From naval clashes with Iran to a Supreme Court tariff rebuke, the administration had a week that would exhaust most presidencies. And it’s not even done yet.

There are weeks in Washington that feel busy and weeks that feel genuinely overwhelming. This was the latter. In the span of a few days, the United States and Iran exchanged fire in one of the world’s most strategically sensitive waterways, the Secretary of State flew to Rome to patch things up with a pope his boss has been openly antagonizing, a federal court took a swipe at Trump’s tariff agenda, and the Epstein saga pulled another senior cabinet member into a closed-door deposition. Normal week, really.

A “trifle” in the Strait of Hormuz

American and Iranian warships exchanged fire in the Strait of Hormuz this week — and the president described it as a “trifle.” That word choice will either age well or very badly, and right now it’s genuinely hard to say which.

The US maintained it was targeting Iranian assets that had first threatened American assets in the region — standard rules-of-engagement language. But the timing is loaded: this comes as Iran is reportedly sitting with a one-page memorandum of understanding drafted by the White House under “Project Freedom,” a proposed framework to end the ongoing conflict. Tehran hasn’t signed. And Trump, never one for diplomatic subtlety, essentially told them what happens if they don’t — warning of an “orange glow” over Iran as the consequence.

The ceasefire, for now, is technically still in place. Trump said so himself. He also said we’d know when it wasn’t. It’s the kind of statement that does the work of a threat without technically being one.

THIS WEEK AT A GLANCE

Iran US–Iran naval exchange of fire in Strait of Hormuz; Project Freedom operation paused but may resume

Vatican Secretary of State meets Pope in damage-control visit after Trump’s public criticism of Vatican foreign policy

Primaries Trump-backed candidates win 5 of 7 Indiana races; Tennessee redraws map toward Republican supermajority

Tariffs Supreme Court rules certain 10% tariffs illegal under IEEPA; narrow win for two businesses and Washington state

Epstein Commerce Secretary Lutnik testifies behind closed doors; Epstein’s purported suicide note unsealed by judge

The Secretary of State’s trip to the Vatican this week was, in the diplomatic vocabulary, what you’d call a “repair visit.” In plain language: someone needed to clean up a mess, and the Secretary drew the short straw.

Trump has been publicly, persistently critical of the Pope — accusing the Vatican of essentially enabling Iran’s nuclear ambitions by advocating for a diplomatic path. The Holy See pushed back, as you’d expect. The meeting covered religious freedom and global peace, which is a polite way of saying both sides said things that sounded agreeable while the underlying tension didn’t really go anywhere.

Analysts tracking the relationship noted the obvious: bullying the Vatican is a losing strategy. It’s not a government that responds to pressure the way a trade partner or military ally might. The Church has outlasted empires. It can wait out a presidential term.

Trump’s grip on his party: still tight

Whatever the polling says nationally — and it’s not great — inside the Republican Party, Donald Trump remains the uncontested center of gravity. The 2026 primary results from Indiana made that clear: five of seven Trump-endorsed candidates won their races, all of them running explicitly against more moderate Republicans within the party.

Tennessee added an exclamation point, with the state legislature redrawing district lines to set up what would effectively be a permanent Republican supermajority. This is a party that has fully committed to the Trump direction. The primaries aren’t a referendum on his popularity nationally — they’re a consolidation of power internally, and that consolidation continues.

The tariff ruling: a win, but a narrow one

The Supreme Court handed opponents of Trump’s trade policy a victory this week — though “narrow” is doing a lot of work in that sentence. The court found that certain 10% tariffs imposed under emergency economic powers were illegal, siding with two businesses and the state of Washington that had challenged them.

What this doesn’t do is unravel the broader tariff architecture. Most Canadian goods, for instance, fall under USMCA, which operates on entirely different legal footing. And the administration has signaled it’s already looking at new grounds — targeting dumping practices and forced labor supply chains — that would survive the same legal challenge. The administration absorbs setbacks and finds new angles. That pattern is, at this point, established behavior.

Epstein: still there, still damaging

The Epstein files were supposed to be a controlled release — a way for the administration to get ahead of a story they knew was coming and frame it on their terms. It has not worked out that way.

This week, a judge unsealed what is reported to be Epstein’s suicide note, found in his cell. And Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnik — now the most senior Trump cabinet member to be pulled into the investigation — testified behind closed doors. His account of his time on Epstein’s island was, according to those briefed on the session, vague to a degree that raised more questions than it answered. He said he didn’t remember much. Records suggested more contact than he acknowledged. Democrats called for his resignation. Republicans called it a non-issue.

Former Attorney General Pam Bondi is expected to sit for a deposition in the coming weeks. The administration would like this story to disappear. It keeps not disappearing.

Reporting from Washington. The situation in the Strait of Hormuz is developing. This article will be updated as new information becomes available.