There's clearly a conservative legal case to be made against President Trump sidestepping the purse-strings-holding co-equal legislative branch by declaring a capricious national "emergency" to build a border wall that Congress won't fund. But there's also a conservative political case.

"Every one of you 'conservatives' gushing about the abuse of emergency powers owns it when a Democratic president declares a national emergency on Day 1," Republican strategist Rick Wilson tweeted Thursday, be it over "guns or abortion or climate or LGBT issues" or to build "the Dr. Atheist Von Clinton Celebrity Abortion Center and Vegan Advocacy Farm." At Politico, Matt Latimer, a former speechwriter for President George W. Bush, took a specific contemporary example, arguing half-seriously that Trump's national emergency "is great news for future President Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez," as it likely "just made a Green New Deal inevitable in 2021."

Of all Trump's "nutty ideas" he's hatched "to undermine the basic norms of our democratic institutions," his "plan to declare a national emergency is by far the absolute worst," Latimer writes. "Shame on any 'conservatives' who roll their eyes, shrug their shoulders, and let him take this path because they are sick of arguing with him. (You know who you are.)" House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is already talking about gun violence being an emergency and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) is talking about the national emergency of climate change, Latimer says, adding:

But maybe I'm missing something. Maybe Trump has a plan to stop all of this, too. Maybe we are only a couple of months away from Trump donning a scary robe, declaring another "emergency" and postponing the 2020 elections. If Emperor Palpatine can do something like that, why can't he? Is there anyone with the courage to stop him? We will find that out very shortly. And I'm not sure we are going to like the answer. [Matt Latimer, Politico]

Read the entire essay at Politico. Peter Weber

President Trump on Friday defended his Charlottesville response a day after former Vice President Joe Biden made them a focus of his 2020 announcement.

Trump was asked whether he still believes there were "very fine people" on both sides of the 2017 Charlottesville protests, which drew white nationalists and neo-Nazis, one of whom injured dozens of people and killed a woman, Heather Heyer.

Trump shot back that he has already answered questions about his controversial response "perfectly" and said, "I was talking about people that went because they felt very strongly about the monument to Robert E. Lee, a great general." The Unite the Right rally took place ahead of Charlottesville's planned removal of a statue of the Confederate general.

The president went on to say that Lee was a great general "whether you like it or not" and that he's heard the same from "many generals" at the White House who said he is their "favorite."

Biden in his 2020 announcement video had hit Trump for his 2017 comments that there were good people on both sides of the rally, saying the president "assigned a moral equivalence between those spreading hate and those with the courage to stand against it." Brendan Morrow

President Trump went after former Vice President Joe Biden for his age on Friday and declared himself a "young, vibrant man."

Trump spoke to reporters after Biden officially entered the 2020 race on Thursday. Biden is 76 and would be the oldest person elected president, a title currently held by Trump, who is 72.

Asked how old is too old to be president, Trump responded, "Well, I just feel like a young man. I'm so young. I can't believe it. I'm the youngest person. I am a young, vibrant man."

Trump then hit Biden by saying, "I look at Joe, I don't know about him. I don't know." When asked how he would beat Biden in a possible 2020 showdown, Trump predicted, "I think we beat him easily." Brendan Morrow

President Trump's Friday morning tweet has raised two big questions: Has he never heard of the "i before e" rule, and did he just give himself a new presidential responsibility?

On Friday, Trump tweeted a very complimentary quote from the so-called "cheif hostage negotiator, USA." It's true that America has a "chief hostage negotiator," but it's very unclear where this apparent quote from this unnamed person came from.

One possible explanation would be that Gary Noesner, a former chief of the FBI's Crisis Negotiation Unit, made one of his occasional TV appearances and said something nice about Trump. But seeing as Fox & Friends doesn't seem to have Noesner on Thursday's lineup, there's also a chance that John Barron has reemerged. Barron is the so-called "Trump Organization representative" who tried to serve Trump stories to New York media back in his real estate days — and who reporters were very aware was Trump himself.

The tweet probably had something to do with a Thursday Washington Post report that said Trump pledged to pay a $2 million hospital bill for Otto Warmbier, who North Korea detained in 2016, and who died six days after he returned to America. After all, Trump denied paying anything to North Korea for Warmbier in a tweet sent just 20 minutes before this one, and also complained about former President Barack Obama's handling of hostage situations. Kathryn Krawczyk

Avengers: Endgame opened in the U.S. with Thursday previews as film-industry analysts predict the Marvel sequel will surpass Avengers: Infinity War's opening weekend of $257 million, Deadline reports. Many have predicted the film will gross between $260 million and $270 million in what would be the biggest domestic opening in history, with some estimating North American debut ticket sales of $300 million.

Only six movies in history have achieved a domestic opening greater than $200 million. With the movie opening in 4,600 theaters in North America, it will have the widest release ever. Endgame is expected to rake in $850 million to $900 million in its global debut, possibly even topping $1 billion, according to The Hollywood Reporter says. The film already has smashed records for pre-sold tickets. Harold Maass

President Trump on Friday said the United States did not pay North Korea any amount of money for the return of Otto Warmbier.

North Korea, The Washington Post reported on Thursday, presented the U.S. in 2017 with a $2 million bill for Warmbier's hospital care after a State Department official went to retrieve the detained American student. Warmbier had been comatose for 15 months by then and died shortly after returning to the United States.

This U.S. envoy, the Post reported, signed an agreement saying the U.S. would pay this $2 million bill, but it was unclear whether the bill ended up being paid. Trump on Friday denied that it was.

Trump did not deny the underlying report that North Korea presented the United States with a bill and that the U.S. said it would pay it, though. The Post had reported that this order to sign the agreement was passed down directly from Trump, and Warmbier's father in response said this sounded like "ransom."

Trump later in the morning tweeted a quote from a "hostage negotiator" praising him as the "greatest hostage negotiator that I know of in the history of the United States" but did not cite a source. Brendan Morrow

This week, Merriam-Webster announced it added more than 640 new words to its dictionary in April. There are words you probably know or can figure out, like "clapback" and "vulture capitalism," and words you probably already assumed were in the dictionary: "Gig economy," "on-brand," "screen time." You can also now affirm that "purple" sometimes means areas split between Democrats and Republicans, and "snowflake" can also refer to "both 'someone regarded or treated as unique or special' and 'someone who is overly sensitive.'"

But if you've been stumped by what it means to stan Game of Thrones or wondered why everyone's laughing at the Nickelback stans, and you've not wanted to dig through the disreputable detritus of Google results, well, you're in luck.

The entire entry is illuminating, but the key point is that "stan" can be a noun or verb, it's pronounced like it looks, it is often used disparagingly, and it means to be or show yourself to be "an extremely or excessively enthusiastic and devoted fan." Its etymology traces the word back to Eminem stans who stanned his 2000 hit "Stan." Now you know.

You can also discover what a "bottle episode" is, learn the definitions of "swole" and "garbage time," and read the company's lexicologists wax poetic about the changing English language at Merriam-Webster. Peter Weber