Four Victories From the Past Seven Days That Will Brighten Your Weekend

Photo by Xan Griffin on Unsplash

In the midst of all the doom and gloom about the state of the country, I thought readers of Wolves and Sheep and Bowers News Media could use something of a pick me up this morning to help brighten their weekends.

This is something I am happy to provide, because there was a decent amount of meaningful, good news over the past seven days that you might have missed.

So, without further ado, here are four victories from the past seven days that should help lift your mood on this beautiful spring day.

1. Sunday, May 4: Trump admits he will not serve a third term

On Sunday, May 4, on Meet the Press, Trump acknowledged reality and admitted that he will leave the White House at the end of this term. From NBC News:

“I’ll be an eight-year president; I’ll be a two-term president. I always thought that was very important,” Trump told “Meet the Press” moderator Kristen Welker in an interview that aired Sunday.

Trump told Welker in March that he was “not joking” about his consideration of a third run, and he said again in his latest interview that he’s received strong requests from allies to run again. Despite those entreaties, Trump told Welker, he’s aware of the realities standing in the way.

“It’s something that, to the best of my knowledge, you’re not allowed to do. I don’t know if that’s constitutional that they’re not allowing you to do it or anything else,” Trump said.

Make no mistake: Trump only said this because of widespread public opposition, including widespread Republican opposition, to him serving a third term.

A poll that was released on April 29—only a few days before Trump's admission—showed that 80% of the country, including 60% of Republicans, opposed Trump serving a third term. Trump knew that he did not have the support of his base for a third term, and as such he backed down from his repeated threats to try and serve one. There are people that even Donald Trump doesn't want to make angry, and his base supporters are a clear example of that.

There is a definite end date on Trump's time in office, and that date is January 20, 2029 at 12:00 PM ET. Even Trump admits this now. As such, we are currently 7.4% of the way through Trump's second, and final, term in office.

2. Wednesday, May 7: Republican concedes the North Carolina Supreme Court race he had been trying to steal

After spending six months trying to overturn the November 2024 election for North Carolina state Supreme Court, Republican Jefferson Griffin finally conceded to incumbent Democratic Justice Allison Riggs. This happened after a Trump-appointed federal judge ordered the election to be certified. The judge also castigated Griffin and North Carolina Republicans for their months-long effort to overturn the outcome:

A federal judge ordered North Carolina election officials to certify Democrat Allison Riggs as the winner of last year's race for the state Supreme Court on Monday evening, holding that state court rulings that would retroactively throw out valid votes violate the U.S. Constitution.

“You establish the rules before the game,” wrote District Court Judge Richard Myers, an appointee of Donald Trump, in a 68-page opinion. “You don't change them after the game is done.”

Republicans had been aiming to toss out the votes of roughly 60,000 Carolinains who live in predominantly Democratic counties, based on the absurd argument that those voters did not cast their ballots according to rules that North Carolina Republicans passed after the election was over. From the ruling:

[T]his case concerns whether the federal Constitution permits a state to alter the rules of an election after the fact and apply those changes retroactively to only a select group of voters, and in so doing treat those voters differently than other similarly situated individuals. This case is also about whether a state may redefine its class of eligible voters but offer no process to those who may have been misclassified as ineligible.

To this court, the answer to each of those questions is “no.”

It's always a victory when democracy prevails.

3. Thursday, May 8: Trump drops the nomination of Ed Martin to become U.S. Attorney for D.C.

The day after Griffin conceded, Donald Trump pulled the nomination of Ed Martin to become the next U.S. Attorney for Washington, D.C. Trump pulled this nomination because Republican Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) made it clear that he would vote against Martin, thus ensuring there was no way Martin would successfully pass through the Senate Judiciary Committee. Trump made the following comments after pulling the nomination:

“He wasn't getting the support,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. “I'm very disappointed in that. . . . Hopefully we can bring him into, whether it's DOJ or whatever, in some capacity.”

Martin was a particularly odious sort, even by contemporary standards. He opened, and eventually dropped, an investigation into Sen. Chuck Schumer over comments that Schumer made five years ago, quickly walked back, and which were clearly protected free speech anyway. He demoted anyone in his office who had overseen the prosecutions of January 6 rioters. If you want more reasons why Martin is terrible—and there are many—Joyce Vance has an entire Substack article from earlier this week on just how terrible Ed Martin is.

Anyway, Ed Martin is gone now, and yet another one of Trump's nominees has been defeated.

4. Friday, May 9: Republicans in Congress scale back their planned extension and expansion of the 2017 Trump tax cuts

Just yesterday, House Republican leaders announced that they will begin trimming back their planned extension and expansion of the 2017 Trump tax cuts, primarily because they are unable to agree on significant enough cuts to the safety net to make it happen. From Politico:

GOP leaders on Capitol Hill signaled Thursday they are scaling back their tax-cutting ambitions after running into difficulty making deep spending cuts and facing stern warnings from Republican deficit hawks who are threatening to vote against Trump’s sprawling megabill.

On the chopping block could be a litany of Trump demands, including a permanent extension of the tax cuts passed during his first term, as well as second-term campaign promises to provide tax relief to seniors while also exempting taxes on tips and overtime earnings. Those provisions could end up getting enacted only temporarily, according to four Republican lawmakers, some of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Now, it is still likely that there will still be some extension of some of the Trump tax cuts, as well as some cuts to the social safety net, including Medicaid and food stamps. However, it is looking like those cuts will be smaller than first anticipated, and they may yet shrink further still. As such, we should feel good about what we have accomplished so far, while also remaining active in our opposition.

Please, if you have not already done so, sign and send a short, pre-written, polite letter to your members of the House and Senate, urging them to fight against any and all cuts to Medicaid and food stamps.

(Note: Completing this action will not result in receiving emails from anyone other than Bowers News Media. If you complete the action, you will be redirected to an ActBlue page requesting a donation to Bowers News Media PAC. However, no donation is required in order for your letters to be sent.)

Republicans are struggling to make deeper cuts to the safety net, and more robust extensions and expansions of the Trump tax cuts, because of a combination of a narrow majority in the House of Representatives, a fractious caucus, widespread public opposition to their plans, and strong Democratic performances in special elections in 2025.

Not to say that I called this one, but I called this one back on January 11 when I wrote “Republicans May Not Be Able to Extend the Trump Tax Cuts: Six obstacles show why it won't be easy for them,” and again on February 15 when I wrote “Republicans Are Going to Find it Very Difficult to Make Significant Cuts to the Social Safety Net: It's been the same story for the last ninety years.” It is just a lot more difficult to cut the social safety net than Republicans ever let on to their supporters.

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There is a lot to be concerned about in the world right now. However, if you stop and look, you can find some good things, too—even when it comes to American politics. I very much hope that you enjoyed reading about these four victories, and that you enjoy this lovely Mother's Day weekend. Let's all look forward to the victories we will win next week!