Sunflower Planting 2025

An annual tradition I very much hope we will not need to repeat

Good Morning:

The annual sunflower planting outside the Russian embassy took place on Sunday evening. Turnout was strong, as you can see. And the weather was beautiful. Deep thanks to US Ukrainian Activists and its leader, Nadiya Shaporynska, and to Conor O’Brien, keeper of the Polonne Sunflower Garden.

We planted several hundred sunflowers, and scattered about a thousand seeds, and it’s now raining in Washington—and forecasted to keep raining for the next several days. Hidden cameras are installed to protect the sunflowers, which are this year on private property.

And most important, the project moves people. The reason turnout for the project sustains itself every year with nothing more than a few instagram and Facebook posts is that planting symbols of Ukrainian resistance in the line of the site of the embassy of the aggressor, and doing so knowing that it annoys them so deeply, is an empowering act.

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Yesterday on #DogShirtTV, the estimable Holly Berkley Fletcher, the estimable Jonathan Rauch, and I shot the shit for an hour. We covered Trump’s desire for a Qatari plane and potential methods for protesting a military parade, as well as sunflowers, Howard Hughes, commencement addresses, and—of course—the cactus:

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The Situation

In today’s “The Situation” column, I discuss concerns over reports that the Trump administration will receive a luxury Boeing 747-8 jumbo jet from the royal family of Qatar, noting issues with a non-competitive bidding process and counterintelligence.

But I wouldn’t be surprised at all if the law doesn’t make this distinction. Indeed, it would not shock me to learn that no legislator ever imagined the need to forbid the giving to the president of new, temporary Air Force One to be converted to the ownership of his private library at such time as he might need a private luxury jet in the future. A lot of deranged things are legal because nobody bothers to make them illegal because, well, nobody actually has ever done that sort of thing before.

But I discuss the real reasons to be outraged by this deal:

First, the plane is 13 years old. You read that correctly. A piddling little Middle Eastern autocracy is trying to bribe our president with a used plane. Now my sense of national pride has taken a few hits over the last several years. I used to believe all that shining city on a hill garbage, for example; now I’ll settle happily for a city that does not betray its friends and allies and kiss the asses of its enemies and whose people don’t end up bankrupt and oppressed and dying of measles.

But guys, there are limits. According to ABC News, “The plane will initially be transferred to the United States Air Force, which will modify the 13-year-old aircraft to meet the U.S. military specifications required for any aircraft used to transport the president of the United States, multiple sources familiar with the proposed arrangement said.”

In other words, we’re getting a used vehicle that needs a whole lot of work. That’s frankly beneath the national dignity of even our degraded status.

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Today On Lawfare

Compiled by the estimable Caroline Cornett

The Second Trump Administration Turns a Blind Eye to Afghanistan

Madiha Afzal highlights the consequences of the Trump administration’s policies for Afghanistan, particularly the United States’s withdrawal of support for humanitarian and development assistance and the reversal of a Biden-era effort to grant temporary protected status to Afghan refugees.

But the two countries are intertwined as a result of that 20-year U.S. involvement. The war and how it ended have profoundly affected the lives of Afghans. And the current administration’s policies on refugee admissions and humanitarian assistance are hitting Afghan allies and civilians directly. Rather than reckon with its responsibility toward the troubled country, the U.S. is choosing to extricate itself entirely—an outcome that spells trouble for people suffering on the ground.

Beijing’s Changing Invasion Calculus

In the latest installment of Lawfare’s Foreign Policy Essay series, Evan Braden Montgomery and Toshi Yoshihara discuss coercive strategies—such as blockades, subversion, nuclear intimidation, and more—that China may use to undermine support for Taiwan and annex the island. Montgomery and Yoshihara emphasize that the U.S. must broaden its preparations beyond invasion and account for a range of coercive tactics.

Rather than try to beat Taiwan down and knock the United States and its allies out, this type of multipronged coercive strategy would aim to throw China’s opponents off balance—to present so many dilemmas and introduce so many risks that it creates decision paralysis in key capitals. Alone, none of these coercive measures might have that effect—blockades, decapitation strikes, and vague nuclear threats each have a mixed track record. But when combined, and with the invasion threat still lurking in the background, their influence on policymakers could be enormous.

Ideological Deportations Lawsuit Heads to Trial

Preston Marquis breaks down a district court judge’s ruling dismissing most of the government’s jurisdictional challenges in AAUP v. Rubio—a lawsuit alleging the Trump administration’s ideological deportation policy chills political speech—thereby setting the stage for the case to go to trial in July.

Judge Young methodically disposed of the INA’s jurisdictional claims. He acknowledged that Section 1252(f) may strip lower courts of their ability to issue injunctions. But he ultimately looked to Biden v. Texas for authority that this bar did not apply to other remedies that the court could enter in the case, such as a stay under the APA or declaratory relief. Finding these remedies within his grasp also allowed Judge Young to dismiss the government’s redressability argument. As for Section 1252(g), Judge Young agreed with the plaintiffs that they were not bringing a case on “by or behalf of any alien” and, as a result, he was not stripped of jurisdiction.

Podcasts

On Lawfare Daily, I sit down with Anna Bower, Quinta Jurecic, Roger Parloff, James Pearce, and Marquis to discuss the status of the civil litigation against President Donald Trump’s executive actions, including the order for the release of Rümeysa Öztürk, litigation over ideological deportations, and legal challenges to the funding freeze targeting Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.

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Today’s #BeastOfTheDay is the pigeon, seen here as a step-father:

Video Source

In honor of today’s Beast, remember that families are what we make them.

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Caption Contest Winner

In Sunday’s dog shirt, I asked you all to create a caption for this photo:

Today, I am pleased to announce the winner.