Donald Trump never runs out of emergencies. The border “emergency” in Trump 1.0 provided the pretext to build his wall on the Southern border. A trade “emergency” in Trump 2.0 was his justification for unilaterally imposing on-again-off-again blanket tariffs, thereby disrupting the entire international trading order. Last week, the U.S. Court of International Trade called foul on the fake trade “emergency.”

The court unanimously found that while Congress “has responded to the growing complexity of global economic relations by delegating trade authority to the President,” that delegation came with “clear limitations that retain legislative power over the imposition of duties and foreign commerce.” In claiming an “emergency” to wrest that power entirely away from Congress, Trump resorted to linguistic and legal contortion.

Congress could not constitutionally delegate unlimited power to Trump to enact sweeping tariffs, the court determined. The decades-long imbalance of trade with certain countries is no “emergency,” the court held, nor can a “emergency” be created out of thin air simply to facilitate the president’s sensationalist tendencies or scheme to extract concessions from trading partners. This court is not alone in decrying phony “emergencies” to supercharge presidential authority.

“The Trump administration has exhibited a dangerous pattern of invoking spurious emergencies to undermine the Constitution, threatening liberty and circumventing Congress,” wrote the Cato Institute’s Ilya Somin. “This is most evident in the fields of immigration and trade policy. If not stopped, or at least curtailed, these policies could harm millions of people, imperil civil liberties, and compromise our constitutional system.”

Courts in other contexts, Congress, and the voters at large must take a similarly skeptical view of Trump’s incessant reliance on “emergencies.”

Meanwhile, when a true emergency does come along, Trump turns a blind eye. Last week, “The Federal Emergency Management Agency denied North Carolina’s request for the agency to match 100% of the state funds for Helene cleanup, according to a letter sent from the acting FEMA administrator to the governor of North Carolina,” ABC News reported. It was an emergency, apparently, when Trump claimed former president Joe Biden was not responding quickly enough; now, North Carolina can fend for itself.

Democratic Governor Josh Stein pointed out that Trump somehow cannot find the money to support his state’s emergency, forcing North Carolina to “pay toward debris removal [that] will mean less money towards supporting our small businesses, rebuilding downtown infrastructure, repairing our water and sewer systems, and other critical needs.” (Maybe Trump could use some of the self-aggrandizing June 14 parade money to help actual people?) And, due to Trump’s cuts, the Federal Emergency Management Agency is not at all prepared for the upcoming emergencies that come with hurricane season.

Trying to figure out what constitutes an emergency for Trump and his vengeful MAGA minions can be tough.

Bird flu? Nope! Cut funding.

Kids and pregnant women getting Covid? Well, anti-vaxxer nut RFK, Jr. says no funding for that, even though the CDC, which ultimately reports to him, insists that vaccines should be given to healthy kids aged 6 months to 17 years. Good luck to doctors and parents figuring out who to trust.

Dictionary.com defines “emergency” as “a serious, unexpected, and often dangerous situation requiring immediate action.” But for Trump, an emergency is whatever he wants to do (usually in retaliation against perceived political enemies or in furtherance of his war on invented problems) while real “emergencies” are things he does not want to do if on behalf of blue states, democracies, political opponents, and/or in step with scientific reality. Since the word has lost all meaning in this current environment, we should stop using it, recognizing that Trump operates by whim, not by a clear-eyed assessment of what constitutes an actual “emergency.”

Greater focus is required on the real emergencies: People legally in the U.S. getting swept up by masked ICE agents to be shipped off to foreign prisons without due process; spurious arrests of political adversaries and critics including Judge Hannah Dugan, Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-N.J.), and Newark Mayor Ras Baraca (subsequently released without charges).

Fortunately, nearly 150 former and current judges realized that Dugan’s preposterous arrest was a real emergency, prompting an unprecedented amicus brief urging dismissal of all charges. “The federal government’s prosecution of Wisconsin Circuit Court Judge Hannah C. Dugan, if permitted, threatens to undermine centuries of precedent on judicial immunity, crucial for an effective judiciary,” it states.

This is not the only true emergency. We have witnessed the economic dislocation and chaos caused by Trump’s unhinged tariff moves; the accelerated destruction of Ukraine (made more acute by Trump’s slavish devotion to Russian President Vladimir Putin); the impoundment of hundreds of millions in aid to research universities; and the unconstitutional mass layoffs and evisceration of federal agencies and departments. Trump calls such emergencies “his agenda.” Thankfully, 96% of rulings from federal judges in May recognized that many of these Trump-created emergencies justified temporary restraining orders and/or preliminary injunctions to prevent immediate harm.

If MAGA Republicans get their way, millions of Americans will experience real emergencies from loss of SNAP benefits, lack of healthcare coverage due to Medicaid cuts, and steep hikes in higher education and energy costs that the massive tax and spending bill would inflict on middle- and working-class Americans.

In sum, there are true emergencies everywhere the eye can see, largely the result of an unhinged president acting in illegal and/or erratic ways. The manufactured “emergencies” and those deliberately inflicted on vulnerable Americans are part of the assault on our constitutional system, while Republicans in Congress remain largely mute. Now that is an emergency.