President Donald Trump is holding up lawsuits from police officers and Democratic lawmakers suing in federal court by pursuing immunity claims, Bloomberg News reports. The plaintiffs say he bears legal responsibility for inciting the January 6, 2021 riots at the U.S. Capitol.

Trump is appealing a March decision by a federal judge who rejected his bid to have the cases thrown out.

The president’s personal attorneys are also arguing that he should not be required to submit any information, documents, or evidence to the plaintiffs until his immunity appeal is resolved — a position that, if granted, could extend the litigation by years even if Trump loses.

U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta has repeatedly rejected Trump’s immunity claims. Because Judge Mehta ruled that Trump was not acting in his official capacity, the Justice Department was denied its request to become the defendant in place of Trump.

Last month, Politico reported, Judge Mehta ruled that Trump’s January 6 speech at the Ellipse was a political act and therefore not eligible for immunity. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled presidents have broad criminal immunity for official acts.

“President Trump has not shown that the Speech reasonably can be understood as falling within the outer perimeter of his Presidential duties,” Mehta wrote. “The content of the Ellipse Speech confirms that it is not covered by official-acts immunity.”

Politico also reported that the appeals process will likely generate years of additional litigation, keeping the cases alive through the end of Trump’s presidency.

READ MORE: Trump Running Out of Options in $83 Million Case After Court Rejects Rehearing Bid

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Nobel laureate Paul Krugman is swapping “TACO” — “Trump Always Chickens Out” — for “NACHO” — “Not a Chance Hormuz Opens.” The prominent economist argues that there are three reasons the Strait of Hormuz, critical for global shipping, including of oil, remains closed and does not appear to be close to reopening any time soon.

“Hormuz won’t open until the economic damage from its closure becomes much more severe,” Krugman warns. Both Iran and America — meaning, President Donald Trump — need to stand down, and all that means is both sides need to simply stop what they are doing right now. Iran must end its embargo, and the U.S. must end its blockade.

What’s stopping this from happening? Largely, Krugman says, Trump’s “ego” and “ignorance,” coupled with the Iranians not having a reason to trust that Trump will do as he says.

“Trump’s ego is so fragile that he can never admit losing,” Krugman writes. “He cannot bear to face up to the reality that he, more or less single-handedly, led America to the greatest strategic defeat in its history. So he desperately wants to extract concessions from Iran that would lend him a fig leaf and allow him to claim victory.”

It’s unlikely Trump will be able to extract concessions.

READ MORE: Trump Running Out of Options in $83 Million Case After Court Rejects Rehearing Bid

He “deludes himself into believing” that he can, because “those delusions are reinforced by the people that Trump has surrounded himself with.” Krugman concludes that “Trump is clearly the worst informed president in modern history about the actual state of America at war.”

Precisely what Trump wants isn’t clear, but “in any case he won’t get it.” Regardless of how the closure of the Strait of Hormuz is harming them, the Iranians recognize it is harming the U.S. and the world economy more. For instance, “they know that Trump is facing what is clearly shaping up to be a major electoral defeat in November due to Americans’ anger over the war, its effect on the economy and Trump’s constant stream of lies.”

Ultimately, Krugman says, “Iran won’t make any concessions that weaken its strategic position — which means that it won’t offer Trump anything that he can use to declare victory.”

What does the end look like? It will end with the “non-deal” that was already on the table.

“Iran will emerge poorer but strategically stronger,” Krugman posits. “And America will have suffered its worst strategic defeat in history as a result of a completely gratuitous misadventure to please Trump’s ego.”

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A federal appeals court handed President Donald Trump a loss on Wednesday in his quest for the entire court to re-hear his appeal in the $83 million E. Jean Carroll civil defamation case.

CNN reports that the court’s decision now allows the president to petition the U.S. Supreme Court to hear his claims arguing presidential immunity. The high court established broad criminal immunity for all presidents in 2024 for official acts.

A panel of judges earlier had affirmed a jury verdict that Trump had defamed Carroll in 2022 when he “denied her allegations of sexual assault, said she wasn’t his type, and suggested she made up the allegations to sell copies of her new book,” according to CNN.

Separately, the following year, a jury found Trump liable for sexual abuse and defamation “over an alleged assault that occurred in the mid-1990s at a New York department store and for statements he made in 2019 denying it happened.”

Trump has argued that the U.S. Department of Justice should have been substituted for him as the defendant. Since the DOJ cannot be sued for defamation, the case would have been ended.

Courthouse News adds that the majority of judges on Wednesday “concluded the court had correctly held that presidential immunity is waivable and that had Trump indeed waived it in the Carroll case.”

“If any other litigant had failed to raise an affirmative defense in this way, there would be no question as to whether he waived his right to assert it,” U.S. Circuit Judge Denny Chin wrote.

Trump has denied all wrongdoing.

READ MORE: ‘Mockery of the Law’: Supreme Court Weakens Voting Rights Act in ‘Earthquake’ Ruling

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