SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
The Supreme Court has temporarily blocked the Trump administration from deporting any of the Venezuelans currently being held in Texas under the Alien Enemies Act of 1798. The justices were acting on an emergency appeal from the American Civil Liberties Union. NPR's senior contributor, Ron Elving, joins us. Ron, thanks so much for being with us.
RON ELVING, BYLINE: Good to be with you, Scott.
SIMON: The court is putting the brakes on President Trump's deportations, isn't it?
ELVING: Yes, the court ruled that the individuals in question in Texas were informed that they were being deported but not given a chance to contest it. What's crucial here is that this time the court has intervened before the fact, before the detainees in question had left the country, or, as in the previous case, in - were in mid-flight or being loaded onto planes. That matters because those earlier men, 139 Venezuelans, are in that maximum prison in El Salvador today.
And that's also, by the way, where this week, Maryland Senator Chris Van Hollen was able to meet with another deportee, Kilmar Abrego Garcia, Maryland man, who the court has said was wrongly deported, but who the Supreme Court has not literally ordered returned. The court made its ruling a week ago, nine to zero, but he is still in that prison. The president's lawyers have said the order to facilitate the man's return did not order him returned, and that in any event, he is now out of U.S. jurisdiction.
SIMON: Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Friday the U.S. is ready to move on if there is no progress in the coming days on talks to end the war in Ukraine. This would be a huge shift for U.S. foreign policy. Where does that leave the matter now?
ELVING: In a word, unresolved. President Trump, in the campaign, said he could end the war in Ukraine on Day 1. But so far, the negotiations have not visibly progressed since he took office. There are reports that Trump's peace offer would give the Russians all the territory they have seized since they invaded, plus assurances Ukraine would never join NATO, and that looks a lot like giving Russia all its war aims shy of the total takeover of Ukraine, a sovereign nation. In exchange, Ukraine would get a temporary reprieve at least from attacks.
SIMON: President Trump said he is - has been frustrated with Jerome Powell, head of the Fed, who said the president's tariffs could increase inflation. President Trump also wants the Federal Reserve to lower interest rates, and there is talk he is looking in trying to fire Powell, whom the president appointed in his first term.
ELVING: Yes, whom the president appointed. That's worth remembering, but Trump lost faith in Powell quickly when he did not respond to directions from the White House in the first term, and that's where we are again. Like many presidents before him, Trump wants lower interest rates to stimulate the economy, head off talk of a recession, especially when there are headwinds, such as the tariffs. So when Powell spoke that simple truth, Trump once again said he wanted him gone.
But we should note that with all the previous episodes of frustration, no president has removed a Federal Reserve Board chairman since the job was created in 1913. The whole idea is for the Fed to be independent of political pressure. So if Trump wants Powell gone, he either needs to wait a year for the term to expire or talk him into quitting. Trying to fire him outright would take Trump's attacks on the financial system to a whole new level.
SIMON: And, Ron, what has been the reaction in Congress to what I guess we can fairly call this multitude of crises?
ELVING: Mostly fear. Fear of the fallout, fear of the consequences, short-term and long, but also a sense of resignation, Scott. Maybe these are not all crises in the usual sense, but question marks, open-ended questions as to what government authority really is, apart from the will of an aggressive and forceful president, whether in a legal sense or in the public consciousness. So if the Supreme Court doesn't enforce its own nine-to-nothing decision, and if Congress will not stand for its own rights on tariffs, this seems like a crisis of a different sort and more than a constitutional crisis.
SIMON: NPR's senior contributor, Ron Elving. Thanks so much.
ELVING: Thank you, Scott. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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