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Culture War Roundup for the week of June 15, 2026

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Trump controls the party, not the other way round, but Thune at least completely resents Trump and refuses to be controlled by him.

So he doesn't control the party?

Neither of them, nor the party itself, has any means of applying leverage to Roberts, who sits on his hands doing bupkis and denying the only legitimate use of his court (disputes between states).

Do you think that if the Republican controlled Congress passed a bill with clear and explicit rules around AI national security regulation and Trump signed them into law, that Roberts would strike them down? If you don't think that then he has no relevance to this question and we're back to "republicans could do it if they wanted to".

And at the very least they could try. Trump has already shown he doesn't care about trying unconstitutional things with his tariff policy, so why does he not apply the same process in implementing a clear and consistent AI policy? The easy answer is "he doesn't want to."

He wants tariffs so they'll be pushed through time and time again with different obviously flimsy excuses each time one gets struck down. He doesn't want clear and consistent AI regulation, so they don't bother.

He doesn't control the party, but the party also doesn't control him. There is no control.

Do you think that if the Republican controlled Congress passed a bill with clear and explicit rules around AI national security regulation and Trump signed them into law, that Roberts would strike them down?

I think Roberts cannot in any way be understood to be part of a republican trifecta that includes Trump.