It was a day of legal turning points, diplomatic tensions, and sociopolitical setbacks – and a day that made clear just how profoundly Donald Trump’s second term is shaping the United States and its role in the world. In New Hampshire, a federal judge on Thursday blocked a far-reaching decision: Trump’s controversial executive order to end birthright citizenship – the automatic granting of citizenship to children born in the U.S. – was temporarily halted. At the same time, other pillars of the administration are starting to shake. Humanitarian criticism of U.S. sanctions against U.N. officials is growing, LGBTQ+ rights continue to be dismantled, and in the background, Trump’s strike on Iran casts a long shadow over his foreign policy strategy. The United States is staggering between court rulings, moral transgressions, and a president who continues to show that his politics are, above all else, uncompromising. Federal Judge Joseph LaPlante of New Hampshire announced that he would certify a class action lawsuit against Trump’s order to eliminate birthright citizenship – a fundamental pillar of the U.S. Constitution since 1868. The lawsuit includes all children affected by the order and will be accompanied by a preliminary injunction temporarily blocking it. The ruling – with a seven-day stay to allow for appeal – marks an important legal milestone on the path to the Supreme Court, which in a June decision already limited the scope of nationwide injunctions. But this current case could become the first major test of that new precedent. The Trump administration is expected to file an appeal quickly – first to the federal appeals court in Boston, before the Supreme Court ultimately has the final say. Meanwhile, the tone in Washington continues to escalate. While Trump publicly pushes for the resignation of Fed Chair Jerome Powell – this time over allegedly extravagant renovation plans featuring marble floors and rooftop terraces at the central bank’s headquarters – serious accusations are being made by the U.N. There, spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric called U.S. sanctions against U.N. Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese, who is investigating human rights violations in Gaza, “unacceptable” and warned of a “dangerous precedent.” It is not acceptable, he said, for a member state to use unilateral punitive measures to silence independent U.N. experts.
Domestically, the institutional reshaping continues. The Senate confirmed Bryan Bedford as the new head of the Federal Aviation Administration, while Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy will temporarily take over NASA leadership – following Trump’s withdrawal of the nomination of controversial tech billionaire Jared Isaacman. Susan Monarez’s nomination to lead the CDC passed the Senate’s health committee on Thursday – a rare glimmer of scientific expertise within the Trump cabinet. Meanwhile, the United Nations is sounding the alarm: The abrupt U.S. withdrawal from the global fight against AIDS has triggered a “systemic shock,” according to U.N. agencies. If the lost funding is not replaced, projections warn of over 4 million AIDS-related deaths and 6 million new HIV infections worldwide by 2029. The withdrawal is part of a broader trend: just hours later, it was announced that the Trump administration had also rescinded federal guidelines protecting LGBTQ+ students in school nutrition programs – another step in the systematic rollback of social and human rights protections gained in recent years. At the same time, questions continue to swirl about the effectiveness of Trump’s strike on Iran’s nuclear sites. The Defense Threat Reduction Agency, which developed the GBU-57 “bunker buster” bombs, said Thursday that it was still waiting for reliable data on whether the bombs had reached the intended depth. While President Trump claimed in public statements that Iran’s nuclear facilities had been “obliterated,” an early report by the Defense Intelligence Agency painted a different picture: the programs had only been set back by a few months. Two senior agency officials, speaking anonymously, confirmed that an assessment of the actual impact is still not possible – raising serious questions about Trump’s premature rhetoric of success. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who during his U.S. visit met with President Trump among others, concluded his trip on Thursday – attending a memorial for two murdered embassy staffers but without a tangible breakthrough in the ceasefire talks with Hamas. In a video statement, he announced that a U.S.-backed 60-day temporary deal was in the works, intended to create space for broader negotiations. But he emphasized that a permanent ceasefire would require Hamas to fully disarm – a demand that currently seems far from realistic. As different as these developments may appear, they all share one common thread: under Trump, not only laws but also democratic norms are being systematically pushed to their limits. While the courts try to serve as the final barrier against arbitrary executive orders, international relations, institutions, and human rights come under increasing pressure. July 10, 2025, was not the day of a political upheaval – but it was a day that revealed the full scale of the stress test this presidency is placing on the country. And a day that showed there are still those who try to steer the course – be it a federal judge in New Hampshire or a U.N. voice in New York. But how long these forces can hold the line remains uncertain.
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