Dr James Allan: No, Trump Hasn’t “Undermined the Rule of Law”

In two recent articles in the pages of Quadrant (March 2026 issue ‘The Temptations of Unfreedom Revisited’ and May 2026 issue ‘Nasty, Brutish and Short-Sighted’), Oliver Hartwich has spent considerable time attacking US President Donald Trump. In the first of these, Hartwich alleged that Trump has systematically violated the rule of law. And that he has undermined the institutional integrity of the courts, law enforcement and the civil service. And that he has weaponised the Justice Department against his political foes. The listed vices go on.

Michael Rainsborough: The End of the World Order as We Know It – Nice of You to Notice

For the past week the global commentariat has been behaving like someone who suddenly realises, halfway through his morning espresso, that his house burned down sometime last Tuesday and everyone else has been politely stepping around the ashes ever since.

Donald Trump announces, quite openly, that the United States wants to take Greenland, one way or another. Washington sharpens the tariff knife. NATO’s obituary is proclaimed yet again. The United States, we are solemnly informed, can no longer be trusted as an ally and that it is even a predatory state. The West is finished.

Cue panic. Cue Davos. Cue the anguished cries of people who have not had to think seriously about power since the mid-1980s.

Dr Will Jones: Britain Signs Deal to Deploy Troops to Ukraine

Britain has signed a deal to deploy boots on the ground in Ukraine as part of a proposed ceasefire deal backed for the first time by the United States. The Telegraph has more.

James Alexander: America’s National Security Warning to Europe

There is value in following Trump’s comments. I wanted to see the recent interview in which he said “Europe is weak”, and this led me to something more serious, more apparently serious, I should say (since they are related): the recent publication of the ‘National Security Strategy of the United States of America‘. A primary document. I found it, and printed it out: 30 pages. And it is a good read: well-written, lacking the sort of matron-in-the-asylum-in-denial tone that afflicts the style in which HM Government documents are written.

Dr James Allan: Vance is Right - The West is Stagnating Due to Mass Immigration

Last week US Vice President J.D. Vance pointed out a home truth about the politicians who have run Canada and Britain this last decade or so. They’ve made some terrible calls, especially as regards mass inwards immigration. To start, Vance pointed to my native Canada and noted that it now has the highest foreign-born share of the population of the entire G7. And its living standards have flatlined.

Dr Will Jones: Trump Halts Migration From all Third World Countries.....

Trump Halts Migration From all Third World Countries and Demands “Reverse Migration” After Deadly DC Attack

President Donald Trump has “permanently paused migration” from Third World countries and demanded “reverse migration”, ordering a green card audit of 19 nations, after the Washington DC terror attack that left a National Guard soldier dead. The Mail has more.

Dr James Allan: Trump’s First Year Has Been Outstanding

It’s been just over a year since President Trump capped off the most remarkable comeback in US political history (okay, we can argue about Andrew Jackson) to win a non-consecutive second term as President. He was only the second man ever to do that. Now the US Constitution requires the election winner to wait over two months before taking power in the new year. That meant lots of time for the Biden autopen to issue pardons, spray money everywhere and allow myriad Third World people to keep pouring into the US. So any assessment around now is not of Trump’s first year of his second term, but rather more like a 10-month gauging or evaluation. But hey, for all those lovers of the metric system, let’s go ahead now and see how The Donald is doing.

Dr Will Jones: Milei Wins Landslide in Argentina, Confounding Doubters of State-Shrinking Agenda

Argentine President Javier Milei’s party has won a landslide in midterm elections, with voters confounding doubters by backing his cost-slashing, state-shrinking agenda and deregulation of the economy. The Telegraph has more.

Dr Will Jones: Trump’s UN Rallying Cry for the Defence of Western Civilisation

End open borders. Stop importing criminals. Defend your sovereignty. Fight Islamist extremism. Stand up for Christianity. End vastly expensive Net Zero climate policies. Because otherwise Europe is “going to Hell”. Trump’s hard-hitting message to the United Nations this week was music to Nile Gardner’s ears, as he writes in the Mail.

Clive Pinder:

History, we are told, is written by the victors. Yet in Ukraine, the story may end up being written by those clever enough to redefine what ‘victory’ looks like.

Two tribes have been shouting across Western commentary trenches since 2022. On one side sit the realists, like John Mearsheimer, shrugging that Russia was provoked and that Ukraine must accept the grim realpolitik of geography. On the other side perch the idealists, like Matthew Syed, wagging fingers that anything short of total victory is appeasement.

Dr James Allan: And the Legacy Media Wonder Why Nobody Trusts Them

Last year when I was asked to write a chapter for a US book on the incredible inroads and attacks on our civil liberties during the thuggish Covid lockdown years I decided, in part, to rank the worst offending groups. The lawyerly and doctorly castes were bad. They were woeful in fact. But the politicians as a class, the ones who ultimately made the calls, were worse – and there were very few exceptions to that generalised claim, as any Australian knows who looks for politicians who, say, resigned from Cabinet on principle (nada, zero) or who spoke up publicly and loudly against the massive authoritarian over-reach and aping of the policies of the Chinese Communist Politburo (a mere handful at most). So I gave the silver medal for thuggish lockdown commitment and stalwart thuggery to the political class. However, in terms of letting all of us citizens down I reserved the gold medal for the journalists of the legacy media.

Dr James Allan: Annoyances

Here are a few things that get my goat. They really annoy me. Start with the strange coalition between open borders Left-wing progressives and chamber of commerce types (some, but fewer these days, nominally conservative) about how ‘there are jobs locals won’t do’. A mere moment’s thought tells you that’s wrong. Such claims aren’t that far off the ante-bellum, pre-US Civil War queries from some in the south about ‘who will pick the cotton if we end slavery?’ It’s simple. In market economies all jobs will be filled if you offer to pay enough. All of them without exception. It’s just supply and demand.

Ramesh Thakur: Who Will Hold Politically Biased Judges to Account?

As the firewalls of resistance to populist advance crumble one by one under assault from enraged voters, the final frontier of elite resistance is the courts. The legal clerisy as part of the ruling elite is the last line of defence for safeguarding victories already won by social justice warriors in their long march through the institutions.

Julian Mann: Is Labour Bending to US Pressure on Free Speech?

Labour’s General Election victory last July filled me with pessimism about the future of free speech in the UK. But has there been a change in the Government’s attitude to free speech as a result of US pressure? An unlikely statement from Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson this week suggests this may be the case.

Dr James Allan: Dictator Trump? That’s Just Silly

In Saturday’s edition of Quadrant, Roger Partridge lambasted Donald Trump as an enemy of America’s constitutional democracy. On Sunday, James Allan, Garrick Professor of Law at the University of Queensland and the author of Democracy in Decline, took his friend and colleague to task.

Let me start this reply to Roger Partridge’s column (‘Trump’s War on Constitutional Democracy‘) by laying my cards on the table. I know Roger Partridge. He is one of the best lawyers in New Zealand. He, like me, has grave worries about the sort of judicial activism or judicial usurpation of the role of Parliament that he sees over across the Tasman (and which, in enervated form, is on clear display here in Australia too).

Dr Will Jones: Save Free Speech or Face Trump Tariffs, Farage Warns

Britain is at risk of tariffs from Donald Trump unless it eases its restriction on free speech, Nigel Farage has warned. The Telegraph has more.

The Reform Party leader, a close ally of the US President, suggested that the nation’s free speech “problem” could put it firmly in the crosshairs of the White House.

Professor James Allan: Losing to Win

Longer term readers of the Speccie will recall that back in 2015 and 2016 I thought, and argued, that all conservative voters would do better to preference Labour rather than Malcolm Turnbull and the Libs in the 2016 election. In other words, I thought we had to lose short-term to win long-term.

NZCPR Newsletter: Feature Article - A New Era Begins

The Inauguration of Donald J Trump as the 47^th President of the United States marked the beginning of a new era for the country – and for the world.

If he gets his agenda right, America will return to being a global leader.

Darren Gee: A Golden Age for American Meritocracy

The inauguration of the 47th President of the United States was a moment that occupied the wild fantasies of millions of Trump supporters since November 2020, when Joe Biden was declared victorious and Trump’s political fortunes had seemingly run dry. All would testify to the surreal spectacle of when fantasy became reality this week, as Donald J. Trump was received by the current President, his Vice President, three former Presidents, the Supreme Court Justices and four of the five wealthiest people on Earth, and took the oath to return to the Presidency.

Clive Bibby: It won’t be pretty but it will be what the world needs

Political pundits throughout the world are using the time they have left before Trump’s inauguration to write scathing attacks on the President Elect’s fitness for office.

In a free society, that is one of the things we expect of journalists who hate even the possibility that the 47th POTUS will actually do what he promised the electorate in 2024. But is not in itself a justifiable reason to oppose every step he takes towards making it happen.