Trump Rides Supreme Court Wins and Foreign Deals to Fortnight of Momentum

President Donald Trump has piled up a string of legislative, legal and foreign-policy victories over the past two weeks, prompting even some of his traditional media critics to concede that the period ranks among the most successful of his presidency.

At home, the Supreme Court narrowed the use of nationwide injunctions and separately backed the administration’s plan to send some migrants to third-country destinations, strengthening the White House’s hand on immigration and regulatory policy. On Capitol Hill, a Senate attempt to curb Trump’s authority to conduct strikes on Iran failed, while lawmakers completed work on a long-sought trade accord with China.

Abroad, the administration brokered a cease-fire that ended a 12-day Israel-Iran confrontation and helped secure a peace agreement between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo. NATO members, meeting in Brussels, agreed to raise defence spending to 5 percent of gross domestic product, a threshold the president had pressed for since taking office.

Economic indicators also moved in Trump’s favor: the S&P 500 and Nasdaq closed at record highs, and average U.S. gasoline prices fell to their lowest early-summer level in four years. Taken together, the legal victories, foreign-policy breakthroughs and buoyant markets have fueled a narrative—advanced by analysts across the political spectrum—that the White House is enjoying a rare, sustained stretch of momentum.