A legal fight in North Carolina over the 2024 election held for a seat on the state's supreme court is now officially over. After a recent ruling from a federal judge which would have shut down the effort to overturn an election (which was verified by two separate recounts), the Republican who tried to do so is now waving the white flag of surrender, saying: "I will not appeal the court's decision." This brings to an end a very dangerous legal fight that could have had implications for democracy not only in North Carolina but (had it been appealed all the way up to the U.S. Supreme Court) elsewhere in America as well. In the end, a federal judge (appointed by Donald Trump, no less) upheld democracy in the face of a Republican attack on how elections are determined.

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There was some good news today for all Americans who cherish the United States Constitution. Interim U.S. Attorney for D.C. Ed Martin's nomination to be permanently confirmed for the job is in trouble. Senator Thom Tillis -- a Republican who will be facing a tough re-election fight next year in North Carolina -- has announced he will not support Martin's nomination in the Judiciary Committee. So Martin's confirmation won't even make it out of the Senate committee responsible for vetting candidates. Since no Democrat is going to vote for him, it leaves Martin with only 11 votes for and 11 against -- which is not enough to make it out of the committee.

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Yesterday, the NBC show Meet The Press aired an interview that host Kristen Welker had held with Donald Trump two days earlier. It generated a lot of news, since it's one of the few interviews he has given as president to a news organization that doesn't inhabit the rightwing echo chamber. It generated a lot of headline quotes, including Trump answering: "I don't know" to the question: "Don't you need to uphold the Constitution of the United States as president?"

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Donald Trump hit two milestones this past week: his first 100 days in office, and his first quarter of negative G.D.P. growth. True to form, he celebrated the first of these with a rally, while blaming the second on Joe Biden. He even tried to front-load any bad economic news in the second quarter as Biden's fault too. Oh, and for good measure, Trump expressed a desire to become the next pope. Which would probably be fine with plenty of Americans -- as long as he quits his current job in order to do so.

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Donald Trump's trade war is on the brink of going from bad to worse. Up until now, American consumers have seen the stock market tank (and go through wild swings) and are beginning to see higher prices for some of the things they buy. But all that's about to go into overdrive, as the shock to the global trading system works its way down all of the supply chains. The next big phase of this may wind up being empty shelves in the stores -- which is going to be a monumental psychological shock to consumers.

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Which brings us to Trump's strongest point, albeit one where his polling is also falling fast. On the subject of the southern border, the public does approve of what Trump has been doing. But on the larger subject of immigration, Trump is underwater in most polls, after starting out his term with those numbers in the positive ranges.

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Donald Trump's first 100 days of his second term as president has been a real horrorshow. I use this term deliberately, mostly because it can be used in two opposing ways... at least, if you either speak Russian or are a fan of Anthony Burgess. It can be used in the traditional English meaning of "something that is difficult to deal with or watch because it is so bad or unpleasant." It can also be used as Nadsat future-teen slang from the novel (and film) A Clockwork Orange, where it was borrowed (Anglicized) from the Russian word khorosho -- which actually means "good." So how you personally use it will depend on how you see Trump.

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Congress is back in Washington this week, and they'll soon be starting to put some actual numbers in their aspirational budget. This is going to involve a whole lot of intraparty struggles for Republicans, as different factions draw red lines on different issues. They've set an optimistic timeline for finishing, but it remains to be seen whether Republicans will be able to agree on all of the details in time to meet that schedule.

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Let's start with some good news today, shall we?

Donald Trump's second-term honeymoon phase now seems to officially be over. As new polling continues to roll in (in advance of his 100-day mark next week), it seems to all be telling pretty much the same story. Trump is now in a neck-and-neck race for "fastest slide into disapproval ever" -- with himself. Only one other president in modern times has seen his job approval numbers with the public go underwater this fast, and his name was also Donald Trump (in his first term). It depends on the poll, but in some he's already worse than he was at this point in 2017. No other president was even in negative territory at this point, it bears mentioning.

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As Donald Trump's second presidency approaches the 100-day mark, we should be seeing a flood of new polling on his performance so far. Today, Fox News released its own new poll, and the news is decidedly not good for Trump. And this is coming from Fox News -- which is (obviously) tough for Trump supporters to spin as some sort of liberal news outlet.

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