# Capitulation Nation: Who Buckled Under Trump 2.0

> Jacob Weisberg names the lawyers, judges, and senators who folded fast, and the few who didn't.
- Title: Capitulation Nation: Who Buckled Under Trump 2.0 | Shortify
- Summary: Jacob Weisberg names the lawyers, judges, and senators who folded fast, and the few who didn't. Institutions don't get rolled by force alone. They get rolled…
- Keywords: rule of law, big law, supreme court, politics, books, Capitulation, Nation, Buckled, Under, Trump, Slate Magazine
- Source: Slate Magazine — https://slate.com/podcasts/amicus/2026/09/biglaw-scotus-trump-capitulation-profiles-cowardice-weisberg?via=rss
- Published: 2026-09-12T07:00:00+00:00
- Read time: 1 min
- Topics: rule of law, big law, supreme court, politics, books
## The deal on a napkin
Brad Karp, one of the country's top lawyers, cut a deal with Trump in the first days of the second term. It amounted to five vague bullet points on an unsigned page.

> five flabby bullet points on an unsigned piece of paper
## Paul, Weiss protects nobody
Dahlia Lithwick and Weisberg pull apart the firm's agreement with Trump. It bought quiet for one firm and shelter for no one else in the profession.
## Roberts plays pretend
The Chief Justice is treating Trump as a run-of-the-mill Republican president, as if the job were unchanged and the norms still held.

> Chief Justice John Roberts is pretending the president is a generic Republican.
## A bet on prestige
Roberts is wagering the Court can keep its standing while the Justice Department openly defies federal judges. Weisberg calls that bet fatal.
## McConnell built the cage
The Senate's great institutionalist remade the judiciary, and that judiciary handed the president power to shove the Senate aside entirely.
## Where the line holds
Harvard refused to make a deal, the first sign of a counterforce. The open question is Joint Chiefs chairman Dan Caine, and what he does if tested around the midterms.
## Key takeaway

Institutions don't get rolled by force alone. They get rolled by leaders who trade a fight they might lose for a deal that protects nobody.