The Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that Donald Trump never had the authority to impose tariffs under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. Chief Justice Roberts, joined by Gorsuch, Barrett, and the three liberal justices, held that IEEPA does not grant the president the power to set tariffs — and no president in the law’s half-century history ever tried to use it that way until Trump. Over 60 percent of all tariff revenue collected last year came through IEEPA, and economists now estimate $175 billion is at risk of refund. Trump called it a “disgrace” and immediately tried invoking Section 301 and Section 232 as alternatives, but as Zev noted, “Roberts has already indicated this is bullshit, and you’re going to have to re-litigate this entire process.” Dean pointed out that Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick — standing right next to Trump during his furious rant — had been buying up tariff refund claims from struggling businesses at pennies on the dollar through Cantor Fitzgerald, positioning himself to collect billions now that the tariffs have been ruled illegal. The ruling also killed Trump’s plan to announce $2,000 tariff dividend checks at Tuesday’s State of the Union. Dean delivered the Canadian perspective with particular satisfaction: “To all of those people who chastised Mark Carney for not getting a deal done with Donald Trump — now you know why.”
While Donald Trump told the inaugural Board of Peace meeting that “the war in Gaza is over,” an IDF assessment presented to Prime Minister Netanyahu tells a very different story — Hamas has reasserted control over 90 percent of the populated areas in Gaza. The group appointed five new district governors linked to its armed al-Qassam Brigades, restarted 14 of 17 government ministries, and is collecting taxes on imports by force. The U.S.-backed technocratic committee led by Ali Shaath hasn’t been allowed to enter the territory. Dean described the Board of Peace roster as “mafia states” and the inaugural meeting as “broken English open mic night” during which Trump repeatedly fell asleep, at one point drooling and sweating with his mouth hanging open. “That is the president of the United States and a show of strength with the biggest losers in the world,” Dean said, “and he couldn’t stay awake for any of it.”
Britain told the United States no. Prime Minister Keir Starmer blocked American use of RAF Fairford and Diego Garcia for any preemptive strike on Iran, citing the legal reality that lending a runway makes you a party to the war. France also refused to make its bases available. Trump retaliated by torpedoing U.S. support for the Chagos Islands sovereignty deal one day after his own State Department endorsed it. Two aircraft carriers are now moving into the region, and Trump gave Iran a 10-day deadline for a nuclear deal. Dean argued that Trump’s military posturing is theater: “He is so scared to death of starting a war — more scared than any president in the history of the presidency.” Zev pointed to Russia’s coordinated drills with Iran as the real tell, noting that Trump never moves without Putin’s coordination on geopolitical strategy.
Les Wexner’s congressional testimony became the most riveting moment of the Epstein investigation this week. Under oath, the 88-year-old billionaire began naming names — the Queen, the Rothschilds, Sergey Brin, Jeff Bezos, the Saudi prince — while his own lawyer grew visibly agitated, at one point leaning in and telling him “if you give another answer that’s more than five words, I will fucking kill you.” Zev noted the lawyer received a text message that changed his entire demeanor, and identified four separate interventions to shut Wexner down. Wexner also revealed that Epstein had worked for the Rothschilds before joining him in 1987 — a fact Zev said he had never encountered despite years of research. The emails in the Epstein files tell the rest of the story: Epstein once wrote to Wexner, “We did gang stuff. You owe me. I owe you.” When Epstein got caught, Wexner replied: “You broke our number one rule.” As Dean put it: “This is the beginning of the great sellout of everybody that was involved.”
The first arrest of a senior British royal in nearly 400 years happened on Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s 66th birthday, on suspicion of misconduct in public office related to forwarding confidential government trade reports to Jeffrey Epstein while serving as UK trade envoy. He was held for 11 hours, and police are still searching his former Royal Lodge residence through Monday. Met Police are now asking Andrew’s former protection officers to consider whether anything they witnessed — including visits to Epstein’s island — is relevant. Virginia Giuffre’s family said “our broken hearts have been lifted at the news that no one is above the law, not even royalty.” Trump called it “very sad” and “a shame” without once mentioning Epstein’s name. Zev connected Andrew to the same Al-Yamana arms deal network that linked Douglas Lees, Adnan Khashoggi, and Epstein — noting that Andrew’s arrest came the same day Wexner named the Queen under oath.
Dean Blundell’s exclusive interview with former J6 investigator Denver Riggleman produced never-before-published text messages revealing the origins of the fake elector scheme. A November 4, 2020 text from then-Energy Secretary Rick Perry to chief of staff Mark Meadows laid out the plan: get Republican-controlled state legislatures to declare election results invalid and send their own electors to be ruled on by the Supreme Court. The next day, Don Jr. texted Meadows a detailed blueprint for stealing the election through fake electors, culminating with: “We have multiple paths. We control them all. We have operational control. Total leverage. Moral high ground. POTUS must start second term now.” The texts also identified Justice Clarence Thomas as their “ace in the SCOTUS hole” — his wife Ginni Thomas was already working the independent state legislature theory that would have given state legislatures the power to override election results. Riggleman told Dean that Liz Cheney blocked him from going public with the Clarence Thomas material because of “familial relationships” between the Cheneys and the Thomas family. Riggleman has thousands more texts and plans to release them weekly.
The walls are closing in from every direction. The Supreme Court gutted Trump’s tariffs. His allies are refusing him war bases. Wexner is naming names under oath. Andrew’s been arrested. And now the original texts proving January 6th was a planned coup are finally seeing daylight. Tuesday’s State of the Union has never looked more precarious.
The FiveStack is available as an audio podcast on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. The FiveStack is a co-production of deanblundell.substack.com and narativ.org.
Thank you Lev Parnas, This Will Hold, Nick Paro, Cat: Poli-Psych, Stephanie G Wilson, PhD, and many others for tuning into my live video with Zev Shalev! Join me for my next live video in the app.
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