Wreaths, Brass Bands and a $10B Suit Against the Press

President Donald Trump will lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier this morning, deliver remarks to a crowd gathered for the 73rd annual National Veterans Day Observance, and then fly back to the White House. The day before, a federal judge in Florida cleared his $10 billion defamation lawsuit against a news broadcaster to proceed. One man, two stages. Both draw their power from the same place.

What They're Calling "Order"

The schedule reads like choreography. At 8 a.m. ET, Executive Time. At 10:20, the wreath-laying. Then the US Coast Guard Band and the US Air Force Singing Sergeants. At 11, the parade of colors in the Memorial Amphitheater. Half an hour later, Trump speaks. Vice President JD Vance will be there too.

The ceremony takes place as the administration is under pressure over its handling of the war in Iran. Vance said last week that he believed the war was the reason Republicans lost the midterms. That's the vice president, on the record, tying the electoral defeat to a war that veterans and their families are the ones living with. The people sent to fight it don't get a seat at the podium. They get a parade of colors.

This afternoon, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., will lead an all-member tribute to veterans on the House steps. Both parties, side by side, honoring the people their institutions put in harm's way.

Who Has the Power

The cemetery sits near the site of Trump's proposed "Triumphal Arch," which is facing legal pushback. The Kennedy family asked Tuesday to join an existing lawsuit to block it. So the ground where the dead are buried is also ground a president wants to crown with a monument to himself, and it's lawyers, not any public vote, who are fighting over it.

Then there's the BBC case. U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Kuntz ruled Tuesday that Trump's defamation suit can go forward, while throwing out his unfair trade practices claim. Trump is suing the publicly funded British broadcaster for at least $10 billion over edited clips of a speech that made it appear he directed supporters to storm the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021. That was five years ago.

The suit accuses the BBC of splicing together parts of the speech, including one section where he told supporters to march on the Capitol and another where he said "fight like hell." It omitted a section in which he called for peaceful protest. The edited speech aired in a "Panorama" documentary shortly before the 2024 presidential election, which Trump won.

The BBC has previously admitted the edits were misleading and apologized, though it denies being liable for defamation. A leaked internal BBC memo cited the edits as evidence of potential political bias, set off a public relations crisis and led to high-level resignations. A BBC spokesperson said the broadcaster was surprised by the decision but respects the court's authority and remains confident in its position.

Trump called the ruling a "huge victory" in a social media post: "We will continue fighting against, and defeating, all of those who try to deceive the American People!" The case is one of several Trump has filed against the news media as part of a wider pressure campaign against coverage he dislikes. A president with the full weight of the state behind him is using a federal court as a cudgel against a broadcaster. Kuntz's ruling did not decide whether Trump has proven his claims, only that he plausibly alleged them.

Who Gets the Bill

Meanwhile, Russian, Ukrainian and U.S. officials began a second day of peace talks in Abu Dhabi, the first between the warring sides since February. Kyiv and Washington called Monday's talks constructive, but there were no early signs of a breakthrough. Officials negotiate. Others live with the outcome.

And former President Joe Biden, 83, told People he would have resigned had he known his feeling "lousy" was due to cancer. "I would have not gone forward because I don't think an 80-year-old man with cancer should be running for, you know. But that wasn't the case." He added that he was "very happy" with the midterm results.

The pageantry, the lawsuits, the tributes, the talks. Every one of them runs through the same few hands.