Agree

President Trump endorsed Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton over incumbent Sen. John Cornyn Tuesday — one week before the May 26 runoff and with early voting already underway — calling Paxton “a true MAGA Warrior” and saying Cornyn “was not supportive of me when times were tough.” Senate Majority Leader John Thune, who had privately urged Trump to back Cornyn, was blindsided. A poll from the Barbara Jordan Policy Center released the same day showed both Cornyn and Paxton in a statistical dead heat with Democrat James Talarico in November — 45-45 — a race that could determine Senate control, according to Texas Tribune and NPR.

Before treating this as purely a loyalty play, it is worth being honest about John Cornyn’s conservative record — because Texas Republicans who prefer Paxton have substantive reasons beyond Trump’s endorsement. Cornyn scored just 62% on the Club for Growth’s 2024 scorecard, putting him in the same establishment-moderate tier as the recently ousted Bill Cassidy. He voted for the $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill. He co-authored major gun control legislation in 2022 — the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act — which expanded background check requirements and red flag law funding, earning him fierce criticism from the NRA and gun rights groups who saw it as the most significant federal gun control bill in 30 years. He has consistently supported increased federal spending and sided with Democratic priorities often enough that Texas conservatives have long considered him a liberal Republican in the Cassidy mold, CNN reported.

Paxton, by contrast, has a record as one of the most aggressive constitutionalist attorneys general in the country — suing the Biden administration over 40 times, fighting for Second Amendment rights in court, leading the challenge to Obamacare, and pushing hard on border enforcement. His personal baggage is real and well documented, but Texas Republicans weighing this choice are not simply picking loyalty over principle. They are picking a conservative fighter with flaws over an establishment incumbent who has repeatedly broken with the base on the issues they care most about. The runoff on May 26 will tell us which argument wins in the reddest large state in America, according to Houston Public Media.

🌊 Gallrein Defeats Massie — What It Means, and What It Doesn’t

Ed Gallrein defeated Thomas Massie 54%-46% in Kentucky’s 4th District Tuesday — ending the eight-term congressman’s career in the most expensive House primary in American history, with $25.6 million in advertising — as Massie conceded graciously, saying “I called Ed Gallrein to congratulate him on his victory. I wish him well,” and closed his concession post with an image of the Constitution, according to AP and NPR.

Gallrein, in his victory speech, made his governing philosophy plain: “My focus is on advancing the president’s and the party’s agenda to put America first.” Notably absent from that sentence: the Constitution, the district, or the conservative principles that have driven Massie’s 93% Club for Growth-rated career. Whether that omission reflects the man or the moment, it is worth marking. Massie — a 100%-scoring fiscal hawk, NRA “A” rated, pro-life, constitutionally consistent for 14 years — was removed not because he failed his district on conservative principle, but because he said no to the president on a handful of spending bills and the Epstein files. Kentucky’s 4th District will now send to Congress a man whose primary qualification is that he will not do that.

The result is a data point, not a verdict on conservatism. Northern Kentucky’s 4th District is heavily Trump country, and Trump spent $8.3 million in advertising to make this a referendum on presidential loyalty. That he won says something about his power in the reddest parts of the party. What it says about the health of the conservative movement — whether principled independence survives anywhere in the House Republican conference — will play out over the next two years.

🏈 Coach Tuberville Wins Alabama Governor Primary — Sets Up Rematch With Doug Jones in November

Sen. Tommy Tuberville won the Republican primary for governor of Alabama Tuesday in a landslide — taking 76% of the vote — making him the overwhelming favorite to become Alabama’s next governor in a state Trump carried by 30 points in 2024, with outgoing Gov. Kay Ivey term-limited and Alabama not having elected a Democratic governor since 1998. Tuberville, the former Auburn head football coach who upset Democratic incumbent Sen. Doug Jones in 2020, will now face that same Doug Jones in November — a full-circle matchup that Jones won only once, in a 2017 special election before losing the seat in the general two years later, according to NBC News.

Tuberville’s move to the governorship opens his Senate seat, which Trump has already addressed — backing Rep. Barry Moore for the vacancy. Trump backed Tuberville’s governor run with characteristic enthusiasm: “I was proud to endorse ‘Coach’ when he ran for the Senate in 2020, and am honored to do so again. Tommy Tuberville has my Complete and Total Endorsement to be the next Governor of the Great State of Alabama.” Tuberville built his Senate career on a voting record closely aligned with Trump’s priorities — most notably an eleven-month hold on military promotions over the Pentagon’s abortion travel policy, a position he refused to abandon under enormous bipartisan pressure before eventually negotiating a resolution, ABC News reported.

The Founders who designed the republic’s system of representative government understood that a leader’s willingness to hold a principled position under sustained pressure — even a costly one — is a basic test of whether a man governs by conviction or by convenience. Tuberville passed that test in the Senate. Alabama voters who send him to the governorship in November will be betting he can do the same in a job where executive leadership, legislative negotiation, and daily governance demands replace the simpler calculus of a Senate hold.