Walter Mead: “Two weeks in, it appears to be a stalemate. Devastating airstrikes have not broken the mullahs’ will to resist. The effective closing of the Strait of Hormuz and the global turmoil in energy and stock markets haven’t shaken Mr. Trump’s resolve.”

“For the president, the question is whether he pulls back or dives deeper in. The answer will define his place in history. If the U.S. pulls back from the new Gulf war without reopening the Strait of Hormuz and achieving goals like securing Iran’s nuclear materials, the consequences for Mr. Trump’s power and prestige, at home and abroad, will be profound. ‘Trump always chickens out’ won’t merely be an insult his enemies hurl at him. It will be carved on his tombstone.”

“Yet to advance further into the chaos of an escalating and widening war holds other risks. Unless American forces can break Iran’s stranglehold on the Strait of Hormuz, the economic consequences of the war will inexorably grow.”

“Congressional Democrats are opening a probe into millions of dollars private companies pledged to President Donald Trump’s planned presidential library, asking what happened to the money after the original fund was dissolved last year,” the Washington Post reports.

“Special counsel Jack Smith’s final report on Donald Trump’s alleged mishandling of classified records and obstruction of justice at Mar-a-Lago after his first term will not be released, a Trump-appointed judge in Florida ruled Monday,” CNN reports.

“The decision by US District Judge Aileen Cannon, who threw out the case Smith brought against the president before he was re-elected, is a major win in Trump’s efforts to keep the special counsel’s findings forever hidden from public view.”

Politico: Judge Cannon permanently blocks release of Jack Smith report.

Lara Trump suggested that “many” members of the Trump family could eventually run for office, with multiple possible successors to her father-in-law President Donald Trump, Mediaite reports

Said Trump: “I would say that at this point, we’ve all kind of dipped our toe in the water of politics enough to know that it’s something that I think possibly interests many of us in our family, and I know the Democrats would love to hear that, that it may not end just with Donald Trump, but I do think the timing has to be right for all of us.”

Susan Glasser writes that President Trump’s “systematic campaign to stamp out dissent and punish those who disagree with him that will be remembered as among the most singularly un-American aspects of his disruptive tenure.”

“This is not the free-speech Presidency he promised, but a free-speech crackdown without modern precedent…”

Washington Post: “Building so many new things and placing his name on others creates an enduring reminder of Trump’s presidency.”

“It is easy to remember Kennedy’s place in history, or Jefferson’s, or Lincoln’s, in part because there are memorials to them here in the capital.”

“Trump may not have one of those — at least not yet — but if his alterations are successful, he will have created a dynamic in which his name is spoken thousands of times each day in D.C., each time visitors see one of his additions, long after he is gone.”

Former special counsel Jack Smith will tell the House Judiciary Committee on Thursday that President Trump was charged because evidence showed he “willfully broke the very laws he swore to uphold,” Axios reports.

Smith’s highly anticipated public testimony marks his first open defense of the Trump prosecutions, as Republicans intensify efforts to portray the investigations as politically motivated.

CNN: Jack Smith is “not afraid” of Donald Trump, his legal team says ahead of Thursday testimony.

Bloomberg: “Trumpism may or may not outlast Trump, but one aspect that will persist is his expansion of the executive branch. Through a meticulously planned barrage of policies and test cases, combined with a flagrant disregard for guardrails that once bound him and his predecessors, Trump has reset, and expanded, the parameters of Oval Office power, shifting voters’ expectations along the way.”

“This redefinition could loom through the next three years, both for Trumpism’s would-be heirs and for Democrats who might seek to match his performative, constitutionally questionable zeal (if without the Supreme Court majority that’s enabled it). It’s not about whether the next president will keep some of these new powers, but about which.”

For members: Trump Changed the Presidency and There’s No Going Back

“Eric Trump sounded triumphant after Florida officials recently approved giving away a prized piece of Miami real estate for his father’s presidential library,” the Washington Post reports.

Said Trump: “I got the library approved yesterday… we just got the greatest site in Florida and I’m going to be building that.”

“Then, speaking on another program, Trump said he would take the host’s suggestion to create a ‘fake news wing’ — paid for with money from lawsuit settlements with ABC, CBS and other sources. It would run clips from ‘60 Minutes’ and other programs that he said were evidence of the media organizations’ animus against his father.”

Politico: “Forget glamor-free presidential libraries in towns like Little Rock or Grand Rapids. Sometime after 2029, enthusiasts might be able to take in a facility whose possible elements include a 47-story tower, a hotel, a rooftop restaurant, and a prime perch in the Miami skyline. Donald Trump’s presidential library, like Donald Trump’s presidency, is already breaking molds — and it hasn’t even been commissioned yet.”

“The hype around the building gathered force back in September, when Trump’s son Eric — a trustee of The Donald J. Trump Presidential Library Foundation — announced the location, proclaiming the library would be ‘one of the most beautiful buildings ever built’ and ‘an Icon on the Miami skyline.’ No official plans have been released, but in conversations with Florida power players, local activists, real estate pros and Trump insiders familiar with the discussions, it appears that the project is shaping up to be a lot more glamorous, a lot pricier, and a whole lot more lucrative than the libraries of his predecessors.”

“President Donald Trump is dialing up pressure on the Justice Department to freshly scrutinize ballots from the 2020 election, raising tensions with administration officials who think their time is better spent examining voter lists for future elections,” the Washington Post reports.

“If he was a king, he probably would have never left office the first time.”

— Donald Trump Jr., speaking about his father on Fox News.

“The planned transfer of downtown Miami land for President Trump’s future presidential library was temporarily blocked by a Florida judge on Tuesday,” Axios reports.

“Marvin Dunn, a Miami historian and activist, filed a lawsuit saying the public should have been more involved in the process that saw Miami-Dade College transfer ownership of the 2.63-acre property that has an estimated value of $67 million to the state, which donated it for Florida’s first presidential library.”