So far, in his second term, Donald Trump’s biggest headaches haven’t come from the Democrats or his fellow Republicans. Nor have they come from the groups that were his biggest enemies in his first term—the media, federal bureaucrats, or the intelligence agencies.

This time around, Trump’s biggest difficulties are coming from the courts.

“The Resistance” has been celebrating the judicial branch as the tip of the spear in the effort to thwart the president’s agenda—and for good reason. In May alone, federal courts ruled against the Trump administration in 96 percent of the cases brought before them. And while that was a particularly dramatic month, the administration’s loss rate for the entire term so far still stands at a staggering 77 percent.

Nearly every one of Trump’s central campaign promises has either been tied up in the courts or blocked entirely by lone federal judges. Everything from the deportation of illegal immigrants, the enactment of tariffs, and the defunding and cutting of federal agencies have come under attack by the federal judiciary.

The battle between the Trump administration and the courts is quickly becoming the defining dynamic of this second Trump term. …

It is better to think of the establishment as a coalition of groups that are committed to a specific rate of government growth. It’s a rate that is steady and unyielding during relatively normal times but also fast and ferocious during periods of crisis. There is some dissension—establishment Democrats want the rate of growth to be a bit faster, while establishment Republicans want the rate of growth to slow slightly (never reverse). But overall, that trajectory of government growth, which continues steadily and then ratchets up during crises, is the status quo that the establishment is committed to protecting against anti-establishment forces from all sides of the political spectrum.

And that is the status quo that the federal judiciary, which is an integral part of the American political class, is trying to protect against the Trump administration. Because Trump’s attempts to change the status quo in ways that actually benefit the American public for a change have ranged from excellent, like the attempts to cut federal agencies, to terrible, like the raising of import taxes, the rulings from federal courts cannot simply be considered as uniformly good or bad.

But it is vitally important to recognize that the establishment judges and justices who make up the federal judiciary are not, in fact, trying to prevent government overreach, as they claim. They are trying to stop Trump from threatening the establishment’s ability to continue pursuing the government overreach they want in a way and at the pace that benefits them.

Even if they occasionally rule in ways that opponents of big government may like, it is a mistake to view the judicial branch as an ally. They are anything but.