In the annals of warfare, at times new inventions completely revolutionize how wars are fought. The full list of these is long, so here are just a few prominent historical examples: gunpowder, the rifle cartridge (as opposed to musket balls), the machine gun, airplanes, and tanks. War-changing inventions don't always have to be offensive weapons -- radar would certainly qualify. In each case, however, the introduction of something new onto the battlefield has completely changed how wars are fought. Battleships had to give way to aircraft carriers. Before that, cavalry gave way to tanks. So it goes.

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This week, Wall Street figured out something about Donald Trump (that Vladimir Putin has known for quite a while now) and gave it a catchy name: "TACO." This stands for: "Trump Always Chickens Out."

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Donald Trump may accomplish one big thing as president, in his second term. He may speed up the judicial process to the point where its decisions are still actually relevant when they are handed down.

I say this after the legal whiplash of the last 24 hours or so, as first two federal courts ruled (independently of each other) that Trump's worldwide tariffs were illegal, and then today an appellate court temporarily halted the injunction (which would have erased all the tariffs Trump announced on "Liberation Day"). So we're now (temporarily, at least) back to where we were before yesterday's rulings, as the appellate court has asked both the plaintiffs and the Trump administration to file their responses in the next two weeks. They could issue a final ruling on the appeal at any time after that. Obviously, no matter which way the appellate court rules, this case seems destined for the Supreme Court in the end, but nobody knows how fast they'll rule on it (if they followed their normal schedule, it'd take at least six months or so for a final ruling, but they may well expedite the case).

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There are two basic ways to successfully deal with a bully: you can stand up to him, or you can laugh at him. Wall Street is apparently now taking the second route, as traders openly ridicule Donald Trump.

There's a new acronym making the rounds on Wall Street: "TACO," or (more specifically) the "TACO trade." It stands for "Trump Always Chickens Out," and it refers to the resilience of the markets after a cycle which is becoming more frequent in Trump's tariff war. The cycle starts when Trump, in a fit of pique, announces insanely-high tariffs will be levied. The market then tanks. Trump then backs off and announces he will be "pausing" the tariffs, or severely rolling them back. The market then gains back what it had lost.

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Donald Trump never admits he's ever been wrong about anything. His narcissistic personality won't allow him to, most likely, but no matter what the psychological reason behind it is, Trump infamously never admits a mistake. This weekend he came about as close to admitting being wrong as he ever has, which was remarkable enough.

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Since today is Memorial Day, I'd like to begin with a remembrance of our most forgettable war, the War of 1812. How forgettable was this war? Well, its bicentennial passed by a few years ago, but the country as a whole took little notice. That's pretty forgettable, as these things are measured. In fact, only one event during this war has become what one might call (if one were in the mood for a pun) a "Key" moment, but more on that in due course.

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Once again, the Republican Party has laid out its real agenda, in the form of a federal budget. And once again, they have proven what their real priorities are: cutting taxes on the wealthiest Americans no matter what -- no matter who has to pay for it, or how.

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Donald Trump seems to now be in full retreat on his trade war. Which is good news, since American consumers are the ones who would have paid the price for it all. The strategy for other countries to follow is becoming clear now -- just wait Trump out, and eventually he will cave on his own, due to political and economic pressures increasing on him over time.

This strategy worked wonders for China, as last weekend Trump dropped his tariff levels against the country by a whopping 115 percentage points. This was precisely what China had been demanding he do before any trade negotiations could even begin. All they had to do was wait.

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I've written about this subject before, where I used the phrase: "Be careful what you wish for" in the opening paragraph, so I thought I'd just use it as today's headline. Previously, I had written about an effort in the Senate to introduce a bill that would remove the ability of federal judges below the level of the Supreme Court to issue nationwide (or "universal") injunctions which banned government behavior while a case was being litigated. Here's how Republican Senator Josh Hawley explained the need for the bill he intended to introduce:

What needs to happen is one of two things: Either the Supreme Court needs to intervene and make clear there's only one court that can issue rules for the whole country, that's the Supreme Court, that's why we only have one of them. [O]r, if they won't do that, Congress needs to legislate and make clear that district courts do not have the ability to issue these kinds of injunctions.

Today, the issue was indeed argued before the Supreme Court. And the conservatives on the court seemed open to perhaps limiting or removing the ability of lower-court judges to issue such universal injunctions. To which I again say: Be careful what you wish for.

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There are plenty of things wrong with the proffered gift (to Donald Trump from the rulers of Qatar) of a luxury 747 airplane to serve as a sort of interim Air Force One. For starters, Qatar has "historically been a funder of terrorism at a very high level." For another, it's one of many Middle Eastern countries "that horribly abuse women and L.G.B.T. citizens" -- a country that "oppress[es] women, gays and people of different faiths." You could get even more specific: "You talk about women and women's rights? So these are people that push gays off buildings. These are people that kill women and treat women horribly. And yet you take their money." These complaints merely scratch the surface of the wrongness of accepting this plane, but they are relevant because they are all quotes from Donald Trump himself, castigating Hillary Clinton for accepting contributions to the Clinton Foundation from Qatar and other Middle Eastern countries.

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