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Trump’s Really Bad Week in Court—Plus, the New Film by China’s Top Director

On this episode of Start Making Sense, Erwin Chemerinsky on Trump losing four big cases, and John Powers on Caught by the Tides.

Jon Wiener

September 10, 2025

A pedestrian wears a “Make America Great Again” hat outside the US Supreme Court Building in Washington, DC.(Allison Robbert/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

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Trump’s Really Bad Week in Court—Plus, the New Film by China’s Top Director | Start Making Sense
byThe Nation Magazine

Trump had four major court decisions against him in a single week last week: on tariffs, defunding Harvard, sending troops to LA, and deporting Venezuelans, different courts and appellate panels said he was violating the law. Erwin Chemerinsky comments – he’s Dean of the Law School at Berkeley.

Also: The new film “Caught by the Tides” by Jia Zhangke, considered worldwide to be the most important director in China: Over the last 30 years, his great project has been to tell stories that show the radical transformation of Chinese life by capitalism and the state. John Powers explains – he’s critic at large on Fresh Air with Terry Gross. The film is streaming now on the Criterion Channel

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Trump had four major court decisions against him in a single week last week: on tariffs, defunding Harvard, sending troops to Los Angeles, and deporting Venezuelans, different courts and appellate panels said he was violating the law. Erwin Chemerinsky comments—he’s dean of the Law School at Berkeley.

Also: The new film Caught by the Tides, by Jia Zhangke, considered worldwide to be the most important director in China: over the last 30 years. His great project has been to tell stories that show the radical transformation of Chinese life by capitalism and the state. John Powers explains—he’s critic at large on Fresh Air with Terry Gross. The film is streaming now on the Criterion Channel.

Subscribe to The Nation to support all of our podcasts: thenation.com/podcastsubscribe.

The Nation Podcasts

Here's where to find podcasts from The Nation. Political talk without the boring parts, featuring the writers, activists and artists who shape the news, from a progressive perspective.

The Dems After Tuesday’s Primaries, plus Elmore Leonard’s Bad Guys / Start Making Sense
byThe Nation Magazine

On this episode of Start Making Sense, John Nichols analyzes this week’s primary results in California and elsewhere, and, from the archives, Elmore Leonard talks about where his characters and plots came from.

California’s jungle primary on Tuesday set the stage for the next Democratic governor of the state, and primaries in Iowa, New Jersey and elsewhere tested the strength of progressives in the party. John Nichols has our analysis.

Also: from the archives: Elmore Leonard, who died in 2013 at age 87, was unpretentious about his massive accomplishments: 45 novels, more than a dozen turned into movies, and a reputation as one of the great writers of dialogue. When we spoke in 2000, he had just published Pagan Babies, and his movies Get Shorty, Jackie Brown, and Out of Sight had been hits.

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Jon WienerTwitterJon Wiener is a contributing editor of The Nation and co-author (with Mike Davis) of Set the Night on Fire: L.A. in the Sixties.


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